One of the best episodes of Season 1 is Ice. Although reminiscent of The Thing, I like Ice better. Overall it's an intense, creepy episode from start to finish. Starting with "We are not who we are." mantra which sets the tone from the start; to Mulder and Scully pointing guns at each other, "Mulder, you may not be who you are.".Once the team arrives to the Arctic Base in the middle of nowhere, we see the crazy dog attack Fox and Bear (coincidence?) and Bear (the only pilot that can get the team out of there) gets infected with the organism. Bear knows quickly that he is infected. He then starts getting confrontational and then things start moving in the episode. Especially when we see the team pull the organism out of Bear's neck! He of course dies as a result. On top of this, there is an Artic storm preventing any help from arriving any time soon. Conflict piled on top of conflict. This episode is not only a great X-Files episode, it's a great TV episode. You could stack this episode up against any other great TV episode from any era and any genre and it would compete well. Another great thing about this episode with respect to the X-Files mythology, is that it sets up the concept of the Black Oil very nicely. A great quote by Fox as the men disrobe to make sure no one is infected: "Before anyone passes judgement, we are in the Artic". It was good to see a young Felicity Huffman, Xander Berkley and Steve Hytner in this episode. Unfortunately, this great episode is followed by my least favorite episode of Season 1, if not the whole series (Yes, worse than Ghost in the Machine) - Space.

*This review was originally published on X-FilesNews.com in early 2012.