THE MOVIE

Wow. Are we at Season 7 already? It just seemed like recently that I was hurrying to be one of the first to pick up a copy of a newly released Season One on DVD. I guess time flies.

So let’s get right to it.

The seventh season of this excellent programme does see The X-Files starting to show a few cracks (especially for parts of the mythology), but it still features some top notch individual episodes and marks a couple of major milestones.

Storyline wise, this season brings to a conclusion probably the biggest ongoing story arc of the show. The disappearance of Mulder’s sister. But perhaps most importantly, it also marks the final season that David Duchovny features as a main cast member. His departure made the way for Robert Patrick, but more on that when Season 8 rolls around…

You should all know the characters by now so we’ll go straight on to the 22 episodes in this 6-Disc Set.

Things start off as they left off in the season six cliff-hanger episode Biogenesis with the two-part season seven premiere (The Sixth Extinction), in which Mulder is still loopy and Scully is trying to help him by looking for answers in a mystical artefact.

After all that gets sorted out you might be feeling a bit peckish... You won’t be after watching the brain eating killer in Hungry. Then, institutionalised Frank Black investigates his old millennium group colleagues in the episode Millennium, while the episode Rush proves that some people ARE faster than a speeding bullet. In The Goldberg Variation we see possibly the luckiest man alive, while Orison sees the return of nasty fetishist Donnie Pfaster who we hadn’t seen since the season two episode Irresistible. The Amazing Maleeni sees our agents pitted against master magicians, and then those who get a little queasy around snakes might want to close their eyes during Signs And Wonders.

Sein Und Zeit & Closure bring to a conclusion the Samantha storyline, while X-Cops sees our agents pulled into the television show "Cops". First Person Shooter is for all of us game geeks out there, while Theef ventures into the occult and voodoo (well trodden ground for this show). En Ami sees The Cigarette Smoking Man return to enlist the help of Scully while Chimera tells the story of a woman’s dark side. all things looks deeper at Scully and the choices people make, Brand X makes second-hand smoke terrifying, and Hollywood A.D. has Scully and Mulder turned into movie characters.

In Fight Club we have twins with rather “aggressive” telepathic powers, while things get a little "I Dream Of Jeanie" in Je Souhaite. And in Requiem, we finish off this season right where the show began seven years ago with some very familiar faces. And there you have it.

Personally, I didn’t think things started off too well this season. The Sixth Extinction 2-parter was a bit of a letdown and the changing of the Mulder/Cigarette Smoking Man relationship just seemed plain wrong and too Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker for my liking. But things got back on track pretty quickly with some highly entertaining standalone episodes, helped no end by the liberal sprinkling of comedy that permeated the entire season. The Goldberg Variation, The Amazing Maleeni, X-Cops, First Person Shooter, Hollywood A.D., and Je Souhaite are just fun episodes that often poke fun at the shows main characters and make the entire show seem lighter.

As for the more serious stuff, it was great to see the character of Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) appear on The X-Files in the episode Millennium. Orison was quite disturbing and creepy (signature X-Files), and Closure was a moving concluding chapter on the roller coaster ride that was the search for Samantha. That episode had a real emotional resonance that is The X-Files at its very best.

But I can’t finish off without mentioning Gillian Anderson’s writing and directorial debut on all things. It is quite a beautiful episode and something a little different from what we’re used to from this show. If she ever gets tired of being in front of the camera, she’s certainly got a career behind it on the strength of this.

Minor quibbles aside; it’s another fine season of television from Chris Carter & Co.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

All 22 episodes of The X-Files - Season Seven are presented at their original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and are 16x9 enhanced.

This is the third season that The X-Files has been presented in anamorphic widescreen, and while both the previous releases had a few quality issues, the same cannot be said about Season Seven.

It looks wonderful.

The prints are beautiful and clean with very few film artefacts and a level of sharpness not seen in ANY previous season release of The X-Files. The ropey look of the episode Triangle in Season 6 and the overall grainy look of Season 5 are nowhere to be found here.

Colours have also slightly improved especially with some outdoor daylight scenes now looking quite beautiful. Black levels are nice and strong with compression artefacts and any other nasties like aliasing being kept to a minimum throughout.

All 22 episodes are presented on RSDL discs. Discs 1 to 5 feature two episodes on each layer, while Disc 6 features two episodes on one layer and a special features section on the other.

Put simply, this season is the best The X-Files has ever looked and the show can now take its place among the very best presented television on DVD.

Audio:

All 22 episodes are provided with 3 Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks, each at 192kpbs.

The languages available are English, French and Italian.

While the audio on offer isn’t brilliant, it still sounds pretty damn good.

As usual, the score of Mark Snow on all these episodes is superb. This surround-encoded track delivers his (at times) haunting score very effectively even taking advantage of the surrounds on numerous occasions. Dialogue is clean and clear, and I never saw any problems with audio sync.

As for the music of other artists, Moby’s songs “My Weakness” (during the episode Closure) and “The Sky Is Broken” (during the episode all things) are particularly memorable.

The subwoofer is kept fairly quiet, but if you’ve got the set-up for it you will get some signal passed to it to accentuate the score and effects. The start of the opening credits always provides a satisfyingly deep thud.

Overall, it’s a solid (if unspectacular) audio transfer.

THE EXTRAS

Fox have got this TV on DVD caper down pretty well by now. The usual quality animated menus reveal another lovely selection of X-Files extras to enjoy. We’ll start off on the episode discs. (Deleted Scenes will be discussed in the final disc Special Features section)

CAST CREDITS

Fairly detailed cast listings are provided for every single episode in this collection.

INTERNATIONAL CLIPS

Basically showing short clips on how The X-Files is presented in countries where English isn’t the main language. The episodes and the clips provided are:

The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati (German, Italian, Japanese)
The Amazing Maleeni (German, Italian, Japanese)
Closure (German, Italian, Japanese)
En Ami (German, Italian, Japanese)
Hollywood A.D (German, Japanese)
Requiem (Castilian, German, Japanese)

This is the sort of thing that had a certain charm when DVD was in its infancy and multi-audio soundtracks weren’t too prevalent. To be perfectly honest, these days it’s pretty useless.

AUDIO COMMENTARIES

First Person Shooter – Director Chris Carter

Didn’t expect a commentary for this one especially from the head honcho himself, but it is most welcome. As usual Chris is very informative as he talks about casting, lighting, set design, etc. with very few gaps along the way. He seems a little surprised he got away with so much (violence) in this episode under the guise of it being in a video game, and so am I actually. Again, as usual, he’s a little bit dry in his delivery though.

all things – Writer, Director, Actress Gillian Anderson

Main cast member audio commentaries on TV shows are as rare as hen’s teeth, so to have Scully herself provide one is a real treat.

You can tell within the opening minutes that this story was Gillian’s baby and throughout the entire length she fills you in on all the little details (music, camera work, etc), nuances, and the important plot points that had to be cut for the constrictive time frame of network television. In fact, so much had to be left out that this fine episode probably could have been extended to a 2-parter with little fuss. An excellent commentary and a fantastic extra.

Je Souhaite – Writer, Director Vince Gilligan

This episode marked the directorial debut of Vince Gilligan and he delivers quite a nice little commentary here. He talks in glowing terms about his cast and crew, while discussing the difficulties of directing a show like The X-Files for the first time. He relates how the episode ran 11 minutes long (like all things and most X-Files episodes) so had to be significantly chopped to fit that 42-43 minute time frame.

At the time this was recorded, they were deep into making the final season so he gets a little retrospective on occasion, like when he describes the show as “the best job I’ve ever had”. It’s nice to hear that sort of thing.

The final disc in this collection contains 2 episodes and the bulk of the extras contained within a Special Features section. Included in this section is:

DOCUMENTARY: THE TRUTH ABOUT SEASON 7

This is the extra you’ve come to expect from every season release of The X-Files and as usual it is an extremely informative 20-minute synopsis of season seven with contributions from cast & crew. Providing insights here are Chris Carter, Paul Rabwin, Mimi Rogers, Vince Gilligan, Kim Manners, John Vulich, Frank Spotnitz, Gillian Anderson, John Shiban, David Duchovny, Dean Haglund & Tea Leoni. Even Garry Shandling makes an unexpected appearance.

I always wish these things were 20 minutes longer but it’s still an excellent extra. It is presented 4:3, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

X-FILES PROFILES

A.D. Skinner

In truth, this is a promotional piece for the 3-part international VHS mini-movie release Biogenesis. The episodes included in this release were Biogenesis, The Sixth Extinction & The Sixth Exctinction II: Amor Fati. It may be Skinner focused, but it’s still a promotional piece. This runs for a little over 6 minutes, and is presented 4:3 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Samantha Mulder

Like the other profile, this is a promotional piece for the 2-part international VHS mini-movie release Closure. The episodes included in this release were Sein Und Zeit & Closure. Being Samantha centric, this shows in a little over 5 minutes how Chris Carter managed to tie himself in knots over the years with how convoluted and confusing the whole Samantha ordeal became. It is presented 4:3 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

PROMO SPOTS

43 Promotional Spots are provided. Each episode receives a 20 second spot, while every episode except one (Hollywood A.D.) receives a 10 second spot as well. They are presented 4:3 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

SPECIAL EFFECTS WITH NARRATION BY PAUL RABWIN

13 different special effects explained extremely well by producer Paul Rabwin with a run time of over 20 minutes in total. Very nice extra.

The Sixth Extinction - “Stabilising the Space Ship”
The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati – “The Armageddon Shot”
Millennium – “Times Square 2000”
Rush – “Blur Effects” & “Bullet Time”
The Goldberg Variation – “Punk Hit By Truck”
Signs And Wonders – “Cleaning Up Michelangelo’s Act” & “Snake Eats Mouse”
First Person Shooter – “CGI Tank”
all things – “Scully’s Meditation”
Je Souhaite – “Inserting Genie In Old Film” & “Dusting The Invisible Face”
Requiem – “Bounty Hunter Morph”

They are presented 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Some portions in certain effects (eg. “Scully’s Meditation” and “Inserting Genie In Old Film”) are in 4:3 and are NOT 16x9 enhanced. Interesting to note, you need a widescreen OR fullscreen tellie with a 16x9 mode to view those 4:3 portions correctly. Odd.

DELETED SCENES WITH OPTIONAL COMMENTARY BY CHRIS CARTER

Ten deleted scenes running for about 15 minutes total.

The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati – “Scene B28 – Skinner on the stretcher”
Orison – “Scene 5 Lift – Scully offers her take on prison psychology”
Signs And Wonders – “Scene 15 Lift – Reverend Enoch O’Connor addresses his congregation”
Closure – “Scene 3 - Interrogating Ed Truelove”
Theef – “Scene 18 - Mr. Peattie gathers tokens”
En Ami – “Scene 16-17 – Mulder distrusts Scully” & “Scene A34 Lift – Scully discusses Marjorie with CSM” & “Scene 76 – Scully and Mulder discuss CSM”
Requiem – “Scene 10 – Scully is questioned on how she has conducted herself on the X-Files” & “Scene 18 – Mulder reflects”

These scenes are available on this disc AND on the disc with the episode they were removed from.

They are available separately, with Chris Carter commentary (final disc only), or integrated into the episodes themselves (episode disc only). I don’t recommend incorporating them into the episode because it’s often clunky and can make things seem a little disjointed.

Chris explains that most of these were cut for pacing and reasons of time.

These are presented 1.78, are 16x9 enhanced with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. They’re in great shape too.

SUMMARY

It is a true reflection of the quality of The X-Files to say that while Season seven appears (from my personal viewpoint) to be one of the weakest in its nine year history, it is still excellent television.

The episodes in this set are blessed with extremely good video transfers (the best yet), and have received the usual, solid audio presentation that you have come to expect from The X-Files season releases. As far as extras are concerned, there are a variety to choose from including a documentary, audio commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, and more.

Sorry to sound like a press release, but when you combine all of the above with a very reasonable RRP, you have a DVD collection NO X-Phile should be without.