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Very
few American genre shows have ever got past their seventh
season. Seven seems to be the magic number, the point at which
studios such as Paramount decide that a series' number is
up, as with three recent incarnations of Star Trek.
But Fox decided that it was OK for The X-Files to exceed
that figure, although David Duchovny begged to differ and
jumped ship as a regular cast member at the end of this season.
Rather
like the situation that faced J.M. Straczynski during the
production of Babylon 5's fourth season, creator/producer
Chris Carter wasn't sure whether or not there was going to
be an eighth season. However, unlike the case with B5,
this predicament worked to the show's benefit, because it
forced Carter and co to reach some conclusions and bring a
degree of closure to certain plotlines that had been simmering
on the back burner and confusing the heck out of viewers for
several years. The most obvious example of this is when Mulder's
quest to find his sister Samantha is finally concluded in
the two-part Sein Und Zeit/Closure. Following the decimation
of the Syndicate the previous year, which left only the Cigarette
Smoking Man (William B. Davis), Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea),
Diana Fowley (Mimi Rogers) and Marita Covarrubias (Laurie
Holden) active, "mythology" episodes such as The Sixth
Extinction, En Ami and Requiem are driven
in new (and sometimes interesting) directions. Closure is
also offered to fans of The X-Files's ill-fated sister
series, Millennium, in the crossover episode of the
same name, in which Mulder and Scully meet Frank Black (Lance
Henriksen).
The
one-off, "monster of the week" episodes continue to gravitate
towards the comical, quirky and/or experimental, but for the
most part they work well. The best comedy episodes are The
Goldberg Variation (in which a pathetic little man's gift
of good fortune spells disaster for everyone around him),
The Amazing Maleeni (guest-starring magician Ricky
Jay in a tale of feuding conjurors) and Je Souhaite (a
deadpan comedy about a genie held at the mercy of trailer-trash
masters who can't think up a decent wish). On the other hand,
Fight Club is far too silly and over-the-top for its
own good. Lots of fans seem to like Hollywood A.D.,
written and directed by David Duchovny, in which Tea Leoni
(Mrs Duchovny) and Garry Shandling are brilliantly cast as
Scully and Mulder in a dreadful movie version of one of their
cases, but I find conclusion incomprehensible and just plain
daft. Still, it's an improvement on Duchovny's previous effort,
The Unnatural in Season Six.
The
more experimental episodes include X-Cops, All Things
and First Person Shooter. X-Cops is a brilliantly
staged and filmed pastiche of the US reality show Cops.
All Things, written and directed by Gillian Anderson,
is a triumph of style over substance, but it does set a precedent
for the more open-minded Scully of Season Eight. For me,
First Person Shooter is the opposite of Hollywood A.D.
- lots of fans seem to hate it, but I quite like the unusual
subject matter (for The X-Files anyway) of a killer
computer game, though admittedly my opinion might have been
swayed by the scantily clad virtual babe (Krista Allen)!
Just as Season Six was less uneven in quality than the year
before, so the seventh season thankfully continues the trend
towards returning a consistent level of quality to The
X-Files. There are very few true duds in this season,
although one of them is the impenetrable En Ami, written
by CSM himself, William B. Davis. Sein Und Zeit/Closure
is also something of a disappointment - after a promising
beginning and many moving scenes, this two-parter fails to
take into account all the previous episodes concerning the
fate of Samantha. However, one good thing that Closure
(and All Things) did was to introduce me to the wonderful
music of Moby! The opening two-parter The Sixth Extinction
is also rather dreary, as is all too often the case with The
X-Files.
The
season finale, Requiem, fares rather better, rewarding
long-term fans with a return to the scene of Mulder and Scully's
very first case, to resolve some questions and raise a whole
lot more. Among the stand-alone episodes, Hungry, Rush,
Signs & Wonders, Theef and Brand X all
recall the series' creepy, blackly humorous early days, while
Orison sees the welcome return of the twisted Donnie
Pfaster (Nick Chinlund) from Season Two's Irresistible.
The
customary special features are present and correct, including
a Truth About documentary, promotional TV spots, 13
special effects clips and 10 deleted scenes, which can be
"branched" into the relevant episodes or played with an optional
audio commentary. There are also full commentaries for the
episodes First Person Shooter (by Chris Carter),
All Things (by Gillian Anderson) and Je Souhaite
(by Vince Gilligan). Curiously, none of the ten minutes or
so of material that Anderson recalls being cut from All
Things are included among the deleted scenes.
Now
reissued at a remarkably low price, this collection is well
worth adding to your, um, collection.
Richard
McGinlay
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