The X-Files: Season 1, Episodes 4-9

Conduit (Season 1, Episode 4)

Written by Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon; Directed by Daniel Sackheim

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully

Charles Cioffi as Scott Blevins

Carrie Snodgress as Darlene Morris

Joel Palmer as Kevin Morris

Taunya Dee as Ruby Morris

Shelley Owens as Tessa

Don Thompson as Holtzman

Don Gibb as Kipp

Akiko Morison as Leza Atsumi

Conduit returns to the theme of alien abduction with Mulder and Scully travelling to Sioux City in Iowa to investigate the disappearance of a teenage girl.

This further explores the disappearance of Mulder's younger sister, Samantha, with the parallels in the two cases causing Scully to suspect that he has lost his objectivity.

Despite its theme the episode really doesn't add much to the show overall, other than a little bit of extra characterisation for the lead characters. Gillian Anderson's portrayal of Scully trying to help Mulder whilst simultaneously questioning his motives is characteristically excellent, but for the first episode to truly focus on Mulder and his search it's really Duchovny's performance that's the most important, and here he unfortunately fails to deliver. Perhaps this episode came too early in the season, before he'd properly gotten to grips with the character, as he does much better in later episodes.

As a standalone story, there are also problems, with my never being particularly invested in the case or its mysteries (like how a young boy can pick up top secret binary code in a television showing only static).

(6/10 - not a bad episode, by any means, but the first one that is less than great)

The Jersey Devil (Season 1, Episode 5)

Written by Chris Carter; Directed by Joe Napolitano

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully

Wayne Tippit as Detective Thompson

Michael MacRae as Peter Boulle

Gregory Sierra as Dr. Diamond

Claire Stansfield as The Jersey Devi

Jill Teed as Glenna

Tamsin Kelsey as Ellen

Andrew Airlie as Rob

Bill Dow as Dad

Hrothgar Matthews as Jack

Jayme Knox as Mom

For some reason, I always remember this episode coming later in the season. It came as a shock to me reading the episode list to find that it was only the second monster-of-the-week episode. Unfortunately, The Jersey Devil doesn't provide any of the surprises or quality of Tooms.

The general idea is one that The X-Files would return to multiple times throughout its life - take a "real life" urban legend, and reimagine it into the show's timeline. In this case, the titular Jersey Devil is a genetic throwback to the neanderthal era that lives in the woods of New Jersey. Or rather, she's one of a family of genetic throwbacks who is attacking people to protect her young after the death of the male in the family.

Strangely, the New Jersey police department seem to want to keep the whole thing hushed up, and go to extreme lengths to cover it up in order to "keep tourists in the casinos" - a rather unconvincing explanation for some very unconvincing actions by some of the supporting cast. It's probably things like this that cause the episode (though interesting to begin with, with the case officially being considered cannibalism) to go downhill after the first 20 minutes or so. It's never particularly bad, but by the end, I don't particularly care about what happens to the "Devil", either.

(6/10 - an interesting idea which loses steam too quickly)

Shadows (Season 1, Episode 6)

Written by Glen Morgan & James Wong; Directed by Michael Lange

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully

Barry Primus as Robert Dorlund

Lisa Waltz as Lauren Kyte

Lorena Gale as Ellen Bledsoe

Veena Sood as Miss Saunders

Deryl Hayes as Mr. Webster

Janie-Woods Morris as Miss Lange

Nora McLellan as Jane Morris

Anna Ferguson as Miss Winn

In this episode, people who intend to harm a young secretary at a technology company (Lauren Kyte) have a nasty habit of ending up dead in mysterious circumstances. When a pair of terrorists find themselves with their throats crushed from the inside, Mulder and Scully are called in by a mysterious government agency to assist with the investigation.

What they uncover is that Kyte's boss - Robert Dorlund - is an unscrupulous bastard who may be responsible for the apparent suicide of his business partner, Howard Graves. And that Graves is now a poltergeist dedicated to protecting Lauren.

So far, my opinion on these episodes has generally been in line with public consensus, but here it takes a bit of a turn, as I found this to be a particularly strong episode, mixing up a traditional ghost tale with corporate corruption. It's not one of my favourite episodes, but it's definitely an improvement on the two that came before.

(8/10 - a combination of a traditional ghost/poltergeist story with corporate corruption makes for a compelling episode)

Ghost In The Machine (Season 1, Episode 7)

Written by Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon; Directed by Jerrold Freeman

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully

Jerry Hardin as Deep Throat

Rob LaBelle as Brad Wilczek

Wayne Duvall as Jerry Lamanda

Blu Mankuma as Claude Peterson

Tom Butler as Benjamin Drake

Gillian Barber as Nancy Spiller

Theodore Thomas as Clyde

A down-on-his-luck friend of Mulder's in the FBI requests Mulder and Scully's assistance in a case relating to the murder of the CEO of a computing company. What follows is - basically - the worst 45 minutes that The X-Files ever gave us.

Even at a time when not many people knew how computers worked, the episode - in which a computer used to control an entire building gains sentience and starts killing people it perceives as a threat - was an insult to anyone's intelligence.

There's no way I could care about any of the guest stars in this episode as none of the characters are remotely believable, the performances are even worse, and every time you're reminded of what the plot is about you're left with a feeling of, "Really? Even for a show like The X-Files this is pushing it!"

I suppose the best thing I can say about this episode is that - as far as I recall, and I'll be severely depressed if I am proved wrong - the show never got this bad ever again. Even in Season 9.

(1/10 - insultingly bad)

Ice (Season 1, Episode 8)

Written by Glen Morgan & James Wong; Directed by David Nutter

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully

Xander Berkeley as Dr. Hodge

Felicity Huffman as Dr. Nancy Da Silva

Steve Hytner as Dr. Denny Murphy

Jeff Kober as Bear

Ken Kirzinger as Mr. Richter

Sonny Surowiec as Mr. Campbell

This is much better. Thank you, everyone involved for following one of the worst episodes of the show with one of its best.

Mulder and Scully travel to the ice core project in Alaska to investigate why communication has been lost with one of its teams. Together with helicopter pilot, Bear and two scientists - who would later become 24's George Mason and Desperate Housewives' Lynette Scavo - they find that the entire team have been murdered each other or killed themselves.

It doesn't take long before an angry dog attacks, with examinations revealing that a parasite has infected it causing extreme aggression.

Taking place mostly on one set, this episode is a brilliantly claustrophobic episode, with the minimal cast becoming increasingly paranoid and aggressive towards each other when they realise that any one of them could be infected. It definitely owes more than a little to The Thing, but it remains a high point for Season 1.

The way I see it, by the end of this episode, Mulder and Scully have formed a bond of trust that would only become stronger as the show went on. It was kind of a trial by fire for their partnership, which they managed to pass. After this episode, they definitely seem more at ease with each other.

(9/10 - The X-Files back on top form with this claustrophobic and paranoid ode to The Thing)

Space (Season 1, Episode 9)

Written by Chris Carter; Directed by William Graham

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully

Ed Lauter as Marcus Aurelius Belt

Susanna Thompson as Michelle Generoo

As great as Ice is, it's made to look even better by the fact that it's bookended by two absolutely terrible episodes. Space doesn't trudge the depths of quality quite as much as Ghost In The Machine did, but it does get fairly close.

A NASA mission to Mars is haunted by something that seems to have some connection to the Face On Mars - otherwise known as just a random rock formation that happens to look a bit like a face from above. It's made clear exactly what it is, or why it wants to sabotage NASA's mission, or... anything, really.

I've praised the fact that some episodes leave the agents just as in the dark as they started, but there's no excuse for never actually giving a point to what is going on. And that's the mistake they made. We're never given even an idea of what is happening, and as a result we don't actually care about it.

(3/10 - not quite as bad as Ghost In The Machine, but still one of the worst episodes the show would ever produce)

The X-Files re-viewing project

The X-Files is among my favourite TV shows of all time. If it wasn't for the fact the final season was a huge disappointment, it would have never been usurped by Lost. I strongly believe that almost none of the shows that everyone knows and loves today would have existed if it wasn't for The X-Files providing inspiration, or - in the case of Breaking Bad at least - the launching pad for the careers of people who went on to create their own shows.

Last month, the show celebrated its 20th birthday, which is why I've decided to rewatch the entire show from the beginning and provide a commentary on here as I do so with reviews of each episode viewed through the hindsight of 20 years. If you've managed to go this long without watching this show, firstly, I invite you track it down and watch along with me. And secondly, if you are for some reason unable to do that, and wish to watch it in the future, there will definitely be some major spoilers, especially when it comes to the episodes that explore the shows "mythology" involving alien visitations and a shadowy government conspiracy to cover up their existence.

Pilot (Season 1, Episode 1)

Written by Chris Carter; Directed by Robert Mandel

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully

William B. Davis as Cigarette Smoking Man

Charles Cioffi as Scott Blevins

Zachary Ansley as Billy Miles

Sarah Koskoff as Theresa Nemman

Cliff DeYoung as Dr. Jay Nemman

Leon Russom as Detective Miles

Stephen E. Miller as Coroner John Truitt

Jim Jansen as Dr. Heitz Werber

Malcolm Stewart as Dr. Glass

Richard Rielle as Shaw

Katya Gardener as Peggy O'Dell

Nobody knew what they were letting themselves in for when they signed up to appear in this pilot episode for a new science fiction TV show influenced by the likes of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Prime Suspect and Silence Of The Lambs. Gillian Anderson in particular has gone on record as saying she expected that at most it would run for around 12 episodes and boost her profile enough for her to move onto something bigger straight after.

It turned out however, that The X-Files would grow into a cultural phenomenon and the longest running science fiction show in US TV history (until Stargate SG1 and Smallville broke that record at least). And here's where it all started.

Young and promising FBI Agent Dana Scully is given the task of assisting a rogue agent who has become obsessed with so-called X-Files (cases classified as unexplainable and consigned to the FBI's basement where they had been mostly forgotten), and debunking his theories using her knowledge as a scientist and medical doctor.

Fox Mulder was one of the FBI's most promising young agents himself before discovering the X-Files, but now he's gotten a reputation as a paranoid madman, whose singular focus is causing him to waste his obvious brilliance.

The new partners' first case sees them travelling to Bellefleur, Oregon to investigate a series of mysterious deaths of people who were all part of the same graduating class which Mulder is convinced is linked to alien abduction.

It's strange, but when people talk about The X-Files, they always talk about the mythology starting early into the second season, but right from the off you have Mulder talking about how he's been trying to access certain documents that keep on being blocked by people within the government and confessing to Scully that his sister disappeared under mysterious circumstances when she was 8 years old, both of which are major elements of the mythology.

There's also the issue of the Cigarette Smoking Man, debuting here in an unspeaking part in a number of scenes where he leans on things and smokes ominously during meetings. It's always talked about how he was never intended as anything other than an extra, but if he didn't become a major character, it would have been a crime. Sure, he didn't have any lines until Season 2, but he was still a huge part of this episode - especially that final scene which confirms right from the off that the government are hiding something, and the Smoking Man is definitely a big part of it. Things went into a lot more detail later on, obviously, but the groundwork was definitely beginning to be laid right from the beginning.

Now, 20 years on, it's amazing how well the story holds up, Duchovny and Anderson's chemistry with each other leaves you interested right from the start, and eager to learn more about these characters. The deep friendship that would later develop has yet to form, as Mulder is still extremely mistrustful of Scully who he assumes has been sent to spy on him. This being the first episode of a strange new TV show from an untested creator and two unknown leads, it's no surprise that the production values don't hold up as well today as episodes in later seasons, and sometimes it's shocking just how old it looks, but when the rest of the package is this good a few shoddy effects doesn't matter much.

(8/10 - A strong opening episode)

Deep Throat (Season 1, Episode 2)

Written by Chris Carter; Directed by Daniel Sackheim

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully

Jerry Hardin as Deep Throat

Andrew Johnston as Colonel Robert Budahas

Gabrielle Rose as Anita Budahas

Michael Bryan French as Paul Mossinger

Seth Green as Emil

Lalainia Lindbjerg as Zoe

Vince Metcalfe as Colonel Kissell

Monica Parker as Ladonna

Sheila Moore as Verla McLennan

Mulder and Scully's second case brings them to Idaho to investigate the disappearance of a group of military test pilots at an air force base in which experimental new aircraft are being tested. During their investigation, they are subjected to intimidation from the military, but an undeterred Mulder trespasses on the air force base and is witness to a strange flying object before being kidnapped and having his memory of the event erased.

The overall conspiracy plot thickens a little in this episode, with the introduction of Deep Throat - the first in a series of shadowy informants within the government who intermittently provide Mulder with information or cryptic clues to decipher. His role in this story is not only to do that, but to provide Mulder with the hope he needs to carry on his search with the line, "Mr. Mulder, they've been here for a long, long time".

Another great addition to The X-Files is the idea that not every case will be solved. In a lot of instances, the episode would end with the agents not actually knowing anything more than when they first arrived. It makes a refreshing change for a show to not tie up all the loose ends in a plot, and it's really quite realistic considering the cases which they are investigating.

As well as the advances to the main plot, this episode features a very welcome guest appearance from Seth Green, years before he found fame as Oz in Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

(8/10 - Continues the story in strong fashion, introduces more elements that would become vital to the show as it progressed, and is a strong episode in its own right)

Squeeze (Season 1, Episode 3)

Written by Glen Morgan and James Wong; Directed by Harry Longstreet

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully

Doug Hutchison as Eugene Victor Tooms

Henry Beckman as Frank Briggs

Kevin McNulty as Agent Fuller

Terence Kelly as George Usher

James Bell as Mr. Johnson

Gary Hetherington as Mr. Kennedy

Rob Morton as Mr. Kramer

Paul Joyce as Mr. Werner

After the last two episodes, the shows writers decided in their wisdom that if the show dealt exclusively with its alien and government conspiracy storyline, it was going to run out of steam very quickly. This decision led to what would become the main bulk of the show - the so-called "monster-of-the-week" episodes which would focus on different creatures or paranormal and supernatural phenomena every week. Sometimes certain characters or creatures would make a return episode, but for the most part these were all standalone stories, with intermittent episodes that furthered the shows overarching plot.

And what a way to introduce the concept of Monster-Of-The-Week episodes to The X-Files. An old friend of Scully's from the academy requests her help in solving the case of a series of murders in which livers have been removed and there appears to be no point of entry to the murder scene. It isn't long before Scully - who has become known as Mrs. Spooky among her fellow agents thanks to her work on The X-Files - and Mulder are uncovering strange elongated fingerprints, and records of similar cases (and identical prints) that date back to murders from 1963, 1933 and 1903.

As the show's first horror episode, it works incredibly well and really began to show the range of cases that were possible thanks to the nature of the show's titular X-Files. It also introduced the world to the genuinely creepy Eugene Victor Tooms (played by the creepy for other reasons lately Doug Hutchison) - a mutant with green eyes and the ability to contort his body in order to fit through extremely tight spaces, though amusingly he can't use this ability to get out of a pair of handcuffs.

(9/10 - The scope of the show expands beyond the realm of aliens and government conspiracies in spectacular style. An early classic episode with a genuinely creepy villain. The best episode of the show so far at this point)