DVD REVIEW

X-Files, The - The Complete Seventh Season  (1999-00)

Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, et al.
Creator: Chris Carter

Rating: NR

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Release Date: 5.13.03

Review Posted: 6.20.03

Spoilers: Minor

Reviewed by Dennis Landmann

"I'm fine. I'm free." - Fox Mulder

A time of closure. A time of new beginnings. Now you can own the entire seventh season of The X-Files. All 22 classic episodes from David Duchovny's last full season as Agent Fox Mulder are available for the first time in this exclusive 6-disc collector's edition. From Scully discovering the alien spacecraft in The Sixth Extinction and Mulder finally learning the truth about his sister in Closure, to Mulder's own disappearance and Scully's miraculous pregnancy in Requiem, these Season Seven episodes are a must for every X-Files fan.

The seventh season of The X-Files starts off with a two-part story arc, titled The Sixth Extinction and The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati. In the first episode, Scully investigates an alien ship wreckage in Africa, but when things start to go wrong (as well as creepy), Scully returns to the States. Meanwhile, Mulder is suffering from a mysterious illness that needs to be cured as soon as possible. Both episodes are a fine introduction to the season.

Some highlights of the seventh season include the episode Closure, in which Mulder learns of the truth about his long-lost sister at last. Millennium is the crossover episode where Mulder and Scully enlist the help of a criminal profiler (Lance Henriksen, who would go on to star in the short-lived series Millennium) to stop a man from bringing about the end of the world (this as the year 2002 nears). Also in this episode is the lip-lock scene between Mulder and Scully (the infamous kiss). In X-COPS, Mulder and Scully are involved in the reality-show while trying to solve a mysterious murder. Then there’s the Lone Gunmen episode called First Person Shooter, which puts Mulder in the virtual reality world to solve a murder that happened inside the computer-generated game environment.

There’s a nice personal episode, all things, involving Scully who, after a series of coincidences, returns to a married man she once had an affair with. In Hollywood A.D., Mulder and Scully watch themselves portrayed on TV. It’s one of those out-there episodes that deal with something other than alien-related investigations. The season finale, entitled Requiem, deals with Mulder and Scully’s return to the town of their first X-Files investigation where a UFO crashed in the forest, but reveals more important things. Scully appears to become pregnant and Mulder disappears.

After all 22 episodes, this season also marks the departure of Fox Mulder and David Duchovny. It’s also probably the last good season, as the upcoming two seasons only feature Scully (with a new partner, of course) in moderate situations and investigations (until the final truth is revealed into the series premiere). But alas, X-Files will always be remembered for its innovative premise and chemistry between Mulder and Scully. I’m not saying X-Files is going down the drain per se, but after this season it just doesn’t get any more exciting. Below is a listing of all 22 episodes of the seventh season:

8 out of 10

20th Century Fox presents The X-Files in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. This transfer is fairly clean and looks pretty darn good for a TV show. Image quality is pretty good, the detail is mostly accurate, colors are consistent and color detail is good. I didn’t really notice much grain. Dark tones and black level are usually consistent, although they’re lacking consistency in a few instances. Overall, this is a really nice and deserving video presentation.

8 out of 10

20th Century Fox presents The X-Files in English Dolby Surround. The sound effects, Mark Snow’s eerie and effective score, and dialog scenes all come across as clear. Surround usage would have been nice, but alas, this presentation sounds just fine. Additional audio options are French Dolby Surround and Spanish Dolby Surround tracks.

7 out of 10

"The Truth about Season Seven" – As with the previous season boxed sets, we get a documentary/featurette about the season. You can probably figure out what it’s about, but it’s still a good reference and documentary as a whole. It reveals information, clues and trivia included in this seventh season via interviews and clips.

10 Deleted Scenes – These scenes are presented with the original footage they were cut from. To clarify, original footage is shown in black & white while the deleted footage is shown in color, allowing the viewer to distinguish the deleted scenes. Also, this way of presenting deleted scenes offers the viewer to see at what point cuts were made and why (therefore making a commentary not a necessity).

Episode Commentaries – Chris Carter comments on "First Person Shooter," offering informative and entertaining facts (and trivia at times). The two other episode commentaries are from Gillian Anderson on "all things" and Vince Gilligan on "Je Souhaite."

13 Special Effects sequences – Paul Rabwin provides a commentary for each of the sequences. These are fun to watch and give insight into how special effects are applied on the show. This is a nice and informative extra, but in the end it’s not something of great replay value.

Rounding out the extras on the sixth disc are 17 international language clips (for various episodes), 44 promotional TV spots (heavy duty), an all-new DVD-ROM called "Maitreya 2.0" and a Playstation2 game preview.

You can select to view the episodes with optional English and Spanish subtitles. The DVD’s menus are not animated. Each 43-minute episode (approx. running time) is organized into eight chapters.

6 out of 10

 

Overall

The seventh season of The X-Files is possibly the last good one, but that’s beside the fact. There are some cool highlights in this season worth watching. The video and audio presentations are pretty good, with the latter offering less than impressive quality. The extras department includes a nice set of features, including deleted scenes and a documentary. Now the question is, “is this boxed set worth about 135 dollars?” X-Files fans might want to consider buying it, but for everyone else it’s probably best to rent them over a week (because it will take that long to finish the set). X-Files: The Complete Seventh Season comes recommended.

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