X-Files: Mythology, Volume Three - Colonization

Patient X resumes the mythology story arc left off by Redux Part I I with Mulder being misled into believing that alien abductions constitutes an elaborate Government conspiracy against the American people by using them as test subjects for an elaborate scheme to develop biological weapons against the Soviets and totally discrediting his deeply held beliefs regarding extraterrestrial existence and discounting the testimony of Cassandra, an alien abductee, who, through the help of his former hypnotherapist, Dr. Werber, has managed to recover memories of her abductions, in the same manner that Dr. Werber managed to assist Mulder to recover memories of his sister's abduction, which he now renounces as false memories. Meanwhile, Cassandra engages in a uncannily detailed recount of the sensations that Scully's abductions have left on her person, leading her to question Mulder's current lack of faith in the memories which he has long held to be true; while Marita and Alex Krycek uncover the plot by an alien rebel force attempting to thwart attempts at colonization of the planet by disfiguring themselves to prevent infection by the black oil that the colonists utilize to infect others to possess those they infect, and with the capture of an alien rebel, MJ12 decide that resistance might be possible and consider resistance against colonization for they discover that Krycek has infected an eyewitness to the alien rebel forces incineration of the aliens plotting colonization of earth in collusion with Marita which they had hoped to use as a bargaining chip and failing to do so were unable to conceal the fact that the Soviets had discovered an antidote that might enable resistance against colonization and that the fetus of an alien human hybrid which they have been collaborating with the alien colonists to develop without ever hoping to achieve success had become a reality. Meanwhile, Cassandra is bewildered that all the abductees who have gathered at Skyline Mountain, the beacon for extraterrestrial contact have been incinerated and solicits Mulder and Scully's help to stop the massacre. Scully follows Cassandra to Skyland Mountain and witnesses an extraterrestrial craft that has her believing Cassandra's account of her abduction experiences only to discover herself and Cassandra being abducted with only herself being returned to the scene of the massacre with no memory of her experiences.The Red and the Black resumes the story arc with Mulder discovering Scully at the site of the massacre with no recollection of how she got there nor what transpired and having Mulder convince her to undergo hypnoregressive therapy to uncover her memories which are then recorded on tape with Mulder discounting the memories as confabulations, while Skinner and Scully both feel that the extraterrestrial hypothesis to be the most plausible explanation; while MJ12 infect Marita with the black oil in the hope that introducing the vaccine to her immune system will enable resistance to no avail and finding that the only alien rebel they had captured has escaped, with Mulder close on his trail, and witnessing an extraterrestrial craft hovering above the truck he and the alien rebel were on and discovering the rebel being incinerated by the colonists, an incident that severely shakes his new found belief in a government conspiracy and leads him back to the acceptance of the extraterrestrial existence.The mythology story arc from The Red and the Black comes to a conclusion with Two Fathers and One Son. In Two Fathers, CBG - who has been manouvering to have his son take over the X-Files after a fire had burned down Mulder's Office, in an effort to discredit Mulder's work, and having Mulder reassigned to mundane tasks, finds his son seeking Mulder's help to investigate his mother's mysterious reappearance after her abduction and seeking to get Mulder to dissuade his mother of her ideas of alien abduction which he finds difficult to accept, only to have his father assign him to kill the alien rebel who is attempting to jeopardize MJ12's attempts to collude with the alien colonists by buying time to discover an antidote which will allow resistance and attempting to create an alien human hybrid to create slaves to facilitate colonization, which finds success in CBG's wife, Cassandra, and finding Spencer, CGB's son, have his specticism with regard to extraterrestrial life and the abduction scenario deeply shaken; while Mulder and Scully discover the secret agenda for colonization from Cassandra - who request to be killed prior to her capture by the DOD, in order to prevent colonization from ever materializing. In One Son, the story arc continues with Mulder and Scully being taken into a choreographed quarantine by the DOD - the pretext provided by Diana (Mulder's ex-girlfriend), to assume custody of Cassandra, when armed military men wearing contamination suits burst into Mulder's apartment prior to Mulder's attempt to kill Cassandra (at her request in order to prevent colonization); with CBG intruding into Mulder's apartment uninvited (after his release from the military facility where he was being detained) and revealing the whole truth about the secret agenda of MJ12 to collude with the aliens to create an alien human hybrid in order to buy time to work on a vaccine against infection by the black oil and prevent colonization by extracting the DNA from the fetus of an extraterrestrial biological entity (which they were using to assist the aliens to create an alien human hybrid which would serve as slaves for the alien colonists), and discovering that his father was part of MJ12 and initially objected to the idea of colluding with the alien's to develop an alien human hybrid by sacrificing one of his children - which the alien's demanded from each member of MJ12, so that they could experiment with these children to combine human DNA with alien DNA to create an alien human hybrid, resulting in the abduction of Mulder's sister, Samantha, due to the fact that he refused to surrender one of his children to the aliens.Highly recommended.

I think the absence of CHRISTMAS CAROL/EMILY is purely a space decision/concern - there are 60 episodes total (15 on each set) and some had to go (DEMONS is another casualty). For what it's worth, the crucial information that's missing is contained in a flashback scene from Season 8's PER MANUM:***SCULLY: I was left unable to conceive with whatever test that they did on me. And I am not ready to accept that I will never have children.(MULDER looks down as the elevator dings and the doors open into the basement. He walks out, then turns back to the elevator.)MULDER: Scully, there's, um, there's something I haven't told you either and I hope you, uh, forgive me and understand why I would have kept it from you.SCULLY: What?MULDER: During my investigation into your illness I found out the reason why you were left barren. Your ova were taken from you and stored in a government lab.SCULLY: What?(SCULLY is looking at him in shock. The elevator doors begin to close, but she puts up her hand to stop them.)SCULLY: You found them?***Yes, I'd prefer the EMILY episodes were included, too, but at least the most basic information is still there. Well, except that Emily herself existed. As much as I enjoy "new" XF product like this, what we really want is a new XF feature film!

This isn't a bad set of episodes by any means, but I think many fans would agree that at around this point in the series it started to get a little too weird, which does affect the entertainment aspect a bit IMHO. If this is any indication where volume 3 starts off, the Syndicate/Consortium is destroyed on the second of its four discs, effectively wiping out the colonization "project" that has been in the show since the beginning for the most part.I only had two minor criticisms with the product as a whole, and the Mythology Collection in general, and those are the 'theme' or 'title' of each volume doesn't really mean anything and the choice of episodes included are somewhat questionable. The volumes show the mythology episodes in chronological order, so I don't know why they were given titles/themes instead of just cover images and volume numbers. If this were strictly the 'colonization' collection the earlier stuff that sets up this conspiracy would be here rather what we get. Also, the episode selection a little too conservative; there are several eps that should've been included, with a few others that were being left out, but for some reason only the eps that directly involved the mythology/conspiracy were included and not ones that delved further into the plot and characterization. Other than those issues I rather enjoyed the continuation of the mythology plot.

I had purchased this set twice. The first time, discs 3 and 4 would not play. This time disc one would not play. It makes me wonder why these sets are inconsistent.

Great sets for new and old fans if you want to get to the main story of the X-Files. The set comes with a timeline to explain the events detailed in each set. As far as the content goes, the earlier episodes are much better in my opinion, the older the show got, they seemed to rewrite previous stories and plot lines. Still a nice collection. Very Happy with my purchase.

This is perfect for a fan of the alien storyline without the indie episodes (monsters, etc). Bought it for my dad who loved it. I own the full seasons on blu and like that these 4 sets are so watchable and the quality is excellent.