The X-Files was an American sci-fi TV show that ran from 1993 to 2002. It was about FBI agents Fox Mulder (played by David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who were assigned to The X-Files, the strange/unexplained crime cases. When the series started, Scully was brought in to keep an eye on Mulder because his "out there" theories and off beat ways of doing things made the government nervous. However, although she remained a sceptic, Scully became a bit more open minded as time went on and she and Mulder developed a close relationship. There were also two films, The X-Files (1998) and The X-Files: I Want To Believe (2008).
The X-Files was essentially all about government conspiracies and aliens, along with the running storyline of what happened to Mulder's sister Samantha. She disappeared when Mulder was 12 and he believed her to have been abducted by aliens. This affected him all his life and contributed to his beliefs and work. Although I watched the series as a whole (and have been watching repeats recently), some of my favourite episodes are those known as "Monster of the week", which weren't to do with the main mythology of the show and were generally stand alone paranormal episodes. The subjects included monsters, vampires, genetic mutants and other strange creatures. A couple of characters did reoccur in later episodes.
My favourite series (or seasons) were the first few, especially 1 and 2 (1993-95) and a couple of my favourite episodes are in the 5th series (1997-98). I did like some episodes with the newer agents Dogget and Reyes in but much preferred Mulder and Scully. :)
Here is my list of Top 10 episodes! Contains spoilers. :)
Update 7/6/14: They've taken a lot of these videos off. I don't know why, they were mostly trailers. :( I understand that they're copyrighted but you can't really do much with a 22 second trailer! There's no point downloading it. Anyway, I've replaced them where I can. :)
1. The Host (Season/Series 2, Episode 2)
A crew member aboard a Russian boat just off New Jersey is pulled into the sewage system while fixing the toilets. His body is later found in the city of Newark and something appears to have been eating it. Not long after, a worker in the Newark sewers is also attacked and pulled underwater. He survives and appears fine apart from a wound on his back but he just can't get a funny taste out of his mouth...
Meanwhile, Scully has found a flukeworm while doing an autopsy on the Russian crewman. He also had a wound on his back and she comes to the conclusion that something down in the sewers is trying to find a host for its babies. This doesn't bode well for the sewage worker and he ends up dying after a worm leaves his body. Mulder and Scully come to realise that they are dealing with a human/worm hybrid creature. The police manage to arrest it but it's hardly going to behave like a normal prisoner!
This is my favourite episode. The worm/human creature is whacko and I love the way the police arrest it and keep it in a cell, like they think they're going to be able to interrogate it or something! lol.
2. Humbug (Season/Series 2, Episode 20)
Mulder and Scully investigate some killings in a town made up of ex-circus/sideshow performers. The latest victim is Jerald Glazebrook (played by John Payne), nicknamed The Alligator Man, because of his burn scars. The duo stay in the town to begin their investigations and meet the residents, who include Mr. Nutt, the manager of the trailer park they're staying in (played by Michael J. Anderson who has a genetic disease called Ostegensis imperfecta or brittle bone disease), the Conundrum who is tattooed all over with puzzle pieces and can eat anything (played by real life sideshow performer The Enigma), Dr. Blockhead (Jim Rose) who is a "human blockhead" and Lanny (Vincent Schiavelli) and his conjoined twin Leonard.
This is another mad one! lol. The killer turns out to be Leonard, who is looking for a new host because Lanny is dying. He burrows inside people but ends up killing them because they can't take him living inside their bodies.
3. Detour (Season/Series 5, Episode 4)
While on their way to a team building seminar in Florida with two other agents, Mulder and Scully are stopped at a roadblock and come across a crime scene. A man and his son discovered a bloody jacket while out hunting in the woods with their dog. Louis, the son was ordered home by his dad and he claims he heard a shot being fired. Nothing is found at the crime scene but something follows Louis home and attempts to get him. He manages to escape and when Mulder hears about what happened, he begins to suspect that they are dealing with something other than a human.
Along with local policewoman Officer Michele Fazekas (Colleen Flynn) and technician Jeff Glazer (Anthony Rapp), Scully and Mulder spend the night out in the woods to investigate. It soon becomes clear that there is more than one creature out there with them and they are intelligent.
Detour is an interesting episode because of the idea of an ancient people who have adapted to their environment and are able to blend into their surroundings.
4. Squeeze (Season/Series 1, Episode 3)
A businessman is killed in his office by a man who enters through the air vent and rips out his liver. However, it's a mystery to the police as to how the killer got in and out. This is the third recent murder where someone was missing a liver. Scully's old colleague Tom Colton (Donal Logue) who works in the Violent Crimes unit is brought in to investigate and he asks Scully for help. Mulder gets involved in the case and provides a new perspective. He links the case to old murder sprees from 1933 and 1963.
A man called Eugene Victor Tooms (Doug Hutchison) is found in the air vents of the office building and arrested. With no evidence found against him he is released, but Mulder believes he has some kind of genetic mutation that causes him to need to consume livers and also enables him to contort and stretch his body, thereby squeezing into small spaces. He thinks that Tooms has a longer than average lifespan and that since 1903 he has murdered 5 people for their livers, hibernated for 30 years and then emerged to do it again. Naturally everyone else thinks Mulder is mad! lol.
This is an entertaining episode. Tooms is a creepy killer with the elongated arms and yellow eyes, lol.
5. Tooms (Season/Series 1, Episode 21)
Having been captured at the end of Squeeze after an attack on Scully, Eugene Victor Tooms was imprisoned but he's now up for release. Mulder is adamant that Tooms is a dangerous man and should not be released but no one is willing to listen to him. Tooms was unable to fill his 30 year quota and Mulder is certain he will kill again, so resolves to keep a close eye on him.
A good sequel and it provides a resolution to the Tooms case.
6. Home (Season/Series 4, Episode 2)
The body of a deformed newborn baby is buried alive and found by some children in a town called Home in Pennsylvania, leading to Mulder and Scully being put on the case. The Peacock brothers who live near the crime are suspects; they are deformed, reportedly because of years of inbreeding and since the baby also has deformities Scully thinks that one of the Peacocks is the father. Although there appear to be no women living with them, the agents suspect that the brothers have a woman imprisoned in the house.
This is kind of like a Mexican soap opera with monsters thrown in, lol. I've watched documentaries on the Chupacabra, some people think it's a kind of vampiric alien!
8. Bad Blood (Season/Series 5, Episode 11)
This episode is slightly different- it starts with Mulder staking pizza delivery boy Ronnie Strickland (Patrick Renna) who he says is a vampire. We then get to see his and Scully's versions of the events that led to Ronnie's death as they go over them, before being called in by their supervisor Skinner (Mitch Pileggi)
Both Scully and Mulder are in agreement on the basic facts of the case- they went to Cheney, Texas to investigate a murder where the suspect is a vampire and worked with Sheriff Hartwell (played by Luke Wilson). However the sheriff looks and acts differently in each of their versions and Mulder and Scully behave oddly depending on who is telling the story! After doing an autopsy Scully learns that the last meal the victim ate was a pizza, which probably contained a sedative. Unaware of this, Mulder get a pizza craving and finds himself at the mercy of Ronnie!
The thought of your boss preying on you and you being unaware of it is creepy lol. It's also interesting that only some people can see Greg Pincus for what he really is, maybe because their brains are wired slightly differently.
10. Badlaa (Season/Series 8, Episode 10)
An overweight American businessman returns from a trip to India and ends up dead in a hotel in Washington D.C. Scully and Agent John Doggett (Mulder's replacement) are put on the case. When Scully examines the man's body she finds that the businessman has lost a significant amount of weight since he died. His stomach was badly damaged and she suspects that there was something (or someone!) inside his body at one time.
Meanwhile a new janitor (caretaker) has started at Quinton's school in Maryland but Quinton (Jordan Blake Warkol/Jordan Warkol) sees him differently to other people, instead of being an average height white man like he appears, he is actually an Indian man without legs who uses a skateboard/little cart thing as his transportation! The real man is actually a beggar (played by Deep Roy) who was at the same Mumbai airport as the dead businessman. Who is he and since Quinton can see him for who he really is, will he now pursue him? (Of course! lol).
Update 14/8/16: There is now a promo video for Badlaa on YouTube again, so here it is!
Also I've found another clip from the episode. It says it was uploaded in 2013, so maybe it was previously on here then removed for some reason, because last time I checked I couldn't find videos for it anymore. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_NK8LrTd3c
I just found the idea of a legless killer going round on a skateboard and chasing people absolutely mad! lol. Badlaa is another episode where only some people can see someone for who they really are.
So those are my Top 10 episodes. Hope you like the list! :) What are your favourites?
The X-Files was essentially all about government conspiracies and aliens, along with the running storyline of what happened to Mulder's sister Samantha. She disappeared when Mulder was 12 and he believed her to have been abducted by aliens. This affected him all his life and contributed to his beliefs and work. Although I watched the series as a whole (and have been watching repeats recently), some of my favourite episodes are those known as "Monster of the week", which weren't to do with the main mythology of the show and were generally stand alone paranormal episodes. The subjects included monsters, vampires, genetic mutants and other strange creatures. A couple of characters did reoccur in later episodes.
My favourite series (or seasons) were the first few, especially 1 and 2 (1993-95) and a couple of my favourite episodes are in the 5th series (1997-98). I did like some episodes with the newer agents Dogget and Reyes in but much preferred Mulder and Scully. :)
Here is my list of Top 10 episodes! Contains spoilers. :)
Update 7/6/14: They've taken a lot of these videos off. I don't know why, they were mostly trailers. :( I understand that they're copyrighted but you can't really do much with a 22 second trailer! There's no point downloading it. Anyway, I've replaced them where I can. :)
1. The Host (Season/Series 2, Episode 2)
A crew member aboard a Russian boat just off New Jersey is pulled into the sewage system while fixing the toilets. His body is later found in the city of Newark and something appears to have been eating it. Not long after, a worker in the Newark sewers is also attacked and pulled underwater. He survives and appears fine apart from a wound on his back but he just can't get a funny taste out of his mouth...
Meanwhile, Scully has found a flukeworm while doing an autopsy on the Russian crewman. He also had a wound on his back and she comes to the conclusion that something down in the sewers is trying to find a host for its babies. This doesn't bode well for the sewage worker and he ends up dying after a worm leaves his body. Mulder and Scully come to realise that they are dealing with a human/worm hybrid creature. The police manage to arrest it but it's hardly going to behave like a normal prisoner!
This is my favourite episode. The worm/human creature is whacko and I love the way the police arrest it and keep it in a cell, like they think they're going to be able to interrogate it or something! lol.
2. Humbug (Season/Series 2, Episode 20)
Mulder and Scully investigate some killings in a town made up of ex-circus/sideshow performers. The latest victim is Jerald Glazebrook (played by John Payne), nicknamed The Alligator Man, because of his burn scars. The duo stay in the town to begin their investigations and meet the residents, who include Mr. Nutt, the manager of the trailer park they're staying in (played by Michael J. Anderson who has a genetic disease called Ostegensis imperfecta or brittle bone disease), the Conundrum who is tattooed all over with puzzle pieces and can eat anything (played by real life sideshow performer The Enigma), Dr. Blockhead (Jim Rose) who is a "human blockhead" and Lanny (Vincent Schiavelli) and his conjoined twin Leonard.
This is another mad one! lol. The killer turns out to be Leonard, who is looking for a new host because Lanny is dying. He burrows inside people but ends up killing them because they can't take him living inside their bodies.
3. Detour (Season/Series 5, Episode 4)
While on their way to a team building seminar in Florida with two other agents, Mulder and Scully are stopped at a roadblock and come across a crime scene. A man and his son discovered a bloody jacket while out hunting in the woods with their dog. Louis, the son was ordered home by his dad and he claims he heard a shot being fired. Nothing is found at the crime scene but something follows Louis home and attempts to get him. He manages to escape and when Mulder hears about what happened, he begins to suspect that they are dealing with something other than a human.
Along with local policewoman Officer Michele Fazekas (Colleen Flynn) and technician Jeff Glazer (Anthony Rapp), Scully and Mulder spend the night out in the woods to investigate. It soon becomes clear that there is more than one creature out there with them and they are intelligent.
Detour is an interesting episode because of the idea of an ancient people who have adapted to their environment and are able to blend into their surroundings.
4. Squeeze (Season/Series 1, Episode 3)
A businessman is killed in his office by a man who enters through the air vent and rips out his liver. However, it's a mystery to the police as to how the killer got in and out. This is the third recent murder where someone was missing a liver. Scully's old colleague Tom Colton (Donal Logue) who works in the Violent Crimes unit is brought in to investigate and he asks Scully for help. Mulder gets involved in the case and provides a new perspective. He links the case to old murder sprees from 1933 and 1963.
A man called Eugene Victor Tooms (Doug Hutchison) is found in the air vents of the office building and arrested. With no evidence found against him he is released, but Mulder believes he has some kind of genetic mutation that causes him to need to consume livers and also enables him to contort and stretch his body, thereby squeezing into small spaces. He thinks that Tooms has a longer than average lifespan and that since 1903 he has murdered 5 people for their livers, hibernated for 30 years and then emerged to do it again. Naturally everyone else thinks Mulder is mad! lol.
This is an entertaining episode. Tooms is a creepy killer with the elongated arms and yellow eyes, lol.
5. Tooms (Season/Series 1, Episode 21)
Having been captured at the end of Squeeze after an attack on Scully, Eugene Victor Tooms was imprisoned but he's now up for release. Mulder is adamant that Tooms is a dangerous man and should not be released but no one is willing to listen to him. Tooms was unable to fill his 30 year quota and Mulder is certain he will kill again, so resolves to keep a close eye on him.
A good sequel and it provides a resolution to the Tooms case.
6. Home (Season/Series 4, Episode 2)
The body of a deformed newborn baby is buried alive and found by some children in a town called Home in Pennsylvania, leading to Mulder and Scully being put on the case. The Peacock brothers who live near the crime are suspects; they are deformed, reportedly because of years of inbreeding and since the baby also has deformities Scully thinks that one of the Peacocks is the father. Although there appear to be no women living with them, the agents suspect that the brothers have a woman imprisoned in the house.
Clips from Home
Update 26/10/21: Video now gone.
Home is a weird episode!
7. El Mundo Gira (Season/Series 4, Episode 11)
Strange yellow rain falls in a Mexican migrant worker camp in San Joaquin Valley in California and afterwards illegal immigrant Maria Dorantes (Pamela Diaz) is found dead. The other migrants believe that she was killed by El Chupacabra (Goat Sucker in Spanish). Along with immigration agent Conrad Lozano (Ruben Blades), M and S investigate and learn that Maria was involved in a love triangle with her husband Eladio Buente (Raymond Cruz) and his brother Soledad (Jose Yenque). Now Soledad thinks Eladio is the killer. The cause of Maria's death turns out to be a fungal infection and the brothers may be infected. But there is also another theory that one of them is the Chupacabra...
El Mundo Giro trailer
This is kind of like a Mexican soap opera with monsters thrown in, lol. I've watched documentaries on the Chupacabra, some people think it's a kind of vampiric alien!
8. Bad Blood (Season/Series 5, Episode 11)
This episode is slightly different- it starts with Mulder staking pizza delivery boy Ronnie Strickland (Patrick Renna) who he says is a vampire. We then get to see his and Scully's versions of the events that led to Ronnie's death as they go over them, before being called in by their supervisor Skinner (Mitch Pileggi)
Both Scully and Mulder are in agreement on the basic facts of the case- they went to Cheney, Texas to investigate a murder where the suspect is a vampire and worked with Sheriff Hartwell (played by Luke Wilson). However the sheriff looks and acts differently in each of their versions and Mulder and Scully behave oddly depending on who is telling the story! After doing an autopsy Scully learns that the last meal the victim ate was a pizza, which probably contained a sedative. Unaware of this, Mulder get a pizza craving and finds himself at the mercy of Ronnie!
Clips from Bad Blood
Very funny episode, especially the different versions of Sheriff Hartwell!
Update 8/1/16: The video clip of Mulder's version has gone but here's one from Scully's perspective:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFhfsN5hVPM
9. Folie a Deux (Season/Series 5, Episode 19)
Gary Lambert (Brian Markinson) works in the Illinois office of telemarketing company VinylRight and he is not enjoying his job at all. The main reason for his unhappiness is because he believes that his boss Greg Pincus (John Apicella) is actually a giant insect creature! Trouble is, no one but Gary can see Greg's true form.
Mulder and Scully are told to look into an anonymous threat VinylRight has received (sent by Gary) but Mulder ends up going alone, not believing the case is anything to get excited about. It turns out the company also had some trouble at its office in Kansas City. Mulder is caught up in a hostage situation with Gary and at first he disbelieves his claim that Greg Pincus is a monster who is preying on his employees but something happens to make him reconsider.
The thought of your boss preying on you and you being unaware of it is creepy lol. It's also interesting that only some people can see Greg Pincus for what he really is, maybe because their brains are wired slightly differently.
10. Badlaa (Season/Series 8, Episode 10)
An overweight American businessman returns from a trip to India and ends up dead in a hotel in Washington D.C. Scully and Agent John Doggett (Mulder's replacement) are put on the case. When Scully examines the man's body she finds that the businessman has lost a significant amount of weight since he died. His stomach was badly damaged and she suspects that there was something (or someone!) inside his body at one time.
Meanwhile a new janitor (caretaker) has started at Quinton's school in Maryland but Quinton (Jordan Blake Warkol/Jordan Warkol) sees him differently to other people, instead of being an average height white man like he appears, he is actually an Indian man without legs who uses a skateboard/little cart thing as his transportation! The real man is actually a beggar (played by Deep Roy) who was at the same Mumbai airport as the dead businessman. Who is he and since Quinton can see him for who he really is, will he now pursue him? (Of course! lol).
Update 14/8/16: There is now a promo video for Badlaa on YouTube again, so here it is!
Also I've found another clip from the episode. It says it was uploaded in 2013, so maybe it was previously on here then removed for some reason, because last time I checked I couldn't find videos for it anymore. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_NK8LrTd3c
I just found the idea of a legless killer going round on a skateboard and chasing people absolutely mad! lol. Badlaa is another episode where only some people can see someone for who they really are.
So those are my Top 10 episodes. Hope you like the list! :) What are your favourites?
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