Strange World (10 p.m., March 8 and March 9, ABC) First Wave (10 p.m. EST/11 PST, beginning March 19, Sci-Fi Channel) The X-Files (9 p.m. Sundays, Fox)   A L S O_.T O D A Y Blue Glow Teens under a microscope; history of female athletes   ___________________ Want to read more about the X-Files? The truth is out at barnesandnoble.com ___________________   Y E S T E R D A Y "Analyze This" Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek Robert De Niro gets the lion's share of laughs in Harold Ramis' mob comedy (03/05/99) "Cruel Intentions" Reviewed by Charles Taylor Retro morality makes for a pleasurably nasty update of "Les liaisons dangereuses" (03/05/99) "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams A hit English crime caper arrives in America jetlagged (03/05/99)   R E C E N T_. T E L E V I S I O N Working stiffs By Joyce Millman Why are "Dilbert" and "Sports Night" like a day at the office? Because watching them is a grind (02/22/99) Doc Hollywood By Joyce Millman On "ER," George Clooney was more than just a pretty face in the crowd (02/08/99) Get an afterlife By Joyce Millman Chris Elliott's long-lost cult sitcom is born again on home video (02/05/99) Movin' on down By Joyce Millman Eddie Murphy's "The PJs" puts TV's underrepresented blacks back in the ghetto (01/25/99) Chasing TV By Robin Dougherty No longer television's unsung hero, "Sopranos" creator David Chase talks about his mother, American entertainment and the mob mentality of the networks (01/20/99)   BROWSE THE TV ARCHIVES COLUMNS FEATURES

[ J O Y C E_.M I L L M A N__O N_.T E L E V I S I O N ] ----------T H E  X • E • R • O • X  F I L E S --Two new sci-fi series from former "X-Files" writers copy ------------the original's formula but leave out the main ingredients. BY JOYCE MILLMAN "The X-Files" didn't invent superstition, paranoia, little green men or the longing to believe, but it may as well have. Chris Carter's little spook show came along at exactly the right moment in our cultural history, coinciding with a pre-millennial surge in spirituality, a deepening distrust of government and a technological explosion that provided every guru and conspiracy theorist with an audience of billions. "The X-Files" started out as a cult, in every sense of the word. You couldn't casually tune in; its alternative reality was too vividly realized, self-referential and demanding for that. You had to plunge into it all the way. Now, six years after its premiere, the show is so much a part of the popular consciousness that the phrase "like something from 'The X-Files'" regularly creeps into news stories to describe things that are scientifically ambiguous, or inexplicable, or just plain weird. It's Mulder and Scully's world -- we just live in it. Like "The Twilight Zone" before it, "The X-Files" caught on with viewers who wouldn't ordinarily consider themselves sci-fi fans. And its popularity has a lot to do with the way it spreads a sinister shadow over the relatively mundane without insulting our intelligence (most of the time). Flukeman in and of himself is scary, but Flukeman as a mutant caused by nuclear waste -- now that's really scary, because it's just plausible enough. "The X-Files" is terrifying, smart and fun -- a combination that's a lot harder to pull off than you'd think. For proof, you need only look at some of its luckless imitators, from countless tacky UFO specials to alien-invasion potboilers like NBC's (defunct) "Dark Skies" to paranormal-hued conspiracy dramas like Fox's (short-lived) "The Visitor." And, of course, there's Carter's own unappealingly dour "Millennium." A byproduct of the success of "The X-Files" with none of the original's habit-forming power, "Millennium" is the TV version of second-hand smoke. And the list of "X-Files" wannabes keeps growing. This month, ABC launches "Strange World" (premiering Monday), a muddy exercise in paranoia created by former "X-Files" writer Howard Gordon. And cable's Sci-Fi Channel launches "First Wave" (premiering March 19), an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"-meets-"The Fugitive" serial created by Chris Brancato, who co-wrote exactly one "X-Files" episode, but it was a good one (the first-season clone thriller "Eve"). Executive produced by no less than Francis Ford Coppola, "First Wave" has been airing for a year in Canada and other international markets; the Sci-Fi Channel will run the show from the beginning, and has committed to two more seasons of original episodes. The pilot of "Strange World" (which fills the "NYPD Blue" slot for a month while that show takes a breather) is dark, gloomy and, frankly, not a whole lot of fun. The show's pale, sickly hero, former Army scientist Paul Turner (Tim Guinee), was exposed to biotoxins during the Gulf War and is now suffering from Gulf War syndrome, which in his case takes the form of an incurable, and usually fatal, type of anemia. But -- Conspiracy Alert! -- Turner's disease is being kept in remission by unknown persons for unknown reasons with an unknown serum that shows up in his mailbox at regular intervals. The only clue he has to the truth that's out there is a mysterious woman (Vivian Wu) who leaves him cryptic messages and warnings. Gordon, who wrote more than 20 episodes of "The X-Files," obviously knows his way around murkiness, but "Strange World" feels listless and recycled. Turner gets an offer to work for the Army's Medical Research Institute investigating "criminal abuses of science," which means that we can expect "X-Files"-type story lines about cloning, bio-terrorism and other forms of "extreme science." Turner has a skeptical girlfriend who's a medical doctor and a tight-lipped boss at the research institute (Maj. Lynne Reese, played by Saundra Quarterman) who may or may not be his ally. There's the obligatory sinister cabal of government agents, scientists and military brass. Much of the pilot takes place at night or in shadow. It rains a lot. Sound familiar? N E X T_P A G E _| Nostradamus: Too cheesy for X-Philes? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Become a Salon member. Click here.