The X-Fences

Did anyone notice that CBS’ “Picket Fences” on Dec. 16 connected itself with Fox’s Dec. 9 “X-Files”?

In the Fox drama, an investigation by FBI agents Mulder and Scully concluded that a doctor had been experimenting on teen-agers in Delta Glen, Wis., by injecting them with alien DNA. The number of rapes in the town had dramatically increased in the preceding year. At one point, the crash of a private plane killed the doctor. Under general suspicion for a while was a vegetarian religious cult whose members wore red turbans.

At the beginning of the “Picket Fences” episode, a Rome, Wis., cattleman was suspected of injecting his cows with alien DNA. Town coroner Carter Pike excitedly referred to “Delta Glen”, where a doctor injected kids with alien DNA, the number of rapes had increased, a plane crash had killed a doctor, and there was a red (somethinged) group that didn’t eat meat.

When the FBI was contacted in “Picket Fences,” I half expected Mulder and Scully to show up.

Donald L. Hart, Garden Grove