| Author | Message | ||
     Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Just for you, Caroline: 1. 'Folie A Deux', Episode 19, Season 5 - parasitic alien monster only one man can see is turning people into zombies, then Mulder sees it too. 2. 'The Calusari', Episode 21, Season 2 - young boy possessed by homicidal demonic entity, homage to 'The Exorcist'. 3. 'Home', Episode 2, Season 4 - inbred family of deformed psychopaths, homage to 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. 4. 'Sanguinarium', Episode 6, Season 4 - demonic black magician at work in plastic surgery clinic. 5. 'The Host', Episode 2, Season 2 - leech-like humanoid monster discovered in the sewers. 6. 'Detour', Episode 4, Season 5 - chameleon-like humanoid mutants lurk in the woods. 7. 'Die Hand Die Verletzt', Episode 14, Season 2 - teenagers experimenting with black magic in small town America unleash demonic evil. 8. 'Squeeze', Episode 3, Season 1 - stretchy elastic-man mutant, Eugene Tooms, feeds on human livers. 9. 'Arcadia', Epsiode 15, Season 6 - Mulder & Scully go undercover as man & wife in "perfect community" shut off from the world that hides a sinister secret. 10. 'Roadrunners', Episode 4, Season 8 - Scully, all on her lonesome sans mobile phone, stumbles upon remote town whose inhabitants feed off human roadkill. Ask me again tomorrow and several of these will have changed lol. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.51 |
I thought Home was a homage to Basket Case rather than TCM... It's also the only episode where the episode title appears on screen in the episede (Unless there was an ep called trust no one) | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Weber, you're thinking of 'Humbug', Episode 20, Season 2. Another of my favourites that could well be in the Top 10 tomorrow. That was the one with the parasitic twin killing all the other carnival freaks - scary, funny and utterly brilliant. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
I think my favourite was the cockroach episode. Just for that one cockroach that seemed to run over the top of the screen... | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Another one of Darin Morgan's black comedy episodes: 'War Of The Coprophages', Episode 12, Season 3. I was a big fan of Morgan's episodes of 'The X Files' & 'Millennium'. His masterpiece was 'Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me', Episode 21, Millennium - Season 2. A four story portmanteau horror homage to those old Amicus pictures that was sheer brilliance imo. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
I thought "The Erhlmier Flask" was the best episode of the lot - for me, that was the single ep. where the show truly came into its own, suddenly blossoming into something more than a monster-of-the-week series. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Ooooo, this is making me want to buy a box set of early X Files and watch them all. Best genre telly in a long time IMO. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
If followed through to the end the alien conspiracy plot arc is undeserving of its much maligned reputation. It actually became quite gripping and was brought to a satisfying conclusion around Season 6 - after 'The X Files Movie' (which I thought was excellent). They did spend far too much time on it, though, and the stand alone horror episodes are when 'The X Files' really shone imo. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
There hasn't been anything to match it since, Caroline. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.116.58.66 |
this is making me want to buy a box set of early X Files and watch them all Same here. Are those boxes readily available? I thought they might have sold out by now. I miss Scully. Even her accent. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
All 9 Seasons are going for a song at the minute, Hubert. Get 'Millennium' as well and watch it alongside Seasons 4, 5 & 6. They tied together perfectly with a satanic horror plot arc, that was more Scully's, interweaving with Mulder's alien conspiracy interests. He was the sceptic when it came to spiritual matters whereas Scully, as a Catholic believer, was more prone to their demonic adversaries. Then Frank Black came along... brilliant stuff!! | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 98.213.185.194 |
1. Jose Chung's From Outer Space (sn.3 ep.20):Difficult to explain but it was a great mix of weird mystery and humor. Getting the point of view of various people where some alien abductions took place. Plus it had Jessie Ventura and Alex Trebeck as Men in Black. 2. Pilot (sn.1 ep. 1):Introduces the characters and has an eerie myster involving dead teenagers. 3. Grotesque (sn. 3 ep. 14): one of the darkest themed tv episodes ever! 4. Humbug (sn.2 ep. 20): Great carnival freek episode. 5. The Host (sn. 2 ep. 2)  n the trail of a sewage creature. 6. Squeeze (sn.1 ep.3):The stretchy guy is creepy! 7. Avatar (sn.3 ep. 21): Skinner haunted by the ghost of a woman in a red coat. 8. Chinga (sn. 5 ep. 10): Cursed Doll episode written by Stephen King 9. Kill Switch (season 5 ep. 11):Cool techno-horror story. 10. Darkness Falls (sn.1 ep. 19): I like the remote cabin in the forest setting. | ||
| Jamie Rosen (Jamie) Username: Jamie Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 99.241.220.139 |
No sweet potato pie? I was never a big X-Files fan, but I enjoyed that one. | ||
| Rosswarren (Rosswarren) Username: Rosswarren Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 86.157.64.135 |
I have the complete box set dvd, wish I had the time to watch through them all again. Off the top of my head, the episode that always stuck in my mind was 'Ice'from season one, an homage to 'The Thing' - Still have that one on the original video release. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
It's no good, I'm off to Amazon ... | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Great list, Matt. 'Darkness Falls' is another of my Top 10 contenders. I don't know if you're aware but Darin Morgan wrote a sequel to 'Jose Chung's From Outer Space', as Episode 9 of Season 2 of Millennium, called 'Jose Chung's Doomsday Defence'. It was a blatant and very funny piss-take of Scientology, with Chung writing an exposé of the shadowy Selfosophy movement. Naturally they were none too pleased and tried to have the episode banned lol. | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 98.213.185.194 |
"Great list, Matt. 'Darkness Falls' is another of my Top 10 contenders. I don't know if you're aware but Darin Morgan wrote a sequel to 'Jose Chung's From Outer Space', as Episode 9 of Season 2 of Millennium, called 'Jose Chung's Doomsday Defence'. It was a blatant and very funny piss-take of Scientology, with Chung writing an exposé of the shadowy Selfosophy movement. Naturally they were none too pleased and tried to have the episode banned lol." I did see that episode of Millenium but didn't know about anyone trying to get it banned. I only saw an episode or two of Millenium. I'm not sure why but for some reason it never caught on with me. BTW, you're top 10 list here is fantastic and I'd say better than mine. I've forgotten most of the latter season's episodes (from around 5 or 6 forward) so most of mine were during the years when I was fanatic about The X-Files. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.178.81.136 |
I bought the first series of the X-Files several years back when it suddenly dropped to a tenner (which is the price of each of the series now, I believe) and started to watch them two nights ago, driven to do so by threads on this board. I've not watched them since they were broadcast - I've watched the firts eight episodes and, although I loved it first time around (although I stopped watching around the start of the sixth series) I'm finding it all a bit so-so. I'll give it until the end of this series but if I don't feel more involved it's going on eBay and I'll not bother buying the others. | ||
| Jamie Rosen (Jamie) Username: Jamie Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 99.241.220.139 |
I think there's a general consensus that it took til late in the first season, or maybe into the second, for the series to grow the beard. But I was never a big fan so I don't have a coherent picture of what episodes occurred when. | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 98.213.185.194 |
It really took off in season 3 for me. Several of the ones from season 1 are rather forgetable. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
For me the show was remarkably assured right from the Pilot and got progressively better, with Seasons 3-5 being the most consistently strong. There was a bit of a dip in quality, largely due to over-familiarity of the Mulder & Scully situations, through Seasons 6 & 7 (which were still better than any other genre show on telly at that time), but I thought it ended on the crest of a resurgence with the introduction of Agents Doggett & Reyes in Seasons 8 & 9. I still contend that 'The X Files' & 'Millennium' are the absolute pinnacle of genre TV over the last 20 years. Nothing else comes close... | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I'd rank them: 3, 5, 4, 2, 1, 8, 9, 6, 7. Just for the record. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.178.81.136 |
Well, I'm over half way through season one now, and it's got much, much better. In fact, I'd go so far as to say "Beyond the Sea", starring the always wonderful Brad Dourif, was one of the best episodes of tv drama I've seen in a long while. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.178.81.136 |
...and yes, Ross, "Ice" was very good too. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
I have many of these episodes on special deluxe edition releases (Polish style). They are expensive for Poland, but they come complete with hardback booklets, gorgeous inlays, wonderful commentaries etc, and remind me why, even now, that the X-Files was far more reactive in reminding people of the quality of genre shows, than any of the current crop. The X-Files deserves its places alongside the original Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, The Prisoner, The Stone Tapes, etc, for sheer story-telling, characterization, and genuine pleasure that we had this little beacon of genre hope flashing away when all else seemed familiar and uneventful. And even though I was in my early twenties when it started, naivety aside, it made me think that for once genre could completely captivate, as it had done when I was a kid seeing the Twilight Zone for the first time. A genuine classic. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I couldn't agree more, Frank. I've now watched the first five episodes of 'Fringe' and it's safe to say I'm hooked. The characters are hugely likeable and I love the way each of them has their own steadily advancing story arc within the overall mystery of The Pattern. The balance between sci-fi/horror thrills, character drama and black humour has been judged to perfection so far with the drip, drip leaking of information in each episode proving irresistible, to quite an addictive degree. The introduction of the weird bald guy, and the way they seem to have a resolution of The Pattern already worked out, makes each individual story doubly gripping - I wonder does The Observer appear somewhere in every episode? I love TV series that show this amount of attention to detail and continuity. Walter Bishop, with his Vincent Price mannerisms, is the main hook but there is so much more to enjoy here as well. I'm going to stick my neck out and say this is quite possibly the best show of its kind since the one it most resembles and my instincts are rarely wrong. It was a nice bonus to see Darin Morgan's name attached to the series, with a production credit. Let's hope he scripts some of the episodes as well! | ||
| Matt_cowan (Matt_cowan) Username: Matt_cowan Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 98.213.185.194 |
"I've now watched the first five episodes of 'Fringe' and it's safe to say I'm hooked. The characters are hugely likeable and I love the way each of them has their own steadily advancing story arc within the overall mystery of The Pattern. The balance between sci-fi/horror thrills, character drama and black humour has been judged to perfection so far with the drip, drip leaking of information in each episode proving irresistible, to quite an addictive degree. The introduction of the weird bald guy, and the way they seem to have a resolution of The Pattern already worked out, makes each individual story doubly gripping - I wonder does The Observer appear somewhere in every episode? I love TV series that show this amount of attention to detail and continuity. Walter Bishop, with his Vincent Price mannerisms, is the main hook but there is so much more to enjoy here as well. Fringe is a great show and it was recently announced to return for its 4th season. The bald guy does appear somewhere in every episode but at times it's nearly impossible to spot him. There are some websites that post the image of him from each one. You learn more about who/what they are later in the series. |