The first time I saw The Post-Modern Prometheus, there was one word that summed up how I felt about it: bemused. I don't think that's the word I'd use to describe my feelings about it now, but there were very good reasons for it at the time. I have to say that I didn't especially like this one. I just got the feeling that it was more an attempt to impress the critics with film-making abilities than to draw the viewers into a good episode. I think the phrase is "Style over substance" and it resulted in the episode being too obviously a piece of television. I know, I know, it is only a TV show, but I just felt distanced from the action because of what seemed like an attempt to win awards.

It did look fantastic in black and white, but I can't think of a good reason to film it like that except to get nominated for awards. I would imagine that the episode was a treat for people who know about film-making as it apparently used a lot of good techniques, but as I've said before, I'm not one of them. I did like Mark Snow's music though, I thought it was perfect for the tone of the episode. Cher's music was also used well, I'm not really a fan of hers but I enjoyed it - especially as it played over the first shot of the Great Mutato to deaden any horrific impact and establish the tongue-in-cheek tone. Although I didn't think the tone worked that well in the episode as a whole. It wasn't quite funny, it wasn't quite straight, it seemed to be perched uncomfortably somewhere in between. And it missed out on the opportunity to explore the dangers or otherwise of genetic engineering.

I didn't hate it all. I think the things I liked were subtle touches, whereas the things I disliked were more obvious, general things about the episode. I really liked the way Scully tried to keep her scepticism in check as she read Shaineh's letter, but failed when she got to "I…could swear I heard Cher singing (the one who was married to Sonny)." And it was really nice to hear Mulder give a scientific explanation for the condition of the "werewolf baby," as well as to be reminded that he's not sure if he still believes in aliens after the events of Gethsemane, Redux and Redux II.

At one point, Scully said "I'm alarmed that you would reduce this man to a literary stereotype - a mad scientist" and I agreed with her - although the object of my displeasure was Chris Carter rather than Mulder. I appreciate that the stereotyping was deliberate, but I just found it far too over the top. Dr. Pollidori could have been lifted from any story of science gone awry - he had grand ideas about the importance of his work and assumed that others were too stupid to understand what he was doing, which he did for no better reason than because he was able to. The lightning strikes were also a little over the top, especially the one behind Pollidori. I did find the lab assistant accidentally letting the flies out quite funny though. But the style of the episode meant I felt no sympathy for Elizabeth Pollidori as she sobbed on the bed after arguing with her husband about having children.

However, I did feel a lot of sympathy for the Great Mutato himself, and perhaps Carter wanted to reserve all the audience's compassion for this tragic character. Snow's music played an important part in that it was suitably emotive and helped to make the scenes where the "monster" cried beside his adoptive father's dead body and then buried him in the barn, and the ones where he explained all that he had missed out on and longed for and the glimpse of normal life he had got in other people's homes, genuinely sad. But, while I did feel sorry for him, the fact that he had committed crimes was never really addressed. I mean, he did rape those women, didn't he?

I found the angry mob quite frightening because it looked like something out of the Middle Ages and was portrayed as being over the top and irrational, but the fact is that similar things still go on today in our supposedly civilised world. The shots of the farm animals intercut with shots of the people who resembled them were good. And I don't think I've mentioned yet that Chris Owens' (The Great Mutato) make-up was a great achievement.

Of course the plot was borrowed from Frankenstein, but for some reason that didn't bother me, maybe because it was borrowed so obviously. I did have a problem with Mulder's comment that "Dr. Frankenstein pays for his evil ambitions, yes, but the monster is supposed to escape, to go search for his bride." Can I take it that Mulder hasn't read Frankenstein then? (Skip to the next paragraph if you don't want the book spoiled. Well you might not.) The monster spends much of the book trying to persuade his creator to make him a female companion, but Frankenstein dies without having done this. Having taken his revenge on the scientist, the monster disappears and, it is implied, dies. I know that Hollywood brought the creature back for sequels, but Mary Shelley never did. Sorry to be so pedantic, but if Mulder was going to do something unorthodox based on the plot of a novel, he should have made sure he actually knew what happened in the book.

So yes, I had some problems with The Post-Modern Prometheus. Someone said to me shortly after it aired "That black and white episode was so boring!" and, although I wouldn't go quite that far, it did have more dull moments than is usual for The X Files. But the ending elevated my opinion of the episode through the roof. I really loved seeing Mulder, Scully and the Great Mutato driving along accompanied by a Cher track and the scenes at the concert were fantastic. The song was just perfect and had me tapping my foot along with it, and the Mutato's dancing widened my smile to a size I didn't even know it could reach J . It was great to see Jerry Springer in the final montage after the references throughout the episode, and the freeze frame of Mulder and Scully dancing was a beautiful ending rounded off perfectly by the closing book. I loved it. Even if "Cher" was a very obvious lookalike. J

Mulder: Scully, do you think it's too soon to get my own 1-900 number?

Scully: Peanut butter sandwiches?

Mulder: You think baloney would be more effective?

Scully: Is there anything that you don't believe in, Mulder?

Scully: Unless you want your scientific achievements to end up as a footnote on the Jerry Springer Show, I suggest that you make the time.

Pollidori: What do you want? A baby or a Nobel Prize?

Mulder: The other victims, they had their frying pans…violated.

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