Stars: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi, Nicholas Lea, Tom Braidwood, Dean Haglund, Bruce Harwood

Director: Kim Manners

Summary: Features two episodes from series eight 'This Is Not Happening' and 'Deadalive' in which Agent Mulder is finally discovered in Helena, Montana close to death...

This X-FILES collection features two pivotal episodes from the eighth season, "This Is Not Happening" and "Deadalive." The night before Agent Mulder (David Duchovny) is discovered near death in a field outside Helena, Montana, the FBI receive a call concerning a young woman's apparent alien abduction. Agent Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Agent Doggett (Robert Patrick) begin an investigation, leading to a meeting with a man who claims to save "returned abductees." But can this mysterious healer save Mulder

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This release consists of two episodes--"This is Not Happening" and "Deadalive"--of the eighth series of The X-Filesspliced together into a feature-length story. With David Duchovny contracted only to do a certain percentage of shows this year, Robert Patrick was brought in as Agent John Doggett, partnering Gillian Anderson's Agent Scully while Duchovny's Mulder is off being tortured by alien-abductors in what looks like an industrial dentist's chair. This story comes about two-thirds of the way through the arc and sets up Duchovny's return to the show--though he literally has to die and come back to get back on the case. It's an unfortunate paradox that most X-Filesstand-alone releases concentrate on the dreary alien-abduction/conspiracy episodes which carry the greater storyline of the show, giving the misleading impression that the series is a drearily solemn, badly plotted, straight-faced but stupid sci-fi soap opera. Always skipped over are the far more interesting, entertaining and impressive stand-alone supernatural mysteries or strange comic exercises. Though Duchovny is mostly lying in a hospital bed with oatmeal all over his face, Anderson--whose character is pregnant this series, another dull sub-plot--still gives an amazingly committed performance and gets terrific support from Patrick, whose character has shaken up a lot of what was settled or stale about the show, and the always-underrated Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Skinner. The story features several wild-eyed UFO guru types (including Roy Thinnes, once star of The Invaders) and returned abductees transformed into un-killable alien zombies. It's as well made as ever, with ominous shadows and the odd smart line, but you need to have been paying very close attention for seven years to understand what's going on. With Duchovny a potential escapee and Anderson perhaps in line to follow, this episode brings on the excellent Annabeth Gish as Agent Monica Reyes, a specialist in bizarre rituals, who is being effectively set up to partner Patrick in a post-Mulder-and-Scully X-Filesthat might well keep the franchise going on forever Star Trek-fashion. --Kim Newman

Aspect Ratio:	4:3
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Behind The Scenes Footage, Interviews From Members Of The Production Crew, Insights In Agent Doggett
Subtitles:	Dutch, French
Year:	2001
Release Date:	August 6, 2001
Runtime:	85 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	22275 D V D
Keywords:	General, Fiction, Science, Files, Tv, X, Horror, Sci, Fi, Deadalive
Genre:	Science Fiction