I'm happy for anything that will keep SciFi afloat, whether it's wrestling or communing with the dead, so that I can keep getting shows like Eureka and BSG. I've just given up on the idea of getting Earth logic from the SciFi PTB.

What did they do with the cell phones?

Call each other. All the time. Moose would go haring off someplace, and the only reason he would live to tell the tale is that the scary bad guys would show up while he was talking on the phone with Squirrell. She would instantly deduce how to rescue him and arrive with the cavalry just in time.

(They also never said hello or goodbye in their calls. It was a thing.)

Call each other.

Oh, well yeah. But I never saw or heard a brand associated with them. I thought you meant they had been? Well beneath my radar if so.

Now that phones are getting more distinctive looking, I can see it. You wouldn't have had to even say the name Razor when they came out. Not sure how well that works beyond those really different looking ones. (Or the beep beep ones that they used on Angel one ep.)

But I don't think you'd have wanted your name associated with the shoe-box size phone XF had in the early years.

Alias would have been a different show with a different brand of cell phone with a different sounding ringer.

There was that hilarious Alias episode, where they were shilling the Ford F-150. Hilarious because, in the middle of a chase sequence, when Sydney was at her breathlessest, she was like, "Get into the splendiferous power-charged Ford F-150!"

The best part (aside from the fact that I still laugh whenever I see a Ford F-150), was that Lauren and Stark were driving a shiny new Mustang as the getaway car. I can't remember, however, if Syd followed things up with a, "And follow that blah blah blah V8 convertable Mustang with blah blah blah horsepower." but she really should have.

Bless Alias. Product placement at its most sublime and ridiculous.

I seem to remember that the cell phones on X Files were recognisable, because they seemed to be half a year ahead of what was available or popular. But certainly not flaunting it.

(They also never said hello or goodbye in their calls. It was a thing.)

They also never identified themselves to each other on the phone. It was always "Mulder, it's me."

Ah. I watched so little of it first run that that would've gone right by me.

Did we mostly hear both sides of the phone conversations? I'm wondering if they avoided the stilted "So you're saying we're going to the creek near the house?" repetition thing.

Mostly wondering because I'm trying to think of well-written and informative one-sided phone conversations, but it occurs to me I just wouldn't notice them.

Did we mostly hear both sides of the phone conversations? I'm wondering if they avoided the stilted "So you're saying we're going to the creek near the house?" repetition thing.

I think we always heard both sides of the conversation, mostly by cutting back and forth, but sometimes we'd hear the other person's voice while whoever was on the screen was on the phone with them.

But I don't think you'd have wanted your name associated with the shoe-box size phone XF had in the early years.

The only time I recall a shoe-box size phone was as a sort of sight gag during the origin of the Lone Gunmen episode set in the 80s.