WE are close to solving the mystery of Dana Scully's disappearance from The X-Files (Pearl, 8.30pm). She missed last week's episode. At the time rumour had it she was, like the rest of us when we fancy a day off, having a tooth pulled or visiting a sick grandmother. This turns out not to be the case. Scully was abducted by the government and returns this evening, albeit in a coma. And very pretty she looks too, on a life-support machine.
Mulder (David Duchovny), who increasingly looks like a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown, rushes around blaming everybody, tries to resign, as he does in every episode, and finally, in the nick of time, receives important information from the 'smoking man' - as he does in every episode.
The X-Files, which looked as fresh as a daisy last year, is running out of stories. There are three main variants: Mulder discovers evidence of alien visitations and ensuing government cover-ups; Mulder discovers that a psychopathic multiple-murderer is haunted by extraterrestrial demons; Mulder invents a conspiracy theory and asks Scully to perform the autopsy that will help him prove it.
There is, however, no serious harm in being short on ideas. Star Trek has got by for more than 20 years with only one plot (aliens abduct crew member) and so has Superman (Lex Luthor launches bid to control the world). The X-Files continues a television tradition. Now if Scully dies, that would be a surprise.
IN times of adversity, when Hollywood needs to convince itself people are still watching, it makes an awards programme. The Blockbuster Entertainment Awards (Pearl, 9.30pm) is the latest. These awards are given for no other reason than, well, to give awards. Cindy Crawford and William Baldwin are the hosts and Sylvester Stallone gets the Icon Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures, which really says it all. I can think of hundreds who are more deserving, Donald Duck and the lion who appears on the MGM logo among them.
THE long but sometimes majestic Ben-Hur (World, 9.35pm) reaches its climax, with our brawny but kindly hero (Charlton Heston), having survived the life of a galley slave, finally getting his chance to seek revenge on his enemy Messala (Stephen Boyd, who's not your bulk standard Hollywood villain, but a man who has motivation for his apparently blind dedication to the Roman Empire).