Season Five: "resistance is possible"

Overall Rating: 2.65 out of 4 (circa 2003)

Season five was accused of being weak due to the fact that the creators and actors had been working through the previous summer on the long-anticipated (?) X-Files movie. It nevertheless opened strongly, I thought, with the Redux two-parter and the surprisingly tightly-woven tale of Susanne Modeski. (Upon recently re-watching Three of a Kind from season six, I've wondered if they can't convince Signy Coleman to join the cast somehow. She'd make a wonderful new Scully.... Hell, they talk about new Mulders so why not new Scullys??) Overall, while one of the worst episodes of all time made the cut in season five, we were also treated to one of the best episodes of all time, not to mention the very effective mythology arc of Mulder's disintegrating belief system. For a shortened production schedule, there were more winners than losers here.

Worst / Best

No question about it, it had to be Travelers. While not as appalling as season seven's Fight Club (which had the advantage of Mulder & Scully's involvement), it's an example of a conspiracy-heavy story without the chemistry of the characters that viewers have come to love. In other words, no matter what the creators may think, this isn't why we watch The X-Files. Nothing else this season even comes close to how I feel about this episode.

Those that have "so-so" repeat viewing potential for me include Christmas Carol and Schizogeny. I must admit that even though I don't especially care for Chinga and Kill Switch, I don't necessarily avoid them when they come around in repeats. (Maybe I'm still looking for that lost potential...)

Blurb from 2013... I liked Chinga less and Kill Switch more this time around. On the latter, I didn't like it enough to raise its rating because I still think that the overall premise is weak/unoriginal (and reminds me too much of Star Trek: The Motion Picture), but I was able to appreciate the performances. And the episode was stylishly done.

Just like the worst was a no-brainer, I think the best is also a no-brainer: Bad Blood for me, definitely. And I think I've spoken enough about it all over the place here to need no further justification for picking it. The really amazing thing is, even though sometimes the great episodes are not that great for repeat viewing, I can sit and watch this one over and over again.

Most Disappointing / Most Surprising

Kitsunegari comes to mind for most disappointing, because despite the great next-to-final scene, it really didn't deliver the goods based on its predecessor. I must say however, that it was unfortunately overhyped in the on-line community, leading us to expect more than even a good sequel would have been able to provide. Runners-up for this honour must also include the scripts from Stephen King and William Gibson, as well as the one that I just don't get, Post Modern Prometheus (hey, I'll keep trying...).

Most surprising is an easy one — Pine Bluff Variant. I'm tagging it with this honour because of the person who wrote it. With apologies to Mr. Shiban, he just hasn't been exceptionally strong in the past to come up with a story on his own that didn't make you cringe for all the wrong reasons. This one, despite the fact that it could only have ended one way (i.e., with Mulder alive), was an interesting journey into a new place. As I said in my review above, had it been just a bit less foggy in terms of what was really happening behind the scenes, I would have given it an "excellent" rating. Nothing deep about the ep otherwise, just a wonderful showcase for DD's dramatic talents.