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The X-Files Season Five | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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he X-Files may have just concluded its run on television, but the series lives on in this new DVD set. The latest season to be released is season five—and what a season it was. Season fives's final episode—"The End"—is quite appropriately titled, considering that the fifth season marked the end of many things for the series.
For one, it was the last season to be shot in the moody, lushly textured environs of Vancouver; after that year, the show relocated to Los Angeles. For another, it was the last season the show maintained a semblance of innocence separate from the hype and off-screen politics surrounding it. It's actually arguable that season four really was the last season year that the show maintained its innocence, and season five was the transition year; but nevertheless, it was only after this year that the show became enveloped in the will-they/won't-they move controversy, and star David Duchovny's highly visible will-he/won't-he return shenanigans.
This season also marks several firsts—making it a monumental, pivotal season in X-Files history. It was the first time the series pre-planned its mythology—so it could catch up to the feature film that was already shot, and would be released that summer. (The feature is one reason that there are several episodes in which Mulder and Scully's involvement is limited.) It was also the first time the show irreversibly veered into the realm of pure science fiction, with the introduction of aliens and spaceships seen clearly onscreen.
While not the strongest season as a whole, there are plenty of keepers amongst the scattered dingers of season five: Vince Gilligan's humorous vampire treatise, "Bad Blood," the pivotal mythology episodes "Redux I" and "Redux II" (where Scully's cancer goes into remission), fun episodes like "Kill Switch" (written by William Gibson), "Detour" (with Scully singing "Joy to the World" to an injured Mulder) and the artistically out-there, black-and-white episode "Post-Modern Prometheus" (written and directed by series creator Chris Carter).
Embracing the wisdom of widescreen
Fox has kept consistency with its past installments in the X-Files DVD series, which means the fold-out box design (more manageable now that there are only six discs, not seven, since season five was the first season where the series cut back to 20 episodes) and the smooth menu interface are back. Not everything is the same, though: gone is the annoying PCFriendly software (you just use whatever DVD-ROM player application you already have installed on your PC), and the largely useless links to Fox's promotional Web site.
The most welcome change, though, is the presentation of episodes in 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. Seeing the difference never fails to amaze—somehow, everything seems grander, more specific, more purposefully composed for the screen this way, even though the episodes never aired in widescreen on television.
Most of the special features are contained on disc six, though cutscenes and international clips are stored on the individual discs with their respective episodes. This go-around, the season five discs are packed with behind-the-scenes exposition. This abundance of riches is directly attributable to the existing source material created in 1998 to promote the show leading up to the release of the feature film in 1998. In addition to an original 20-minute documentary titled "The Truth About Season 5," there's a two-minute-long Fox clipfest "featurette" (read: long advertisement) and the 45-minute TV special, "Inside The X-Files," which catches viewers up on the series as a whole. The disc also has 11 "FX: Behind the Truth" clips for episodes, characters and departments (i.e., casting, hair stylists, alien effects). The promo spots for all episodes are here as well.
The six cutscenes feature commentary by Chris Carter about why the scenes were shot—and why they didn't make it into the final edit. While all six are interesting looks at the path not taken, only four episodes are represented: "Post-Modern Prometheus" (two scenes), "All Souls" (two scenes), "The Red and the Black" and "Christmas Carol." The best tidbits are the ones that show lost character development: In "All Souls," it's a truncated scene where Scully saw a four-headed monster (Carter called the monster's effects "one of our least effective and satisfactory"); In "The Red and the Black," there's a powerful scene (cut for time) in which Mulder and Scully argue, and their belief perspectives switch; In "Christmas Carol," there's a touching scene of Scully meeting Emily for the first time.
Topping off the extras is the inclusion of eight special-effects featurettes, typically two-minute-long bits in which producer Paul Rabwin explains the different elements that went into such complex shots as the spaceship in "The Red and the Black," or the bug-man tests in "Folie a Deux."
For the DVD-ROM, there's a puzzle game called Earthbound. Much like the other games that have come packaged with previous seasons, the game puts you on a case, which you follow through a series of e-mails. These are not particularly visually enticing, but could provide passing entertainment for some. Embedded in the game is what's touted as an "episode guide" to seasons one, two, three, four and five, but accessing it is clunky, and the episode guides at X-Files' official Web site are better written and more comprehensive. Especially since, presumably, the official X-Files site will eventually disappear, we'd like to see more content from the Web site be included on the discs—and an episode guide would be a great place to start.
In a word: widescreen. Although the cutscenes could be stronger, Fox again does an admirable job with its X-Files season package. Season five's episodes in widescreen literally adds a whole new dimension to such classics as "Bad Blood" and "Kill Switch," and ambitious shows as "The Red and the Black." — Melissa
Also in this issue:
Farscape Season Four Premiere
and
Stargate SG-1 Season Six Premiere
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