Pilot: The X-Files
Writer: Chris Carter
Director:
Robert Mandel
"Nobody
down here but the FBIīs least wanted"
is how Mulder greets Scully after sheīs
assigned to X-Files. In their first case
together, the agentīs must determine why
classmates are turning up dead in an Oregon
forest, all of them displaying the
puncturelike marks and nasal implants found
on victims of alien abductions.
Historic
moment: Scully in skivvies!
Creative cast: William B. Davis silently
debuts as eternally puffing Cancer Man. The
Most enigmatic of all of "X-Files"
human enigmaas, he gives the government agent
a nicely hangdog air.
Critique: Succesfully establish Mulder
and Scullyīs Fred and Ginger meet Dragnet
relationsship, two attactive, ambitios
people, one obsessed to the point of being
ostracized, the other ferociously concerned
with objective truth both ver likeable in
their resolte seriousness. On the other hand,
newer fans might well be amazed at how frisky
the famously deadpan duo are here.
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1: Deep throat
Writer: Chris Carter
Director:
Daniel Sackhem
"Letīs
just say this case has a distinct smell to
it, a certain paranormal bouquet," says
Mulder of test pilots going psychothic at
Ellens Air Base in southwest Idaho. He
ultimately uncovers what appears to be a top
secret, Area 51-like Air Force outpost,
containing technolog recovered from crashed
alien spaceships.
Historic moment: First reference to
Roswell, N.M., site of legendary, reputed
1947 downing of a UFO.
Creative cast: Jerry Hardin ( DR. Quinn
Medecine Woman ) gives life to continuing
character Deep Throat, Mulderīs world-weary
and heavyhearted inforrmant, obsessed with
sharing secrets.
Critique: You can see the show settling
into itīs querulous, omnious tone; a little
awkward, but full of promise of things to
come.
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2: Squeeze
Writers: Glen Morgan/James
Wong
Director:
Harry Longstreet
In their first
of two mutants - who - can - squeeze - into -
tiny - spaces - due - to - unexplained -
genetic - anomaly stories ( see episode 75 ),
Mulder and Scully stalk Eugene Victor Tooms,
a baby faced 100 - year - old killer who
cheats mortality by feasting on human
livers.
Creative casting: Doug Hutchison ( A Tie
To Kill ) is profoundly creepy as Tooms; and
Donald Louge ( Late OF Public Morals ) as an
FBI foot soldier, typical in his contempt
forr spooky Mulder.
Critique: The mixture of horror plus huor
begins to jell, and the introduction of the
sort of unsettling villain that was to become
standard marks "Squeeze" as
an important episode.
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3: Conduit
Writers: Alex Ganza / Howard
Gordon
Director:
Daniel Sackheim
In this spin
on "Poltergeist", an Iowa
townīs teenage tramp is snatched by aliens,
who communicate with her onger brother via TV
static. Mulder is relating big time.
Historic moment: A praying Mulder-altough
the church, says writer Gordon, isnīt meant
to imply a particular faith: "Itīs
merely a sanctuary, a place for him to
reestablish his helplessness and the missing
of his sister.
Creative casting: Carrie Snoddgress as
the girlīs ebattled mother, a former
abductee herself.
Critique: Excellent for background, but
Duchovny gives a performance that makes wood
look liveky, a problem he normaly avoids in
the "mythology"
episodes.
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4: The Jersey devil
Writer: Chris Carter
Director:
Joe Napolitano
Mulder and
Scully investigate a murderous Bigfoot family
living deep in the forests of New
Jersey.
Historic
moment: A dolled-Up Scully goes out on a
date; her realization that she is bored-with
a glimmer that Mulder and her work are all
that count- registers.
Critique: Needless philosopheing ( man
batteling beast within ) dumbs down an
already corny premise, as does the
ridiculousl attractive beastwoman, Mulder
takes a fancy to.
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5: Shadows
Writers: Glen Morgan / James
Wong
Director:
Michael Katleman
A Philadelphia
secretar is possessed by the spirit of her
dead boss, an appearent suicide, who uses her
to help himuncover his real murderer and an
illegal arms deal with Arab terrorists.
Critique: The exceedingly awkward my -
boss - is - inside - me premise degenerates
into silliness, and the series has never
managed to find rich material in political
subects like the Middle East.
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6: Ghost in the
machine
Writers: Alex Gansa / Howard
Gordon
Director:
Jerrold Freedman
A
supercomputer develops a mind of itīs own,
killing anyonewho intend to shut it down.
Naturally, the government wants to usurp the
artificial - intelligence research, despite
the threat to human life.
Critique: The unacknowledged 2001
rip - offs, gratious use of "Deep
Throat", and absence of humor compound a
tired idea ( computers as modern - day
monsters is so old ).
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7: Ice
Writers: Glen Morgan / James
Wong
Director:
David Nutter
John
Carpenterīs The Thing gets a dustoff
as Mulder and Scully investigate a team of
Arctic Circle researchers wiped out by a
wormlike, psychosis - inducing
parasite.
Critique: Particularly taut and briskly
paced, with good comic relief (including
Mulderīs memorable reference to his manhood,
shrunken by the cold ); placing the agents in
utterly isolated situations will continue to
pay off.
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8: Space
Writer: Chris Carter
Director:
William Graham
An
extraterrestial ghost, acting through a
forrmer astronaut - turned - NASA official,
sbotages a space shuttle to prevent further
explorations that may dicover alien life.
Subtext: Mulderīs ( read Carterīs )
nostalgia for the beleaguered space
program.
Critique: Cheesy F/X, extensive reliance
on stock footage, and a poker - faced Mulder
and Scully make for one dead hour. ( FYI:
This is Carterīs least favorite
episode).
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9: Fallen angel
Writers: Glen Morgan / James
Wong
Director:
Larry Shaw
A UFO crashes
in wisconsin and a holographic alien is on
the loose. As a government - directed
military unit attempts to cover it up, Deep
Throat alerts Mulder, who is able to snatch a
glimpse of the ship before it is secreted
away.
Creative casting: Scott Bellis as
endearing Lone gunman precusor and conspiracy
freak Max Fenig.
Critique: The still - ore - skeptical -
than - trusting Scully has an eye - rolling
field day. Other than that, avery cool -
looking episode that does the best job so far
of illuminating the agentīs position with
relation to the government and
crackpots.
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10: Eve
Writers: Kenneth Biller / Chris
Bracato
Director:
Fred Gerber
The aftermat
of a govrnment - sponsored Cold War cloning
project gone horribly wrong finds Mulder and
scully responsible babysitting two incredibly
bad seeds.
Creative casting: Harriet Harris (
Frasiers Agent ) plays Dr. Sally
Kendrick.
Critique: The X - Files meets The
Trouble with the Angels in this tidy,
satifying, and suspensful installment. But
then, how can you lose with those horror
staples, evil kids?
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11: Fire
Writer: Chris Carter
Director:Larry
Shaw
The arrival of
Scotland Yard detective Phoebe Green, an old
flame of Mulderīs, sparks an investigation
into pyromaniac serial killer Cecil Lívely,
and jealousy in Scully. When Mulder claims to
be "extending her a professional
courtesy", Scully replies, "Oh, is that
what yo were extending"?
Historic moments: Shades of 007 as Mulder
wears a tux, kisses a woman and dances.
Creative casting: A sizzling performance
from Mark Sheppard as Lívely.
Critique: Above - average special effects
and a terrific villain, but Amanda Pays
annoying Green keeps any real sparks from
flying.
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12: Beyond the sea
Writers: Glen Morgan / James
Wong
Director:
David Nutter
One of the
seriesī best episodes begins with passing of
Scullyīs father. When two teenagers are
kidnapped soon after, death row inmate and Silence
Of The Lambs refuge Luther Lee Boggs
claims his psychic powers can help the agents
find them. For once, the believer is Scully,
for Boggs is offering the grieving agent the
chance to speak to her father one last
time.
Historic moment: We learn that Scully
believes her dad Captain william Scully was
disappointed in her for trading medicine fot
FBI work.
Creative casting: Brad Dourifs oldball
intensity find itīs perfect outlet in
Boggs.
Critique: The episode humanizes Scully,
poking a hole in her nearly pathological
skepticism. Her Confrotation with Boggs is
spinetngling, one of Andersonīs finest
moments.
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13: Genderbender
Writers: Larry Barber / Paul
Barber
Director:
Rob Bowman
A group of
aliens masquerading as an Ammish - like
community, and can kill humans through sex.
When deviant member of the group goes on sex
- killing spree, witness meets Looking
for Mr. Goodbar.
Historic moment: Nicholas Lea - soon to
be Alex Krycek - came on as one of the
alienīs disco pickups.
Critique:
A clever idea is undermined by a bushel of
burning questions. Like, why are the aliens
here in the first place? And whats up with
that hive thing in the barn?
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14: Lazarus
Writers: Alex Hansa / Howard
Gordon
Director:
David Nutter
In a psychic
transference that occurs as they are dying on
the operatning table, the body of FBI agent
Jack Willis is inhabited by the bank robber -
murder he has relentlessly pursued for nearly
a year. Complcating matters: Willis is
Scullyīs former boyfriend.
Critique: Solid supporting cast, but
otherwise this is about as exciting as
Scullyīs taste in men ( not very ).
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15: Young at heart
Writers: Scott Kaufer / Chris
Carter
Director:
Michael Lange
Homicidal bank
robber and prison escapee ohn Barnett strikes
a pact with a mad scientist who has found a
way to reverse the aging process. Now heīs
after Mulder, whose testimony put him in the
big house.
Critique: A very old theme doesnīt get
new life here. Not helping farfetched
allegations of goverrnment involvment.
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16: E.B.E.
Writers: Glen Morgan / James
Wong
Director:
William Graham
Scully and
Mulder track a truck transporting an alien
salvaged from UFO wreckage in northern Iraq
to a secret government facility in Washington
state.
Historic moments: Introduces the always -
entertaining Lone Gunmen.
Frohike - Tom
Braidwood
Byers - Bruce
Harwood
Langly - Dean
Haglund
Mulderīs
helpfull trio of superparanoid conspiracy
geeks. Deep Throat reveals something of his
past and his intentions we think, and Scullys
conflict deepens: Sheīs slowly by way of
sheer respect for Mulder havint to accept
"extreme possibilities" while
maintaining her scientific grounding.
Critique: Dense, dazzling, and dark. An
absolute must for those with any hope of
unrevealing the master plan.
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17: Miracle man
Writers: Chris Carter / Howard
Gordon
Director:
Michael Lange
Mysterious
deaths surrond a teenage faith healer and his
fatherīs evangelical crusade. In a paralell
to "Beyond The Sea", this time it
is Mulder who is shaken by a psychic
evacation of a lost loved one, in the form of
his missing sister.
Critique: Scott Bairstow as the reluctant
healing prodigy keeps you watching, but an
ultimately contrived plot and a stereotypical
Bible - thumping Southern milieu make for a
case more suited to Jessica Fletcher than
Mulder and Scully.
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18: Shapes
Writer: Marilyn Osborn
Director:
David Nutter
Garden variety
werewolf plot set near a Native American
Community in Montana.
Historic moment: Prompts mentioning of
the first X - File initiated by J. Edgar
Hoover in 1946, wich also involved a
werewolf.
Critique: Mulder and Scully dogging it,
and nothing much to sink your teeth
into.
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19: Darkness falls
Writer: Chris Carter
Director:
Joe Napolitano
Life - sucking
prehistoric wood mites are unleashed during
felling ag ancient trees in a remote logging
outpost. In yet another torn - from - todayī
- headlines backdrop, treehuggers battle big
bad lumbermen.
Critique: Another eerie outing far from
civilization.
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20: Tooms
Writers: Glen Morgan / James
Wong
Director:
David Nutter
Liver Boy
returns ( see episode 2 ), and once again
itīs Mulderīs job to convince an
unbelieving world of the 100 - year - old
killerīs strange culinary appeties and
hibernating habits.
Historic moment: Cancer Man speaks; we
meet Mulder Mulder and Scullys boss,
Assistant Director Walter Skinner.
Creative casting: Mitch Pillegi as
Skinner doesnīt make much of an impression
here, but heīll prove to be an engagingly
steely presence.
Critique: Another sublimely slimy
performance from Hutchinson as Tooms. If you
fear escalators, this wont help.
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21: Born again
Writer: Alex Gansa / Howard
Gordon
Director:
Jerrold Freedman
An 8 - year -
old girl is inhabited by the spirit of a long
- deseaced cop. Killed nine years ago by
three of his colleagues, he attempts, through
her, to excact psychochinetic revenge.
Creative casting: The ubiquitous Mimi
Lieber, late of Friends, does her Noo
Yawk goil schtick; in young Andrea Libman,
the series once again makes inspired use of a
child actor.
Critique: Lot of conventional gumshoe
work in this engaging but ultimately just
serviceable episode.
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22: Roland
Writer: Chris Ruppenthal
Director:
David Nutter
Brilliant,
dead aeronutical scientist continues his
groundbreaking work via his cryogenical
preserved brain and his autistic brother
Roland, while simultaneously ously
dispatching the colleagues who took credit
for his inroads into jet propulsion
research.
Creative casting: Zeljko Ivanek is
astonishing ( and convincing ) as the
touching, tortured savant.
Critique: Good news: excellent death
scenes, particulary the liquid nitrogen
checkout. Bad news: telepathic revenge again?
Thats three times in one season.
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23: The Erlenmeyer
flask
Writer: Chris carter
Director:
R. W. Goodwin
"Donīt
give up on this one.... youīve never been
closer", Deep Throat advises Mulder in
this watershed episode. A routine traffic
traffic infractions sets off chain of events
that lead Mulder and Scully to the dicovery
of a government research program in wich an
extraterrestial virus is introduced into
human subjects via gene therapy.
Historic moment: Deep Throats demise (
last words: "Trust No One" );
Scullys firsthand encounter with an alien
lifeform; and the X - Files are
shutdown.
Critique:Alarmingly dense, and, as with
any of the "mythologi" chapters,
raises as many quetions as it answers.
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