The X-files

[trekgeezer]

My son gave me the complete series plus the first movie last Christmas and I've just started watching it over the last few weeks.

Something I didn't notice back while the series was broadcast and have now taken note of,  is how much of a punching bag Sculley is during the first couple of seasons.

She gets thrown around the room by an evil spirits, pummeled by a werewolf, almost gets her liver eaten while bathing,is abducted by aliens,  and gets thrown down the stairs countless times.

She's almost like Tonto on The Lone Ranger.  The Ranger sends him to town to spy on the bad guys and poor Tonto inevitably gets hit on the head with a gun.

Same with Sculley, Mulder says "Go back to the house of the possessed kid, I have to run back to Washington to get something". The end result, she gets bashed with chairs, levitated, dropped through a coffee table, and bounced off the corners of the room like billiard ball.

Thank goodness for stunt doubles!

  

[Doggett]

Agent Doggett took on those monsters like man !
He was no punching bag.

I have a man crush on Doggett. I luv that guy ! 

[Torgo]

Never forget how made of a crush I had on Gillian Anderson back when this show started.

[trekgeezer]

I finally finished all 9 seasons and got to see the series finale (I was impressed, it was a better movie than Fight the Future was).

[Silverlady]

I loved the X-FILES from the get go.   I also remember that in the first few seasons Scully did not exactly dress for success. I think I remember an episode where she was wearing a tacky raincoat and if I'm not mistaken, I think she wore her hair in a ponytail.

[AndyC]

I definitely liked X-Files best at the beginning. It took "freak of the week" to a whole new level. Tooms, the Fluke Man, the little green bugs - fantastic. My friends and I would often watch it together to sort of kick off our Friday night. Scully was better then too - more of a natural beauty. We all had the hots for her.

I liked the show a lot less when the story arc began to take over and the characters got more developed and it was the same conspiracies every week instead of different monsters and adventures. And it got to be too much of a soap opera, with all of the "when will they get together?" crap. I agree that the show improved greatly with the addition of Doggett. We don't see nearly enough of Robert Patrick.

The other underrated actor from X-Files is Mitch Pileggi. Skinner was a great character, and actually one of the better things about the show when Mulder and Scully started to wear thin for me. Skinner kicked ass. It was good to see Pileggi turn up on Criminal Minds as a beaten-down family man turned serial killer. Always a memorable performance, even as Horace Pinker.

So, what are everybody's favourite X-Files episodes? I already mentioned some of mine - Tooms, the fluke man and the little green bugs. I also loved the episode with the circus freaks. That one had some great lines: "Oh, must have been some other bald-headed, jigsaw-puzzle-tattooed naked guy."

[Trevor]

Among my favourite episodes, I count Grotesque, Pusher and Jose Chung's From Outer Space. I must also be one of the few people who liked Teso Dos Bichos.

My least favourite episode is Beyond The Sea.

[Jack]

I liked the earlier seasons better as well.  It's like a lot of shows - in the beginning everything is new and they're free to do anything.  After a season or two the writers have grown attached to the characters, so they can't have anything bad happen to them, unless it's a season finale of course. 

[WilliamWeird1313]

I definitely liked X-Files best at the beginning. It took "freak of the week" to a whole new level. Tooms, the Fluke Man, the little green bugs - fantastic. My friends and I would often watch it together to sort of kick off our Friday night. Scully was better then too - more of a natural beauty. We all had the hots for her.

I liked the show a lot less when the story arc began to take over and the characters got more developed and it was the same conspiracies every week instead of different monsters and adventures. And it got to be too much of a soap opera, with all of the "when will they get together?" crap.

I always felt much the same way. Normally, I think, a show gets stronger when it has a tight, overarching story arc, like with Angel or the Fire/Water season of Lexx. But X-Files I think worked much better in the "each episode is a single self-contained story" style. Not only was the "big" conspiracy theory "behind it all" way too elaborate and, in my opinion, grasping it straws, but I think felt way too self-important as well.

As far as favorite episodes go, I still hold a real soft spot for the first episode I ever watched all the way through, actually, the one where the little fat redheaded pizza delivery kid turns out to be a vampire who suffers from OCD. Anybody remember that one?

I also reeeeeeally really liked one of the later episodes, The Gift from Season 8, about the creature that eats people's diseases. I dunno if anybody remembers that one either.

[AndyC]

the little fat redheaded pizza delivery kid turns out to be a vampire who suffers from OCD.

That reminded me of the "fat little white Nazi stormtrooper" who turned out to be a propane tank in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose." That was a good episode, with Peter Boyle as a psychic.

One I similarly enjoyed was "Tithonus" with Geoffrey Lewis as a crime scene photographer with a knack for finding out about murders before anyone else.

I think in both cases, it's the combination of interesting plot, well-written character and veteran character actor that worked so well for me. Well written and well performed.

[Nightowl]

I've always said that The X-files is easily one of the best shows of the 90's. It had some of scariest monsters not only on tv, but in movies too.



Shame they dont repeat this show enough.

[Mofo Rising]

I've been rewatching the shows, just started on season four. My memory of the show is way better than the actual show.

The main thing that gets me is what an anti-science show it really is. I don't mean that the show simply gets science wrong, but that in almost every episode Mulder loudly proclaims that Scully, the science punching bag, gets it wrong. "There's no way your science can explain this!" And she can't, because that's the show.

The central conceit of the show is that there are things going on in the world that science can't explain. Mostly monsters. But Chris Carter doesn't understand science. Science is not a dogma, it's a continually contested free-for-all. If the anomalies that show up in every episode of the X-Files existed, scientists would not be hushing them up, they'd be chasing them down in a grant-worshiping battle royale.

"The whole world is wild at heart, and weird on top."

I do like the show though. I think it breathed some fresh air into television in the '90s. It's just unfortunate that in their fervor to reject the "scientific dogma" they promoted every half-ass pseudo-science idea that has ever existed.

[Swamp Thing]

Such a great show. Love the monster-of-the-week episodes. There is a great one from season 9 called Lord of the Flies. I don't watch the conspiracy episodes just the monster type ones. I have all the series on DVD.

[vukxfiles]

Such a great show. Love the monster-of-the-week episodes. There is a great one from season 9 called Lord of the Flies. I don't watch the conspiracy episodes just the monster type ones. I have all the series on DVD.

I was like you when I started watching. Now, I like the mythology as much as the stand-alone episodes. Once you become a fanatic of it, you pay more attention to the main storyline, because you don't watch the series for fun anymore, but for information and love of the series.

If you want to talk with more philes, visit the forum in my signature.

[BTM]

I've been rewatching the shows, just started on season four. My memory of the show is way better than the actual show.

The main thing that gets me is what an anti-science show it really is.

It's odd you should say that cause I remember reading the book The Real Science Behind The X-Files (a good read, BTW) the authoress (a biologist who served as the show's science consultant) addressed that same point.  She said to her the show was very PRO science because it was one of the few shows that consistently showed scientific methods and procedures being used correctly.  For starters, they show the correct type of microscopes being used for specific types of test (rather than just pulling out ANY microscope like most shows of the time would do), and details on various tests one would perform on an unidentified substance before one could declare it to be of extra-terrestrial origin.  And so on.  

She conceded that yes, more often than not, Scully is wrong in many of her attempts to scientifically explain certain events, but let's face it, if she'd been right week after week, the show wouldn't be very popular.

Anyway, like I said, it's a neat book, you might want to check it out. http://www.amazon.com/Real-Science-Behind-X-Files-Meteorites/dp/0684856182/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280911784&sr=8-1