Review of X Files, The: Season 3 Boxset

Introduction

Before I received the X-Files Season 3 boxset to review, I would have considered myself to be someone who quite liked the show, and had enjoyed the episodes that I had seen on television, but hadn`t gone out of my way to make a point of watching it if it was on.

The X-Files boxsets (of which there are currently four in Region 1 and three in Region 2) are the perhaps the most highly desirable DVDs yet released, primarily because their high price puts them out of reach of most fans, weighing in at around £75 per season, and when combined with the various movies that have been released, the total cost of a complete X-Files collection on DVD weighs in at well over £300, with several seasons still to come...

The Season 3 boxset consists of seven discs - six of which each contain four episodes giving a total of twenty four, the seventh contains the extra features. My review discs were early test pressings, and the third and fourth discs were missing, therefore I only received sixteen episodes and the extras to watch. This boxset also contains two of the most annoying things in the world…

I`ll briefly summarise the episodes included:

The Blessing Way - Mulder is missing, presumed dead, and Scully is suspended as the Cigarette Smoking Man looks for the missing DAT tape. Scully discovers a computer chip implanted in her neck.

Paper Clip - the search for the DAT tape continues. Mulder has returned and recovered and he & Scully unearth a huge medical record storage facility, however they need to bargain with the mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man to save their careers.

D.P.O. - Mulder & Scully investigate a number of deaths attributed to lightning, but soon discover that a survivor of a lightning strike appears to have an electric personality.

Clyde Bruckman`s Final Repose - a number of fortune tellers are killed, and turn to insurance salesman Clyde Bruckman, who can see into the mind of the killer, for help.

The List - a death row prisoner has been badly treated in prison vows to return after his death and kill five people. When his prophecy starts to come true, Mulder & Scully are left with a trail of bodies...

2Shy - a series of women answering personal ads are killed by someone or something leaving acidic mucus on their bodies. The killer`s use of rare Italian poems narrows the investigation down...

The Walk - war veterans in a hospital try to kill themselves after disaster has befallen their families, but someone stops them from doing it, leaving them absolutely terrified...

Oubliette - a teenage girl is kidnapped, at the same time 20 miles away, a young women utters the same words as the kidnapper and collapses, bleeding the captured girl`s blood…

Nisei - after Mulder buys a video of an alien autopsy that shows armed men storming into the room, Mulder & Scully investigate a Japanese submarine sunk in World War 2.

731 - Scully investigates the computer chip she found in the first episode which leads her to the Hansens disease research facility in West Virginia.

Revelations - a stigmatic is murdered and Mulder & Scully link the case to international murders of false stigmatics.

War of the Coprohaghes - Millers Grove, Massachusetts is infested with cockroaches and as the insects begin to attack, it becomes clear that they are not what they seem.

Syzygy - Mulder & Scully travel to Comity to investigate the deaths of a number o teenage boys and get drawn into satanic cults and astrology.

Grotesque - Mulder & Scully investigate the case of a captured serial killer who claims that he was possessed by an evil spirit which made him kill.

Piper Maru and Apocrypha- a salvage ship returns with it`s crew suffering radiation poisoning, and again Mulder & Scully get involved in World War 2 submarines.

Pusher - a man confesses to the murder of 14 people, but escapes after willing his captors to set him free. After the death of more agents, it becomes apparent that `Pusher` has a gift...

Teso Dos Bichos - an archaeological dig in Ecuador unearths an Amaru Urn which is returned to an American museum despite protests that it should remain where is was found. Rumours of a curse on the urn appear to come true when anyone involved in its restoration are brutally killed.

Hell Money - after a gruesome discovery, Mulder & Scully unearth a bizarre gambling game operating in Chinatown, with the highest stakes imaginable.

Jose Chung`s `From Outer Space` - author Jose Chung is researching a book on alien abductions, but all the witnesses to an alleged incident in Klass County have different stories. Who is telling the truth?

Avatar - Skinner meets a woman in a bar and wakes up to find her dead. Then his wife is killed and all the evidence points to the FBI boss. Mulder & Scully aren`t convinced and investigate who is really involved.

Quagmire - lots of people are dying at Heuvelmans Lake, the supposed home of a prehistoric creature called `Big Blue`.

WetWired after a tip off, Mulder & Scully investigate a series of very mysterious killings that appear to be linked to television programmes. Things get complicated when Scully goes missing.

Talitha Cumi - a man goes postal in an Arlington restaurant, shooting people at random before the police shoot him. A customer miraculously saves all of them and then disappears into thin air.

Video

The video is presented in full-frame and in general is of above average quality, with little sign of grain, no visible dirt and a detailed image. I say in general, because the titles and some outdoor scenes on a couple of episodes are very grainy.

The X-Files is a high-profile series and has high production values and as a result looks very polished in nearly all respects, with good effects and locations giving a quality feel to the series. There are one or two exceptions, such as the alien monster in Jose Chung`s `From Outer Space` and the cat that attacks Scully in Teso Dos Bichos (although in this case, the documentary explains that it had been intended to use a real cat until they discovered that Gillian Anderson has a severe allergy to cats). Many of the episodes include gruesome crime scenes and corpses - all of which are very well filmed and some of which quite unpleasant. There are also plenty of episodes designed to give the viewer the creeps, and again tight directing and good use of locations adds to the tension.

Audio

The sound is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and contains a matrixed Dolby Pro-Logic track. The lack of a discrete 5.1 channel sound mix obviously limits the impact of the soundtrack, but given the television origins of the series, the audio is certainly acceptable. The sound is mainly focussed on the front stereo pair and centre dialogue channel, and the speech is always clear and understandable.

Features

The extras consist of a Season 3 Documentary, Chris Carter Interviews, deleted Scenes with commentaries, Special Effects with commentaries and promo spots.

The documentary runs for twenty minutes and features various members of the production team looking at various aspects of the included episodes. As you would imagine, cramming 24 episodes into 20 minutes leaves little time for much in the way of detail.

The Chris Carter Interviews can be played back by episode or in one go. As they are all just a couple of minutes long, in one go is the preferred option.

The deleted scenes with optional commentary are as described - these are laid out per episode.

Special effects with commentary is again broken down by episode and looks at various sequences from the series.

The menus are all very easy to navigate, although the non-skippable intro on each disc started to really annoy me after a while…

Conclusion

At the start of this review I described myself as "someone who quite liked the show, and had enjoyed the episodes that I had seen on television, but hadn`t gone out of my way to make a point of watching it if it was on". Having sat through sixteen episodes in four nights I would now describe myself as a big fan of the X-Files who can`t wait to watch the rest.

Aside from the very weak Jose Chung`s `From Outer Space`, I THOROUGHLY enjoyed all the episodes from this disc, finding them to make compelling watching as I became more and more interested in what was going on as the series progressed. There is a good variety of episodes in Series 3, dealing with numerous topics, but all based around the ongoing background plot.

The series is very well made, extremely well acted by two appealing lead characters, well written, and most importantly very unlike anything else. The video and sound are both above average, and the extras are reasonable, although I would have preferred just the six discs of episodes and a lower price tag.

Finally I turn the two annoying things that I mentioned at the start of this review. Firstly, because I enjoyed it so much, it`s going to cost me a fortune to buy the rest of The X-Files - this includes a proper retail version of Season 3 so that I can watch the eight episodes missing from my review copy. And secondly, the last episode is a damn cliff-hanger…ARGH!!!