region 2 DVD. pub: 20th Century Fox F1-0GB 21152MDVD. 7 DVDs 1100 minutes 24 episodes with extras. Price: about £13.00 (UK) if you know where to look). stars: David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.

check out www.foxtvdvd.com

With the third season of the TV series 'The X-Files' and its growing popularity, creator Chris Carter in the interview with these DVDs says they felt confident to explore the underlying mythology as well as give individual stories. Mind you, considering that FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder was apparently incinerated at the end of the previous season meant they had to bring him back first. In some ways, this was a reverse of Dana Scully's re-appearance from the previous season although here she has to dabble far more into the way-out stuff her working partner takes in his stride.

Once things got back to normal, it wasn't long before the alien oil...er...surfaced and brought back Alex Krycek and possessing him. The end of the season begins a sequence bringing back the alien assassin. This season also contains the award-winning 'Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose' with actor Peter Boyle capable of predicting everyone's death...including his own.



There are a lot of good episodes here including the paranoiac 'War Of The Coprophages'. Outside of cities, I don't see any cockroaches over here but I can understand some of you people becoming wary of them. Probably my favourite episode is 'Quagmire' if only to see Mulder and Scully clearly out of their depth (sic) and missing an important piece of evidence by not looking the right way. Mind you, the outtake shows how it was done. For Stargate SG-1 fans, you can find actress Amanda Tapping having a head-turning experience in 'Avatar'.

It's hard to believe that this season was first shown on the box over thirteen years ago now yet it still holds up remarkably well. The extras also show a lot more of the people behind the scenes and probably more scary visually than you would have imagined. With video recorders hitting the dust, I think its important to buy some boxsets and when its possible to get something such as this one cheap, it's a mistake not to buy them.

GF Willmetts