Idolator’s Tribute-Video Treasury Searches For The Truth With James Blunt And That “Kiss Me” Song

Ed. note: Once again, Idolator intern Kate Richardson scours the video sites, looking for the best fan-made music-video tributes. In this entry, she looks at two very different takes on the Mulder and Scully relationship:

Forget The Truth, the Cigarette Smoking Man, the aliens and monsters, the great conspiracy myth-arc. The X-Files was about one thing and one thing only: tender, passionate agent-on-agent action. Mulder/Scully fanfic is hardly new to the Internet, but in the pre-YouTube era it wasn’t as easy to use quivery-voiced Englishmen and ’90s Christian-crossover bands as background music. Do you believe? There’s little room for doubt in this case: the truth is out there, and it sounds like a trailer for She’s All That.

Song: “Goodbye My Lover” by James Blunt Concept: Mulder and Scully as overwrought couple fond of playing baseball together. Given that this video has an inherent disadvantage–it uses just stills instead of clips–it’s not technically too bad: The editing is quick and the pictures are, by and large, appropriately tender. But that may actually be the problem. Mulder and Scully are hardened FBI agents who know too much, and as a result of many years working together on cases that are beyond the grasp of others, they are drawn to each other. For this we get James Blunt? Entirely inappropriate. He’s more of a Ross/Rachel artist. Best music-to-image sync-up moment: Since there isn’t anything good about this clip, there is logically no “best” moment, but if I had to pick I’d say the pictures of Scully crying and clutching Mulder match well with the song. Silliest music-to-image sync-up moment: At the 2:10 mark, there’s a painfully literal interpretation of the lyrics “I’ve seen you cry, I’ve seen you smile, I’ve watched you sleeping for a while, I’d be the father of your child.”

Song: “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer Concept: Mulder and Scully as playful rom-com couple. This one skips lightly over the line from pathetically absurd to absolutely brilliant. Because this song is probably even more off-tone with the show, the video becomes its own universe. It’s as if The X-Files never existed, and someone had just found a lot of stock footage of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson making out. The commitment to the premise is so strong and well-executed that the maddening inappropriateness of it is forgotten. This video should not be watched as a Mulder/Scully tribute, but as an A+ project in a movie-trailer class. Best music-to-image sync-up moment: The clip of Mulder and Scully dancing. It’s less obvious than the kissing clips and a little more whimsical. Silliest music-to-image sync-up moment: The final scene in the video–if I remember correctly, there’s an off-chance that the baby he’s holding is an alien or something.

Verdict: I thought it over during my cigarette break in the dark corner, and it is apparent that the Sixpence None the Richer clip is vastly superior in execution and a lot more fun to watch, while the “Goodbye My Lover”/X-Files combination is a real train wreck. Trust no one who tells you otherwise.