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The X-Files Season Eight | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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t wasn't supposed to happen this way. The X-Files wasn't supposed to reach its eighth season—and it certainly wasn't meant to do so without its core cast intact.
But the world of television is not perfect, and when The X-Files returned to the air for its eighth year, it did so without star David Duchovny—who made limited appearances throughout the year as the abducted Mulder and returned for the final episodes of the season. Instead, Scully (Anderson) had a new partner by her side—a disbeliever named Agent Doggett (Robert Patrick), who was assigned to work with Scully to find the missing Agent Mulder. At first, theirs was an acrimonious, distrustful relationship—but Scully quickly learned she had a friend and ally in Doggett, who helped her even as she worked through her miraculous pregnancy (disclosed in season seven's finale, "Requiem").
Season eight does not represent X-Files in its prime: The absence of Duchovny was felt throughout the season, a year in which Scully and Doggett alternated between their pursuit of monster-of-the-week cases and new, increasingly confusing mythology involving Scully's pregnancy, Mulder's disappearance and a new threat called SuperSoldiers. Having Scully in the role of believer, not skeptic—and having her on the case without Mulder—changed the beats. It changed the series in a fundamental way, and it took time before the new beats, between Anderson and Patrick, worked.
Although the mythology's logic took a left turn somewhere in the desert, the interesting thing about season eight is that, overall, the quality of the stories, and the high production values of the series, didn't suffer at all. For any other series, the standalone X-Files in season eight would have been, for the most part, perfectly good stories. But, without Duchovny's Mulder to play off Anderson's Scully, it didn't quite feel like The X-Files anymore.
This six-DVD set is packed with a ton of extras—including two audio commentaries, a season documentary, 10 deleted scenes, three character profiles, seven special-effects sequences and the 10- and 20-second promo spots for every episode.
Extras as they (mostly) should be
Some of the supplemental content on this set is weak: The three character profiles, about five minutes apiece for Gibson Praise, Krycek and John Doggett, are recycled from the international video market. There are six internal language clips, showing Mulder and Scully fluently speaking another language, scattered across the season set (unlike the rest of the supplemental content, audio commentaries excluded, these clips are not accessible via the final "extras" disc as well).
The 23-minute documentary, The Truth About Season 8, is jammed with soundbites but lacks the depth and substance necessary to really dissect and understand the evolution of season eight (among those chatting about setting up the new year are Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, John Shiban, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish and Paul Rabwin). The rest of the documentary covers a handful of seemingly random episodes— "Within," "Roadrunners," "Via Negativa," "Badlaa," "Deadalive" and "Essence/Existence"—with reflections by everyone from the writer of the episode to the makeup artists and soundtrack composer.
But other elements are top-notch. The audio commentaries by producer Frank Spotnitz (on "Alone," his cleverly sentimental sendoff to Mulder and Scully and debut as writer/director), and "Existence" (producer/director Kim Manners on the season finale) are interesting, articulately orated and well produced.
The best produced of the extras is the 16-minute special-effects sequence, which provides behind-the-scenes insight into the making of seven sequences (from "Within/Without," "Salvage," "This Is Not Happening," "Vienen," "Empedocles," "Alone" and "Existence," averaging about two to four minutes apiece). Co-producer Paul Rabwin serves up commentary on the segments, which can be played together or watched individually. Each segment is clearly identified at the beginning, and shows elements of the rough building blocks that led to the final product.
The deleted scenes are not as thorough. With 10 segments, running about 11 minutes total, the deleted scenes are mildly interesting (most notable are Scully's ultrasound scene from "Per Manum" and the three scenes from "Existence," including one between Mulder and Krycek). Scenes play in black and white or color, with narration by Spotnitz and Shiban; but if you run the scenes together there's no splash screen to identify the sequence you're watching. As with previous X-Files sets, you can also watch the deleted scene in the context of the episode; during playback, an X appears in the lower right corner, indicating the presence of an alternate scene.
When The X-Files first ran season eight, I remember I found it mildly entertaining, but I missed the cohesiveness of Mulder and Scully's on-screen partnership. When rewatching this season, I must say that what first struck me was how well done so many of the episodes were—more than I originally thought I'd enjoy. Then, it struck me exactly why I found myself doing a double take: There's a dearth of genre shows on TV today that can match X-Files' production values and overall storytelling—even when it's not X-Files at its finest hour. — Melissa
Also in this issue: Astro Boy and The Secret Service DVD
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