X Files Episode Guide (Season 6)
Created | Updated Mar 23, 2003
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R25968
The Beginning (6ABX01)
Writer: Chris Carter
Director: Kim Manners
Mulder and Scully arrive back from the Arctic to find their work evaluated by an FBI panel. Meanwhile, the Syndicate attempt to use Gibson Praise to track down one of the 'baby' aliens that is on the loose.
The title here refers to the fact that the show has made a new beginning for itself as it moves from Vancouver, Canada to LA for seasons six to nine. The opening shot for this season is of the bright Californian sun, marking the contrast between the weather of the two locations.
With 'The Beginning' The X Files sheds its determination to keep the aliens around whom its 'mythology' arc revolves out of the picture. Although we never see the creature fully in this episode, it is far more prominent than any previous season has made the colonising aliens. This is, perhaps, detrimental to the feel of the show, but it really had to happen at some point. Most disappointing about this episode is the fact it leaves loose ends dangling that will never be tied up - particularly Gibson's connection to the aliens, and how he gets from the power plant he's left in to the school for the deaf we find him in for season 8's 'Within'.
Rating: ***
* * * * * * * * * *
Drive (6ABX02)
Writer: Vince Gilligan
Director: Rob Bowman
A police chase of a speeding car ends with the death of one of the car's passengers. Mulder, having seen footage from the chase on TV news, makes his way to interview the car's driver, only to be kidnapped by him, and forced to drive across country.
'Drive' is the command given to Mulder by his abductor, Mr Crump.
A classicly creepy X File episode done in an inventive new way, 'Drive' is powerful and even scary. It'll have you imagining a pain in your ear for days...
Rating: ****
* * * * * * * * * *
Triangle (6ABX03)
Writer: Chris Carter
Director: Chris Carter
Chasing a liner that disappeared in 1939 in the Bermuda Triangle, Mulder's boat is wrecked, and he finds himself aboard the ship he was looking for, and possibly stuck sixty years in the past.
Most of this episode is set at sea in the Bermuda Triangle (or 'the Devil's Triangle' as Mulder seems to prefer), giving the episode its title.
As with many of Chris Carter's episodes beyond the first season, 'Triangle' plays with the format of the show. Having shot 'The Post-Modern Prometheus' in black and white, Carter here attempts to capture each act in one continuous take. The result is impressive, if confusing at times, and the episode is a fun way of showing that the X Files is nowhere near the dull dead programme many claimed it to be by its sixth season.
Rating: ***
* * * * * * * * * *
Dreamland (6ABX04)
Writers: Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz
Director: Kim Manners
Following a lead to the Groom Lake air force base, Agent Mulder finds himself at ground zero when a mysterious military craft malfunctions, leaving him trapped in the body of man in black, Morris Fletcher.
'Dreamland' is an alternate title used by UFO buffs for the Groom Lake facility (also known as 'Area 51'), where it is popularly suspected the US military tests craft back-engineered from 'flying saucers'.
Another mould-breaking episode, 'Dreamland' takes an old sci-fi cliche and tries it X File style. The risks this episode takes (in clashing with season 4's 'Small Potatoes', not to mention that the premise of the episode is all too easy to do badly) pay off, and the episode, and it's conclusion are very memorable pieces of television.
Rating: ***
* * * * * * * * * *
Dreamland II (6ABX05)
Writers: Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz
Director: Michael Watkins
Mulder tries to come to terms with the fact that he may be stuck with Morris Fletcher's life and body permanently, whilst Scully begins to realise that the 'Mulder' she is now working with is not the man she knew.
More an extension of the previous episode than one in its own right, for obvious reasons, 'Dreamland II' stands to the same high standards as the episode whose storyline it concludes.
Rating: ***
* * * * * * * * * *
How the Ghosts Stole Christmas (6ABX08)
Writer: Chris Carter
Director: Chris Carter
Terms of Endearment
The Rain King
S.R. 819
Tithonus
Two Fathers
One Son
Agua Mala
Monday
Arcadia
Alpha
Trevor
Milagro
The Unnatural
Three of a Kind
Field Trip
Biogenesis
R25968
The Beginning (6ABX01)
Writer: Chris Carter
Director: Kim Manners
Mulder and Scully arrive back from the Arctic to find their work evaluated by an FBI panel. Meanwhile, the Syndicate attempt to use Gibson Praise to track down one of the 'baby' aliens that is on the loose.
The title here refers to the fact that the show has made a new beginning for itself as it moves from Vancouver, Canada to LA for seasons six to nine. The opening shot for this season is of the bright Californian sun, marking the contrast between the weather of the two locations.
With 'The Beginning' The X Files sheds its determination to keep the aliens around whom its 'mythology' arc revolves out of the picture. Although we never see the creature fully in this episode, it is far more prominent than any previous season has made the colonising aliens. This is, perhaps, detrimental to the feel of the show, but it really had to happen at some point. Most disappointing about this episode is the fact it leaves loose ends dangling that will never be tied up - particularly Gibson's connection to the aliens, and how he gets from the power plant he's left in to the school for the deaf we find him in for season 8's 'Within'.
Rating: ***
* * * * * * * * * *
Drive (6ABX02)
Writer: Vince Gilligan
Director: Rob Bowman
A police chase of a speeding car ends with the death of one of the car's passengers. Mulder, having seen footage from the chase on TV news, makes his way to interview the car's driver, only to be kidnapped by him, and forced to drive across country.
'Drive' is the command given to Mulder by his abductor, Mr Crump.
A classicly creepy X File episode done in an inventive new way, 'Drive' is powerful and even scary. It'll have you imagining a pain in your ear for days...
Rating: ****
* * * * * * * * * *
Triangle (6ABX03)
Writer: Chris Carter
Director: Chris Carter
Chasing a liner that disappeared in 1939 in the Bermuda Triangle, Mulder's boat is wrecked, and he finds himself aboard the ship he was looking for, and possibly stuck sixty years in the past.
Most of this episode is set at sea in the Bermuda Triangle (or 'the Devil's Triangle' as Mulder seems to prefer), giving the episode its title.
As with many of Chris Carter's episodes beyond the first season, 'Triangle' plays with the format of the show. Having shot 'The Post-Modern Prometheus' in black and white, Carter here attempts to capture each act in one continuous take. The result is impressive, if confusing at times, and the episode is a fun way of showing that the X Files is nowhere near the dull dead programme many claimed it to be by its sixth season.
Rating: ***
* * * * * * * * * *
Dreamland (6ABX04)
Writers: Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz
Director: Kim Manners
Following a lead to the Groom Lake air force base, Agent Mulder finds himself at ground zero when a mysterious military craft malfunctions, leaving him trapped in the body of man in black, Morris Fletcher.
'Dreamland' is an alternate title used by UFO buffs for the Groom Lake facility (also known as 'Area 51'), where it is popularly suspected the US military tests craft back-engineered from 'flying saucers'.
Another mould-breaking episode, 'Dreamland' takes an old sci-fi cliche and tries it X File style. The risks this episode takes (in clashing with season 4's 'Small Potatoes', not to mention that the premise of the episode is all too easy to do badly) pay off, and the episode, and it's conclusion are very memorable pieces of television.
Rating: ***
* * * * * * * * * *
Dreamland II (6ABX05)
Writers: Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz
Director: Michael Watkins
Mulder tries to come to terms with the fact that he may be stuck with Morris Fletcher's life and body permanently, whilst Scully begins to realise that the 'Mulder' she is now working with is not the man she knew.
More an extension of the previous episode than one in its own right, for obvious reasons, 'Dreamland II' stands to the same high standards as the episode whose storyline it concludes.
Rating: ***
* * * * * * * * * *
How the Ghosts Stole Christmas (6ABX08)
Writer: Chris Carter
Director: Chris Carter
Terms of Endearment
The Rain King
S.R. 819
Tithonus
Two Fathers
One Son
Agua Mala
Monday
Arcadia
Alpha
Trevor
Milagro
The Unnatural
Three of a Kind
Field Trip
Biogenesis
