David Duchovny credited as playing...
Fox Mulder
- Dr. Joe Ridley: I varied Barnett's treatment. Once I isolated the progeria receptors, I stumbled onto something quite unexpected... these same genes related to the production of myelin.
- Scully: The material that insulates neurons in the body.
- Dr. Joe Ridley: Yes. You see, myelin is not present in the very young and by reversing the effects of aging, I found, with Barnett, I was able to regulate the production of myelin. Myelin being the material that prohibits you or I from, say, regenerating a new hand if we were to have ours cut off.
- Mulder: You were able to grow John Barnett a new hand?
- Dr. Joe Ridley: Not exactly. Not a human hand, anyway. I could never get the cells to divide or behave properly.
- Scully: I... I'm afraid to ask. What kind of hand did you grow?
- Dr. Joe Ridley: There had been some successful work done in London. By taking samples of what we call cell morphegins from an amputated salamander arm and applying them to the back of the creature, they were able to grow a new limb on a completely different part of the body. But only on salamanders.
- Mulder: Until John Barnett.
- Dr. Joe Ridley: Yes.
- Scully: Unbelievable.
- Mulder: [cheering] Reg-gie! Reg-gie!
- Agent Reggie Purdue: Mulder!
- [shakes his hand]
- Agent Reggie Purdue: God, I hate it when you do that.
- Mulder: Is that Doctor Ridley?
- NIH Doctor: Yes, in 1974. Joe Ridley thought that he could take their accelerated aging and slow it down. Initially, some of his lab work was promising but then... things got out of control. He wanted to begin human trials.
- Mulder: Why wasn't he allowed to?
- NIH Doctor: Because he hadn't met the criteria. It was all too hypothetical, too dangerous. I mean, I knew Joe Ridley. He didn't care about those kids. He talked about them as if they were laboratory animals. This terrible disease, progeria, he saw it as "a wonderful opportunity." He used those exact words with me once. An opportunity to "unlock all the secrets." When they refused to allow the human trials, he became enraged. Do you know what they called Joe Ridley behind his back?
- Mulder: What?
- NIH Doctor: "Doktor Mengele."
- Dr. Joe Ridley: John Barnett is the only patient left. The only one who survived the experiments.
- Mulder: What about you?
- Dr. Joe Ridley: My appearance is decieving. I have no more than a month to live as I am dying from a rare cerebral vascular disease.
- Scully: The same disease that kills the kids suffering from progeria?
- Dr. Joe Ridley: That's right.
- [laughs ruefully]
- Dr. Joe Ridley: An unfortunate side effect of the treatment. By using the genetic components of progeria, I was able to reverse the aging process in much the same way the disease expedited it. At the same time, I and my patients became genetically susceptible to the same ailments a child of six or eight would if he had the disease.
- Mulder: And what about Barnett?
- Dr. Joe Ridley: John Barnett... If I didn't so personally detest the man, I might call him my one triumph.
- Mulder: Barnett's not dying.
- Dr. Joe Ridley: Only his eyes, which for some reason do not respond to the gene therapy. Otherwise, John Barnett appears to be thriving.