This seemed rather familiar, but I wasn't sure until I saw the concluding scene of "Biogenesis". At which point, I am ashamed to admit, I screamed "GOTCHA!" at the top of my lungs.

Now, those who have continued to follow The X-Files will remember that at the beginning of the sixth season, there was an episode called (stupidly enough) "The Beginning." In which Scully tells Mulder that the seemingly alien DNA she has found in Gibson Praise (the mind-reading boy) is actually in all human beings, only switched off in most of us.

This seemed rather familiar, but I wasn't sure until I saw the concluding scene of "Biogenesis". At which point, I am ashamed to admit, I screamed "GOTCHA!" at the top of my lungs.

Because, not to put too fine a point on it, "Biogenesis" contains the same basic plot points as Quatermass and the Pit the third and greatest Quatermass BBC serial, which was later adapted into the best of the Quatermass movies. A transcendent classic of speculative fiction, and a landmark in television history. And reputedly set to be remade for the big screen in the near future. Which, from my somewhat narrowly focused perspective, signifies one thing -- someone has obtained the rights to remake it, and that someone isn't Chris Carter.

"Biogenesis" shows us an excavation, and the uncovering of a mysterious relic. The relic has odd writing on it, which turns out to be Navajo, only it's actually the opening lines of Genesis.

Contact with a rubbing of the relic "switches on" Mulder's "God Module", making him fully telepathic. There is an odd buzzing sound only he can hear, which is presumably the unfiltered thoughts of everyone around him. Mulder starts behaving erratically, and everyone assumes he's off his rocker. Well -- he is Mulder, after all.

As the episode concludes, we learn that the relic came from an alien spacecraft buried in the sand on the African coastline. We are led to believe that the alien colonizers were the first life forms on Earth, that we are, in fact, descended from them, and that they may have come to Earth from Mars. And that all humans possess latent telepathic powers because of this, and that virtually everything bizarre we have seen in the past six seasons, "everything in the X-Files" can be traced back to this alien lineage. A unified theory of paranormality. We are the Martians.

Quatermass and the Pit is different in many ways, but again, we see the same plot mechanics, the same concepts, and very similar visuals. An excavation in London uncovers some proto-human skulls, around five million years old, which show unusual cranial development for that period. In the same pit, a strange projectile is uncovered, with the ancient symbol of the Pentacle inscribed on it. Close proximity to this object causes people to hear an odd humming sound, which seems to stimulate frenzied behavior, hallucinations, and uncontrollable and destructive telekinetic abilities in most nearby humans.

With the help of some other scientists, Quatermass uncovers a horrifying truth. Insect-like Martians visited Earth five million years ago, in order to found a "colony by proxy." Since they knew their planet would die, and they couldn't survive on ours, they decreed that their cultural patterns, and mental abilities would be ingrained within us. They tried (and partially succeeded) to accomplish this by tampering with our ancestors' development. Foremost among the customs they try to invest us with is their tendency to commit "racial purgings", weeding out the genetically unfit or those who are different.

(Psst! Ever wonder why the Alien Colonizers in The X-Files are obsessed with racial purity? Well now you know!)

So our ancestral images of imps, demons, and Satan's horns -- a race memory of our antennaed alien forebears. Our ideas of magic and the supernatural are derived from this as well, and whatever psychic abilities we possess. A unified theory of mysticism and the occult, informed by science. Or, as Quatermass puts it, "We are the Martians."