Review for The X Files: The Complete Eighth Season

Introduction

If there was one thing that re-watching Season 7 of the X Files made clear, it was this was a show that was desperately in the need of revitalisation, its two main characters had pretty much exhausted their respective arcs (and killed off most members of their families), the conspiracy arcs had by now worn out their welcomes, and when it came to the standalone episodes, the show was trapped in a cycle of remaking or subverting old stories. The show was tired, and it was no surprise that the final episode of season 7 was in many ways written as a finale for the series as a whole. What is surprising is that the show got renewed anyway. Still the X Files needed new blood, and it got that in a big way, when star David Duchovny decided that he wanted to leave the series. That meant a whole new story direction, a whole new conspiracy, and a new lead character, resulting in a new dynamic between the main cast members. In my mind I’ve constantly written off Seasons 8 and 9 as a simple continuation of the downward plummet in quality that Season 7 embarked on, but the fact of the matter is that after all this time, I can’t really remember anything about Season 8. Maybe it isn’t as bad as I think it is...


At the end of Season 7, the inevitable happened. If you spend seven years chasing aliens, the aliens are going to chase back, and Fox Mulder wound up abducted, while the Cigarette Smoking Man’s plans to revive the conspiracy wound up in tatters. Even worse, Mulder left behind a Scully that was miraculously pregnant. You’d think it would be a simple matter of resuming the X Files with the aim of finding Mulder, but there’s been a sea change at the FBI, with Kersh now made deputy director. He orders a full on manhunt for Mulder, but makes it clear that it’s a conventional search, and that in name only; it’s really an excuse to clean out the X Files once and for all. To that end, he appoints Special Agent John Doggett, a determined, and by the book detective with a military background and history in the NYPD, to run the investigation. But John Doggett is relentless, principled, and independent of mind. He’ll pursue this investigation no matter what it uncovers and what he finds, and when that comes to the X Files, that promises to be fantastic indeed. The next 21 episodes of the X Files are presented in this Season Eight boxset, across six discs.


Within
Without
With Mulder abducted, it’s unsurprising that there is an investigation at the FBI. What is surprising is that Scully, Skinner and the X Files have been left out of the loop. Instead, Deputy Director Kersh has assigned Agent John Doggett to head the manhunt, and to Scully’s disquiet, it becomes clear that they are treating Mulder’s activities as criminal, and that she and A.D. Skinner are suspects. But then the investigation uncovers things about Mulder she never knew. The FBI’s suspicions of Mulder may just be right, when Mulder shows up again in Arizona having kidnapped Gibson Praise!

Patience
Not getting the results that Kersh requires demands a heavy price, and Special Agent Doggett finds himself assigned to the basement and the X Files. A prickly working relationship is likely between him and the defensive Scully, but reports of a human bat killing again in Idaho after 44 years absence, will force the two to find a centre ground and a degree of compromise.


Roadrunners
A brutal murder in the Utah desert has similarities to an X File that has Scully on the scene investigating. The first that Agent Doggett knows about it is when he gets a phone call from her asking for him to look up the old case. But Scully’s lingering suspicions of Agent Doggett are about to get her into a whole lot of trouble.

Invocation
When Billy Underwood vanished from a school playground ten years previously, it was a tragedy that the Underwood family never recovered from. Only now Billy has returned, without having aged a day. It’s a miracle that rapidly turns sour, as Billy doesn’t speak, and he’s acting very strangely.


Redrum
Martin Wells is an old friend of John Doggett’s, only now he’s accused of murdering his wife. On the day he’s supposed to be transferred to a secure facility, he winds up killed by his father-in-law... and then wakes up the day before, with no memory of what has happened, but aware of what will happen tomorrow. Now he has to somehow convince Doggett that he’s living his life in reverse.

Via Negativa
A routine drug stakeout of a religious cult turns into something more macabre when the cult members and the two FBI agents on the stake out turn up dead, brutally murdered. The leader of the cult, Anthony Tipet claims to have opened his inner eye, and now he’s stalking people’s nightmares to lethal effect.


Surekill
A man flees for his life and takes refuge in a police station. More than that, he’s locked away in a secure cell, sealed from the outside world. He still winds up shot to death, a single bullet in the top of the skull, which passed through an air vent, ductwork, a ceiling, two floors and the building roof. Someone has a talent for killing. Where better to start investigating than the local pest control companies?

Salvage
A man has come back from the dead, after being infected by an experimental smart metal, capable of growing and repairing itself. Ray Pierce is slowly becoming more machine than man, and he’s looking for revenge against the people that did this to him. Agent Doggett thinks that machine men assassins only happen in the movies...


Badlaa
The things illegal immigrants stowaway in to sneak into countries! Now they’re stowing away in people as well. At least that’s how it seems when a newly arrived businessman from Mumbai is found dead, his lower intestines and rectum torn to shreds. The thing is that he was dead before he even left Mumbai. And this particular stowaway isn’t looking for a better life, he’s looking for revenge.

The Gift
John Doggett is still pursuing the Mulder investigation, but his latest lead turns up some unsettling evidence. The last case that Mulder had isn’t part of the official FBI record, and when Doggett winds up in Pennsylvania following Mulder’s old phone records, he finds the worrying possibility that Mulder may have committed a murder.


Medusa
A mysterious death on the Boston metro has Scully and Doggett brought in to investigate, a transit cop has died, half his face eaten away. While Scully stays in a control room to co-ordinate, Doggett joins another transit cop, a CDC doctor, and an engineer in the tunnels to chase down the cause, or the culprit. But far more dangerous is the local transit authority, who will put the trains back in service for the rush hour come what may,

Per Manum
An expectant mother giving birth to an alien baby seems like tabloid fodder, and one that Scully is liable to dismiss when a grieving husband comes to her for help. But her perspective changes when her own doctor is implicated in the conspiracy. Could her own pregnancy be less a miracle and more an insidious government scheme?


This is Not Happening
The search for Mulder takes an ominous twist when a flurry of UFO sightings arises in Montana. The people that were taken in the abductions that Mulder was investigating are now being returned one by one in the order in which they were taken. That might prove positive for Mulder’s return if the returnees weren’t being sent back in a state close to death. On top of that, they’re being abducted yet again as soon as they return, this time by a very Earth-bound UFO cult.

Deadalive
It’s been three months since Mulder has been dead and buried, three months in which Scully has had to come to terms with the loss. Or is it? As suddenly abductee Billy Miles reappears, his bloated corpse floating in the ocean. Except he isn’t quite dead, and exhuming Mulder’s coffin reveals that he too is merely resting to the utmost. That doesn’t mean that his life has been saved, far from it, as he’s suffering from an insidious alien virus. And it’s Alex Krycek who holds the cure...


Three Words
It’s no surprise that when a man breaks onto the White House lawn, trying to warn the President that the ‘aliens are coming’, he winds up dead. And it’s also no surprise that Mulder, ordered to stay away from the X Files, and trying to deal with his abduction PTSD by ignoring it, buys into the conspiracy and investigates it on the sly. What wasn’t reported was that the dead man had a CD with information that proves the existence of the invasion, a truth that also lies in the census information for the nation. Doggett’s contact in the government, Knowle Rohrer has a way in, but are Doggett and Mulder being set up?

Empedocles
Mild-mannered Jeb Dukes gets fired by his company, and leaves the building in a mild-mannered way. He then witnesses a police car-chase end in a fatal wreck, a burning man walk out of the wreckage and then into him! He then returns to his former place of employment and murders his employers. And for FBI Agent Monica Reyes, there’s a connection between this random act of violence, and the unsolved murder of John Doggett’s son.


Vienen
If there’s one notable vector of the impending alien invasion, it’s Black Oil, a pernicious substance that has been a subject of several X File investigations over the years. When the latest indication of a Black Oil infection is on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, the implications are obvious and far-reaching. Mulder may be off the X Files, but this is something he can’t let go, and it inevitably has him butting heads with Agent Doggett. But Mulder may have bucked authority one time too many...

Alone
A mysterious death in New York State sounds just like an X File, but this time John Doggett will be working it alone. Mulder’s been fired, and Scully has just been advised to take maternity leave. Actually he’s not totally alone, he has a new partner, transferred in from Accounting, and Leyla Harrison is a total fan of Mulder and Scully.


Essence
Existence
The time has come for Scully’s baby to be born, but as the day approaches, the nature of this miracle child is increasingly in doubt. Meanwhile there are factions out there for whom this child represents humanity’s last hope, while for others it’s an abomination that mustn’t be born. A new facet of the conspiracy is revealed when the reborn Billy Miles is revealed to be an immortal supersoldier, and it looks like Agent Doggett trusted the wrong friend. But salvation might come from the unlikeliest of sources... Alex Krycek.

Picture

The show is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with the usual softness that comes from transposing an NTSC source to the PAL medium. It does enough to tell its stories, and while detail might be lacking, it’s typical of television of the era. However, Season 8 turns out to be a lot more consistent than the previous seasons across the episodes when it comes to clarity and production values. The image is also a tad sharper than before, as the networks at the time were stepping away from the video quality NTSC, and taking the first step towards what would become the HD revolution. This season takes full advantage of the 480 lines of resolution available to it, and is a lot more pleasing to watch as a result.

Sound

You have the choice between DD 2.0 Surround English, French and Italian, with subtitles in those languages, Dutch and Greek. Subtitles are also available for the extra features and the commentaries. There are no issues with the audio, with the stereo offering a little spookiness for the show, Mark Snow’s inimitable score offering a whole lot more, and the dialogue remaining clear throughout.

Extras

Six discs are presented in an Amaray brick style case. There are two hinged panels inside which hold two discs on either side, and there’s one disc at the front of the case, one at the rear. You’ll also find the series booklet, 16 pages in length, with a listing and a breakdown of the episodes by chapter, a listing of the extra features and a bit of blurb for the season.

The discs boot up to an animated menu following the usual copyright screens. You’ll find the extras listed on each disc in a separate section, as well as from the episode page to which they pertain. Each episode will also have a couple of pages of cast listing which usually expands on the show credits.

Disc by disc the other extras are listed as follows...

Disc 1 has International Clips in German, Italian, and Japanese for Within.

Disc 2 has International Clips in German, Italian and Japanese for Via Negativa and a deleted scene for Surekill.

Disc 3 has a deleted scene for Badlaa and International Clips for The Gift.

Disc 4 has a deleted scene for Per Manum and International Clips for Three Words.


Disc 5 has a deleted scene for Empedocles and International Clips for Essence. You also get an audio commentary on Alone from Frank Spotnitz. Long time writer and producer on the show, it turns out that Alone was his first directing experience, and there is a lot of interest to discover here.

Disc 6 has a separate section for the season extras, but you also get extras with the sole episode on this disc, Existence. You get International Clips, Deleted Scenes, and an audio commentary with director Kim Manners.

Season specific extras on disc 6 include the Documentary: The Truth About Season 8, which runs for 23 minutes, as the creators talk about the new direction for the show, the new cast members, David Duchovny’s exit from the series, and notable episodes.


There are three X Files Profiles taken from the VHS ‘movie’ releases of the multi-part episodes in this season, comprising John Doggett, Gibson Praise, and Alex Krycek. There’s about 19 minutes worth of footage here.

You get 10 second and 20 second promos spots for all of the episodes here, and there’s a Play All option if you don’t want to navigate through 42 links.

Special Effects with Narration by Paul Rabwin looks at how 7 scenes were put together for this season, and if you Play All, you get 15½ minutes worth of footage here. You also get the Deleted Scenes again, 11 minutes worth, all 7 with Optional Commentary from Frank Spotnitz, and John Shiban.

Conclusion

This is an odd one. It’s my first time watching these episodes since they were aired in the UK, and I have something of a schizophrenic reaction to them. The X Files Season 8 is both better than I remember, and worse. Season 7 was tired, the formula had passed its sell by date, and the ongoing conspiracy arc had long since disappeared up its own orifice. The writing was on the wall for the show if it didn’t get some new blood, and a proper shakeup. Indeed the expectation was that the final episode of season 7 would be the last of the series and that the show was renewed was something of a surprise.


It certainly got a shakeup when David Duchovny decided to leave the show, although it was in a staggered way over this eighth season. Having him abducted at the start certainly was a radical change. The second shakeup was the new blood, in the form of Robert Patrick as Agent John Doggett, an even more dyed in the wool sceptic than Dana Scully was at the start of the series, and in many ways a lot more stubborn about it. And this too was good, now casting Skinner and Scully as the true believers, and Doggett as the everyman viewer proxy thrown into the deep end of all this weird ‘horse crap’ as he puts it in one episode.


But unfortunately the shakeup wasn’t radical enough, as Mulder would eventually return in about the daftest way possible, while the conspiracy, already convoluted beyond absurdity, would get even more ridiculous with the advent of the Super Soldiers, and antagonist Knowle Rohrer, a man with less a surname and more a growl. It also saw the departure of Alex Krycek, one of the consistent positives in all eight years of the X Files to that point. The new blood wasn’t all positive either, as joining John Doggett in the show was Agent Monica Reyes, a New Age Kook who’d believe in anything if it was vaguely weird, and who just didn’t carry the authority and weight of someone in law enforcement. By himself, John Doggett was a useful and interesting foil to Dana Scully, but Doggett and Reyes together were Mulder and Scully taken to extremes, and although their partnership hadn’t been cemented in this season, when they were on screen together, the show began to look like a parody of itself.


Then there are the overall storylines which just get evermore dafter as the series heads to its conclusion. The Mulder abduction was interesting enough, as long as we didn’t see Mulder. Unfortunately we kept cutting away to him in an alien torture chair, getting an extreme facelift. Then there is Mulder’s return, which is so daft that it makes all the sharks that were jumped in the seventh season look like minnows. Mulder pulls off a resurrection that would put Christ to shame, spending three months in his coffin before being revived, and being rescued from sloughing off his skin and becoming a Super Soldier as Billy Miles does. Speaking of biblical, there’s also Scully’s pregnancy in this season, a miraculous conception that borders on the immaculate, although Daddy might be Mulder, or he might be a little green man, and which culminates in a birth in a Hicksville manger, heralded by a shining light, and where the baby gets a visit from the three wise geeks.


Taken as a whole there’s also an inconsistency in the way the writers handled Doggett, as his scepticism seemed to wax and wane from episode to episode. At some points, especially after he’d been regurgitated by a swamp monster, he looked like he might just be wavering in his disbelief, but then the next episode he would be openly scornful of the alien nonsense, before dealing with a mind-controlling parasite in the next episode. It begins to get annoying when you see the season as a whole, but I couldn’t help but be tickled at all the Terminator 2 references the writers kept throwing in.


But forget the arcs, the mythology, the stupid biblical allusions, and take this season as a collection of standalone episodes, and you begin to see that the quality of the writing has risen once more, the stories are compelling and genuinely creepy, there’s a much needed easing off from the comedy episodes, and the combination of Doggett, Scully and Skinner, and the antagonistic character of Deputy Director Kersh really do give the stories energy that the series had been missing since season 5. Despite the Mulder facelift scenes, the opening two-parter establishing the new dynamic of Scully and Doggett is very watchable. The following seven episodes are some really strong X Files, with the genuinely unsettling Roadrunners, the concept episode Redrum, and the affecting Invocation all highlights.


It isn’t until Badlaa that they push the creepy too far into stupid territory, with an antagonist that takes illegal entry far too literally for comfort. But up until episode 13, The X Files Season 8 consistently delivers strong and interesting writing, some genuine chills, and makes the most of the new character dynamic. And then Mulder returns, and brings with him Agent Monica Reyes, in a two-parter that starts off interestingly, but then takes a walk off the reality pier into the ocean of stupidity. It’s hard to say this, given that Mulder was the X Files for seven years, but in most of the episodes that follow his resurrection, he’s actually a dead-weight to proceedings, as the actual story gets diluted by distractions to Mulder and Scully domestic issues, and the impending Messianic birth of their child. It’s only in Vienen and Alone, which both act as passing of the torch episodes that Mulder begins to work in the show once more, ironic as this is just prior to his departure. Vienen is classic X Files conspiracy, which revisits the Black Oil and sees Mulder fired from the FBI, but ensuring that Doggett picks up where he leaves off, while Alone is a more symbolic passing of the torch.


Then there is the final two-parter of the season, which has its moments, especially in terms of character, but the actual story is crippled by absurdity. Contrary to my recollection, Season 8 is actually better than Season 7, but only when you partake of the stand alone episodes. It’s in these that the show really feels like the X Files of old, spooky one off stories that just give you that cold feeling on the back of the neck. Unfortunately the conspiracy episodes and the mythology arcs are just ridiculous now.