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The X-Files: Season 7

It seemed that after the feature film prior to the sixth season, "The X-Files" was beginning to lose its once-brilliant luster. The originality of the initial seasons began to give way to the more generic nuances of the science fiction genre, while subsequently offering us new variations on some older ideas. More loose ends that one could have imagined were left out in the open by this time, but for the most part, this seventh season still managed to gather itself together for a few extraordinary episodes and a handful of good ones. Whether it be the brain-hungry monster of the third episode, "Hungry," or the skit-like appearance on the TV show "Cops" by Mulder and Scully in the episode "X-Cops," this season managed to squeeze some good acting from its exhausted leads and some genuine laughs and ingenuity here and there as well. As the show was nearing its inevitable conclusion, it was apparent by now that there wasn't much ground left to cover before revealing what we had been waiting for all along: the answer to the question of conspiracy. Season 7, although not the best or most revealing, still provides a mildly pleasant diversion.

Season 7, being one of the later seasons, benefits from being presented in HDTV 1.78:1 widescreen; here, each transfer is anamorphically enhanced, and the results are gorgeous to behold. Each episode looks fantastic, with brilliant color saturation and accuracy that is untouched by bleeding for smearing, except when used for stylistic effects. Contrast is superb and shadow delineation quite good, and I noticed almost no artifacts here. Edges are sharp with only very minimal enhancement halos. This is the best that "The X-Files" has looked to date. ***

The sound, still mastered in the same Dolby 2.0 Surround audio, is a bit more pleasing than the earlier seasons, but a full 5.1 upgrade would have been even better (I don't know why I'm bothering to complain now, considering we're almost at the end of seasonal box sets). As it stands, however, this is a pleasing sound experience: the music receives the most surround attention, with some of the sound effects managing to sneak their way into the rears as well. Front end separation is good, dialogue natural, and deep bass mildly prominent when needed. Pretty good.

Throughout the six discs we have a pretty hefty collection of international clips for the episodes "Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati," "The Amazing Maleeni," "Closure," "En Ami," and "Hollywood A.D." As with the previous seasons, this allows the viewer to listen to various language clips for these episodes to see how the shows are dubbed for international viewing. Also spanning the entire season is a collection of deleted scenes, nine altogether, for the episodes "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati," "Orison," "Signs & Wonders," "Closure," "Theef," "En Ami" and "Requiem." These scenes can also be found in a collective group on Disc Six, accompanied by commentary from creator Chris Carter. In general, this is pretty familiar stuff, so those familiar with the previous sets will know what to expect. ***

Disc Seven is the stronghold for all of the major supplements, beginning with the continuity piece "The Truth About Season 7" featurette, in which we have all of the episode breakdowns with interviews from the various collaborators and creators whose work is seen throughout these ventures. Then we move on to two character profile pieces: for A.D. Skinner, we have a promo piece that was shown after the episode "Biogenesis," with the same type of piece for the character of Samantha Mulder, who appeared in "Closure." Following this is a gallery of more than forty TV spots for each of the episodes. ***

Then we have the usual special effects breakdowns with commentary from Paul Rabwin, who covers thirteen different effects shots spanning the episodes The Sixth Extinction," "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati," "Millenium," "Rush," "The Goldberg Variation," "Signs & Wonders," "First Person Shooter," "all things," "Je Souhaite" and "Requiem." All of this is very interesting, with the various evolutions of the shot up to its final composition, and the commentary from Rabwin is especially welcome. Then we have a DVD-ROM game "Maitreya 2.0," and a preview for the Playstation 2 game, which closes out the disc.