 
The X-Files Mythology Collection: Abduction The Lone Gunmen While the faithful wait patiently for the cast of The X-Files to re-unite for another movie (yes, it’s really happening), we can fill the gap with a new series of box sets devoted to the mythology that helped drive the series for nine seasons. Episodes dealing with alien abductions, the planned takeover of Earth and the government conspiracy to obfuscate the truth were often the heart and soul of the series and loyal fans lived for these shows, despite the fact that they often created more questions than they answered. Abduction contains 15 episodes from the first three seasons and includes “The Erlenmeyer Flask” the Season 1 finale that ends with the shocking murder of a pivotal character, the terrifying abduction scenes in “Duane Barry” and “Ascension,” where we meet the shapeshifting alien bounty hunter and the trilogy of “Anasazi,” “ The Blessing Way” and “Paper Clip” that served as the finale of Season 2 and beginning of Season 3. It’s here that Mulder travels to New Mexico and discovers a boxcar containing alien corpses buried in the desert, Scully discovers a chip implanted in her neck and the duo find a secret government facility containing medical records of hundreds of U.S. citizens, including Mulder’s sister. Five of these episodes contain commentary tracks and a new “Threads Of Mythology” documentary allows the cast and crew to share their feelings about the creation of the those episodes and what set them apart from the “stand alones” that madeup the bulk of the series. Over the course of The X-Files’ nine seasons, three geeks known as The Lone Gunmen became big fan favorites, so it seemed like a good idea when creator Chris Carter decided to give them their own show. Unfortunately, the series couldn’t gain any momentum in the ratings and only lasted for 13 weeks. While it certainly wasn’t groundbreaking, the show was fun to watch, even if some of the story lines were just a bit too silly. The pilot however, is chilling in retrospect, as it dealt with a government plot to fly a plane into the World Trade Center, in order to blame it on an unnamed terrorist organization and beef up sales and manufacturing in the arms industry. Since the show was given the axe early, some of the loose ends were wrapped up in an episode of The X-Files entitled “Jump The Shark” that’s included here, along with a featurette on the making of the series. - David Bassin
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