Gender Bender (The X-Files)
"Gender Bender"[nb 1] is the fourteenth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, premiering on the Fox network on January 21, 1994.
The show centers on FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files.
Another man, Michel (Nicholas Lea), is having sex with the female form of Brother Martin in a parked car before a patrol officer interrupts them.
[6] "Gender Bender" was penned by freelance writers Larry and Paul Barber, whose initial draft focused heavily on the contrast between the farming community of the Kindred and a version of city life "with very sexual connotations", influenced by the works of Swiss artist H. R.
[10] This resemblance was exploited in a scene showing Twa morphing into Stebbings; Goodwin felt that the two actors were too similar for the effect to be readily apparent, "zapp[ing] the energy out of the moment".
[10] Nicholas Lea, who played a would-be victim in the episode, returned to the series in a recurring role as Alex Krycek, beginning with the second season's "Sleepless".
In addition, an interior set constructed to represent the catacombs under the Kindred's barn was so encumbering to film in that a second unit crew were required to reshoot a large degree of camera coverage.
[14] The exterior shots of the village inhabited by the Kindred were filmed at a farm preserved from the 1890s in Langley, British Columbia, Canada, while interior sets were built on a soundstage.
[16] The music used in the episode's nightclub scenes was recycled from composer Mark Snow's earlier work on the television film In the Line of Duty: Street War.
[8] "Gender Bender" has been interpreted as representing contemporary sexual anxieties in a figurative manner, conflating seduction with alien abduction.
Matt Haigh, writing for Den of Geek, reviewed "Gender Bender" positively, feeling that it was "a nicely refreshing and original idea", with "strikingly atmospheric" sets and "impressively spooky" villains.
[26] Handlen felt that the episode represented the ideal plot for The X-Files, featuring someone briefly interacting with supernatural phenomena without ever learning the truth of their experience.
[27] In a retrospective of the first season in Entertainment Weekly, "Gender Bender" was rated "B−", being described as a "clever idea" that was "undermined by a bushel of burning questions".
[28] Robert Shearman, in his book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated "Gender Bender" one-and-a-half stars out of five, finding that it "finishes up ... entirely clichéd".
[29] In his book The Nitpicker's Guide for X-Philes, author Phil Farrand has highlighted several inconsistencies in the episode, focusing on the implausible nature of the ending.
Farrand cites the mention of the Kindred's pheromones containing human DNA and their use of the English language when in private as elements which seem incongruous for an alien race.
Producer James Wong felt that the episode's ending seemed overly abrupt and unexpected, describing it as appearing "like we tried to play a trick on the audience to make them say 'Ooh, what the heck was that?'".
