Review of X Files, The: Season 1 Boxset

Introduction

I wasn`t expecting to return to the X Files in quite this way, or quite this soon. But, a good old-fashioned cloudy disc scare means that I have seven new discs to watch over again, to check that all the episodes are present and correct. Now is a good a time as any for a retrospective. I also noticed that I had only reviewed Seasons 3,4 and 5 for the site, so that`s a couple of boxset reviews still to fill (my appreciation for the X Files began to wane after season 5). But I have to ask myself if going back to the beginning is such a good idea. Fourteen years have gone by since the X Files first debuted, and at the time it was a groundbreaking series. It had an extensive mythology, story arcs, was relentlessly dark, it treated its supernatural and paranormal subject matter with a degree of realism and a straight face, the government were the bad guys and conspiracies were everywhere, and to top it all off, it had that sexual tension between its main leads. There was nothing else like it on television at the time. But now, every other series is dark and realistic, all shows have arcs, all have mysteries and conspiracies, and sexual tension isn`t all that its cracked up to be. With shows like 24, Lost, Battlestar Galactica and Heroes among countless others all doing dark, moody and realistic, and doing it in 5.1 surround sound and HD widescreen, surely going back to Dolby Stereo and NTSC, when the X Files was trial and erroring its way into a new genre of television, can only be a disappointment.

Looking at this boxset also reminds me of how DVD pricing has changed in the past seven years. I bought the Collector`s Edition, differing from the current release in the packaging and the extra DVD-ROM game, as well as an exclusive number stamped on the side. Hardly thrilling. But for this, I paid the princely sum of £99, discounted from a three-figure sum, and I thought it was a bargain, as I had been paying thirty pounds more for the Star Trek TNG sets. Nowadays we expect our television for a far more reasonable price, as DVD has to compete with the multi-channel mentality, as well as downloads on demand. Today the X Files m-lock boxsets retail at £35, although I`ve seen them regularly discounted for as low as £15. Had I waited a few years, I could have had the whole series for not much more than what I paid for just one set. But, I`m not bitter; I have my nice shiny digipack, still in one piece, and the pseudo-uniqueness of #22427.

Dana Scully, a doctor with a background in Physics, currently teaching at the FBI academy, is given a field assignment with a difference. She is to work with Fox `Spooky` Mulder, a gifted psychologist and investigator, who has taken his career down an unorthodox path. Following the disappearance of his sister, which he believes to be the result of an alien abduction, he has become obsessed with the paranormal and supernatural. Since he discovered the X Files, those cases the FBI deemed unsolvable, he has been pursuing his obsession on the FBI`s ticket. Dana Scully is to work with Mulder, while reporting on his investigations, with a view to `debunking` the X Files. But Mulder`s obsession isn`t as ridiculous as it seems, while those superiors who assign Scully to the X Files have ulterior motives.

24 episodes comprise this first season.

Disc 1

1. Pilot
The alumni of a school in Oregon, the class of `89 are the subjects of a series of disappearances. But now the adolescents are being killed, with an odd mark on their torso the only clue. Are they being abducted?

2. Deep Throat
Test pilots vanish from a secret airbase in Ohio, only to turn up months later, different. Scully is dismayed to learn that it is a Mecca for Ufologists, but Mulder is motivated to go when he is warned away by a mysterious figure.

3. Squeeze
A series of locked room murders is baffling Maryland FBI. The victims have their livers ripped out, with no sign of entry. Mulder`s theory is wild to say the least, but reality is even more bizarre when they encounter the suspect, one Eugene Victor Tooms.

4. Conduit
A teenaged girl is abducted from a campsite in Iowa, a lakeside locale that has a history of alien encounters. Her younger brother starts receiving messages through the television, while Mulder and Scully get caught up in a murder investigation.

Disc 2

5. The Jersey Devil
The corpse of a homeless man is found, apparently the victim of cannibalism. Mulder points to anecdotal evidence of a yeti like wild man living in the Atlantic City area, but the police don`t need the negative publicity.

6. Shadows
Howard Graves is dead, an apparent suicide, mourned only by his loyal secretary. But it turns out she has a guardian angel, one who reacts with lethal force when she is mugged. Mulder diagnoses a poltergeist. Howard Graves hasn`t completely departed this mortal coil.

7. Ghost In The Machine
Eurisko is a company in trouble, and its director decides to downsize, even if it means dispensing with the founder. Greater savings can be made if the Central Operating System is scrapped, but the COS is watching…

8. Ice
An expedition sent to the Arctic Ice Core project in Alaska is dead, all victims of murder/suicide. Mulder and Scully join a team of experts to investigate, but they find that something has been unleashed from the ice, something that can kill them all.

Disc 3

9. Space
Marcus Aurelius Belt is a renowned astronaut and one of Mulder`s heroes, which leaves him a little star struck when they have to investigate evidence of sabotage on the Space Shuttle.

10. Fallen Angel
A UFO crash is detected in Wisconsin, and Mulder is sent on a race against time to find evidence of extra terrestrials. He walks straight into a military cover up. In the stockade, he meets a conspiracy theorist named Max Pfennig, someone who has attracted the attention of the alien visitors.

11. Eve
From cattle mutilations to human mutilations? Two murders by exsanguination attract the attention of the X Files. Both men leave young daughters; both girls are identical, despite having no blood relation. The trail leads to an IVF clinic.

12. Fire
An old flame comes back into Mulder`s life, bringing a new one with her. A pyromaniac is torching prominent British politicians with no apparent cause. The next target is prudently taking a break from Britain, but suddenly unexplainable fires start occurring in Cape Cod.

Disc 4

13. Beyond The Sea
Two teens have been kidnapped, and if a similar previous crime is any indication, they will be dead within days. Their only hope is a murderer that Mulder arrested, Luther Boggs, who claims to channel the spirit world.

14. Gender Bender
A series of sex crimes is leaving a trail of corpses. The victims alternate in gender, and appear to have fallen because of an excess of pheromones. The trail leads to a reclusive community called the Kindred, who eschew technology and violence.

15. Lazarus
The FBI lays a trap for a pair of bank robbers, but it goes disastrously wrong, and both the robber and the agent in charge, Jack Willis are shot. The robber dies, while Willis has to be resuscitated, but he comes back… different.

16. Young At Heart
Mulder`s first case comes back to haunt him. His hesitation cost the lives of a hostage and a fellow agent before the killer was caught. John Barnett died in prison, but now it seems he is back, and looking to pay Mulder back.

Disc 5

17. E.B.E.
A UFO crash in Iraq sparks a race against time. A truck is travelling across the US with the downed wreckage, and Mulder and Scully are alerted when its driver is involved in an `encounter`. But the government cover-up swings into effect, and Mulder has to find the evidence for Extra-terrestrial Biological Entities before it is made to disappear.

18. Miracle Man
In Tennessee, a firebrand preacher has brought true healing back to the world. His adopted son can cure all ills with his touch, and even bring the dead back to life. But when one of his flock dies instead of being cured, it becomes a murder case.

19. Shapes
A beast attacks a rancher`s herd of cattle and he shoots it in self-defence, only the corpse is human. There is a local Indian legend of a `manitou`, but investigating in the reservation is difficult for Mulder and Scully. Soon there is another attack.

20. Darkness Falls
Loggers are going missing in a Washington State forest. Mulder and Scully investigate, but find themselves caught in the middle of a turf war between the logger and eco-terrorists. Meanwhile, glowing green death descends from the skies at night.

Disc 6

21. Tooms
In this follow up to Squeeze, Eugene Tooms is released from psychiatric observation due to insufficient evidence to prosecute. Certain that he will kill again, Mulder defies FBI regulations to keep a constant eye on him, while Scully hunts for the evidence that will put Tooms away for good.

22. Born Again
A lost girl is found in New York, but when a policeman interviews her in order to establish her identity, that man ends up thrown through a window to his death. The child claims that there was someone else in the room, but she describes a man who`s been dead for nine years.

23. Roland
A gifted scientist dies in a wind tunnel when the jet is turned on. But the only person present is a janitor with a learning disability, an IQ so low that he can`t operate more than the least complex of machinery. But Roland has a hidden past, and the clues lead to a cryogenic facility for those looking for life after death.

24. The Erlenmeyer Flask
Deep Throat contacts Mulder to point him to a curious car chase. The discrepancies in the police report, and the presence of unexpected figures at the crime scene lead Mulder and Scully back to a genetics lab engaged in research that is literally out of this world. Mulder and Scully have never been closer to the truth, but the stakes have never been higher as well.

Video

The picture for the pilot isn`t promising, low of resolution, dull of palette and prone to ghosting. Fortunately things pick up from Deep Throat onwards, with stronger colour definition, and an image that is clearer and sharper. That`s with usual caveat of NTSC -PAL transfers. It`s from that period in US television where everything was soft, grainy and indistinct in comparison to film, even to British television. It`s something that you got used to, but if you`ve been spoilt by HD recently, then coming back to the grain-o-vision that you get with this series may be a letdown. That said, it`s a competent enough 4:3 transfer. I get the feeling that the same person who thought the BBC could economise by wiping old shows from videotape, moved to the US and advised the networks there to stop using expensive film.

Audio

A perfectly passable DD 2.0 English track makes sure that the dialogue is clear, that you can hear Mark Snow`s music develop over the first few episodes, and what dynamism there is in the sound design is adequately reproduced. English subtitles are there for all episodes.

Features

Disc seven is devoted solely to extra features, but there are a few with the episodes as well. There are international clips for the Pilot, The Jersey Devil, Ice, Space, Fire, Beyond The Sea, E.B.E, Tooms, and The Erlenmeyer Flask, all in various permutations of German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese. There are a couple of deleted scenes that can be reintegrated into the pilot, and a special effects clip for Fallen Angel.

The deleted scenes and special effects clip are repeated on the extras disc. You`ll also find the trailers for the episodes, running to a total of 12½ minutes.

There is an 11-minute documentary: The Truth About Season One, where Chris Carter and the rest of the crew talk about the season, some aspects of filming, as well as picking their favourite episodes. Chris Carter also talks about some specific episodes in a selection of 12 featurettes that run to a total of around 30 minutes. You can select these individually, or play all.

You can see more from the cast and crew in the Behind The Truth featurettes, twelve in total and running to a minute each.

When I bought this set on release, that selection of extras seemed pretty hefty, but in comparison to other releases they are thin to the point of anorexic. What`s worse is that they are presented in sound bite format, so there is very little substance to them. It`s froth PR stuff that is fine to advertise the show, but fails in communicating any meaningful information.

I bought the original digipack, which felt like a brick. It had a nice booklet with the chapter heading for the episodes, as well as a rundown of the other seasons released at that point. The discs also came with a DVD-ROM X Files game, a game that I never once played and don`t intend to now. I`ve read reviews of some of those old X Files PC games, and they are better off left alone.

Apparently the studios agree, as for the m-lock releases available now, the DVD-ROM feature has been dropped. Those packs hold six discs each, and the seventh comes in a cardboard sleeve. The booklet is still there, but it is slimmed down from before. Otherwise the sets are identical.

Conclusion

The first season of the X Files is a little hit and miss, but then again this harks back to a more innocent era of television. Today it seems that a show has to have a guaranteed audience by the time the opening credits start rolling, or the network will pull the plug. But in 1993, a series could have 13 episodes to a year to bed down, maybe even more. There are a few episodes in this first year that have me tempted to reach for the off switch. But to balance that, we get the first of the mythology episodes, the show gradually develops its trademark style, and there are points where the show gets as good as it ever will be. This first season certainly has a lot of promise, and it helps that it gains such momentum from the start.

Everything you need to know about the X Files is there in the first three episodes, although the first episode shouldn`t really count. There is something interesting about pilot episodes though. They act as a work in progress, the ultimate trial and error as writers see what works and what doesn`t. In many ways, the X Files pilot is a different animal to the rest of the series. The characters are wildly off, Mulder is yet to find that dry, sardonic sense of humour, and is often surprisingly extroverted and energetic. Scully on the other hand is enthusiastic, and more open minded, ready to believe in Mulder. As for the sexual tension, the impression by the end of the episode is that it`s a question of how soon, as opposed to nine years of `will they won`t they`, and their interplay is far too playful. Also Mark Snow is yet to find the themes, and the dissonant tones that exemplify the X Files, with the music in this piece really quite chirpy at times. The acting is also a little creaky, and there were moments when I wanted Duchovny to stop Shatnering the lines. But there is so much that is familiar, already set in place for the pilot episode. Character foibles like Mulder`s chewing on sunflower seeds, as well as Scully`s discreet Catholic cross are apparent. The show begins with the ominous, and silent figure of the Cigarette Smoking Man, watching from the sidelines as Scully gets her new assignment. You have the beginnings of the arc, with the discovery of the alien implant, as well as the government conspiracy that makes the evidence vanish. We learn about Mulder`s missing sister, we have the trademark flashlights in dark warehouses, we have Scully knocked out while Mulder sees the weird alien stuff, and we even have the first "Scully, it`s me" phone call, although it`s not on a mobile.

Deep Throat, the first episode proper is the one that sets the conspiracy truly in motion, and seen with the pilot can be taken as early evidence of the show`s arc based nature. We meet the guy on the inside, the one who`ll help Mulder`s investigations as long as it suits his purposes. This is also where we learn that the government are truly up to no good, utilising alien technology and instituting a cover up. Mulder and Scully are far more familiar to audiences in this episode; Mulder is suitably dry, while Scully has had a haircut and an increase in scepticism. And chunky mobile phones abound. The first stand-alone episode is the first of the X Files weird monster episodes, and it is immediately the most memorable of all nine years. Eugene Tooms is a mutant that has no concept of claustrophobia. Squeezing through the smallest gaps, he preys on his victims once every thirty years and then hibernates. It`s gross, it`s creepy and it`s classic horror, and because of a stellar performance from the actor playing Tooms, it`s also the X Files` defining episode. Once you saw this, you were either hooked, or this show wasn`t for you.

All that is left is to fill in some of the background of the X Files universe, and it isn`t long before we meet the Lone Gunmen in E.B.E. and Assistant Director Skinner in Tooms. Episode 4 continues on in the vein of the opening episodes, with another fascinating tale of abductions and extra-terrestrial encounters, this time a case that is very personal to Mulder. But after this it seems that the show runs out of steam. What follow are a series of monster of the week shows, wearing their movie inspirations on their sleeves, and feeling mediocre at best. There are a couple of good ideas bandied about, but shows like The Jersey Devil, Shadows, Ghost In The Machine, and even Space seem tame and naïve. The X Files monster episodes worked best when they were subversive and layered, but these are simple horror archetypes given an X Files makeover, and simplistic to the point of cartoonish in execution. Ghost In The Machine is an early cyberpunk X Files episode, reminiscent of Tron and 2001, but the execution is half-baked and unimpressive. It`s interesting that the concept would be revisited in a later season episode, one that wouldn`t refer at all to this one.

The same thing happens again within this season, with the poltergeist and psychokinesis of Shadows, brought back for Born Again. It`s the same concept, but the second episode is much more fulfilling, the characters are developed better and the story holds together more strongly. It`s also worth noting that the later episode makes no reference to the first, as if to erase it from canon. The first episode to really make an impact after the dry spell is Ice. It`s the X Files homage to The Thing, an arctic expedition overrun by alien worms, but unlike the monster of the week shows earlier on, this episode works because of a strong cast, and the writing which pits Mulder and Scully against each other. Even still, up to this point, the X Files could have seemed like a dozen other monster of the week shows, but Fallen Angel took the show into new directions, and cemented fan devotion. Ten episodes in, and we are reminded of the UFO conspiracy, Mulder`s on the hunt for evidence again, and we all realised that there was an ongoing story that will keep us hooked. The Predator homage didn`t even matter this time. This was followed by Eve, which reminded us that children are creepy, twins even more so. Another conspiracy raised its head, genetically engineered soldiers, and it`s odd that the supersoldiers episodes of season 9 never referred to this one.

Beyond The Sea was also important in that while Scully remained a sceptic in terms of the supernatural, it also made us aware of her strong spirituality, tested when her father dies, and a death row inmate claims to channel his spirit. What could have been a so-so episode becomes utterly memorable by casting Brad Dourif in the role of the prisoner. The conspiracy deepens in E.B.E., another must see episode, the X Files takes an affectionate pop at Christianity in Miracle Man, there`s another effective and memorable horror in Darkness Falls, and Tooms returns to squeeze into another chilling episode. By the end of the season, the writers were beginning to get the hang of the monster of the week episodes, with layered and relevant plots, character development foremost, and looking to do more than just rehash the latest urban myth.

That`s with the exception of Shapes, a rather cookie cutter werewolf episode that wouldn`t have been out of place in a Scooby Doo cartoon. There were other poor episodes in the season, and most of them occurred when Mulder or Scully`s past returned to haunt them. Lazarus saw Scully`s former FBI instructor, and lover get involved in some soul swapping worthy of Star Trek, and Young At Heart saw Mulder lose his customary cool when his first collar (which he screwed up), returned to take another shot at him. This episode did get better, but a decent ending is no redemption for 40 minutes of clichés and worn lines. But the stinker of season 1 has to be Fire. This time it is Mulder`s former love that pays a visit. Mulder was written as having studied at Oxford, and in this episode, good old Blighty pays a visit to the colonies. There are some god-awful accents in this one, as well as some stiff upper lip stereotypes that make my head sink. There are certainly a few odd misperceptions of British society on show here. Doffs cap and tugs forelock.

Season 1 of the X Files was an odd animal, one that would be put out of its misery in today`s cutthroat television industry. When it was good, it was downright brilliant, and when it was bad it was excruciating. Fortunately, the good by far outweighed the bad, and by the end of the season, it was truly the show that we had come to know and love, promise that would be more than fulfilled by the subsequent seasons. Look around for a sale or two, and you`ll be able to pick up this set for under £20, ridiculously cheap for classic sci-fi television.