Auugh! *instantly turns into mummy dust*

I KNEW IT! I was watching this episode not too long ago and had to pause it just to be sure.

… Welp, time to crawl into the old folk’s home down the street, I guess. I still remember news of her being born on the old AOL X-Philes community. (Anybody else here get started in the fandom there?)

If you really want some paranoia due to invasive monster parasites, you want to watch John Carpenter’s The Thing. It’s probably the best story ever done along that theme.

Conversely, if you are legitimately distressed by paranoia due to invasive monster parasites, you will want to avoid John Carpenter’s The Thing like the plague (of mind-control worms in the arctic).

For me it’s the “anyone could be infected with it” paranoia and the general fear of some horrible alien thing seeping into your body and controlling you. That episode with the rage worms on the arctic base or wherever gets to me just the same because eeuuugh worms under the skin driving me mad agghhh. All that other stuff is weird and creepy and gross but not in the same terribly invasive way.

I also react to the black oil with horror and revulsion, though in more of a “come on, not THIS again?” kind of a way. (It appeared in what felt like about every other episode for a while.)