The X-Files: 'Ice'

Fans of The X-Files fall into two categories: those who prefer the episodes connected to the alien conspiracy and those who prefer the self-contained standalone episodes. Those of us who fall into the latter category explain our preference by arguing that the standalones were a hellava lot scarier than the ones in the former category. Case in point: the seventh episode, Ice (originally broadcast on Nov. 5, 1993).

Directed by David Nutter and written by frequent contributors Glen Morgan and James Wong, this was one of the first truly frightening episodes of the series. That Ice is a homage/rip-off of John W. Campbell’s classic sci-fi/horror story Who Goes There? and its two film versions, Howard Hawks’ The Thing from Another World (1951) and John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), is made clear from the name of one of the characters, Campbell.

The term “cold opening” takes on a whole new meaning in the pre-credits prologue which takes place in a military base in a remote Arctic region. Just about everyone stationed there has been murdered. Richter (Ken Kirzinger), one of the two survivors, is recording a cryptic video transmission where he keeps repeating the same phrase over and over again: “We are not who we are.” The other survivor, Campbell (Sonny Surwiec), suddenly appears and the two men face each other at gunpoint. Then they slowly turn the guns on themselves and commit double suicide.

Needless to say, this is a case for F.B.I. agents Fox Mulder (Dana Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). They are assigned to accompany a team of scientists who will be investigating the deaths: Dr. Hodge (Xander Berkeley, best remembered as George Mason on 24), Dr. Nancy Da Silva (Felicity Huffman, currently on Desperate Housewives) and Dr. Denny Murphy (Steve Hytner, best remembered as lame stand-up comic Kenny Bania on Seinfeld). The only other member of the party is airplane pilot Bear (Jeff Kober, a frequent heavy on Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

When they arrive at the deserted base, the only living creature they find is a dog (played by the father of Duchovny’s real-life pet Blue). The dog suddenly turns vicious and attacks Bear and Mulder. They tranquilize the dog and examine it, finding a worm-like parasite borrowing underneath the dog’s skin. Bear, whose skin was broken by the dog’s bite wants to bail, but the others insist that they have to stay and discover what the parasite is before taking a chance of infecting the rest of the world.

When Bear goes ballistic, he is restrained by the others and another parasite is discovered underneath his skin. The scientists remove the parasite and Bear dies immediately. Stranded on the base due to inclement weather, the party settles in for the night. Hearing a noise, Mulder investigates and finds the newly murdered body of Dr. Murphy. Obviously, one of them is infected, but who is it?

The X-Files: Ice is available from Netflix (Season One, Disc Two) and Amazon.