Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense

"Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense"
Millennium episode
Frank Black and Det. Geibelhouse interview the head Selfosophist in his office.
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 9
Directed by	Darin Morgan
Written by	Darin Morgan
Production code	5C09
Original air date	November 27, 1997
Running time	43 minutes
Guest appearance(s)
Charles Nelson Reilly as Jose Chung Patrick Fabian as Ratfinkovich Richard Steinmetz as Mr. Smooth Alec Willows as Detective Twohey Sandra Steier as The Feminist Scott Owen as Nostradamus Nutball Murray Rabinovitch as Juggernaut Onan Goopta Dan Zukovic as Robbinski
Episode chronology
← Previous "The Hand of St. Sebastian" Next → "Midnight of the Century"
List of season 2 episodes List of Millennium episodes

"Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense" is the ninth episode of the second season of Fox's Millennium. Controversial writer Jose Chung (portrayed by Charles Nelson Reilly, reprising his role from The X-Files episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space") comes to the aid of criminal profiler Frank Black and the Millennium Group when a bizarre religious group known as Selfosophy (a parody of real-world Scientology) targets him for harassment because of his authorship of a short story concerning the cult. The question becomes, as Frank puts it, "What the hell is going on here?"

As a series of still photographs pass into view, author Jose Chung describes the life of Juggernaut Onan Goopta, who went to college hoping to become a famous neuroscientist and instead was overcome by dementia and institutionalized. During his hospital stay, Goopta decided to become a writer. His first literary works were so incompetent they were mistaken for "brilliant parodies." Chung met Goopta when his stories were published in a detective magazine.

When that publication folded, a desperate Goopta "changed the course of human history" when he published the first in a series of highly successful self-help books and founded the "Institute of Selfosophy," which taught members how to shed negative thoughts. It was an enormous success. Anyone responsible for internal criticism of the organization was reprogrammed, and if that failed, dubbed a "Ratfinkovitch" and excommunicated from the institute.

While performing research on "the newly arising belief systems at the end of the millennium," Chung encountered Joseph Ratfinkovitch, who was excommunicated for reading Chung's most recent fiction. Ratfinkovitch's body is discovered inside his apartment, the victim of an electrocution. Giebelhouse contacts Frank, hoping he can shed some light on the case. As the group examines the crime scene, Chung steps forward and claims that he is responsible for Ratfinkovitch's death. He explains that when Playpen magazine ran an excerpt from his short story, the Selfosophist Institute grew offended. They instructed members to buy up all existing copies. However, Ratfinkovitch read, and enjoyed, the story.