The idea of 'smart metals' sounds like the stuff of science fiction, and one is often tempted to discard such concepts when they come up in The X-Files, but I thought I'd look it up and sure enough, 'shape memory alloys', or SMA's, are ones that 'remember' their original shape, and when deformed return to their pre-deformed shape when heated. This episode expanded on the idea somewhat with Ray Pearce's (Wade Williams) blood turning to metal, making him appear a bit like The Thing from the Fantastic Four.
There's no getting away from the idea that this story was paying subliminal tribute to Robert Patrick's T-1000 character from 1992's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day". The liquid metal alloy concept of the T-1000 made for a lot of clever mutations, and I recall being totally blown away by the special effects in that picture. Robert Patrick portrayed a relentless character in that story, much like the resolve he brings into investigating cases for The X-Files.
The thing that wasn't fully fleshed out in the story was who the real villain might have been that the 'metal-man' Ray Pearce was seeking revenge against. As a corporate entity, Chamber Technologies had some culpability, but the doctor who came up with an alloy with a genetic algorithm turning electrical energy into mechanical energy had already been poisoned and died as a result of his project, which was then shut down. The accountant Owen Harris (Kenneth Messerol) seemed to be offered as a scapegoat, and I didn't see why his life suddenly wound up on the chopping block. By that time though, one could surmise that Ray Pearce might have been suffering a mental disorder from his condition, with just a mere flicker of humanity left to hold off on his rampage.
There's no getting away from the idea that this story was paying subliminal tribute to Robert Patrick's T-1000 character from 1992's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day". The liquid metal alloy concept of the T-1000 made for a lot of clever mutations, and I recall being totally blown away by the special effects in that picture. Robert Patrick portrayed a relentless character in that story, much like the resolve he brings into investigating cases for The X-Files.
The thing that wasn't fully fleshed out in the story was who the real villain might have been that the 'metal-man' Ray Pearce was seeking revenge against. As a corporate entity, Chamber Technologies had some culpability, but the doctor who came up with an alloy with a genetic algorithm turning electrical energy into mechanical energy had already been poisoned and died as a result of his project, which was then shut down. The accountant Owen Harris (Kenneth Messerol) seemed to be offered as a scapegoat, and I didn't see why his life suddenly wound up on the chopping block. By that time though, one could surmise that Ray Pearce might have been suffering a mental disorder from his condition, with just a mere flicker of humanity left to hold off on his rampage.