ICE Episode 8 Season 1 of The X-Files

A Ice episode that doesn't quite reach its Peak 9/10

This episode sits proudly atop many X-Philes’ favourite episode lists, not mine though. Don’t get me wrong it is not far off, for me there is just one subtle tweak that could have catapulted this episode to the top of the pile.

It is not hard to understand why this episode is so popular amongst the X-File community. The successful method of the story for one thing is a tried and tested platform. Most recent inspirations to the broadcast of this 1993 episode were from John Carpenters 1982 Horror/Sci-Fi classic The Thing. Of course there are other inspirations but The Thing is the one I’m most familiar with. Ice borrows some of the finest fragments from the film and successfully repackages and delivers them back to us in a 43 minute slot.

The very opening scene of the Arctic Ice Core Project shows us a shot of just how isolated the facility is. A Snow storm blows in; the whistle of the swirling winds is all that can be heard. Inside the facility seems no more hospitable the outside. Its dark a, thermometer hangs on the wall measuring -34 degrees Celsius. A dog forages for scraps the camera follows; we see body on the floor and then a lifeless arm hanging from a desk.  A man armed with a hand gun interrupts the scene he looks exhausted and is shirtless and bloodied. He turns on the ham radio equipment and then a lamp and the video camera below it. He slouches down on a chair placed in front of the camera and breathing heavily utters ‘we are not who we are….we are not who we are….it goes no further than this….it stops right here right now…’ with that another man grabs him and pulls him from his chair. They fight as if their lives depended on it. They both end up pulling a pistol. They stare into one another eyes as the stand-off. Slowly they lower their weapons only to draw them again only this time it is to their own temples. The filming of the scene switches to outside the facility. The winds that are still whistling are accompanied by two loud gun shots.

This post is not a novella of the episode but I feel as if I have to give this remarkable opening sequence it due. It builds up a tense atmosphere full of dread and solitude that carries on throughout the episode.

The episode is set almost entirely inside the facility. When a show or film is shot in such away I believe it is called bottling. When done in the correct manner it can evoke strong emotions in the viewer and considering there is only a 43min run time, I think they have done well to see that we the viewer share the intense suspicion and claustrophobia of the characters. Here we are not left outside in the cold looking in, we are stuck inside hoping to get out. We are not merely roped into casting aspersions over each character but forced. This is not comfortable, as this is the first time in the series that we are obliged to make that choice. You ask yourself who is being deceitful and who is telling the truth? And then it hits you, without Mulders help we would never know. Trust no one.

Agents Mulder, Scully, physician Dr. Hodge (Xander Berkeley from ‘24’ fame); toxicologist Dr. DaSilva (Felicity Huffman from ‘Desperate Housewifes’ fame); Pilot Bear (Jeff Kober from ‘China Beach’ fame) and geologist Dr. Murphy (Steve Hytner from The X-Files episode ‘Ice’ fame) all full into the same traps we do. There is only one worm controlling one host at any one time during their time at the facility. Yet the reaction of the team and their hostility towards each other appear to become magnified under the claustrophobic conditions the facility places them in. Even Scully suspects Mulder of murder to some degree. When she finds Mulder with the body of Dr. Muphy throat slit, Scully accusingly asks her partner what he is doing.  Pulling a gun on him shortly afterwards and forcing him into solitary confinement, although this I suspect is just as much for his own good as for hers. Dr Hodge’s narcissistic, malevolent and somewhat misogynistic attitude makes him prime suspect through most of the second half of the episode. Looking back he was an obvious red hearing as he had been unpleasant from the very beginning of the show. And as it turns out timid Dr. DaSilva is the one with the little beastie in her. She goes into a state of hysteric anger but Dr Hodge and Scully are on hand to save her from the extra-terrestrial parasite using X-File science.

In addition did anybody else notice the substance secreted by the worm after being pulled from the pilot’s skin. Possibly a tie in with the alien Black Oil that plays a large part in future episodes. It does have similar characteristics. It enters a host through an orifice in the head and makes them act differently then usual. It is found in ice estimated to be 250,000 years old. There are large reservoirs of Black Oil under the earth that have been there for millions of years. Personally I think the Black Oil is an evolved state of the parasitic worm or some kind of mutation from it. What are your thoughts?

This episode demonstrates what can be achieved when using inspiration from the very best that the Sci-Fi genre has to offer. I’m going to give this episode a 9/10. It could have so easily been a ten but for one minor issue I have. I would have liked to have found Mulder with the corpse of Dr Murphy just as Scully had rather then watch Mulder discover the body. I feel this subtle difference would have had a dramatic impact adding an extra psychological edge. Oh well you can't have it all I suppose.

Thanks for reading. Next post SPACE coming soon.