This boxed set boasts six of the best episodes from the first season of the "uncanny" X-Files, which makes it an essential part of any X-Files fan collection or a good introduction to the series. The first tape contains the show that started it all: the pilot episode and "Deep Throat," where Agent Mulder uncovers an Area 51-esque military outpost and is contacted by the first of many informants. The second tape contains "Conduit" and "Ice." In "Conduit," a young girl mysteriously disappears from a camping trip. Agent Mulder suspects alien abduction, while Agent Scully believes she ran away with the local biker gang. Evidence of otherworldly goings-on pile up while the girl's younger brother stares into the static of the television set, writing down what seems to be random numeric code. In "Ice" (an episode on actors Gillian Anderson, David Duchovney, and show creator Chris Carter's best episodes lists), production design and special effects reign. A team of scientists in the Arctic Circle are found dead. Mulder and Scully investigate, discovering a wormlike parasite that buries into its victims causing psychotic behavior. The third tape includes the episodes "Fallen Angel" and "Eve." "Fallen Angel" is the series first introduction to Max Fenig, a conspiracy-theory follower, Agent Mulder fan, and perhaps alien abductee. Something crashes in the Wisconsin woods. The military claims it to be a downed fighter jet, but Mulder suspects more. What he discovers is a cover up on a massive scale. In "Eve," two men are murdered in the same grisly way on different coasts at the same time. The one thing in common? Their daughters look exactly alike. When the girls are kidnapped, Mulder and Scully discover something more sinister at the hands of government scientific experimentation. All tapes are preceded with interviews with Chris Carter, who gives some production insight into the episodes that follow. --Shannon Gee