I loved The X Files back when it was on the air. It was a super-popular show, getting much higher ratings than streaming shows do today due to the fact The X Files didn’t have as much competition back in the pre-streaming era. It asked the question: What if all the conspiracy theories are true? This had the unfortunate side effect of popularizing obscure conspiracy theories like vaccines containing tracking devices which lead to the modern anti-vax movement of today. But for those of us who recognized that it was a work of fiction, it was a lot of fun. I’d joke with my friends about it being the “flashlight show” since nearly every episode features a scene of Mulder and Scully walking around in the dark with only the light from their flashlights to guide them.

Before it aired, it was advertised as two people, one a believer, one a skeptic, investigating supernatural claims. The first episode even claimed to be based on actual events, which it obviously wasn’t. My brothers and I were excited about the show for this reason. We thought it would present both sides in a fair manner. It was disappointing when the show presented the believer as always being right and the skeptic always being wrong. However, it was still a fun show anyway.

I thought Mulder was cool back when the show originally aired, but rewatching it now, he seems like more of a doofus, especially in the early episodes. He constantly jumps to wild conclusions based on little to no evidence, yet improbably, he always ends up being right about what’s going on. Scully’s explanations trying to explain away the evidence are pretty lame, but anytime a skeptic lives in a supernatural world, this will always be the case.

The television show Evil does the best job of having skeptics living in a supernatural world not seem like straight up denialists, but even there, the skeptical explanations seem silly within a supernatural world. I think the Tim Burton Sleepy Hollow movie gives the best depiction of a skeptic in a supernatural world. Once Ichabod Crain realizes the headless horseman is real, he sets about using the scientific method to figure out what the horseman’s weakness is. He doesn’t deny the plain evidence of what he saw, but instead investigates the mystery the way a skeptic actually would.

Something exciting about The X Files was it had a continuing storyline. This is common in the streaming era, but back then, it was rare for a show to have a continuing storyline since if people missed an episode (as you often did during the live TV era), they’d be lost unless they managed to watch the missed episode in reruns. Unfortunately, the continuing storyline of The X Files was a make-it-up-as-you-go-along deal which doesn’t make much sense when you put everything together. Also, the majority of episodes are monster-of-the-week episodes which contribute nothing to the overall storyline. Still, the rare instances when one episode would actually be referenced in a later episode were pretty cool, rewarding long-time viewers.

The first couple episodes are rather forgettable. “Squeeze” (S1, E3) features a mutant who can squeeze himself through improbably small openings. The actor who portrays him is suitably creepy. The image of an unseen person unscrewing the screws from inside a heating vent has stayed with me all these years. I’d say this episode actually holds up pretty well.

The X Files famously borrowed ideas from other horror TV shows and movies, but as a kid, I was unaware of the borrowings and thought they were coming up with all these ideas on their own. For example, The scene in “Conduit” (S1, E4) in which a child is watching static on TV is an homage to Poltergeist, but as I wasn’t aware of Poltergeist, I thought The X Files had come up with this creepy image by themselves.

“The Jersey Devil” (S1, E5) doesn’t have anything to do with the actual folklore surrounding the Jersey Devil, but instead presents a raised-by-wolves-type woman (played by Claire Stansfield who played Sid in Twin Peaks) who Mulder instantly falls in love with for some reason. I was surprised that this episode featured nudity since it appeared on broadcast television which had rules against that sort of thing. I guess they got away with it since it was only a bum. For the time, however, this would have been a big deal. I’d forgotten that The X Files pushed the envelope in terms of sex, language, and violence, getting away with as much naughty stuff as they could. It did air on Fox which was the bad boy network of the time. Of course, it’s tame by today’s standards, but it would have been a bit shocking to its audience at the time.

“Shadows” (S1, E6) amusingly has a moment in which grainy camera footage can be “enhanced” by a magic button on the computer, in this case revealing a ghost. I’d thought CSI: pioneered this particular bit of science fiction in a show that’s supposed to take place in the present day, but I guess the magic enhance button goes back further than that. The boxy computers in the FBI office make me a bit nostalgic for the nineties. Mulder has a cell phone, which very few people would have had back then, although it’s the size of a brick. It’s amazing all the technological progress that’s happened since the show originally aired.

“Ghost in the Machine” (S1, E7) is about a skyscraper controlled by an AI that kills people. I recall a made-for-TV movie staring Paul Reiser called The Tower had a similar plot. The Tower (1993) came out a few months before this episode, but I don’t think the episode copied it since this episode would have already been made by the time the movie aired. However, there was an earlier Canadian film also titled The Tower (1985) which was likely the basis for both this episode and the Paul Reiser film.

“Ice” (S1, E8) is The X Files‘ take on John Carpenter’s The Thing. (Although The Thing was itself based on John Campbell’s story “Who Goes There?” which in turn was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, which was based on John Martin Leahy’s “In Amundsen’s Tent”, so nothing’s really original, is it?) “Ice” was one of my favorite episodes back when it aired. A small group of people trapped together in an arctic research station with an alien hiding among them causing everyone to be paranoid of everyone else is a great set-up. Although it doesn’t entirely make sense if you think about it too much, this is one of the best episodes of the first season.

“Space” (S1, E9) is a silly episode about an astronaut possessed by the face on Mars. There was one unintentionally funny line though. When the astronaut collapses, Mulder tells Scully to get a doctor, apparently forgetting that his partner is a doctor. “Eve” (S1, E11) appears to be where the rock band Eve 6 got their name. I don’t think I ever saw this evil clones episode before, but it’s pretty fun.

“Fire” (S1, E12) guest stars Mark Sheppard (best known for playing Crowley in Supernatural), which reminds me many X Files episodes featured actors before they were famous, like Seth Green appearing in the second episode. One of the fun things about rewatching this series is seeing now-famous actors when they were younger and unknown. Mark Sheppard does a fantastic job of playing the creepy villain who can start fires with his mind. This is certainly one of the best episodes this season. It’s weird that when Mulder suffered smoke inhalation, they took his shirt off to make him better, but I guess you’ve got to give the fans what they want.

“Beyond the Sea” (S1, E13) does a nice role reversal with Mulder being the skeptic and Scully believing the death row psychic. Her father Captain Scully is played by Don Davis who played Major Briggs in Twin Peaks. This reminds me of the influence Twin Peaks had on The X Files. David Duchovny played an agent on Twin Peaks, of course, and the first episode of The X Files features a coffin tumbling down a hill reminiscent of a scene from Twin Peaks.

As a kid, we usually watched The X Files at home, but for some reason I don’t remember, we watched “Gender Bender” (S1, E14) at my grandparent’s house. When my grandmother came into the room and asked what the show was about, my mom replied bluntly that it was about a person who kills people by having sex with them. My grandmother was shocked, saying only, “Oh my!” My mom said, “Well, that’s what it’s about!” I was embarrassed and wished we had been watching a different episode than this one.

Watching it again after all these years, I’m no longer embarrassed just to be watching it, but it was certainly pushing the envelope regarding what was acceptable on broadcast television at the time. I forgot there was an Amish-like community involved. The special effect in which a woman turns into a man was probably cutting-edge for the time, but isn’t impressive by today’s standards. The scene early on of a man’s tongue boiling out of his mouth was still pretty gruesome, though. I’d say it rivals what you’d see in modern-day horror movies. Yech.

The Lone Gunmen are introduced in “E.B.E.” (S1, E17). They’re a group of three conspiracy theorists who reappear through out The X Files and even got their own spin off show. It’s funny they consider Fox Mulder to be more of a conspiracy theorist than they are, while he thinks the same thing about them. Fox acted a bit surprised when he met someone who belonged to a similar organization called NICAP in “Fallen Angel” (S1, E10), but this time, he acts like conspiracy theorist groups are all over the place and he’s always known about them.

“E.B.E.” is pretty forgettable overall. Deep Throat, a man high up in the government who has provided Mulder tips in earlier episodes, does the same in this episode. However, this time, he seems to be just pranking Mulder. Why he would go to such great lengths just to yank Mulder’s chain is left unanswered. It feels like the audience is being pranked right along with Fox.

“Shapes” (S1, E19) gives us another Twin Peaks reunion with Michael Horse (who played Deputy Hawk in Twin Peaks) making an appearance as Sheriff Tskany. Scully also makes a reference to her father’s death in a rare case of a first season X Files episodes making a reference to a previous episode. This episode features a largely Native American cast, a nice change from the X Files mostly featuring white actors.

“Shapes” is a fun, if largely-forgettable, werewolf story. There was a moment of unintentional humor towards the end. Mulder was in a dark lodge randomly firing at shadows and taxidermized animals when Scully suddenly pops up in front of him to surprise the viewer. Given how trigger-happy Mulder was at that moment, it’s a miracle he didn’t shoot Scully. Hearing all those gunshots, she should have known better than to suddenly appear in the room unannounced.

“Darkness Falls” (S1, E20) is a repeat of “Ice”, but instead of a small group of paranoid people trapped together in an artic research station, they’re trapped together in the remote Washington woods. And instead of an ancient alien thawing from the ice, an ancient insect is unleased from a tree ring when an old tree gets cut down. Comparing the two episodes, “Ice” is superior. It has more famous guest stars, and it’s fun to see Mulder and Scully being paranoid of each other. However, despite the similarities to an earlier episode, “Darkness Falls” is still one of the better season one episodes. I enjoy episodes in which a small group of people are trapped together in a tense situation.

Strangely, the episode ends on a cliff hanger with the doctor telling Mulder that the unconscious Scully isn’t out of the woods yet. When this originally aired, I was excited to see the continuation of this storyline, but was disappointed when next week’s episode wasn’t a continuation of this episode at all.

The next episode is a continuation of a different episode, however. “Tooms” (S1, E21) gives us the return of the creepy mutant from “Squeeze” (S1, E3). “Tooms” repeats moments from “Squeeze” such as the scene of screws from a vent seemingly unscrewing themselves. However, I still found it enjoyable. The actor who portrays Tooms is still as creepy as before. There’s a creepy scene of him trying to climb out of a toilet. For some reason, the woman has a lock on her toilet that keeps him from entering that way. Huh? The final confrontation between Mulder and Tooms at the end is pretty good too.

“Tooms” is also the first episode that Assistant Director Skinner appears in. Skinner is antagonistic towards Mulder and Scully in this episode, although he becomes part of their team in later seasons. Cigarette-Smoking Man appears in this episode as well. As in the pilot, Cigarette-Smoking Man doesn’t do much but stand in the background and smoke. I remember him being called Cancer Man originally, but apparently the credits always referred to him as Cigarette-Smoking Man. Mulder refers to him as Cancer Man in a later episode, though, so that must be where my confusion comes from. I had thought the cigarette industry had pressured The X Files into changing his name from Cancer Man to Cigarette-Smoking Man, but it looks like I was wrong.

“Tooms” also features yet another Twin Peaks actor, Jan D’Arcy. Looking ahead, we will also see other Twin Peaks actors including Frances Bay in “Excelsis Dei” (S2,E11), Michael J. Anderson in “Humbug” (S2, E20), Kenneth Welsh in “Revelations” (S3,E11), Richard Beymer in “Sanguinarium” (S4,E6), and Robyn Lively in “Field Trip” (S6,E21). So there’s a lot more Twin Peaks reunions to come.

The final episode of season 1 is “The Erlenmeyer Flask” (S1, E24). Deep Throat is once again giving Mulder clues to investigate. Scully rightly points out that Deep Throat could just be yanking his chain (you know, like he did last time), but Mulder trusts him and this time it turns out Deep Throat isn’t just pulling his leg. The government has experimented with putting alien DNA into humans to create alien-human hybrids who have super strength and can breath underwater. Government guys who want to keep this secret kill the hybrid who has escaped as well as Deep Throat.

If the government guys really wanted to keep this all a secret, they should have killed Mulder and Scully as well, but they keep them alive for no reason other than they’re the main characters. Scully actually sees an alien in this episode, but because she’s a TV skeptic rather than an actual skeptic, she continues to doubt. For a cliff hanger, the government shuts down the X Files and reassigns Mulder and Scully to other duties.

While having episodes that are part of a continuing storyline was a big draw at the time, my favorite episodes this first season are monster-of-the-week episodes: “Squeeze” (S1, E3), “Ice” (S1, E8), “Fire” (S1, E12), “Darkness Falls” (S1, E20), and “Tooms” (S1, E21). I mainly like these episodes for nostalgic reasons, though, so they’re probably not as good as I think they are.