Die-hard fans of
The X-Files have already gone the season-set route to pick up every episode of the show that they want to have, but more casual fans have complained over time that they have no interest in owning everything, not even after
last May's price reductions. What those casual fans have asked for is a smaller set containing just the "conspiracy arc" episodes that make up the central continuing storyline of the show, and gave it such mystery for many viewers.
Now
Video Business is
reporting (registration required) that Fox Home Entertainment is working on just such a release! In news that broke yesterday, writer Jennifer Netherby says that we will get this:
...A themed collection of 16 The X-Files episodes from the first three seasons, featuring government conspiracy episodes in order, beginning with the pilot.
May 17th is the date she reports that this will hit the street, and that's all the info provided about it. No episode list was provided, nor any other details. And Fox hasn't officially announced this yet.
My personal guess is that we won't see *all* the conspiracy episodes from the 3rd season, but that it will end after the first two episodes of that season, "The Blessing Way" and "Paper Clip". Those resolve the cliffhanger started at the end of the 2nd season, "Anasazi" (which was the episode that got me hooked on
The X-Files in the first place). Other episodes that are sure to be included besides the Pilot are "Deep Throat", "Fallen Angel", "E.B.E.", "The Erlenmeyer Flask", "Little Green Men", "Duane Barry", "Ascension", "One Breath", "Colony", and "End Game". Those are my guesses, not official info, and it leaves room for a pair of additional episodes to be identified later. I'm sure that somewhere is a list of which episodes creator Chris Carter considers to be official "conspiracy episodes", and we hope that the studio goes along with that.
Our thanks to Jennifer Netherby at
Video Business for such a wonderful article, covering the TV Critics Association's Winter Press Tour, which TVShowsOnDVD owner Gord Lacey was attending. Gord heard about this
X-Files release there, too, and knows that there will be extras on the conspiracy compilation as well as the episodes. He's working to get more specifics from Fox, so stay tuned and we'll bring you updates just as soon as possible!
