Writer's Block: The X-Files Birthday (or, thank the gods he's not writing about politics again)

[triadruid]

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I was, as you might imagine, a huge X-Files fan back in the day (geeky teenager/college student without much of a social life, plus a seriously geeky/creepy Friday night show? Sign me up!) I still am, though it's tempered to the point where I haven't seen the second film yet. I think I missed a half-dozen episodes overall, mostly in the last two forgettable seasons.

Favorite episode? Nearly impossible to narrow it down that much, but "Ice" from the first season was a big favorite even in repeat viewings, and "One Breath" from Season Two. Oh, hell, let's just do 9 of them:

1. "Ice" - When an Arctic research team mysteriously kill each other and themselves only days after drilling deeper into the ice than ever before, Mulder and Scully accompany a team of doctors and scientists to investigate. They discover an organism which infects living creatures and amplifies the host's feeling of anger and paranoia, and the new team starts to deteriorate as they wonder who among them are killers.


2. "One Breath" - Scully's reappearance from her abduction, Mulder nearly becoming that which he fights against, and Daddy!Scully's ghost. What's not to love?.


3. "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" - Also known as the 'What do you know about autoerotic asphyxiation?' episode, this Emmy-winner is excellently paced and hilarious, with the help of the inimitable Peter Boyle.


4. "Gethsemane" - Much like Season Two's "let's kill Mulder off!", except this time you almost believe they did it. Also advances the plotline of the mytharc considerably...


5. "The Pine Bluff Variant" - A strong entry in the 'Can they trust each other?' themed episodes, and this one does an excellent job of keeping everything self-contained in the episode. Plus, Mulder committing a bank robbery?


6. "Monday" - The world is trapped in a time loop, and only one woman seems to know. A bank robbery is committed over and over again until Mulder and Scully can make it go right.


7. "The Sixth Extinction/The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati" - Okay, it's cheating a bit, but this was really part of a four-part arc that ended Season Six and rang in Season Seven with a bang. The imagery of the large alien ship from this sequence, and Mulder's mental trauma, stays with me to this day.


8. "This is Not Happening" - Well paced, and Mulder really is finally, really, dead. Sort of.


9. "The Truth (I and II)" - Final episode; 'nuff said.

Favorite of all of those? Probably "The Sixth Extinction"...

Comments

[duriyah.livejournal.com]

"Ice" was the first episode I ever saw, and remains a favorite, partly for that reason, and partly because it is such a classic example of the "monster of the week" structure.

"Monday" is one of my all-time favs as well. I'm a sucker for a time loop plot. Plus the woman's escalating desperation really gets me. And Mulder has some really funny bits as well.

Clyde Bruckman's is probably my favorite, if I had to name one. Peter Boyle's acting is supurb. Plus, we learn that Skully doesn't die!

I still haven't seen "I Want To Believe", sad to say.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Clyde Bruckman is one episode that's almost too depressing for me to watch. That puts it in a small group with films such as Falling Down and Children of Men. Very good story, one of the best. Just hard to watch.

One I can't believe I left off the list was the one where Brad Douriff played an incarcerated serial killer with a psychic link to another killer.

The time loop episode was awesome too, although it was bested when Xena did a similarly-themed episode a few years later.