The Truth Is Out There: The X-Files Discussion Thread

William B. Davis plays the Smoking man. Otherwise I agree with you.

Here are my own ratings for Season One:

1X79 The X-Files- ***
1X01 Deep Throat- ***½
1X02 Squeeze- **½
1X03 Conduit - **½
1X04 The Jersey Devil- **½
1X05 Shadows - **
1X06 Ghost In The Machine- **
1X07 Ice- **½
1X08 Space- **
1X09 Fallen Angel- ***
1X10 Eve- ***
1X11 Fire- ***
1X12 Beyond The Sea- ***
1X13 GenderBender- ***
1X14 Lazarus- **½
1X15 Young At Heart- **½
1X16 EBE - ***½
1X17 Miracle Man - **½
1X18 Shapes - TBR
1X19 Darkness Falls- TBR
1X20 Tooms- ***
1X21 Born Again- TBR
1X22 Roland - TBR
1X23 The Erlenmeyer Flask- ****

Some of them were skipped because I was impatient and wanted to get to the mythology episodes (I saw the show only on DVD).

 

Dur. William Peterson is the guy from Manhunter that's on CSI now. My apologies, stupid mistake.

Interesting ratings. I think they tend on the low side, but that's just me. I look forward to your thoughts on the ones you skipped.

Thoughts on the First Season:

Introductions:

This is the season of introductions. Not only are we introduced to our main characters, but the beginnings of a massive and brilliant supporting cast are also introduced.

Leads:

Mulder and Scully are already beginning to be the beautifully crafted and resonantly deep characters that they will slowly grow to be. Mulder?s loneliness, his haunted past, the personal obsessions that drive him . . . these are all here. Will we ever forget the closing shot of Conduit, of Mulder alone in an empty church, weeping for his lost sister? As well, the seeds are being planted for us to discover many truths about Mulder?s family. A wonderful moment in Roland finds Mulder narrating a dream about his father to Roland, telling us more about him than we would have expected from an episode like that one.

Loss, longing for lost loves and a lost innocence . . . these are the corner stones of what makes Mulder so resonant to me, what make him one of the finest characters on television. But, too, Duchovny is not afraid to show the dimmer side and already Mulder is ignoring his partner, ditching her as early as the second episode. The character is more or less birthed exactly as he would remain for the rest of the series.

Scully too is a fascinating character though she is given less development this season. We're introduced to her mother and her father in Beyond the Sea, probably the finest episode of the season, and her relationships with them will continue to develop. Her reliance on logic is the cliché, but she?s deeper than that. As early as Beyond the Sea, she?s chanting what would become her mantra: ?I?m fine.? Unwillingness to show vulnerability, the desire to be perfectly strong . . . again, these are seeds sown that will grow into full fruition as the cancer arc develops. And, again, in Beyond the Sea, we see a Scully who wrestles with faith and for all her lip service to logic, it?s very easy to draw a line from Beyond the Sea to Revelations or any of the later episodes that finds Scully returning to her faith.

These are already great characters, resonant in their struggles, fascinating in their weaknesses, heroic in their strengths.

Supporting Cast:

Again, the season of introductions. Only Jerry Hardin?s Deep Throat is really introduced and used as a recurring character. He is wonderful, of course, and his character has some brilliant moments (E.B.E., Erlenmeyer Flask, Fallen Angel), but he?s really the only true supporting character.

Charles Cioffi is introduced as Sector Chief Scott Blevins, but only appears in three episodes and then drops from sight until season five. He?s not particularly missed either.

William Peterson begins icon building with his four appearances (three of them entirely silent) as the Cigarrette Smoking Man. E.B.E. introduces us to the Lone Gunman in their only appearance this season and Tooms does the same for Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner. All of these characters will be come fascinating, every bit as fascinating as the leads, perhaps even more so at times, but at the moment, they?ve done little but been introduced.

Again, seeds are sown.

Worth mentioning is Doug Hutchison as Eugene Victor Tooms, setting the template for the recurring villain, appearing in both Squeeze and Tooms. A venerable tradition and Robert Modell and Donnie Pfaster would both indulge in return appearances as well.

Mythology:

The mythology which would puzzle us for so many seasons really only begins to form. Only three real myth episodes this season, the Pilot, E.B.E. and The Erlenmeyer Flask. Other episodes deal with alien entities, but they are alien entities that we?ll never see again, entities that never tie back to the larger arc of the myt

 

William Peterson begins icon building with his four appearances (three of them entirely silent) as the Cigarrette Smoking Man.

William B. Davis is going to hunt you down.

P.S.- My ratings were a bit on the low side for this season as I thought the MotW episodes tended to be quite weaker than many of the mythology episodes. However, I start rating them much higher as the series goes on.

 

I am kind of new to the show. Started watching the show at season 7 or 8 I think I have been a fan since then and was gonna buy the first season on DVD. I had to go for Season 2 since they were all out of the first one Have some questions.

What is the best/scariest season?
Is season 2 better than the first?
Will there be a season 10?
I remebered watching an episode years back about some people that had blood running down their eyes or something(their eyes was sort of burned or something Cant remember that much. Wich season is this from?

 

What is the best/scariest season?

I'm one of the few who enjoyed the series even more after the movie.

 

This is how I rate the episodes of season 2

Ep1: Little green men 4/6
Ep2: The host 5/6
Ep3: Blood 2/6
Ep4: Sleepless 5/6
Ep5: Duane Barry 6/6
Ep6: Ascension 6/6
Ep7: 3 3/6
Ep8: One breath 5/6
Ep9: Firewalker 3/6
Ep10: Red museum 4/6
Ep11: Excelsius Dei 2/6
Ep12: Aubrey 5/6
Ep13: Irresistible 5/6
Ep14: Dia hand Die Verletzt 4/6
Ep15: Fresh bones 3/6
Ep16: Colony 6/6
Ep17: End game 6/6
Ep18: Fearful symmetry 2/6
Ep19: Død Kalm 3/6
Ep20: Humbug 4/6
Ep21: The calusari 4/6
Ep22: F.Emasculata 6/6
Ep23: Soft light 4/6
Ep24: Our town 3/6
Ep25: Anasazi 5/6

 

Season two was awesome...the Duane Barry story arc was great...I remember watching Little Green Men, The Host (flukeman!!!), Red Museum, Excelsius Dei, Dod Kalm, Fearful Symmetry, and Our Town when I was a kid...scared the hell out of me. I've since rented the DVDs, but am to this day still confused by the Colony/End Game story, and I loved Die hand die Verletzt and Soft Light.

 

Just finiseh season 3 and it was even better than the 2nd Waitning for my season 1 box-set. This is truly the greatest show ever. One of the reasons that is because Fox and Dana are amazing charaters. Never experienced charecters like that on a T.V show

Here is the scores for each episode:
The blessing way 4/6
Paper clip 6/6
D.P.O 3/6
Clyde Bruckman's final repose 5/6
The list 5/6
2shy 5/6
The walk 2/6
Oubliette 4/6
Nisei 5/6
731 6/6
Revelations 2/6
War of the coprophages 6/6
Syzygy 5/6
grotesque 5/6
Piper maru 5/6
Apocrypha 6/6
Pusher 4/6
Teso dos bichos 2/6
Hell money 3/6
Jose chung's from outer space 5/6
Avatar 4/6
Quagmire 5/6
Wetwired 3/6
Talitha 4/6

 

Season 3 is great, i think only season 4 is better. Jose Chung you should give a 6, and how good was the cockroach one?

 

5/6 is a great score The cockroach one is called war of the coperhages or something. Look for score above.

 

I wouldn't necessarily say it's better, just different, mostly because they moved the show to LA and the whole feel/dynamics of the show changed.

That being said, I love the later seasons also. Season's 5-7 have some truly great episodes and the last 2 have some utterly heartbreaking moments. Doggett and Reyes are every bit a part of X-Files as Mulder and Scully.

I love the whole series, always have, always will

 

I did not catch the last season but I saw most of the 8th season and I agree with Dogget being a great charecter. I think most of the fans liked the new charecters but X-files with out Mulder or Scully is not the same I realy hope they will include Dogget in the next movie if they are ever gonna make it.

 

after season 5 the show was very different, moving to LA changed the whole feel of the show, it went from being gray and rainy all the time, to sunny, it got very light in tone in 6, and 7, which is proably the worst season.
Season 2 is proably the darkest overall, and is a very good season.

 

Do you own all the DVD seasons? What is your favorite? What do you think of season1?

 

I think two and three are almost unparalleled in excellence. Four and five are both right up there as well. After that we begin to start getting into more up and down seasons.

 

Season 1 is different than 2-5, all the episodes are their own story, they do not really connect, its good in parts, better than those last three seasons, much better than 7 and 9. I think season 4 is the best. Season 3 has really no bad episodes but 4 has, i think the best episodes of the whole show.

 

My next season will be the first and Im realy looking forward to it What is considered to be the worst season? Gonna buy the all anyway.

 

I personally love seasons 1-6. The last 3 I don't watch as often as the first 6, but I still enjoy watching them because I really like Reyes and Doggett. There are a few truly great episodes w/ them. I love the parrallel universes ep w/ Doggett and Reyes where a wounded Doggett from another timeline falls into our timeline and they have to figure out how to get the right Doggett back.

The episodes w/ William are always good also.

 

I just got the first season

Watched the three first and here is what I think so far.¨

Pilot: Great episode but going back after 49 episodes was kind of strange. Mulder and Scully seemed more wooden wich is understanble though. The show felt more like classic style horror than the later episodes I have seen and the score was kind of different too. Having said this I realy liked it

Deepthroat and squeeze was great. Mulder seem more geeky in theese episodes(not that he was'nt before). Gonna return with the full rating of the whole season. So far it seems realy realy good. Even if some of the episodes are kind of silly it's always fun watching Mulder and Scully doing their thing

 

Ice is a good episode in season 1.

 

Just finished the first season. Here are my scores[face_alien_1]

Pilot 5/6
Deep throat 5/6
Squeeze 5/6
Conduit 6/6
The jersey devil 2/6
Shadows 4/6
Ghost in the machine 3/6
Ice 4/6
Space 2/6
Fllen angel 5/6
Eve 4/6
Fire 4/6
Beyond the sea 6/6
Gender bender 5/6
Lazarus 2/6
Young at heart 3/6
E.B.E. 5/6
Miracle man 4/6
Shapes 6/6
Darkness falls 4/6
Tooms 6/6
Born again 2/6
Roland 2/6
The erlenmeyer flask 6/6

 

This was 3 amazing seasons I regret that I started with the 2nd though.
Most of the episodes were great and Im looking forward to the 4th. Alot of fans say it's the best of the lot so I cant wait

So far this is how I rank the seasons:

1. Season 3 6/6
2. Season 2 6/6
3. Season 1 5/6

 

Another Conduit lover! I'll let the fact that you also loves Shapes pass.

 

im suprised you didn't like ice better, thats my favorite from 1. Season 4 next, to me thats as good as the X-files gets.

 

Shapes was kick ass Im realy into the classic monster charecters like wolf, dracula and frankenstain and so on........

3 the season 2 episode about the vamps was not that good though. Conduit has this nice cold feel to it that made me love the episode. Ghost in the machine was not THAT bad either Favorite episode from that season would have to be Tooms.