Why So Blu?

The X-Files – The Collector’s Set (Blu-ray Review)

I can’t tell you how much I used to look forward to Friday nights growing up in my late teens and early twenties.  It wasn’t for the partying, drinking and dates, but instead it was the night that the newest episode of The X-Files would premiere on primetime television (at least for the first four seasons).  I use to record them live on VHS and try my best to also edit out all the commercial breaks (utilizing the pause button) so I could watch them over and over.  So that’s my sad life, but seriously…the truth is really out there…and now it can be found in its entirety as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment exposes the complete world of The X-Files on Blu-ray for the very first time – just ahead of the series reemerging on Sunday, January 24, 2016.  Just an FYI…The X-Files – The Collector’s Set also features a slot for this upcoming six-episode event series.  It was released on December 8th, and basically gave us fans the chance to own a piece of television history and one of the year’s must-have giftset collections.  However, you can also purchase each season individually on Blu-ray too.  So now that you know the pertinent 411 and my sad young adulthood, let’s check out this HUGE Blu-ray set in more detail down below.  We have a lot of ground to cover.

Series 

Since its inception in 1993 (the year Nirvana’s In Utero was released), The X-Files has remained a worldwide phenomenon.  It lasted nine seasons and garnered a loyal cult following, 16 Emmys and five Golden Globes Awards, including “Best Dramatic TV Series.”  The real success of the show in my opinion is credited to the yin-yang characters of the two reluctant FBI partners, Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully (Golden Globe winners David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson).  The unlikely pair ultimately went on to form a powerful bond as they struggled repeatedly season after season to unravel deadly conspiracies and solve paranormal mysteries…otherwise known as X-Files.

So before we deep dive into talking about the show itself and its nine seasons let’s take a quick high level look at everything you’ll find in this Blu-ray set.  No doubt you’ll find all nine seasons of the show (total of 202 episodes), but you’ll also find more than 23 hours of supplemental extras across all the seasons.  You can relive all the mythology, conspiracy theories with special features, including behind-the-scenes featurettes, and commentaries by executive producer Chris Carter (Millennium), R.W. Goodwin, Rob Bowman, Kim Manners, Frank Spotnitz, Robert Patrick and Rod Hardy.  We’ll go into all of this in more detail down below, but for now I just wanted to whet your appetite and let you know what to expect with this 55-disc Blu-ray set.  Yep!  You read that right.  This set is 55 Blu-ray discs.  You feeling sorry for me having to sift through all of this for your reading enjoyment?  Haha.

Needless to say, The X-Files was a hit for the Fox network and received much critical and fan praise despite a storyline that seemed old and beaten down by the latter seasons.  Honestly, what show doesn’t?  I believe it initially got labeled a cult show, but before long it was pure pop culture in the grungy 90’s.  The show also managed to conjure up a lot of paranoia and made the public suspicious and mistrusting of governments and large institutions.  In other words, it embraced, revolved around and even started a lot of conspiracy theories.  Aliens are among us, right?  Of course they are!  Don’t even get me started on that.

Both the show itself and lead actors Duchovny and Anderson went onto to receive multiple awards and nominations.  It also became the longest-running science fiction series in U.S. television history. The series even birthed a franchise with The Lone Gunmen spin-off, two theatrical films (sadly not part of this box set) and of course the cash cow itself…the merchandise.  After the second theatrical film in 2008, fans continued to push for a third movie to conclude the series’ plot lines.  In March 2015, when all hoped seemed lost of a third film, it was announced The X-Files would return as a miniseries, with Chris Carter serving as executive producer and writer, and David Duchovny (Mulder), Gillian Anderson (Scully), Annabeth Gish (I’ll talk about her momentarily) and Mitch Pileggi (Assistant Director Walter Skinner) all reprising their roles.  Hell yeah!  Just an FYI…that will premiere on January 24, 2016.

The series essentially revolved around FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigating X-Files, which were nothing more than unsolved cases involving various paranormal phenomena.  Do you remember me talking about their yin-yang relationship up above?  Well, here’s the deal.  Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal (earning him the moniker Spooky) while Scully is a skeptic.  Mulder’s belief in the paranormal springs from his claimed abduction of his sister Samantha by extraterrestrials when he was only 12.  Her abduction pretty much drives Mulder throughout most of the series.  Scully, on the other hand, was assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder’s discoveries to debunk his work, although most aren’t so cut and dry as she finds out.  Early on in the series, this doubt/skepticism in both individuals works very well (kind of flipping gender stereotypes if you think about it), but after awhile both agents come to trust only each other.  Aw, isn’t that sweet?  They eventually develop a close relationship, which begins as a platonic friendship, but ultimately becomes a cliche romance by the end of the series.

So the first seven seasons of The X-Files featured the familiar tag team and personal lives of Duchovny and Anderson’s characters equally.  However, like what happens in all good things, stardom takes over and an overinflated ego got the best of Duchovny in my opinion (a bunch of disputes over money).  And so The X-Files did what I refer to as a Dukes of Hazard move.  Remember when Coy and Vance Duke temporarily replace Bo and Luke due to a salary dispute for most of Season 5?  Well, that’s not essentially the same case here, but in The X-File‘s last two seasons, Anderson took precedence while Duchovny appeared only intermittently (his character was written out of the show for twelve episodes).  Boo!  In Fox Mulder’s absence, new main characters were introduced: FBI agents John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish).  It just wasn’t the same for me without that Mulder-Scully chemistry, but I digress.

While I wouldn’t necessarily consider The X-Files a perfect television show, far from it, there are a lot of things I love about it and many reasons why I’m excited to now own the complete series on the Blu-ray format.  I truly believe that if you’ve never seen the show, you’re really in for a treat.  However, what I loved about The X-Files the most was watching every weekly new episode with the lights out.  Let’s face it, back then the show was a bit suspenseful and therefore scary and creepy.  Who knows what oddity or one-off monster/creature feature you were in store for that Friday night.

I remember like it was only yesterday as I was working in a discount retail store and my boss and I disliked each other save for one thing…our mutual love for The X-Files.  So every Saturday morning I would get up at 5:30 AM for 6 AM shift start and we would discuss the previous night’s Mulder-Scully monster adventure.  He would tell me how his wife was scared sh1tless watching it in the dark and I would comment on how unique the episode or plotting was, etc.  For those thirty or so minutes of conversation we were best of friends.  Outside of that, we fought like cats and dogs.  Crazy, huh?  Extraterrestrials and monsters brought us together.  Disclaimer: He did tell me about a friend who was stationed at Area 51 in the military once upon a time and all his friend could admit to was that the technology there definitely wasn’t terrestrial from our world.  Did you hear that familiar Mark Snow whistling theme song while reading that prior sentence?  Haha.

For me, things started to get a little crazy for my tastes around the fifth season or so.   When it’s not a “Monster of the Week” kind of episode our agents’ are busy trying to uncover a government conspiracy to hide the existence of extraterrestrials on Earth.  This is around the time where The Smoking Man (William B. Davis), is really prevalent as a main antagonist, but that’s all I’ll say just in case you’re reading this and haven’t seen the series yet.  And then by seasons eight and nine things really start to unravel for me because I wasn’t crazy about the whole Super Soldiers and Black Oil plot lines, but whatcha going to do?  By then, the series had run its course, but the majority of the fanbase was still sort of there, hence the two later feature films and next January’s mini-series.

This Blu-ray release sees the series coming a long way in the home media frontier since its initial “wave” release on the VHS format.  I remember those odd VHS releases like it was only yesterday too.  Let me transport you back to 1996.  The first “wave” set of The X-Files VHS tapes were released.  Wave sets were released covering the first through fourth seasons.  Each “wave” was three VHS tapes, each containing two episodes, for a total of six episodes per wave and two waves per season.  That really meant unlike the eventual DVD season releases, the VHS tapes did not include every episode from the seasons.  Ultimately only twelve episodes were selected by Carter to represent each season, including nearly all “mythology arc” episodes and selected standalone episodes.  Carter briefly introduced each episode with an explanation of why the episode was chosen.  Wave eight, covering the last part of the fourth season, was the last to be released.  Now look how far we have come on the Blu-ray format.  We no longer need to worry about missing out on any episodes.

Earlier this year I was alerted to the first season of The X-Files on Netflix.  It was billed as being broadcasted in glorious HD for the very first time complete with new special effects (and font changes in the award winning title sequence that has seemed to create some controversy among the show’s purists around the Web) replacing all the old ones (originally created on video) to make its HD debut truly glorious as it should be (think the Special Editions of Star Wars minus all the changes everyone hates).  All it took was one revisit with the pilot episode and I was once again a bonafide X-Files junkie.  Netflix hooked, lined and sunk me in.  I’m so predictable, but I digress because we’re not here to talk VHS, DVD or even Netflix airings of The X-Files, we’re here to chat about this monstrous Blu-ray release of every single episode from all nine seasons in glorious HD.

So the reason we are all here today is The X-Files has finally made its long awaited Blu-ray appearance, after years in the process of remastering from the original 35mm negatives.  The restoration process last over a period of almost two years, where Illuminate scanned millions of feet of 35mm negative and completely reassembled each episode from the ground up to pull The X-Files out of the standard definition dark ages, and into feature film quality high definition.  FYI: Ben Gourlay has a most excellent interview with Illuminate CEO Jim Hardy over here in regards to the restoration process.  You can read all that for an in-depth explanation straight from the horse’s mouth, but for the mere mortals, here’s what you can expect from this remastered series on Blu-ray here in 2015.

The X-Files – The Collector’s Set is presented in 16:9 widescreen format (the first four seasons are now presented in anamorphic widescreen), and includes new DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks.  All 202 episodes are featured (check out this IMDB page for rankings), with more than 23 hours of special content across all nine seasons, which also includes bonus features from the previous DVD releases (minus DVD-ROM games and physical collectibles), such as audio commentaries, deleted scenes and other featurettes.  I think it’s time we stop talking about it all already and start deep diving into how everything looks (besides seeing a young, giddy Mulder in Season 1), sounds and is laid out for you across the 55 Blu-ray discs you’ll find in this collection.  And now ladies and gentlemen, I present to you this collection’s Blu-ray disc vitals.  Here goes nothing.

Video 

The above video score and below judging criteria/categorical comments are a culmination of all the seasons in this Blu-ray box set.  It would be obvious to assume that as we get into the latter seasons, the better things look overall, but don’t put the cart in front of the horse just yet.  I would, however, encourage everyone to check out this webpage, and see for yourself just how glorious this new widescreen presentation of The X-Files on Blu-ray looks in the “Pilot” episode of the first season compared to the old 4:3 transfer.  The difference is literally night and day in my opinion.

• Encoding: AVC @ 23 MBPS
• Layers: 50 GB Dual Layer
• Resolution: 1080p
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 — Just an FYI…this pisses off the purists out there that believe the presentation should look the same as the original 4:3 television broadcasts in the early seasons. To all of them I say good day, this is the 2010’s people.  No one wants to see that old crap.  I’m so damn controversial, huh?  Haha.  After all, the show was always filmed in widescreen so get over it.
• Clarity/Detail: The clarity and detail are what amaze me most about this presentation across the seasons.  It’s like watching Dr. No on Blu-ray  I just can’t believe how good it looks for its age.  However, not all effects are up to snuff like the face thing in “Space” for instance or other various stock footage (think the space shuttle in “Space” again) and transitions, but come on.  Beggars can’t be choosers.  Because of this upconverted material, there are instances where this stock footages/transitions clash with the glorious HD programming of the show, but again…it’s really not that bad folks.  The bulk of the show still looks and I repeat…glorious.  Closeups reveal impeccable details such as fabric in clothing, strands of hair out of place, pores and basically everything you did not notice before like the freckle on top of Scully’s forehead.  Another controversial topic, the new onscreen fonts, are razor sharp and chiseled.  There’s an episode in Season 1 that instantly comes to mind in this category where Mulder is in an Atlantic City casino and he’s reading something in his hand.  The text on this was clear as day.  I was blown away by how legible it was.  Clarity and detail in the remastered parts of this presentation takes a back seat to no one.
• Depth: Equally impressive is the depth of field throughout thanks to the remastered footage and the three-dimensional pop of the onscreen characters.  From long spanning hallways to forests that seem to go on forever, depth of field is definitely not an issue to concern yourself here with this Blu-ray release.
• Black Levels: For my eyes, the black levels are deep and acceptable.  They’re not the most remarkable ones I’ve ever seen, but for what we need out of this release, they will do just fine.  However, there’s that pesky Season 8 to contend to and over 300+ pages at blu-ray.com of customers complaining about the prominent black crush issues, how to potentially fix it with settings on your own equipment and of course how to complain to Fox about it.  The so called experts in the forum are saying that these particular Blu-ray discs are incorrectly encoded (RGB levels) while Fox is admitting not all are this way.  One of the most notable episodes where this happens is “Roadrunners,” but your results may vary depending upon settings.  I don’t know enough about the Blu-ray manufacturing or authoring process to accurately point fingers at them being incorrectly encoded.
• Color Reproduction: The colors are all dependent upon the lighting, obviously, but for the most part when allowed to shine the color pallets are very healthy, vivacious and vibrant despite the bleak or dreary subject matter at times.
• Flesh Tones: The skin tones all look healthy, organic and natural throughout.
• Noise/Artifacts: While watching certain episodes there’s a few white and black specks that creep up here or there, but really nothing of distraction to me.  You’re obviously going to get see the sharpness issues mentioned up above, not to turn a blind eye on the digital sharpening going on either, but for the most part (and I’m being honest here folks) this presentation looks like a million bucks.  You’ve never seen The X-Files look this good ever before.  You can take that to the bank.

Audio 

The above audio score and below judging criteria/categorical comments are a culmination of all the seasons in this Blu-ray box set.  You’re in for a treat fans.  Things sound out of this world here with no pun intended.  Okay, there’s a very small one.  Haha.

• Audio Format(s):  English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (All Seasons), Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (Seasons 1-9), French DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 (Season 2 Only), French DTS 2.0 (Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 & 9)
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
• Dynamics: The dynamic range of this DTS-HD MA track is amazing from quiet lulls to supernatural phenomenon waking you up if you were dozing.  This track gets quite loud for a television show.  The range is really wide open.  Each episode I watched just feels full of life and beefy, never under inflated if that makes any sense.  Hopefully it all does when you experience this series on Blu-ray for yourself.
• Low Frequency Extension: The LFE comes to life quite frequently with the immersive opportunities taken during events happening onscreen, most notably those of supernatural or meant to catch your attention.  The LFE brings a rumble and a subtle but aggressive balance to the audio track as a whole.
• Surround Sound Presentation: The surround channels come to life during key action sequences and when not they at least do their best to add to the creepy ambience and tone of the show’s subject matter.  From leaves swirling and the score infecting the rear channels to airplane turbulence behind you, the surround channels really make for an immersive experience here, more so than any ordinary show on the Blu-ray format.  Everything just feels engaged at all the right times.
• Dialogue Reproduction: Spoken dialog in the series is loud, clear, intelligible and prioritized.  I never once strained to hear in any of the episodes I chose to partake in despite whatever action bit was going on.

Extras 

In the simplest sense, the box set of The X-Files – The Collector’s Set is just that…a box or a vessel.  It contains nine Blu-ray cases, one for each season, and purposely leaves a space for the upcoming mini-series set, which will probably be released next year.  It’s important to note that all seasons are 6-disc Blu-ray sets except for Season 2 because it’s the longest in episode total and is spread over 7 Blu-ray discs.  The Blu-ray discs are housed in double, not regular-sized, clear blue amaray Blu-ray cases. Each season contains all the episodes (unlike the past VHS releases) and special features from the individual seasons.  NOTE: These are the same Blu-ray cases/seasons that are also available for sale individually on Blu-ray.  Sadly there are no extra guides or booklets included in this box set, which really equates to the statement the only thing you’re getting here is a box to hold all the individual Blu-ray season cases.  Ugh.  Why couldn’t they have included something a little more enticing for hardcore fans willing to pay a premium to own something special.  Do you think they will double dip or repackage one day like they have done with the Bond sets over and over?  I think it’s quite possible after the mini-series next year, but only time will tell.  For now, check out my exclusive unboxing pictures down below.

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Here’s the box set still homogeneously sealed in all its plastic glory.

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Alrighty, here’s the Blu-ray cases with a placeholder for the Season 10 set.

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Here are the individual Blu-ray season cases.

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So here’s the real deal,  The X-Files – The Collector’s Set contains over 23 hours of extras, including documentaries, commentaries by creator Chris Carter and the production teams as well as special effects sequences, deleted scenes and more (a lot of this material is extra features from the old DVD sets and the Complete Series DVD box set from years back).  Despite all of these being in Standard Definition for the most part, there’s a wealth of extras to be found here for any fan of the The X-Files.  In other words, this Blu-ray collection is a must-have for any fan of the truth!  Haha.  I couldn’t resist that pun.  However, there is sadly no Digital HD copies to be found anywhere here.  I’m really bummed at that as it would have been great to enjoy The X-Files anywhere I go or even at the dinner table, but I digress.

So as I said in the paragraph at the top of this section all of the extras are related to their respective seasons and since these are the same “seasons” as sold individually in retail store it makes sense that all the extras are housed individually within the seasons themselves.  In an effort to make things less complicated since there are a total of 55-discs and I am organizing all the extras down below by which season/case, as well as what disc number they are, that you’ll find them in/on.  Hope this works for you as it does for me, and believe it or not, I’m ultimately in control here.  It is quite cumbersome to navigate what looks like basic menus on these discs, but thankfully they do give you Play All functionality for episodes and certain special features.  A lot of these extras below get very redundant, but I’ll do my best to only give you the important basics you need and not the extra, useless fluff I’m usually known for.

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Season One

• Series Intro by Frank Spotnitz (HD, :36, Disc 1) –  Writer/executive producer, Frank Spotnitz, very quickly talks about what The X-Files is to him in a nutshell as a mixture of genres and what the series is all about.
• Chris Carter Talks About Season 1 (SD, Discs 1-6) – These segments appear on each disc and there’s a Play All function.  On Disc 1 (14:12) you can select Chris talking about the following episodes:  “Pilot,” “Deep Throat,” “Squeeze” and “Conduit.”  Chris says the first thing he wanted to do was scare people’s pants off.  Haha.  On Disc 2 (2:05) Chris chats about “Ice” and how he had to make episodes not exclusively about aliens, but about Arctic worms.  LOL.  He chats about the special effects in the episode as well as digital worms in the dog’s ear.  On Disc 3 (6:11) you can select “Fallen Angel” or “Eve.”  Carter talks about the budget of television and the difficulty that makes for special effects so that’s why they keep it minimal.  He then goes on to talk in regards to the two episodes in question here as well as chatting about where he gets his ideas from.  Disc 4 (3:16) sees Carter talking about episode “Beyond The Sea” in this segment where he says what you see in this first season is pretty true to his original vision of The X-Files.  He says this episode in question here is his favorite episode of the first season.  On Disc 5 (5:05) he chats about “E.B.E.” and “Darkness Falls.”   On Disc 6 (4:27) he focuses his discussions on the episodes “Tooms” and “The Erlenmeyer Flask.”
• Deleted Scenes (SD, Disc  1) –  On Disc 1 (2:54) there are two deleted scenes from “Pilot.”  This one was interesting because right from the get go it shows Scully in a romantic relationship.  Interesting.  She kisses her lover goodbye saying she is working now with Mulder and that has to blow off the vacation because has to go to Oregon.
• International Clips (SD, Discs 1-6) – These are very short international clips from various episodes that appear on all the Blu-ray discs in the Season 1 collection.  Disc 1 has German (1;13), Italian (:54), Japanese (1:03) and Spanish (1:05) international clips for the “Pilot” episode.  On Disc 2 there are Japanese (1:16), Spanish (1:22) and German (1:03) international clips for the episode “The Jersey Devil” and Italian (1:08), Japanese (1;05) and Spanish (1:03) ones for the famous “Ice” episode.  On Disc 3 there are international clips in German (1:12) and Japanese (:58) from the “Space” episode and Italian (1:05) , Japanese (:59) and Spanish (:52) language clips from “Fire.”  Disc 4 has international clips in German (1:10), Italian (1:05), Japanese (1:25) and Spanish (1:01) for “Beyond The Sea.”  Disc 5 has German (1:06), Italian (1:04), Japanese (1:08) and Spanish (1:23) international clips for “E.B.E.”  And finally Disc 6 has clips for “Tooms” in German (:48), Italian (1:08), Japanese (1:04) and Spanish (1:18) and German (:57) and Japanese (:56) for “The Erlenmeyer Flask.”  I’m really not sure why you would want to watch them, but if you do, knock yourself out.  They are in all seasons except 2 and 4.
• Deep Throat: Audio Commentary (Disc 1) – This episode audio commentary track features Chris Carter.
• Erlenmeyer Flask: Audio Commentary (Disc 6) – This episode features an available audio commentary track by R.W. Goodwin looking at the season finale.
• Special Effects Clip From Fallen Angel (SD, :33, Disc 3) – Here’s you get to see a red Koolaid man tripping through the forest.
• Documentary: “The Truth About Season 1” (SD, 11:05, Disc 6) – Here you go, six discs in and you got your first full fledge doc on Season 1.  It basically covers the production and other relevant Season 1 info that you need to know.  Chris Carter explains what he wanted to create with The X-Files and everyone else talks about the show’s conception and development.
• Television Spots (SD, 14:04, Disc 6) – It’s your basic coming up next week kind of episodic filler for the episodes here in Season 1 with a Play All option available.
• FX: Behind The Truth (SD, 12:37, Disc 6) – Here we have a behind the scenes look at the materials that were created for the series’ syndication on the FX network from EPKs to special effects and whatnot.  There’s a slew of options here to go through with a selectable Play All choice too: Fox Mulder, Deep Throat, Squeeze and Tooms, Theme (not the theme of the show, but the “theme” music), Toby Lindala, Lone Gunmen, Ice, Beyond The Sea, Prop Truck, Dana Scully, Mulder’s Office and The Erlenmeyer Flask.  In case you care, Theme is my favorite one from this extra because I love hearing about how the theme music comes around.

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Season 2

• Deleted Scenes (SD, Discs 1, 2, 6 & 7) – There is a deleted scene on each of the discs indicated: Disc 1 (1:20), Disc 2 (:30), Disc 6 (1:09) and Disc 7 (:40).
• Chris Carter Talks About Season 2 (SD, Discs 1-7) – This one is very similar to how things were done in Season 1 for these “talks” with discussions involving specific episodes and so here in Season 2 again we have them spread across the following 7 Blu-ray discs: Disc 1 (7:39), Disc 2 (4:28), Disc 3 (3:10), Disc 4 (4:15)    Disc 5 (4:41), Disc 6 (2:19) and Disc 7 (1:53).  For example, on Disc 7 Chris chats briefly about the episode “Anasazi.”
• International Clips (SD, Discs 2-4, 6-7) – Here we have more of these waste of time moments if you care.  Disc 2’s “Duane Barry” features clips in German (1:24), Italian (1:09), Japanese (1:28) and Spanish (:38).  Disc 3’s “One Breath” features clips in German (1:00), Italian (1:09), Japanese (1:28) and Spanish (:38).  Disc 4’s “Irresistible” features clips in German (:52), Italian (1:05), Japanese (:55) and Spanish (1:24).  Disc 6’s “Humbug” clips include German (1:22), Italian (:56), Japanese (1:15) and Spanish (:52).  Disc 7’s “Anasazi” includes German (1:10), Japanese (1:04) and Spanish (1:10).
• Introduction to “The Host” (SD, 1:33, Disc 1) – Here you can find Chris Carter and Frank Spotniz.
• Behind The Scenes Clip (SD, Discs 6 & 7) – Disc 6 (1:05) and Disc 7 (:31) feature these in typical EPK-like fashion.
• Documentary: “The Truth About Season Two” (SD, 14:32, Disc 7) – Here we have some cast and crew interviews and a look at certain episodes in Season 2.  Rob Bowman discusses how the show was really starting to expand and the beginning of the mythology with Anderson’s real life pregnancy at the end of Season 1 and how they explained her absence in the show (a possible abduction?).  Of course there’s a lot more to be found here including discussions with the cast and various show clips.
• Duane Barry: Audio Commentary (Disc 2) – This episode sports a selectable audio commentary featuring Chris Carter.
• End Games: Audio Commentary (Disc 5) – This episode sports a selectable audio commentary featuring Frank Spotnitz.
• Anasazi: Audio Commentary (Disc 7) – This episode sports a selectable audio commentary featuring R.W. Goodwin.
• FX: Behind The Truth (SD, 9:20, Disc 7) – Here we have a behind the scenes look at the materials that were created for the series’ syndication on the FX network from EPKs to special effects and whatnot.  There’s a slew of options here to go through with a selectable Play All choice too: Bounty Hunter, Tom Braidwood, Duane Barry, Flukeman, Cigarette-Smoking Man, Die Hand Die Verletzt, X, Humbug and Our Town.
• Television Spots (SD, 13:13, Disc 7) – It’s your basic coming up next week kind of episodic filler for the episodes here in Season 2 with a Play All option available.

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Season Three

• Deleted Scenes (SD, Discs 1-3 & 6) – Discs 1 (5:54), 2 (3:09), 3 (2:19) and 6 (2:39) have deleted scenes with optional commentary by Chris Carter.  Disc 6 (1:26) contains one other deleted scene.
• Chris Carter Talks About Season 3 (SD, Discs 1 & 3-6) – This one is also very similar to how things were done in Season 1 and 2 for these “talks” with discussions involving specific episodes, but here in Season 3 we only have them spread across the following 5 Blu-ray discs (missing one): Disc 1 (5:58), Disc 3 (5:51), Disc 4 (2:56), Disc 5 (2:40) and Disc 6 (3:02).
• International Clips (SD, Discs 1-6) – Here we have more of those dumb clips spread across all the discs.  Disc 1’s “Paper Clip” international clips include German (1:06), Italian (1:01), Japanese (:55) and Spanish (1:08).  Disc 2’s “The Walk” international clips include German (1:03), Italian (1:55), Japanese (1:10) and Spanish (1:01).  Disc 3’s “War of the Coprophages” international clips include German (1:02), Italian (1:05), Japanese (1:02) and Spanish (1:04).  Disc 4’s “Piper Maru” international clips include German (1:05), Italian (1:02), Japanese (:59) and Spanish (1:02).  Disc 5’s “Pusher” international clips include German (1:03), Italian (1:04), Japanese (1:07) and Spanish (1:01).  Disc 6’s “Tabitha Cumi” international clips include German (1:08), Italian (1:00), Japanese (1:01) and Spanish (1:01).
• Introduction to Clyde Bruckman’s “Final Repose” By Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz (SD, 1:43, Disc 1)
• Special Effects (SD, Discs 1-6) – These have commentary with Mat Beck.  As the name implies these basically go into talking about how the effects sequences are made.  These appear on all 6 discs (1 – 4:04, 2 – 1:31, 3 – :57, 4 – 1:48, 5 – 4:04 and 6 – :54).
• Documentary: “The Truth About Season Three” (SD, 21:18, Disc 6) – Chris Carter chats about how this is his favorite season overall with expansion of storytelling and the mythology episodes that keep the fans in the game.
• Threads of Mythology: Abduction SD, 27:29, Disc 6) – This one is all about the abductions, baby, and how the aliens have been here for a long, long time.  They even provide timelines for all of this as it relates to the storytelling and progression of the show.  They really love the mythology episodes to grow the characters of Mulder and Scully.
• Talitha Cuma: Audio Commentary (Disc 6) – This one has an audio commentary track with R.W. Goodwin.
• FX: Behind The Truth (SD, 17:33, Disc 6) – Here we have a behind the scenes look at the materials that were created for the series’ syndication on the FX network from EPKs to special effects and whatnot.  Like the previous two Blu-ray seasons there’s a slew of options here to go through with a selectable Play All choice too: Teso Dos Bichos, Maggots, Jose Chung, Toby Lindala, War of the Coprophages, Scully’s Apartment, The Walk, Piper Maru, Clyde Bruckman, Episode Names, D.P.S., Stupendous Yappi, Lord Kinbote, Ideas, Pusher, X-Food and Script Supervisor.  So as you can see, there’s a lot here!
• Television Spots (SD, 12:52, Disc 6) – It’s your basic coming up next week kind of episodic filler for the episodes here in Season 3 with a Play All option available.

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Season Four 

• Deleted Scenes (SD, Discs 1-2) – There are deleted scenes on Disc 1 (1:30) and one on Disc 2 (2:32).
• Special Effects with Commentary by Paul Rabin (SD, Discs 1 – 2:08, 3 – 2:34, 4 – 4:09 and 5 – 1:58)
• Deleted Scenes (SD, Discs 2 – 3:20, 3 – 1:42, 4 – 6:10, 5 – 1:42) – You can play these deleted scenes with optional commentary by Chris Carter.
• International Clips (SD, Discs 1-6) – Here we go again wasting your time.  Disc 1’s “Home” international clips include German (:48), Japanese (1:27) and Spanish (1:03).  Disc 2’s “Tunguska” international clips include German (1:07), Japanese (1:24) and Spanish (1:23).  Disc 3’s “Paper Hearts” international clips include German (1:03), Japanese (1:05) and Spanish (1:18).  Disc 4’s “Memento Mori” international clips include German (1:04), Japanese (1:18) and Spanish (1:24).  Disc 5’s “Tempus Fugit” international clips include German (1:07), Japanese (:57) and Spanish (1:11).  Disc 6’s “Gethsemane” international clips include German (1:20), Japanese (:47) and Spanish (:36).
• “Herrenvolk” Interview With Frank Spotnitz (SD, 1:47, Disc 1)
• “Home” Interview with James Wong (SD, 2:20, Disc 1)
• “Unruhe Interview with Vince Gilligan (SD, 2:16, Disc 1)
• “Tunguska”  Interview With Chris Carter (SD, 3:19, Disc 2)
• “Paper Hearts” Interview with Vince Gilligan SD , 1:38, Disc 2)
• Memento Mori: Audio Commentary by Rob Bowman (Disc 4)
• Memento Mori: Audio Commentary by Frank Spotnitz (Disc 4)
• Introduction to Memento Mori by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz (SD, 2:37, Disc 4)
• Max: Audio Commentary by Kim Manners (Disc 5)
• Small Potatoes: Audio Commentary by Vince Gilligan (Disc 5)
• Documentary: “The Truth About Season Four” (SD, 23:55, Disc 6)
• FX: Behind The Truth (SD, 13:41, Disc 6) – Here we have a behind the scenes look at the materials that were created for the series’ syndication on the FX network from EPKs to special effects and whatnot.  Like the previous three Blu-ray seasons there’s a slew of options here to go through with a selectable Play All choice too: Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man, Ideas Part 2, Home, Leonard Betts, Demons, Tempus Fugit, Wardrobe, Tags – Rob Bowman, Alex Krycek – Rat Boy, X-Family/Fun, XXX Mulder, Ice Cave and Eddie Van Blundht.
• Television Spots (SD, 12:53, Disc 6) – It’s your basic coming up next week kind of episodic filler for the episodes here in Season 4 with a Play All option available.

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Season Five 

• International Clips (SD, Discs 1-4 & 6) – I’m starting to feel like a broken record with all of these extras, but here’s your Season 5 international clips.  Yea!  Disc 1’s “Redux” international clips include German (:54), Italian (1:02), Japanese (1:31) and Spanish (1:12).  Disc 2’s “Christmas Carol” international clips include German (2:05), Italian (1:08), Japanese (1:25) and Spanish (1:28).  Disc 3’s “Kill Switch” international clips include German (1:20), Italian (1:09), Japanese (:56) and Spanish (:51).  Disc 4’s Patient X international clips include German (1:19), Italian (:54), Japanese (:51) and Spanish (1:10).  Disc 6’s “The End” international clips include German (:54), Italian (1:14), Japanese (1:26), and Spanish (1:25).
• Deleted Scenes (SD, Discs 2 – 4:52, 4 – 1:48 and 5 – 3:27) – These all contain optional commentary with Chris Carter.
• Special Effects with Commentary by Paul Rabin (SD, Discs 2 – 1:03, 3 – 2:31, 4 – 5:42, 5 – 3:12 and 6 – 1:56)
• Documentary: “The Truth About Season Five” (SD, 19:23, Disc 6) – Season 5 was unique because the whole season had to be a setup to the first movie that was already filmed.  It was also unique because they did an entire episode without Mulder and Scully because the actors weren’t available.  Thank goodness for the Lone Gunmen, huh?  Frank Spotnitz also drops some knowledge at just how huge the “Kill Switch” episode was.
• Threads of Mythology: Black Oil (SD, 31:40, Disc 6) –  Black oil!  My favorite topic!  Haha.  This one basically talks the continuity of Black Oil throughout episodes.
• Free Featurette (SD, 1:54, Disc 6) – This is a quick promotional piece about the show now in its fifth season when this originally aired.
• FX: Behind The Truth (SD, 11:31, Disc 6) – Here we have a behind the scenes look at the materials that were created for the series’ syndication on the FX network from EPKs to special effects and whatnot.  Like the previous two Blu-ray seasons there’s a slew of options here to go through with a selectable Play All choice too: Bad Blood, Elder, Mutato, Lee Smith, Kill Switch, Laurie Holden, Unusual Suspects, Alien FX, Casting Tidbits, Michael Kritschgau and Hair Stylist.
• Introduction to The Post-Modern Prometheus by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz (SD, 1:45, Disc 2)
• The Post Modern Prometheus: Audio Commentary by Chris Carter (Disc 2)
• Patient X: Audio Commentary by Kim Manners (Disc 4)
• The Red and the Black: Audio Commentary by Chris Carter (Disc 4)
• Introduction to Bad Blood by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz (SD, 1:51, Disc 4)
• The Pine Bluff Variant: Audio Commentary by John Shiban (Disc 6)
• Inside The X-Files (SD, 45:29, Disc 6) – Here you have a rather lengthy behind-the-scenes look at things.
• Television Spots (SD, 10:41, Disc 6) – It’s your basic coming up next week kind of episodic filler for the episodes here in Season 5 with a Play All option available.

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Season Six 

• Special Effects with Commentary by Paul Rabin (SD, Discs 1 – 3:16, 2 – 9:44, 3 – :14 and 5 – 2:12)
• Deleted Scenes (SD, Discs 3 – 3:30, 4 – 3:53, 5 – 9:26 and 6 – 2:11) – These deleted scenes have optional commentary by Frank Spotnitz.  He gives the low down as to why they got cut.
• International Clips (SD, Discs 1-4 and 6) – They’re back!  FML.  So here we go again.  Disc 1’s “The Beginning” international clips include German (1:20), Italian (1:33), Japanese (1:02), and Spanish (:45).  Disc 2’s “Dreamland II” international clips include German (1:27), Italian (1:01), Japanese (1:35) and Spanish (1:39).  Disc 3’s “Two Fathers” international clips include German (1:20), Italian (1:01), Japanese (:35) and Spanish (1:05).  Disc 4’s “Arcadia” international clips include German (1:05), Italian (1:19), Japanese (1:04) and Spanish (:50).  Disc 6’s “Three of a Kind” international clips include German (1:04), Italian (1:18), Japanese (1:11) and Spanish (1:23) and “Biogenesis” international clips include German (1:09), Italian (1:16), Japanese (1:05) and Spanish (1:02).
• Two Fathers: Audio Commentary by Kim Manners (Disc 3)
• One Son: Audio Commentary by Frank Spotnitz (Disc 3)
• Triangle: Audio Commentary by Chris Carter (Disc 1)
• Introduction to Milagro by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz (SD, 1:51, Disc 5)
• X-Files Profiles: Cigarette-Smoking Man (SD, 6:07, Disc 6) – Here we take a closer look at one of the most integral, antagonistic characters of the show.
• Documentary: “The Truth About Season Six” (SD, 20:58, Disc 6)
• Behind The Scenes Featurette (SD, 2:01, Disc 6)
• Television Spots (SD, 11:46, Disc 6) – It’s your basic coming up next week kind of episodic filler for the episodes here in Season 6 with a Play All option available.

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Season Seven

• Deleted Scenes w/optional Commentary by Chris Carter (SD, Discs 1 – 1:33, 2 – 1:12, 3 – 3:13, 4 – 8:21, 5 – 2:36 and 6 – 4:00)
• Special Effects Sequences With Commentary by Paul Rabin (SD, Discs 1 – 3:58, 2 – 4:58, 3  – 2:33, 4 – 1:49 and 6 – 5:32)
• International Clips (SD, Discs 1-6) – Ugh.  Disc 1’s “The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati” international clips include German (1:39), Italian (1;15), Japanese (:55) and Spanish (:47).  Disc 2’s “The Amazing Maleeni” international clips include German (1:05), Italian (:57), Japanese (1:42) and Spanish (:50).  Disc’s 3 “Closure” international clips include German (1:56), Italian (1:40), Japanese (1:55) and Spanish (1:29).  Disc 4’s “En Ami” international clips include German (1:13), Italian (1:07), Japanese (1:46) and Spanish (1:13).  Disc 5’s “Hollywood A.D.” international clips include German (:40), Japanese (1:33) and Spanish (1:43).  Disc 6’s “Requiem” international clips include German (2:32), Japanese (1:56) and Spanish (1:35).
• Documentary: “The Truth About Season Seven” Behind-the-Scenes featurette ( , Disc) –
• X-Files Profiles: A.D. Skinner and Samantha Mulder (SD, Disc 6) – There are two separate ones here: A.D. Skinner (6:15) and Samantha Mulder (5:12)
• Closure: Audio Commentary by Kim Manners (Disc 3)
• First Person Shooter: Audio Commentary by Chris Carter (Disc 4)
• All Things: Audio Commentary by Gillian Anderson (Disc 5) – Just a side note here.  Gillian Anderson is a writer and the director of the episode.
• Je Souhaite: Audio Commentary by Vince Gilligan (Disc 6)
• Documentary: “The Truth About Season Seven” (SD, 19:57, Disc 6)
• Television Spots (SD, 12:15, Disc 6) – It’s your basic coming up next week kind of episodic filler for the episodes here in Season 7 with a Play All option available.

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Season Eight 

• Special Effects by Mat Beck with Commentary by Paul Rabin (SD, Discs 1 – 1:14, 3 – :58, 4 – 3:54, 5 – 5:25 and 6 – 3:43)
• International Clips (SD, Discs 1-3 and 5-6) – Disc 1’s “Within” international clips include German (:57), Italian (:56) and Japanese (1:27).  Disc 2’s “Via Negativa” international clips include German (2:09), Italian (2:17) and Japanese (1:24).  Disc 3’s “The Gift” international clips include German (1:27), Italian (1:36) and Japanese (2:10).  Disc 5’s “Three Words” international clips include German (1:41), Italian (2:10) and Japanese (1:34).  Disc 6’s “Essence” international clips include German (1:46), Italian (:56) and Japanese (1:56) and “Existence” international clips include German (2:04), Italian (1:24), and Japanese (2:01).
• Deleted Scenes (w/optional commentary by Frank Spotnitz and John Shiban) ( , Disc) –
• Documentary: “The Truth About Season Eight” (SD, 23:12, Disc 6)
• Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Frank Spotnitz and John Shiban (SD, Discs 2 – 1:12, 3 – 1:21, 4 – 1:45, 5 – 1:15 and 6 – 5:26)
• Threads of Mythology: Colonization (SD, 27:15, Disc 6) – I don’t want to get into spoilers, but I think you already know what this one’s all about from the title alone and the directions the show takes us on in the sixth season.
• X-Files Profiles (SD, Disc 6) – There are three profiles here: Gibson Praise (6:02), John Dogget (6:22) and Alex Krycek (6:23).
• Within: Commentary by Kim Manners and Robert Patrick (Disc 1)
• Deadalive: Commentary by Frank Spotnitz (Disc 4)
• Vienen: Commentary by Rod Hardy (Disc 5)
• Alone: Audio Commentary by Frank Spotnitz (Disc 6)
• Existence: Audio Commentary by Kim Manners (Disc 6)
• Documentary: The Truth About Season Eight (SD, 23:12, Disc 6)
• Television Spots (SD, 11:12, Disc 6) – It’s your basic coming up next week kind of episodic filler for the episodes here in Season 8 with a Play All option available.

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Season Nine 

• Deleted Scenes w/Optional Commentary by Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter  (SD, Discs 1 – 11:44, 2 – 2:08, 3 – 1:29, 4 – 1:40 and 5 – 4:18)
• Special Effects by Mat Beck with Commentary by Paul Rabin (SD, Discs 1 – :41, 2 – 2:07, 3 – 2:16, 4 – 1:19 and 5 – 1:49)
• International Clips (SD, Discs 1-5) – Disc 1’s “Nothing Important Happened Today II” international clips include German (2:34), Italian (1:52) and Japanese (1:25). Disc 2’s “Trust No 1” international clips include German (1:56), Italian (2:02) and Japanese (1:43).  Disc 3’s “Provenance” international clips include German (2:02), Italian (1:16) and Japanese (1:37).  Disc 4’s “William” international clips include German (1:36), Italian (:35), Japanese (2:15) and Spanish (1:05).    Disc 5’s “The Truth” international clips include German (1:27), Italian (1:47) and Japanese (1:55).
• Improbable: Audio Commentary by Chris Carter (Disc 4)
• Jump The Shark: Audio Commentary by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz (Disc 4)
• The Truth: Audio Commentary by Kim Manners (Disc 5)
• Documentary: “The Truth About Season Nine” (SD, 20:44, Disc 6)
• “The Making of ‘The Truth’” (SD, 1:07:45, Disc 6) – Here we have an intense and lengthy look at the making of the final episodes.
• “Secrets of The X-Files” (SD, 42:58, Disc 6) – These next two extras are quite lengthy.  This one feels like a documentary about Scully and Mulder highlighting some of their most extraordinary cases.
• “More Secrets of The X-Files” (SD, 45:08, Disc 6) – This is like a continuation of the above extra as we go deeper into why the show is so successful and learn more secrets about the show (as the narrator bills it).
• Threads of Mythology: Super Soldiers (SD, 26:59, Disc 6) – This one kind of tries to explain why the show lasted as long as it did.  
• X-Files Profiles (SD, Disc 6) – There are two profiles here: Monica Ryes (6:46) and Brad Folder (7:46).
• Reflections on The X-Files (SD, 17:42, Disc 6) – This one explores what the show means to everyone including actors, ordinary people and whatnot.  The clips they show crack me up with Mulder’s quips.  Heck, even Cher (for real) chimes in on why she loves this show!  Sounds like a must watch extra, right?  All kidding aside, it is a pretty fun watch.  Burt Reynolds even talks about how he got to play God.  Paul McCrane from E.R. even talks about a contact lens mishap he had on the show (“Leonard Betts”).  
• WonderCon Panel 2008 (SD, 26:48, Disc 6) – This candid discussion at WonderCon 2008 took place right before the premier of the second X-Files movie.  
• Television Spots (SD, 11:02, Disc 6) – It’s your basic coming up next week kind of episodic filler for the episodes here in Season 9 with a Play All option available.

Summary 

So there you go!  The truth is finally out there once and for all as I held nothing back from you in this Blu-ray review of The X-Files – The Collector’s Set.  With over 23 hours of special features to sift through and 202 episodes (approximately 9,061 minutes) of the legendary show to binge watch anytime you want in the privacy of your own home, I think you’ll be busy for quite awhile.  There’s no denying that if you’re an X-Files fan, 2015 is your year as you can finally own all nine seasons remastered in glorious HD on the Blu-ray format for the very first time ever, almost two years in the making (the restoration process that is), which includes the first four seasons presented in anamorphic widescreen.  I put a lot of blood, sweat, tears and elbow grease into my Blu-ray review up above so if you’re happy with everything I covered, please let me know in the comments down below or by showing some love and clicking on the order link because I’ll remind you and say it once again.   The X-Files – The Collector’s Set is a must-have for any fan of the truth this holiday season.   Boom!

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ORDER

The X-Files – The Collector’s Set

NOW!

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** DISCLAIMER: Blu-ray screenshots above are created from images culled from the Blu-ray/DVD comparisons on http://www.brandonklassen.com/x-files/.