Episodes: “Redux”, “Redux II”, “Unusual Suspects”, “Detour”, “Christmas Carol”, “The Post Modern Prometheus”, “Emily”, “Kitsunegari”, “Schizogeny”, “Chinga”, “Kill Switch”, “Bad Blood”, “Patient X”, “The Red And The Black”, “Travelers”, “Mind’s Eyes”, “All Souls”, “The Pine Bluff Variant”, “Folie A Deux”, “The End”
Stars: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, Nicholas Lea, and William B. Davis
Guest
Stars: Steven Williams, Tom Braidwood,
Dean Haglund, Bruce Harwood, Darren McGavin, John O’Hurley, Jerry Springer,
Luke Wilson, Richard Belzer, and Veronica Cartwright
Created
By: Chris Carter
Feature
length: 890 minutes
Extras:
International Clips, Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary, Commentary On
Select Episodes, The Truth About Season Five Documentary, “Inside The
X-Files” TV Special, Special Effects Clips With Commentary, TV Spots, DVD-ROM
Game
Languages:
English and French Dolby Surround 2.0
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and Spanish Subtitles
Packaging:
Gatefold Within A Glossy Slip Case
#
Of Discs: 6
Chapter
Stops: 15 Per Episode
Sound:
Dolby Stereo Surround Sound
Year
of DVD Release: 2002
Home
Video Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
The fifth season was the season where “The X-Files” had gone beyond phenomenon, and had become a part of world pop culture and the fifth season is also notable for several reasons. It was the first season to be filmed with high definition television in mind and it featured notable Authors Stephen King and William Gibson as guest writers on two of the season’s episodes. The fifth season was also the last season to be shot in Vancouver.
Notable
episodes include “Chinga,” which was co-written by Stephen King and “Kill
Switch,” which was written by William Gibson. Other great episode include
“The Post Modern Prometheus,” which was shot in black and white to mimic the
old Universal “Frankenstein” films and features a host of Cher songs that
our amorous monster has an ear for. “Unusual Suspects” details how “The
Lone Gunmen” first came to be and how Mulder first met them and features
“Homicide” star “Richard Belzer. “Patient X” and “The Red And The
Black” feature Veronica Cartwright in one of the more intriguing mythology
episodes regarding UFOs. The final episode to the fifth season appropriately
titled “The End” sets up the cliffhanging ending that leads into the feature
film “The X-Files: Fight The Future,” which was shot the summer before
season five aired.
All
of the season five episodes are presented in their anamorphic (1.78:1) aspect
ratios to preserve the way they were shot and are now presented in high
definition broadcasts. English and French Language Dolby Surround Soundtracks
are included along with English Captions and Closed Captions and Spanish
Language Subtitles encoded on to each episode on the dual layered discs. The
soundtrack is well mixed and free of any distortion or hissing. These episodes
are among the best looking episodes to be released on DVD in Region One America
to date and generally the resolution is higher, colors are richer, and the
scenes appear more detailed.
Chris
Carter participates in an episode length audio commentary for “The Post-Modern
Prometheus” on disc two and John Shiban participates in an episode length
audio commentary for “The Pine Bluff Variant,” which appears on disc five.
Disc
Six has the majority of the extra features, which include an all new documentary
entitled “The Truth About Season Five,” which has running time of 20-minutes
and features cast and crew members discussing eight of the episodes from Season
Five that include “Unusual Suspects”, “”Kill Switch”, “Christmas
Carol”, “Emily, “Patient X”, “The Red And The Black”, The
Post-Modern Prometheus”, and “The End.”
A
45-minute featurette made around the time of the feature film’s theatrical
debut includes cast and crew interviews and clips as well as behind-the-scenes
footage from the first five seasons of “The X-Files” and the feature film.
There is also a
2-minute promotional Season 5 featurette, 11 “Behind-The-Truth” TV Spots
from FX, 8 special effects clips with audio commentary, 6 deleted scenes with
optional audio commentary by Chris Carter, and 20 ten-second and 20 five-second
TV spots.
The
deleted scenes and special effects scenes can be viewed individually or as a
reel and DVD-ROM users with Windows 95 or higher will have access to a new
“X-Files” interactive game entitled “Earth Bound.”
Without
a doubt, if you are an “X-Files” fan and have been collecting the seasons as
they have been released to DVD-Video, “The X-Files: The Complete Fifth Season
On DVD Gift Set” is a must purchase and will debut from Twentieth Century Fox
Home Entertainment on Tuesday, May 14, 2002.
©
Copyright 2002 by Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.