2317-616: I Want to Believe ... I'm Not the First

A Guest Blog Post: Liberty Hardy is a part-time book slinger and writer living with her evil, evil cat in lovely Portsmouth, N.H. She's going for her "Amazing Screw-On Head" tattoo next week.

The past couple years, I have been seeking to improve my geek rating. I don't just want to be a geek, I want to be a well-educated geek. I want to be able to appoint myself a science fiction vixen.

In addition to religiously following "Battlestar Gallactica" and "Doctor Who," these last few seasons, I have been dabbling in comic books, World of Warcraft and stocking up on sci-fi/ fantasy movies, television episodes and books. Last year, I watched every episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel" and "Firefly." This year, I discovered "The Amazing Screw-On Head," the single greatest television show that never was (Emperor Zombie for President!), taken from the fantastic comic by Mike Mignola.  I am also chomping at the bit for the new "Hellboy," "Batman," and "Hulk" movie releases. And with the exciting news of a new "X-Files" movie, I decided it was time to pay a visit to my old friends Mulder and Scully.

I am ashamed to admit, I have only ever seen the first four seasons of "The X-Files." I started watching them a couple years after the show began, when they ran episodes at 11 at night on FX. They were on five days a week, and in a matter of months, I had consumed four seasons. Then something happened (I think I moved), and I fell out of the habit, which is a shame, because I had really enjoyed them.

Fast forward (or warp, your choice) to a month ago. In a discussion with a co-worker, who may be one of the biggest "X-Files" fans on Earth, I realized that there was a whole five seasons out there that I still hadn't seen. It's like I have 104 little presents waiting for me to unwrap them. Sure, I've heard some not-good things about the last two seasons, but it was time to find out for myself.

I have started back at the beginning, buying myself the first season, and the show is every bit as great as I remember. Sure, the opening credits seem cornier and the music is a bit cheesy, but so what? I lurve it.

And in revisiting the first season fifteen years out, there are so many things I had forgotten, like that Scully's father's nickname for her is Starbuck, or that David Duchovny is such a pretty boy. And so many familiar faces! I'm up to "Lazarus," and have already encountered Doc from "Deadwood," Leoben from "Battlestar Gallactica," Felicity Huffman from "Desperate Housewives," Badger from "Firefly, and Xander Berkeley, one of film and television's greatest character actors ever. Now, for the past week, I have been happily chewing on episodes, soaking myself in yummy X-Filey-ness, and wishing I still had my "The Truth is Out There" poster.

The point of all this?

The other day, I typed Scully's badge number, 2317-616, in my Twitter status. (She first mentions it in the "Ghost in the Machine" episode, when she calls the Bureau to ask for a trace on her phone.) A little while after I posted to Twitter, my friend Ken responded.

"1701!"

Oooh, I knew this one! 1701 is the number on the Starship Enterprise. Basic entry-level geek stuff! So I replied:

"yay for random sci-fi numbers!"

To which my friend Josh (the owner of this blog) said:

"That wasn't just math?"

Now, Josh is one of the smartest people I know. But, here was something I knew that he didn't! (Granted, his sci-fi knowledge is middling, but I'll take what I can get!) If there was an icon for "blows on fingers and buffs them on shirt," I would have added it to my response:

"Lol! No, it was Scully's id number. And one can only assume Ken is referring to the Enterprise."

To which Josh pointed out:

"2317-616 = 1701."

Whoops! My ability to do math, that class I found best used for napping back when I was in school, was totally pwned by my ability to recognize sci-fi references. Humbled, I replied:

"OMG! That has to be the reason they used it. I'm such a geek, I thought sci-fi first! :)"

I mean, that's really obvious, right? Thinking I had stumbled upon a common piece of "X-Files" trivia, I Googled Scully's badge number. It showed me hundreds of pages with mentions of it,  but none that I could find discussed the Enterprise reference. Huh.

The next day, I mentioned it to my X-File-ophile co-worker, fully expecting him to respond with a big "Duh!"

Instead, he said, "WHAT?!!!"

"Yeah, isn't that funny? I thought you knew."

Not only did he not know, he was enraged to learn there was something about "The X-Files" that I, an amateur, had figured out before him. He immediately retreated to his desk and began searching for mention of it online. Half an hour of looking yielded no results.

"You must have read this somewhere," he fumed, his mouse clicking furiously as it scrolled over his "X-Files" mousepad. (I swear he has one.)

"I didn't," I said. "It was a complete accident."

But he continued to search. After another half an hour, he sat back defeated in his chair.

"There is no way you are the first person to figure this out."

Holy smokes! He must be right. There can be no way that I, with my B- knowledge in science fiction, am the first to pick up on it… right? It just can't be possible. I know, discoveries are made by accident all the time, but I can't be the one to have first made this one… could I? I haven't given much more effort to scouring the Internet, pesky work and all, but the idea that I have stumbled across something previously unmentioned on the web is daunting. You can find everything online. It just can't be.

Surely, the truth is out there.