TV - The X-Files Season 6, The Top 5

Steve Taylor-Bryant, returns with his thoughts on The X-Files. Today it's Season 6...

Again another season of The X-Files much derided by critics and fans alike and, whilst I'll hold my hands up and admit there appeared to be a lot of filler and disinterested writers involved, when they got them right they did so with brilliance. The fact a top 5 didn't tax my memory too much shows the show in general was beginning to decline but the 5 (alright 6, as one is a two-parter) I have managed to select all hold up with previous seasons and add to the show’s folklore.

So here we go again...

5 - Triangle.

Mulder: [when being apprehended by the Nazis] "You think you're so big and tough now, just wait 'till you get to Russia. I hope you enjoy the cold!"

Mulder goes in search of the Queen Anne, a British luxury liner that mysteriously disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle in 1939. After being shipwrecked, he gets pulled aboard the Queen Anne by a crew that believes they are still in 1939. Meanwhile, at the FBI, Scully tries to get the Lone Gunmen and Skinner to help her locate the lost Mulder.

4 - Two Fathers.

The Cigarette Smoking Man: "Treachery is the inevitable result of all affairs. Every man believes he has his own good reason..."

After being gone for almost a year following her abduction, Cassandra Spender reappears, in perfect physical condition as the first successful alien/human hybrid. The consortium scrambles as the faceless alien rebels seek to expose their conspiracy with the colonizing aliens. Mulder and Scully try to discover the identity of the Cigarette Smoking Man and protect Cassandra from the consortium who want her dead.

3 - Monday.

Pam: "Don't you see? We're all in hell."

A bank robbery gone wrong turns into disaster for Mulder and Scully. Mulder gets shot by the bank robber, and he and Scully, along with everyone else in the bank, are blown up by a bomb strapped to the bank robber's chest. However, this same day continues to repeat in an endless cycle always ending in the same result.

2 - One Son.

Mulder: "They burned themselves. With a choice made long ago by a conspiracy of men who thought they could sleep with the enemy. Only to awaken another enemy."

Cassandra Spender is taken back by the consortium. Mulder learns the truth of the conspiracy from Marita Covarrubias who has been used as a test subject for the alien vaccine. Scully suspects that Diana Fowley is in league with the Cigarette Smoking Man but Mulder doesn't believe it. The consortium agrees to hand over Cassandra to the aliens to begin colonisation.

1 - Dreamland I/II.

Mulder: "Hey Grandma Top Gun, will you shut the hell up?"

Mulder and Scully travel to the secretive Area 51 to meet a contact who has inside information on UFOs. Before they arrive, they get stopped by military personnel who tell them to turn back. A weird event occurs that results in Mulder switching bodies with Morris Fletcher, a "man in black" from Area 51, without anyone else knowing. Mulder takes advantage of this perfect disguise to infiltrate Area 51, while Fletcher uses the opportunity to escape the life he hates.

As Scully becomes increasingly suspicious of the "new" Mulder, the real Mulder works to find a way to switch things back to normal. Holding Mulder back from trying to switch things back is an investigation into his abnormal behaviour by his colleagues. When Scully discovers the truth about the switch, Fletcher reluctantly helps her and Mulder to try and set things straight.

Image - XFiles Wiki.

Quotes and synopsis - IMDb.