10.02: Founder's Mutation

[Dave]

-----------------------------
Creating topic, remember you
can only discuss this episode
inside this topic. Reviews of
the episode are encouraged
-----------------------------

 

[Dave]

When a scientist suddenly kills himself, Mulder and Scully's investigation leads to a laboratory where extreme genetic experimentation has been breeding subjects with dangerous powers.

 

[REBerg]

Managed to watch 2/6. Imagined memories of raising their son, William, were not exactly standard X-Files material but added a very humanizing touch to the mini-series.

 

[BAYLOR]

So far, good but not great.

 

[Ste-Pe]

Liked this episode too, even better than ep 1 for me

Had a few laughs too (scully's clinical interpretation of how Dr Sanjay died), feels like there's a bit of fun in the show

The imagined memories were low points for me, my own memory's a bit rusty, but is William supposed to be the child Scully was pregnant with in like series 2 or 3 and was then abducted and it was removed? I was a huge x files nerd, but I've forgotten sooooo much

Still interesting to see Scully keen to make leaps - eg asking if the experiments involved alien DNA, but is still the same old Scully keeping Mulder in check (when he's pressing Kyle's 'mum' about the validity of her motherhood)

I'm liking the theme of 'alien- human- hybrid' featuring in both episodes so far, hope all six will be tied together and we get some 'answers' at the end

 

[Ajid]

There is a gentic, i'd like to say condition, but it is a result of colonisation by a select group, we'd call it founders syndrome. This acualy occured so far as certain genetic dissorders were more prevelant due to random chance in the small sample size of the originall european settlers to the US. I wouldn't be surprised if Chris Carter is playing on that idea.

 

[Dave]

There is a gentic, i'd like to say condition, but it is a result of colonisation by a select group, we'd call it founders syndrome. This acualy occured so far as certain genetic dissorders were more prevelant due to random chance in the small sample size of the originall european settlers to the US. I wouldn't be surprised if Chris Carter is playing on that idea.

In Population Genetics, when part of a population moves to a new location and has a massive expansion in size, then it will differ genetically from the original population because all the offspring come from that small group. This is known as the Founder Effect and important when studying the biology of islands: think Darwin's finches. As you say, this is true of descendents of European settlers in the US when compared genetically to the European population as a whole. I'm interested in genetic genealogy and it is a very clear effect. I didn't actually understand what Chris Carter meant here though.

 

[Ursa major]

I enjoyed this episode more than the first one, which seemed to bite off slightly more than it could chew within a single episode. (But that's often the fate of first episodes, whether for new shows or resurrected ones, so it's an issue that we should all be used to by now.) This episode was far more focused, although providing plenty of scope for follow-on storylines.

As you say, this is true of descendents of European settlers in the US when compared genetically to the European population as a whole.

It also true of those who originally** left Africa, so while those living on other continents have more varied appearances (due to adaptation to the environment), they are less genetically varied than those who remained in Africa.


** - Obviously, during the last six hundred years, there has been surge in the movement of people around the world -- voluntarily and otherwise -- including many from Africa (albeit mostly from specific parts of Africa), so the rest of the world is, very slowly, beginning to catch up with Africa's genetic diversity.