The X-Files pilot remains the greatest in TV history – even 30 years on
30 years on, the opening episode of the sci-fi cult classic remains television’s greatest ever pilot.
The history of television is littered with failed pilot episodes. Hell, even Game of Thrones, one of the most successful shows of all time, had to completely reshoot theirs because it was so disastrous.
With all of that said, it’s hard to describe the pilot episode of The X-Files, titled Pilot (duh!), as anything other than a resounding success - and if we’re being honest, the best pilot in television history.
While this may seem like a grandiose claim, upon closer inspection it becomes hard to argue with.
For the uninitiated who need a refresher on the events of The X-Files pilot episode, it goes as follows: Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is assigned to work on the X-Files with Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), with the hope that her scientific background will debunk his work.
Their first case takes them to the forests of Oregon where they investigate a series of deaths in a community, which Mulder suspects are centred around extra-terrestrial interference.
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If we start with the overall premise itself, the pilot episode of The X-Files provides the skeleton for the following 11 seasons and 217 episodes. There’s a pervasive sense of mystery, suspense and, dare I say, horror, from the very first scene of a teenage girl running through the woods of Oregon before a bright light from the sky engulfs her.
The X-Files immediately established itself as something new and alternative in the television landscape of police procedurals, right from the off. As the episode progresses, these ideas of mystery and suspicion build, and the show establishes a central tenet that will drive The X-Files until the end: trust no one.
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Pilot introduces countless avenues to demonstrate this tenet, from Division Chief Blevins (Charles Cioffi) asking Scully to debunk the X-Files right off the bat, to the local Oregon sheriff who’s about as shifty a bloke as you can imagine, to the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B Davis) who will loom large in the shadows for years to come as he works towards his own endgame.
However, for all the narrative tone-setting that The X-Files pilot admirably delivers, it also provides something far greater. For all of the government conspiracies, alien invasions, shape-shifters and super-soldiers, the core foundation that made The X-Files such a remarkable show was the chemistry of its central relationship.
It’s hard to put into words how good Duchovny and Anderson were together on-screen, whether they were butting heads over unexplained phenomena, defending one another from alien shape-shifters, or giving each other a once over to check for potential extra-terrestrial spots – there’s an almost static charge between the two of them that propels the show forward.
It's not uncommon for shows built on a core relationship to take time in getting to the point where that chemistry sings, and understandably so. That makes the relationship between Mulder and Scully in the pilot episode all the more remarkable.
From their first encounter in the depths of the J Edgar Hoover Building, where Mulder has been, in essence, banished for his work in the eponymous X-Files, you just knew this was an on-screen relationship that was destined to flourish.
While the sceptic/believer dynamic would reach a breaking point later on in the series’s run, as Scully’s sceptism simply couldn’t be justified given all the things her character had seen and experienced up to that point (seriously, you’ve been abducted by aliens… a regenerating paramedic who eats cancer should seem perfectly normal by that point), it felt wonderfully fresh in the pilot.
Scully’s bright-eyed, science-first approach versus Mulder’s haunted past and fervent belief in the unexplained was appointment viewing, playing so well thanks to crackling chemistry between Duchovny and Anderson.
The X-Files was a rollercoaster of a television show, delivering some of the highest of highs while also serving its audience with some of the most abject episodes in small-screen history.
But the journey started in its pilot episode, an episode that made you want to believe in The X-Files, made you want to believe in Mulder and Scully’s long quest for the truth.
You can watch The X Files on Disney Plus. You can sign up to Disney Plus for £7.99 a month or £79.90 for a year now.
Looking for something else to watch? Check out our list of the best movies on Disney Plus and best shows on Disney Plus, or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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