1993's fall TV premiers were like all others. New shows hit the airwaves and old favorites came back for another go-round. Even sci-fi geeks had a new show they wanted to check out, even though it didn't sound too promising, The X-Files. Yeah, yeah, a cool dude and a hot chick run around the world chasing aliens. Whatever. But what they saw in one hour of television changed the way the world looked at science fiction, forever.

"The X-Files" was the brainchild of Chris Carter, the show's producer. Far from being "just another alien show", The X-Files smashed all the stereotypes, intriguing and terrifying us in ways that made us stop and wonder, "What if that could be real?" The conspiracies (known as the "myth-arc" to X-Philes) were not only fascinating, they were almost credible; the rest of the episodes (known as the "Monster of the Week" episodes to X-Philes) featured everything from man-eating mites to mothmen to mutants of all sorts. And, unbelievable as some of the creatures may have been, the masterful storytelling made the hidden believer in all of us sit up and take notice. Who else but Mulder and Scully could fall victim to a monstrous hallucinogenic mushroom that likes to eat humans? How about Doggett and the microscopic, jellyfish-like medusas? Somehow, they all came across as possible, if not plausible.

And then, there were the stories that touched the heart, like the alien who risked the deadly wrath of the others in his colony to disguise himself as an African-American man, just so he could play the earthling game he loved, baseball. And the luckiest man on earth, who turned out to actually be the un-luckiest.

Then, there were the just-plain-scary stories; like the writer who wrote so well, his murder mystery involving Scully came true, the doctor whose family was stalked by a barely-educated Appalachian hexcraft master, and the leg-less Indian mystic who wanted revenge on the people who unknowingly killed his son.

Here are my picks for the best and worst episodes, among other categories:

Best Single-Episode Suspense

Darkness Falls
Detour
Schizogeny
Folie a Deux
Agua Mala
Monday
Field Trip
Millennium
Redrum
Via Negativa
Badlaa
Medusa
Daemonicus
Audrey Pauley

Best Cliffhangers

Duane Barry & Ascension
Anasazi, The Blessing Way, & Paper Clip
Biogenesis, The Sixth Extinction, & The Sixth Extinction II-Amor Fati
Within & Without
This Is Not Happening & DeadAlive
Provenance & Providence
The Truth, 1 & 2

Worst Episodes

Humbug (This episode was freaky and boring, in my opinion.)
Zero Sum (Three words: I hate bees.)
Hungry (Disgusting.)
Theef (This was too scary for me; witchcraft also grates against my beliefs)
Hollywood A.D (Pointless, and utterly ignorant.)
Lord of the Flies (Pointless, and utterly ignorant)
Hellbound (Really disgusting)
Improbable (Pointless, ignorant, and boring)
Sunshine Days (Just plain stupid)

Funniest Episodes

Kill Switch
Dreamland & Dreamland II
How the Ghosts Stole Christmas
Arcadia
X-COPS
First Person Shooter

The Tearjerkers

Christmas Carol & Emily
The Unnatural
The Goldberg Variation
Sein und Zeit & Closure
Requiem
Invocation
4-D
Jump the Shark

If there are any other X-Philes here, I'd be glad to hear from you! You can catch reruns of "The X-Files" weeknights at 5:00 P.M. EST on the Sci-Fi channel.

NOTE: If you would like the episode descriptions (in case you don't know the titles) just click the "Contact Blogger" button and I'll send them to you.

NOTE 2: As of this blogging, I have seen only 159 of the 201 episodes, so my lists may be a bit inaccurate. As I see more episodes, I will update this blog.

May the Force be with you,
--i12bajedi

P.S. Trust no one! X)