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It only took seven years but Fox has finally released an entire season set. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's only available on DVD. The truly focused and newbie philes will probably want to buy regardless of what's included. The rest are supposed to be induced by the goodies included.
What's included
Naturally, you get all 24 episodes from the first season, uncut and without commercials. That this is a good thing goes without saying. Now while you may have all these episodes at home on tape, the tape won't give you DVD video quality. And the quality is good. There's no letterbox format which isn't a bad thing since we are talking something that was made for the TV screen. So all you folks who have smaller TVs won't be losing a thing.
Fox has also included international clips. International clips are very cool. It's always interesting to hear the type of voice the person dubbing one's favorite characters has. (I'm looking forward to hearing the foreign version of Krycek.
There are two deleted scenes from the Pilot episode. Both include Ethan, who apparently is a reporter and Scully's boyfriend. So you can see how he would have fit in (although you won't miss him. There's one scene which changes in significance slightly when you see the boyfriend but other than that his not being there has made very little if any impact.)
Now I didn't catch on to the show until the third season. And my ability to watch was sporadic until the end of Season Four. So there are a lot of episodes I haven't seen uncut. (Seeing it on X2 is just not the same. Trust me.) which is why having the DVD's is cool. Another thing I missed were the promos. And the promos for every episode are included on the 7th DVD. Another plus.
Anyone looking for a complete episode listing need not look on the net anymore. The DVD set includes a booklet with chapter listings. This makes for easy clip finding for those who may want a particular scene from which to get a still. In addition to the chapter listings an entire episode list is included which had episodes listed from the pilot episode to the end of season 6.
The FX "Behind the Truth" spots were amusing. I didn't have FX when The X-Files first started airing on FX so I never got a chance to see them. I like them. Any new behind the scenes footage is a good thing.
There's also a game. I believe strongly that anything on DVD should be more than just what is available on VHS and subtitles, foreign language dubbing, and digital sound just don't cut it. Nothing irritates me more than seeing some company put out a movie and claiming that the dubbing and digital sound are the bonuses you get for shelling out extra dough for the DVD as opposed to the videocassette tape. (DVD's ought have digital sound what's the point of getting digital video if you can't have digital sound. I hardly consider that a bonus.) Fox has obligingly included a DVD-ROM game for Windows. (Sorry Mac users!) The game does reference show episodes and it's not a bad game to play. Although I do have some major complaints about it. (See "The Bad" for those details.)
While I'm giving Fox some points for including DVD-Rom content I'm taking those points away for how the DVD-ROM content was included. Fox has included a game called "Roots of Conspiracy" which is supposed to be based on the first season's episodes. First, more than one of the answers was based on things from subsequent seasons. Now while I knew where to look for the answers (and I did have to look up answers) it's not fair to include Season Two or Three content if you're only supposed to be working from Season One. A newbie might have been confused especially by one of the answers to a puzzle being "Albert Hosteen" who doesn't show up until the last episode of Season Two. Not fair!
Secondly, the game was without a doubt the most confusing thing I've ever played. Personally, when I play a game I like to have some kind of instructions telling me the basic gist of what's going on. The blurb at the beginning of the game was not enough of a gist to let me know what was going on. In addition, one of the puzzles was impossible to answer because they goofed it. Something I didn't know until I found a website with the hints. I ended up looking for the hints because I had no clue as to what I was doing at one point. That's not good game planning.
This will probably end up being fodder for a rant when I start checking out DVD-ROM content of movies. However, since I have not at the time of this review checked out such content on my movie DVD's I cannot say anything about anything other than this DVD set. When you put the DVD in your DVD-ROM it will install something called PC Friendly. It will not ask you if you want to install it before it does so then it will expect you to register the damn thing. Now when I had my DVD-ROM installed onto my computer it came with software called Power DVD. I rather like it. For starters I can do screen captures which is a huge plus. And the interface is not unlike an actual stand alone DVD player. I don't appreciate the disk using this other player to play the episode. (You also cannot play the game without installing this item onto your computer so if you want to experience all the goodies the disks have to offer you cannot get away from this thing. Another minus.) What I especially don't like is the perpetual ad while I was trying to play the game. While the game was on there were no less than 6 hyperlinks. One to Fox DVD, one to The Fight the Future site, one to the official web site, one for something dubbed "The X-Files classified tapes," one to the X-Files store, and one for the X-Files on Playstation. That's not counting one to play videos, one for game mode and one each for credits and events. I don't care for so much advertisement while I'm trying to play a game. (Check the screenshot you'll see what I mean.) And I don't care for the necessity to have Internet Explorer in order to use the PC Friendly format at all. (If I were inclined to use it for anything other than playing the game that is. Thankfully you can use another DVD program to view the episodes. You'll just need it for the game.) Now I do have Internet Explorer installed on my computer but I prefer it to be my choice as to whether or not I use it. And if I were a strict Netscape user having to install IE in take advantage of things included on a DVD which is part of a set I paid nearly a hundred dollars for would really piss me off.
Another minus: No Mac compatibility. I use a PC so I'm not affected by this but there are plenty of people out there who do use Macs. They spent the same dough on the set that I did. They are entitled to use all the features included on the disks including the game. Why Fox couldn't be bothered to make it possible for Mac users to take advantage of the game is beyond me.
Also included are all the behind the scenes interviews with Chris Carter. Anyone who has Waves 1 and 2 box sets will have already seen these interviews. But at least this time it's easier to bypass them.
Last, but not least is the Truth behind Season one documentary. It's not a bad 12 minutes but I'm sure I've seen it elsewhere. It looked extremely familiar but I couldn't put my finger on why.
Naturally, the focused Phile will want this set whether they have a DVD player or not. In the long run, if you insist on having all the episodes this set is well worth the investment in at least a standalone DVD player. Besides, it's the only way you're going to get a digital quality picture without the commercials and antenna issues which accompany a home made collection. While I like the DVD's I am concerned about the fact that you cannot get the episodes on VHS. After all while DVD players are coming down in price and a lot of new computers have DVD-ROM drives now it's still not as popular as VHS. And DVD's aren't cheap. I don't think it's a very nice thing to do to the fans from whom Fox makes its money. However since I insist on having every episode with better video quality than my homemade VHS collection. I'll be buying. If you have a few bucks you can spare and really love the X-Files I'd recommend that you do too.
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