Reception
"Travelers" premiered in the US on the Fox network on March 19, 1998 and in the United Kingdom on February 3, 1999. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 9.9, with a 15 share, meaning that roughly 9.9 percent of all television-equipped households, and 15 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 15.06 million viewers.
The episode received mixed reviews from television critics. In a 2000 review of season five for the New Straits Times, Francis Dass noted that the episode possessed a "nice retro feel throughout". Dass was also complimentary towards the fact that "Mulder senior is shown in action" during the episode. Todd VanDerWerff from The A.V. Club gave the episode a B and wrote positively of it, noting that, although the entry was designed as a "stall", it felt like a "weird backdoor pilots for that never happened." He noted that the episode "isn’t as good as it could have been" but argued that the story was "still a mostly fun". In addition, VanDerWerff wrote positively of McGavin's guest starring role and was complimentary towards the "alien spider thing", describing it as "wonderfully gross". Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode four stars out of five and called it "fresh and urgent". The two wrote that, while the episode was a stopgap, it "cannot be better placed." They argued that "Travlers"'s use of the "Communist witch hunt" conceit and its idea that "serving" means being a patriot, whereas "resisting" means being a traitor —a reference to the previous episode's tagline—themes were well-played. Shearman and Pearson, furthermore, praised McGavin's acting, noting that he was "the series' spiritual father".
Other reviews were more critical. John Keegan from Critical Myth awarded the episode 5 out of 10 and wrote, "Overall, this episode is an odd divergence from the normal series format, prompted by the production schedule for the feature film. Acceptable as a stand-alone episode, it simply doesn’t fit within the overall scope of the series, and that makes it hard to judge objectively." Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a largely negative review and awarded it one star out of four. She noted that the episode, much like the earlier season five entry "Unusual Suspects" was "filler", but that, unlike the earlier episode, "Travelers" was "not particularly entertaining." Vitaris criticized the character of Arthur Dales and wrote that he was "not an intriguing character". However, she did praise the visuals, describing them as "outstanding".
Read more about this topic: Travelers (The X-Files)
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