"The Post-Modern Prometheus" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files and originally aired on the Fox network on November 30, 1997. Written and directed by series creator Chris Carter, "The Post-Modern Prometheus" is a "Monster-of-the-Week" episode, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the overarching mythology of The X-Files. "The Post-Modern Prometheus" earned a Nielsen household rating of 11.5, being watched by 18.68 million viewers upon its initial broadcast. The episode was nominated for seven awards at the 1998 Emmys and won one. The entry generally received positive reviews; some reviewers called it a classic, with others calling it the most striking stand-alone episode of the show's fifth season.
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully was initially assigned to debunk his work. In this episode, Mulder and Scully investigate reports of a mysterious creature that has impregnated a middle-aged woman. They find that the "monster", nicknamed The Great Mutato, is the genetic creation of a Frankenstein-like doctor. The Great Mutato is at first ostracized, but later accepted, by his community.
Carter's story draws heavily on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus and particularly on James Whale's 1931 film version of the story. The episode was even filmed in black-and-white, with a sky backdrop created to imitate the style of old Frankenstein films. The script had been written specifically with singer Cher and actress Roseanne Barr in mind, but both were unavailable at the time of shooting. Talk-show host Jerry Springer appeared as himself, and Chris Owens—who appeared in later episodes as FBI agent Jeffrey Spender—played The Great Mutato. Owens wore makeup and prosthetics that took several hours to apply.
Plot The episode begins in the guise of a comic book. FBI special agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) receives a letter from Shaineh Berkowitz (Pattie Tierce), a single mother who claims to have been impregnated, while unconscious, by an unknown presence 18 years ago, resulting in the birth of her son, Izzy (Stewart Gale). Now, following a similarly unexplained attack, she is pregnant again. She has heard about Fox Mulder's expertise in the paranormal from The Jerry Springer Show, and wants him to investigate.
Mulder and special agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) travel to rural Albion, Indiana, where they meet Shaineh and her son Izzy, and learn that the description of the creature that attacked her, with a lumpy head and two mouths, is very similar to a comic book character invented by Izzy. His monstrous creation, called The Great Mutato, is inspired by a mysterious creature that has been seen by many of the locals. Izzy and his friends accompany the agents to a wooded area, where they see Mutato (Chris Owens) from a distance.
They meet an old man who angrily tells them that there are no monsters, and sends them to see his son, a geneticist named Francis Pollidori (John O'Hurley). Dr. Pollidori shows them his experiments studying the Hox gene, using the fruit fly Drosophila. This presentation includes images of a mutated fly whose legs are growing out of its mouth. He tells the agents that the same kind of experiment could, in theory, be performed on humans. Afterward, Mulder tells Scully that he believes that Dr. Pollidori, acting as a modern-day Victor Frankenstein, has created The Great Mutato.
Later, Dr. Pollidori's wife Elizabeth (Miriam Smith) is knocked unconscious and attacked in the same manner as Shaineh. At the crime scene, Mulder and Scully find a chemical residue from an agricultural agent used to anesthetize animals, which leads them to suspect Dr. Pollidori's father, who is a farmer. Dr. Pollidori comes to his father's house, angrily confronts him, and murders him. Later, Mutato, who lives with Pollidori Sr., finds his dead body and tearfully buries it in a barn.
Mulder and Scully go looking for Pollidori Sr. and find a shallow grave and photographs of the dead man with Mutato. Meanwhile, Dr. Pollidori leads an angry mob of townspeople to his father's house, demanding that Mulder and Scully turn the alleged murderer over to them. The agents find Mutato hiding in the basement as the crowd gathers upstairs. Someone accidentally sets the barn alight, and in the ensuing confusion, the mob realize that the agents are protecting the monster in the basement.
Mutato speaks to the crowd and explains that he was created 25 years before, and that he is the result of a genetic experiment by Dr. Pollidori. Unbeknownst to his son, Pollidori Sr. rescued Mutato and cared for him, but was unable to provide a friend or a mate for the boy. The old man attempted to emulate his scientist son's experiments, and tried to create hybrids from his farm animals. Mutato asks Dr. Pollidori to create a female companion for him, but the scientist says that he cannot—that Mutato was a mistake.
The townspeople realize that The Great Mutato is not a monster after all, and Dr. Pollidori is arrested for the murder of his father. Mulder feels that it is unjust for Mutato not to get a mate, and so he demands to see "the writer". In a fanciful, if not imagined, scene, Mulder and Scully take matters into their own hands and take Mutato, along with the townspeople, to a Cher concert. The episode ends with a shot of Mulder and Scully dancing, which slowly turns back into the comic book seen at the beginning of the episode.
Production Conception
Going into the fifth season of The X-Files, series creator Chris Carter noted, "we knew we were going to be hitting these very dramatic marks which were the mythology episodes, and we wanted to lighten, or leaven, the season with quirky episodes." Carter wanted to write a Frankenstein-inspired episode, but found it difficult to reconcile Mary Shelley's unbelievable tale with the style of the show. To achieve his vision, he wrote a script that blurred the real world with the X-Files reality and that had a distinct fantasy element. Carter combined elements of the original story with fairy tales and elements of folk tales.
In order to make the episode "as moving" as possible, Carter sought to echo elements of James Whale's 1931 film version of Frankenstein. He later noted that, by "using modern science, I took an old style, which is black and white, and an old approach, which is a kind of James Whale approach to science fiction, and came up with a story about a love-lorn monster".
The genetic engineering aspect of the story was developed with assistance from the series' science adviser, Anne Simon. Carter visited a friend of Simon, Dr. Thomas C. Kaufman at Indiana University in Bloomington, who had been able to genetically manipulate flies so that they grew legs from their eyes. After Carter had created the character of The Great Mutato, he discovered that cartoonist Matt Groening had already created a character with the same name—although with different pronunciation—for a comic book entry of The Simpsons. Carter contacted Groening, who gave Carter permission to use the name. Like two-thirds of the episodes of the series, "The Post-Modern Prometheus" is a "Monster-of-the-Week" episode, a stand-alone plot which is unconnected to the overarching mythology of The X-Files.
Casting Cher's music plays a large role in "The Post-Modern Prometheus", Chris Carter having written the episode after spending a summer listening to Cher records and developing a fixation on the singer. Carter knew that Cher's half-sister Georganne LaPiere was a major X-Files fan, and Carter learned through LaPiere that Cher herself was intrigued by the show and would be interested in making an X-Files guest appearance. Sitcom star Roseanne Barr also expressed an interest in guesting on The X-Files, and Carter wrote the part of Shaineh Berkowitz specifically for her.
Barr, however, was unavailable at the time of shooting—her projected role was filled by Pattie Tierce— while Cher passed on the proffered cameo appearance performing as herself, a decision for which she later expressed regret: "I wanted them to ask me to come on and act—then they just wanted me to come on and sing ... Just to come on and be myself wasn't anything I'd want to do until I saw [the finished episode]" — "Had I [foreseen] the quality of [it] I would have done it in a heartbeat." Cher did authorize the use of three of her tracks on the episode's soundtrack including "Walking in Memphis" heard at the episode's conclusion while ostensibly performed onstage by celebrity impersonator Tracey Bell—filmed in longshot, from the back and overhead—as Cher.
Although Bell was credited for the role, Cher's fans responded to the episode's premiere with online speculation as to whether the singer had pseudonymously appeared in the episode. Tabloid talk show host Jerry Springer appeared as himself. These casting choices went against a long-standing tradition on The X-Files of only casting actors who were not well-known.
Seinfeld regular John O'Hurley had auditioned for several roles on the show but Carter had not previously thought of him as "an X-Files actor". For the part of Dr. Pollidori, however, Carter considered him "the absolute perfect casting choice". Stewart Gale, who portrayed Izzy Berkowitz, was a non-actor who Carter saw "literally on the street one day" sitting in a car. Carter convinced Gale's father—who was initially suspicious of the director's credentials—to let Gale travel to Vancouver to take part in the episode. Izzy's friends were also played by inexperienced actors: One worked as a snake handler on the set of The X-Files feature film—the shooting of which overlapped that of season five—and the other worked at a Vancouver coffee shop that Carter frequented.
Chris Owens played the Great Mutato, and to many, he was unrecognizable in heavy makeup. Owens had played a younger version of The Smoking Man in two episodes of season four and was later cast as the recurring character of FBI special agent Jeffrey Spender. During his audition, Owens noted, "Chris said, 'Okay, did you ever see Elephant Man? ... What I'm looking for is dignity. He's got dignity. But he's definitely mutated.'" After Owens heeded Carter's instructions and attempted to bring dignity to the audition, Carter requested that he try it again "with less autism".Hurwitz and Knowles (2008), p. 119.
Filming
The first five seasons of The X-Files, including "The Post-Modern Prometheus", were filmed in Vancouver. It was the third episode of the program that Carter directed; he decided to film the episode in black-and-white—in homage to James Whale—which brought more challenges than he expected. The director of photography, Joel Ransom, had to spend longer than usual lighting the set because of the use of grayscale. The stormy skies in the episode, added to emulate the atmosphere of old Frankenstein movies, were a visual effect. Carter also used a wide-angle camera lens throughout the episode, which forced the actors to act directly to the camera, rather than to each other. According to Carter, it also enabled him to give scenes in the episode a more surreal staging than was usual for the show.