The X-Files (TV Series) Synchrony (1997) User Reviews

Very good episode, one to make you think.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 19 August 2022]

A group of scientists who are busy developing a compound that can actually freeze people in moments, are being picked off by an elderly man.

Where to even begin with this one, there are multiple points of interest to entertain the viewer here. First off, it's a standalone story, so there's no mention of black oil, no cancer Man, an episode that a fan or casual viewer could enjoy.

It's quite chilling in parts (no pun intended,) with one scene in particular that makes you feel very uncomfortable as you watch.

Beautifully made of course, it's well paced, and it offers up some very different ideas, I thought it felt very different, not that the show had a static format, but it certainly stands out as being very different.

Very good, 8/10.

It puts a whole new spin on being your own worst enemy, huh?

[Sanpaco13 · 8/10 · 24 December 2007]

I love sci-fi time travel stories. Ever since Back to the Future I have wondered what it would be like to travel back in time and try to warn myself about certain things. It wouldn't be an X-Files episode without really weird corpses of course. In this episode we have an old man ranting about predicting the future who is arrested. Later the arresting officer is found dead and frozen yet strangely his body temperature is dropping. The casting in the episode does a really good job of making sure the old Jason and the young Jason look very much alike. Also apparently in the future the cure for bad eye sight has been found so there is hope for all you that wear glasses and contacts. The old man has come back to stop himself and other scientists from doing the research that finds the way that will make it possible for humans to survive time travel. The main problem with time travel stories is they never make logical sense mainly because the consequences of changing the past always present a paradox. If in the future you can travel to the past and then everyone ends up screwing up history then how come history isn't screwed up in the present due to the people from the past coming and screwing it up. There are explanations for this but they are all of course only theories. The best way to understand it at least to me is to look at each reality as one plane of existence. Then when time travel is invented and things in the past are changed they only happen on separate planes of existence. This is easy to understand if you understand the idea of the fourth dimension. But hey I'm not an expert on this at all. The coolest part of this episode is when the Asian guy bursts into flames after he is revived from being frozen. In any case the episode is decent but not my favorite portrayal of the time travel theme. I give it an 8 out of 10.

Time traveling is a fascinating subject

[SleepTight666 · 8/10 · 4 December 2008]

I'm not a big fan of scientific episodes, especially because they often try to confuse the audience just to make it seem like it makes sense.

But in this case, this episode is well executed and quite fun. It's something very different from the rest of the show and it's really one of those underrated and misjudged ones.

Although to be quite honest, my favorite parts of the episode are the death sequences. They looked really unpleasant, especially the death of Yonnie whom was first completely frozen just to be awakened by bursting into flames.

Time traveling is a fascinating subject and whether it is possible or not, this episode was a great issue on why it might be better if it's not.

FOUR stars.

Scully: The laws of physics would permit the theoretical possibility of time travel, but the limits of human endurance would prevent such a trip from ever happening.

[bombersflyup · 9/10 · 12 March 2018]

Synchrony is about an old man time traveling and using a rapid freezing agent to kill scientists working on such compound.

I am always surprised that I'm not more enthralled by this episode, something's missing. I love time travel, it has Michael Fairman who's one of my favourites in the "Firefly" series, as Niska and an alluring Susan L Hoffman. The dialogue's good, all good characters and a good story. Maybe the fact that Mulder and Scully never come across the old man until he ends his own life or that the time travel's never shown and only briefly explained. They also dismiss Lisa's capability, when they know she knows how it all came to be. Not that they can do anything.

time travelling to stop time travel!

[devonbrown-90649 · 8/10 · 17 June 2023]

The future is inevitable...

Great episode that explores time travel on the x files. Although the science isnt always clear and a the antagonist disappearance towards the end being mysterious. The plot it self was captivating and as always, mulders intuitions and scullys materialistic scepticism create a great case solving dynamic.

Was great to see the concept of someone coming back from time and killing himself to stop a grave future where "there is no hope"it seems a grave future awaits all of us if we stop at a particular point. If anything this old man's pursuit makes me think we should enjoy the present as much as possible and work to change out future as the past offers us nothing but pain and sorrow.

"It's better that we never were."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 27 June 2017]

Mixing two different scientific concepts like cryogenics and time travel was probably a bad idea for this episode because the difficulty in making a connection between the two is more than apparent. I just finished watching the episode and already the way the ideas were presented is fading from memory. And the way Mulder figured out that the older Jason (Michael Fairman) came from the future basically came out of nowhere. When I was watching these shows two decades ago I didn't question the lack of credibility in some of these episodes, so if I could go back in time about twenty years I'd save myself a lot of aggravation.

But if one is willing to cast aside all semblance of logic, an X-File like this can be quite intriguing. I did learn by looking it up, that 'synchrony' refers to a state in which things happen, move, or exist at the same time, and 'vitrification' relates to fast freezing, a process that's presently used to freeze human eggs and embryos so they can be used at a later time.

As for time travel, I think older Jason had it pretty much correct. Knowing something is going to happen in the future has all sorts of ramifications in the present, not the least of which is an inherent possibility of changing the future. For example, by torching himself and young Jason Nichols (Joseph Fuqua), he guaranteed that this episode never happened. So what did I just watch? You figure it out.

Back to the Future!

[Muldernscully · 6/10 · 18 September 2006]

If you haven't seen Back to the Future, you should. It's good, harmless fun. Synchrony explores the time traveling concept as well, but doesn't do as well. It has too many plot holes. I bring up Back to the Future because the teaser to Synchrony plays similarly to the mall scene at the end of Back to the Future, with the emphasis on the clock, the bad weather, and someone running to try to save another's life. Nice homage, but the similarities end there. Synchrony is much more dark and serious. Time travel is always an intriguing concept which is why I still like this episode. However, the actress playing Lisa wasn't all the great. Also, the three big inconsistencies are this: the injection freezes others, but it helps boost the old man? And, the old man has the ability to make himself spontaneously combust? Lastly, at 104 degrees body temperature, Dr. Yonechi was convulsing, but Lisa was still and never convulsed at the same body temperature. The episode also never really explained how Jason Nichols time traveled. We just had some vague Mulder theories. Like I said, time traveling is an ever-entertaining concept which made this episode interesting, but it was filled with too many story holes and inconsistencies to make it a really good x-file.

Could the writers get any lazier than this?

[dave-48711 · 2/10 · 29 October 2020]

This show really tests my patience sometimes. One such moment is when the agents come across a picture of Jason and his girlfriend partying it up with a fellow researcher, and Mulder, for no logical reason, concludes it's a picture taken in the future. And not just any future, but a future that never happened. Scully rightfully tells Mulder that his "theory" is nonsense, and in a saner show it would be.

2/10, just rubbish. Only redeeming moment is the awesome scene when the researcher bursts into flames.