I was ten years old when ‘The X-Files’ first premiered on FOX in 1993 and I was instantly pulled into this well-crafted world created by Chris Carter that blends horror with science fiction, and whose lead characters, federal agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), represent opposing viewpoints – one open to the possibilities of the unknown, and the other who bases everything on scientific fact and reasoning – but both must work together and investigate happenings and phenomenon, and along the way uncover truths, secrets, and conspiracies that challenges their beliefs and everything they know about the perceptions of reality. What made this show stand out was the combination of storytelling, horror atmosphere, and compelling, likeable characters.
32 years later, the show still holds up, and it’s easy to see why this show soared in popularity in the early 90’s. Upon my most recent rewatch of the first season I was instantly pulled back into this world, and while not every episode is great – the bottom five episodes on this ranking are ones I’ll likely avoid for the foreseeable future – I do think that Season One does a terrific job introducing us to the characters and establishing the world that the show exists in, and it makes me eager to carry on with a rewatch of Season Two.
Here is my ranking of every episode from the complete first season, from least favorite to favorite:
Note: All synopsis’s provided below are from the interior slip of the Season One DVD.
24) Space (Episode 9)
Synopsis: When a space shuttle mission is sabotaged, Mulder suspects it may be the work of an evil extraterrestrial spirit that inhabits the body of a former Gemini astronaut.
23) Darkness Falls (Episode 20)
Synopsis: A group of loggers working in a remote forest unearth thousands of deadly insect-like creatures that paralyze, then cocoon, their victims.
22) Ghost in the Machine (Episode 7)
Synopsis: On Halloween, Mulder and Scully investigate the death of a corporate executive who may have been murdered by a thinking computer.
21) Gender Bender (Episode 14)
Synopsis: A religious sect member capable of changing gender becomes the prime suspect in a murder spree.
20) Eve (Episode 11)
Synopsis: Mulder and Scully search for two girls who disappeared after their fathers were murdered in an identical fashion.
19) The Jersey Devil (Episode 5)
Synopsis: Mulder and Scully track a legendary creature that has roamed the New Jersey countryside for over forty years.
18) Fire (Episode 12)
Synopsis: Mulder and Scully join forces with an inspector from Scotland Yard when a man with pyrokinetic powers stalks members of the British aristocracy.
17) Roland (Episode 23)
Synopsis: When top scientists at an aeronautics research lab die under mysterious circumstances, the agents suspect a mentally-challenged janitor may somehow be the culprit.
16) Conduit (Episode 4)
Synopsis: Mulder becomes obsessed with solving a case that closely parallel’s an “encounter” he experienced as a child.
15) Lazarus (Episode 15)
Synopsis: The consciousness of a dangerous criminal possesses an FBI agent who is also Scully’s ex-boyfriend.
14) Shadows (Episode 6)
Synopsis: Mulder and Scully investigate the deaths of two men believed yo have been killed by a powerful psychokinetic force.
13) Born Again (Episode 22)
Synopsis: An eight-year-old girl is the prime suspect in a series of bizarre, seemingly unrelated deaths.
12) Young at Heart (Episode 16)
Synopsis: A criminal believed to have died in prison years earlier wages a vendetta against Mulder.
11) Mircale Man (Episode 18)
Synopsis: The agents investigate a ministry led by a man whose son possesses the power to heal and to kill with a touch of his hand.
10) Fallen Angel (Episode 10)
Synopsis: The future of The X-Files project is jeopardized after Mulder secretly infiltrates the government cover-up of a UFO crash.
09) Beyond the Sea (Episode 13)
Synopsis: Scully believes that the psychic predictions of a death row inmate are the only hope in apprehending a vicious murderer.
08) Squeeze (Episode 3)
Synopsis: Mulder and Scully search for a humanoid killer whose savage murder spree reoccurs every thirty years.
07) Tooms (Episode 21)
Synopsis: Eugene Tooms, whom Mulder helped incarcerate, in released on parole.
06) Shapes (Episode 19)
Synopsis: The agents track down a wolf-like creature linked to Native American legend.
05) Deep Throat (Episode 2)
Synopsis: A test pilot who may have been flying aircraft made with alien technology disappears, and Mulder and Scully must defy their own government to find the truth.
04) Pilot (Episode 1)
Synopsis: A young FBI agent is assigned watchdog duty over a fellow agent, but finds herself drawn into his investigations of paranormal and unexplained phenomena.
03) The Erlenmeyer Flask (Episode 24)
Synopsis: Deep throat tips Mulder to a critically important case involving a missing fugitive and the cloning of extraterrestrial viruses.
02) Ice (Episode 8)
Synopsis: Mulder and Scully are sent to investigate when a team of geophysicists, stationed at a remote Alaskan outpost, is killed by a parasitic alien life form.
01) E.B.E (Episode 17)
Synopsis: Mulder and Scully become the focus of a misinformation campaign when they attempt to trace the government’s secret transport of an alien life form.
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