What are your favourite X-Files episodes?

[Xenomorph]

Hi all,

Having recently purchased the complete set I plan to re-watch it all at some point. However for now I just want to watch a few good episodes... in general the X-Files was far and away one of the best shows on TV but which episodes do you think stand out?

I've just rewatched the film... better than I remember.

I'll add my favourites as and when I remember them.

Go :)

P.S. I've seen next to none of the stuff since Doggett ( bar the final episodes and a couple of mythology episodes that were released seperately on video).

[sleep4ever]

My favourite isnt a mythology one

Its the particularly daft one with the housing association, Arcadia

Either that one or the one with the genie

[Elzar]

Bad Blood

Funniest episode ever.

[Space Duck]

CHINGA!!!!

Still scares me to this day... I just found the disc, I want to play it but I'm too scared :cry:

Let's Have Some Fun!

[Professor Abronsius]

Small Potatoes... :clap:

[dunkrag]

Home. Fabulous episode.

[Pudding]

Clyde Bruckman's final repose is proabably my favourite.
Jose Chung's from Outer space is mental and fun.

Evidently I like episodes about things belonging to people :shrug:

[MovieMax]

Home. Fabulous episode.

Yep, have to agree, in my opinion the best ever episode. Followed closely by the 'Groundhog day' episode.

[puddleduck]

Hard to say - its just such a good show, when not banging on about Mulder's sister, or the hokey mythology.

Anyone who likes X-Files should try Supernatural, which is its spiritual successor.

[LouBarlow]

Squeeze/Tooms
Ice
Darkness Falls
Colony/End Game
Humbug

People always mock the mythology/Mulder sister arc, but in the first two series, these were awesome episodes, particularly shows like Anasazi (sp?) and the Ermmellemmmellelellmer (sp?) Flask etc etc

[brendonw]

As some have already said. The earlier episodes, seasons 1-3 that didn't have any of the conspiracy theory.

[Bapapapa]

Soft Light
Small Potatoes
Je Souhaite
Hollywood A.D.
Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man

and all the Doggett ones!! :clap:

Best series ever! I'm gonna watch the whole lot again in the new year!! :D

[Pazman2k]

Kill Switch
Squeeze / Tombs

I also really enjoy the conspiracy episodes.

Just been working my way through the whole lot again, at the end of seaso 5 almost.

[Boink!]

off the top of my head, Squeeze/Tooms - I own this on VHS and laserdisk!

[illusion_81]

'War of the Coprophages' from Season 3!

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

"Ice". First episode I ever saw and it scared the living **** out of me (I was 12).

[LightStorm]

I loved the first season of X, but after that it just started to degenerate into regurgitating its own ideas and the contradictory 'mythology'

So, for me, the best would be from mainly the first season (maybe a few from later on - but just a small few)

After that, the best ones would be where they finally got the message that the show was totally played out and they stopped making them.

[Space Duck]

Totally off topic but do you think they will use the second movie to pass Mulder/Scullys torch on to two newbies and then perhaps revive the series? The whole situation has been buggin me :D

*Hides the Chinga disc under a pile of DVDs*

[pythons]

This thread comes at a great time as I've also recently picked up the complete box set, so I've started watching from the very beginning and I've currently almost finished the second season. Never having watched them all in order, so far I've really enjoyed:

Conduit
Ice (massively reminded me of The Thing)
Fallen Angel
Eve
Colony
End Game

I'm also really looking forward to re-watching X-Cops!

I'll keep an eye on this thread and update as I watch some more. :thumbs:

I'm also curious to know how they are going to work the new film into what's gone before and where it is heading, it just seems to me as though they have missed the boat a little bit.

Also did anyone ever watch The Lone Gunmen series and if so was it worthwhile? I might have to lookout for the DVD if so as I quite fancy watching everything (in order) before the second movie.

Mark

[LouBarlow]

I could only manage 2 episodes of the Lone Gunmen :(

[SIMON ADEBISI]

Home

The one where Skinner and Mr X had an almighty scrap

The exorcism one.

[pythons]

The one where Skinner and Mr X had an almighty scrap

Hehe, it's X-Files, not Friends. ;)

That was End Game, I watched it this morning funnily enough. My money would have been on X though to be honest. :)

Mark

[nwgarratt]

Too many to name all the ones I like but some are -

Ice,
Tooms
Colony
EndGame
Piper Maru
Apocrypha
Jose Chungs
Home
Tempus Fugit
Max
How the Ghosts Stole Christmas
Je Souhaite

[Terribly_Mauled]

I need to rewatch all these from the start to be honest. Great series in need of reappraisal.

But as everyone is pretty much saying, Home stands out.

"Baa Ewe Ram, Baa Ewe Ram!" :notworthy

[SIMON ADEBISI]

Hehe, it's X-Files, not Friends. ;)

:?:

[pythons]

I could only manage 2 episodes of the Lone Gunmen :(

Oh really? I just spotted it on HMV's (http://www.thedvdforums.com/affiliatelink.php?localaffiliateid=10&url=http://www.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;-1;-1;-1&sku=439395) site for £11.99.

I've heard the pilot is well worth a watch with it's 9/11 similarities. :suspect:

Mark

[pythons]

:?:

I was only playing, have a look at the friends episode titles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Friends_episodes). :)

[LouBarlow]

Oh really? I just spotted it on HMV's (http://www.thedvdforums.com/affiliatelink.php?localaffiliateid=10&url=http://www.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;-1;-1;-1&sku=439395) site for £11.99.

I've heard the pilot is well worth a watch with it's 9/11 similarities. :suspect:

Mark

It might just have been me then, but I didn't feel the leads could carry the show. They were great in the X-Files though.

[karellen]

'War of the Coprophages' from Season 3!

Agreed! All episode written by Darin Morgan are works of genius.

[nwgarratt]

It might just have been me then, but I didn't feel the leads could carry the show. They were great in the X-Files though.

The Lone Gunmen was a very funny series and they carried the show very well. I was disappointed that the last episode didn't have a conclusion (ignoring Jump the Shark as it was had nothing to do with the LG series).

[101-A]

CHINGA!!!!

Still scares me to this day... I just found the disc, I want to play it but I'm too scared :cry:

Let's Have Some Fun!

That episode scared the hell out of me as well. I have no intention of watching at again.

[*Lazarus*]

Cant remember the name of the episode...

One of my favourites was from season 2 when they go to the circus. :notworthy


EDIT: title is Humbug.

[TonyG]

'War of the Coprophages' from Season 3!
Absolutely the most entertaining episode of X-Files EVER! :notworthy

[Terribly_Mauled]

"Her name is Bambi??" :D

[nwgarratt]

I also like Hollywood AD for one of the serious episodes.

[TonyG]

"Her name is Bambi??" :D

Mmmmmmmm, the gorgeous Bobbi Phillips of Murder One (and Showgirls) fame. ;)

[Jaime]

Ice
Darkness Falls
War of the Coprophages
Jose Chung’s “From Outer Space”
Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man
Small Potatoes
Kitsunegari (I think - whichever Pusher episode it was that ended with the Russian Roulette)
Chinga
Drive
Triangle
How The Ghosts Stole Christmas
Monday
The Unnatural
X-Cops

Enjoyed most of the mythology stuff upto season six too. Highlights for me were The Erlenmeyer Flask, Colony/Endgame, the Tunguska two parter and Two Fathers/One Son.

[scooby snacks]

Squeeze/Tooms
Ice
Darkness Falls
Colony/End Game
Humbug

People always mock the mythology/Mulder sister arc, but in the first two series, these were awesome episodes, particularly shows like Anasazi (sp?) and the Ermmellemmmellelellmer (sp?) Flask etc etc

Aye, agree with all those. Colony/End Game is probably my favourite, with Erlenmeyer flask and the train ones (cant remember the title but iirc it was the number of the box car carriage) being a very close second. Too many good episodes to choose from tbh.

[pythons]

Cant remember the name of the episode...

One of my favourites was from season 2 when they go to the circus. :notworthy


EDIT: title is Humbug.

I watched it this evening, I had seen it recently on Sky as it turns out. Some very funny bits with some of Mulders dry humour, good episode. :thumbs:

Mark

[Wezzo]

Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, from S3.

[Grego]

Ive no idea what the episode is called but its about some hillbilly type folk who keep their mum under the bed and pull her out for a shag every now and then!

Tis a legend at work and regularly gets used in banter

:notworthy

[Spooky_uk]

that would be Home from season 4 IIRC

[LouBarlow]

Sounds like a regular saturday night in Norwich - where's the sci-fi in that?

[Terribly_Mauled]

See? Everyone remembers Home.
I doubt it would get made in on a US network today. Genius.

[FishBoy]

I like the Tooms ones, 'cos he was such a charismatic character. I also very much like Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, and there's one set in some woods where two golem-like creatures live (it's not Darkness Falls, but I can't remember what it is called).

I have to admit to liking The Post-Modern Prometheus too, even though most people hate it.

[ulkesh]

The one with the backstory of the smoking dude, where he shoots JFK. Done a good job of making the character human.

[MrSpeed]

Tooms immediately springs to mind :thumbs:

[alphatyrant]

"Squeeze" and "Tooms" from Season 1 are great. "Humbug" is a standout from Season 2 (the one set in the Sideshow).

"Clyde Buckman's Final Repose" from S3, that might be due to the excellent Peter Boyle though. "Revelations" from the same Season because it starred the fantastic Michael Berryman.

As mentioned previously "Home" from S4 is the most controversial episode ever produced, I remember before it showed on BBC2 years back, they had a warning announced beforehand that some might find it distressing, plus the only episode to get a Mature Audience rating in the States.

[Spooksta]

Ive put all the ones peeps have mentioned in one post. Great thread.

This will help find them

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_X-Files

Arcadia
Bad Blood
CHINGA
Small Potatoes
Home
Clyde Bruckman's final repose
Jose Chung's from Outer space
Monday (Groundhog day one)
Squeeze/Tooms
Ice
Darkness Falls
Colony/End Game
Humbug
Soft Light
Je Souhaite
Hollywood A.D.
Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man
Kill Switch
The Post-Modern Prometheus
War of the Coprophages
Conduit
Fallen Angel
Eve
Home
Piper Maru
Apocrypha
Tempus Fugit
Max
How the Ghosts Stole Christmas
The Unnatural
X-Cops
Drive
Triangle
John Doe

[toneeb]

It might just have been me then, but I didn't feel the leads could carry the show. They were great in the X-Files though.

Watching the Lone Gunmen at the moment. There are some genuine LOL moments. Really enjoying it.

[Roy]

You lot are making X-Files sound really good, I gave up on it, I can't really remember when, possibly end of series 2 or 3 (?)

The last stuff I remember was the black liquid stuff getting a bloke and trapping him in a cell (or something?) and Scully going missing? I don't remember if I watched it when she came back...

You're making me feel like I should go back to it...

[Spooky_uk]

never a better time for it - especailly with the second movie due in the summer :thumbs:

[101-A]

Have re-watched Home episode. Just looks like a TV version of wrong turn 1 and 2 or similar films.

[alphatyrant]

I bought all the sets when they re-released them, watched S1-4 then forgot about them, when I went back to watch the rest it took me about a month and a half on and off. It did lose it nearer the end but Robert Patrick's still a good actor "John Doe" in the last season was pretty good.

[Spooky_uk]

Have re-watched Home episode. Just looks like a TV version of wrong turn 1 and 2 or similar films.

sigh.

Home was first shown circa 1996, Wrong (Elisha should have got norks out) Turn was released in 2003, you do the maths :p

[101-A]

sigh.

Home was first shown circa 1996, Wrong (Elisha should have got norks out) Turn was released in 2003, you do the maths :p

Hillbilly inbreds existed on the silver screen long before X-files came along. :p

[Spooksta]

Watched Monday and Arcadia last night
Great episodes. I had not seen Monday so was great to see a fresh (good) episode.

[Soprano]

Don't know the epsiode titles....

The one where Mulder and Scully are re-telling a story to Skinner and have very different points of view. CSI dude, Gregg as a law man?

The episode when Mulder fancied the bug lady

And when both Mulder and Scully are stuck on a raft or boat only to find out they are only one foot in water.



My memory is pretty poor when it comes to X-Files...

[danjaq2004]

I re-watched all the whole series on DVD last year, after they were re-released cheap! Nothing can beat X-Files and I know some seasons were not considered as strong as others, particularly the latter ones, but that's the nature of most series, they do run out of steam.

Many favourite episodes and a few already mentioned here - really looking forward to the new film this summer also!

[ohood]

Nearly at the end of watching the ninth series, so far my favourite episodes are (in running order):

S1: Pilot, Squeeze*, Conduit, Ice, Lazarus, Darkness Falls, Tooms*, The Erlenmeyer Flask
S2: Blood*, Duane Barry, Irresistible, Colony, End Game, Humbug, Soft Light
S3: Paper Clip, D.P.O, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose*, 731, War Of The Coprophages, Piper Maru, Pusher, Jose Chung's From Outer Space, Quagmire, Wetwired
S4: Home, Musings Of A Cigarette Smoking Man*, Tunguska, Paper Hearts, Max, Small Potatoes
S5: The Unusual Suspects, Kitsunegari*, CHINGA-AAAH!, Bad Blood
S6: Drive, Dreamland 1 & 2, Two Fathers, One Son, Monday*, Three Of A Kind
S7: Millennium, Rush, The Goldberg Variation, The Amazing Maleeni*, X-Cops, Hollywood A.D, Je Souhaite
S8: Surekill, This Is Not Happening, Empedocles
S9: Nothing Important Happened Today 1 & 2, Daemonicus, 4-D*

* = Particular favourites.

[sparkyrob]

I'm only up to series 3 in rewatching (when they were first shown I think I gave up following it after series 4 and just caught the odd episode).

I am trying to remember if this was an episode of the X-Files or the Outer Limits. Note - it is NOT Ghost in the Machine from the X-Files:-

There was a computer that did all sorts of nasty stuff (can't remember any of it), but eventually gets tracked down and blown up or destroyed somehow.

Then in a final twist, it is shown that the computer had somehow managed to build another smaller version of itself, I *think* in some kind of TV van, so that it could carry on what it was doing.

Does this ring a bell with anyone? Is it Outer Limits or X-Files?

[LouBarlow]

I don't think it's the X-files no.

On a related note, I have rewatched the 'arc' episodes over the last week or so, i.e.

# Season 1: Pilot, Deep Throat, Fallen Angel, E.B.E., The Erlenmeyer Flask
# Season 2: Little Green Men, Duane Barry, Ascension, One Breath, Red Museum, Colony, End Game, Anasazi
# Season 3: The Blessing Way, Paper Clip, Nisei, 731, Piper Maru, Apocrypha, Talitha Cumi
# Season 4: Herrenvolk, Tunguska, Terma, Memento Mori, Tempus Fugit, Max, Zero Sum, Gethsemane
# Season 5: Redux, Redux II, Patient X, The Red and the Black, The End
# The X-Files: Fight the Future (feature film)
# Season 6: The Beginning, S.R. 819, Two Fathers, One Son, Biogenesis
# Season 7: The Sixth Extinction, The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati, Sein und Zeit, Closure, En Ami, Requiem
# Season 8: Within, Without, Per Manum, This is Not Happening, Deadalive, Three Words, Vienen, Essence, Existence
# Season 9: Nothing Important Happened Today, Nothing Important Happened Today II, Trust No 1, Provenance, Providence, William, The Truth

and truly cannot understand the hate. I think the 'monster of the week' episodes muddied the water somewhat, and confused the issue, as watching these episodes back on their own, the whole thing makes a lot more sense.

Recommended little project when you have the time.

[illusion_81]

I'm only up to series 3 in rewatching (when they were first shown I think I gave up following it after series 4 and just caught the odd episode).

I am trying to remember if this was an episode of the X-Files or the Outer Limits. Note - it is NOT Ghost in the Machine from the X-Files:-

There was a computer that did all sorts of nasty stuff (can't remember any of it), but eventually gets tracked down and blown up or destroyed somehow.

Then in a final twist, it is shown that the computer had somehow managed to build another smaller version of itself, I *think* in some kind of TV van, so that it could carry on what it was doing.

Does this ring a bell with anyone? Is it Outer Limits or X-Files?

'Kill Switch' from Season 5? If I remember correctly Mulder ends up strapped into a machine in a caravan and has virtual fantasies about nurses cutting his arms off!

[sparkyrob]

Hmm...just read the blurb on it, but I don't think it is that one.

[nwgarratt]

I don't think it's the X-files no.

On a related note, I have rewatched the 'arc' episodes over the last week or so, i.e.

# Season 1: Pilot, Deep Throat, Fallen Angel, E.B.E., The Erlenmeyer Flask
# Season 2: Little Green Men, Duane Barry, Ascension, One Breath, Red Museum, Colony, End Game, Anasazi
# Season 3: The Blessing Way, Paper Clip, Nisei, 731, Piper Maru, Apocrypha, Talitha Cumi
# Season 4: Herrenvolk, Tunguska, Terma, Memento Mori, Tempus Fugit, Max, Zero Sum, Gethsemane
# Season 5: Redux, Redux II, Patient X, The Red and the Black, The End
# The X-Files: Fight the Future (feature film)
# Season 6: The Beginning, S.R. 819, Two Fathers, One Son, Biogenesis
# Season 7: The Sixth Extinction, The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati, Sein und Zeit, Closure, En Ami, Requiem
# Season 8: Within, Without, Per Manum, This is Not Happening, Deadalive, Three Words, Vienen, Essence, Existence
# Season 9: Nothing Important Happened Today, Nothing Important Happened Today II, Trust No 1, Provenance, Providence, William, The Truth

and truly cannot understand the hate. I think the 'monster of the week' episodes muddied the water somewhat, and confused the issue, as watching these episodes back on their own, the whole thing makes a lot more sense.

Recommended little project when you have the time.

I agree. There is nothing wrong with the Alien arc episodes if they are watched properly. It is a lot easier to watch them on DVD then once a week on TV. It's not like the arc is that complicated.

[Bapapapa]

What always confused me is - when Mulder and Krychek were captured and both had the black oil put in them, how did Mulder expunge himself of it..?

I don't think it was ever explained.. :thinking:

[nwgarratt]

What always confused me is - when Mulder and Krychek were captured and both had the black oil put in them, how did Mulder expunge himself of it..?

I don't think it was ever explained.. :thinking:

Diane Fowley tells the Cancer Man/C.G. Spender that Mulder is immune to it. He had the vaccine.

[Elzar]

I don't think it's the X-files no.

On a related note, I have rewatched the 'arc' episodes over the last week or so, i.e.

# Season 1: Pilot, Deep Throat, Fallen Angel, E.B.E., The Erlenmeyer Flask
# Season 2: Little Green Men, Duane Barry, Ascension, One Breath, Red Museum, Colony, End Game, Anasazi
# Season 3: The Blessing Way, Paper Clip, Nisei, 731, Piper Maru, Apocrypha, Talitha Cumi
# Season 4: Herrenvolk, Tunguska, Terma, Memento Mori, Tempus Fugit, Max, Zero Sum, Gethsemane
# Season 5: Redux, Redux II, Patient X, The Red and the Black, The End
# The X-Files: Fight the Future (feature film)
# Season 6: The Beginning, S.R. 819, Two Fathers, One Son, Biogenesis
# Season 7: The Sixth Extinction, The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati, Sein und Zeit, Closure, En Ami, Requiem
# Season 8: Within, Without, Per Manum, This is Not Happening, Deadalive, Three Words, Vienen, Essence, Existence
# Season 9: Nothing Important Happened Today, Nothing Important Happened Today II, Trust No 1, Provenance, Providence, William, The Truth

and truly cannot understand the hate. I think the 'monster of the week' episodes muddied the water somewhat, and confused the issue, as watching these episodes back on their own, the whole thing makes a lot more sense.

Recommended little project when you have the time.

I planned to do that aswell but never got round to it.

The conspiracy was good early on, with characters like X and the Bounty Hunter, but I thought it got tiresome in the end. And I couldn't help but cringe every time I heard 'Super Soldier'.

[LouBarlow]

I agree it does get a bit more convoluted from season 6 on, especially concerning the cig-smoking-man and his role, but even so, it still makes sense, and taken as one/two series of a pure conspiracy-centred sci-fi show, is as brilliant as it comes.

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

I'm going through the complete box set at the moment and am nearing the end of season 2. 'Humbug' was one of the creepiest and funniest things I've ever seen.

Also, why does 'The Calusari' have an 18 certificate?

[sparkyrob]

Because of the exorcism scene, I believe.

[jaydee]

Just came across these for those who are wanting to purchase the season DVD sets.
super-cheap Season 1-8 R4 versions (@$16.95 AUD per season!!):

http://chaos.com/onsale.asp?LOC=4000&intSaleID=3635&start=21

[statto]

Or you can get all nine seasons and the movie for £78 at amazon (http://www.thedvdforums.com/affiliatelink.php?localaffiliateid=8&url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000X41AY8/thedvdforums-21)

Works out at £8.67 per season, with the movie thrown in for free.