Ice (The X-Files)

"Ice"
The X-Files episode
The arctic worms
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 8
Directed by	David Nutter
Written by	Glen Morgan James Wong
Production code	1X07
Original air date	November 5, 1993
Running time	43 minutes
Guest stars
Xander Berkeley as Dr. Hodge Felicity Huffman as Dr. Nancy Da Silva Steve Hytner as Dr. Denny Murphy Jeff Kober as Bear Ken Kirzinger as Mr. Richter Sonny Surowiec as Mr. Campbell
Episode chronology
← Previous "Ghost in the Machine" Next → "Space"
List of season 1 episodes List of The X-Files episodes

"Ice" is the eighth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on November 5, 1993. It was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, directed by David Nutter, and featured guest appearances by Felicity Huffman, Xander Berkley and Steve Hytner. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Ice" earned a Nielsen household rating of 6.6, being watched by 6.2 million households in its initial broadcast. The episode was inspired in part by the film The Thing, and received positive reviews, with critics praising its tense atmosphere.

When investigating the deaths of an Alaskan research team, FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) discover the existence of extraterrestrial parasitic organisms which drive their hosts into impulsive fits of rage.

Plot

At a remote outpost in Alaska, a team of geophysicists working for the Arctic Ice Core Project meet an inexplicable and violent end in a mass murder/suicide. After reviewing disturbing videotapes of their final transmissions, Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully head to the outpost during a three day window between Arctic storms. Accompanying them are Dr. Hodge, a medical doctor; Dr. DaSilva, a toxicologist; Dr. Murphy, a professor of geology; and Bear, the only pilot willing to fly them up there. Both Hodge and DaSilva are immediately suspicious of the agents because of their affiliation with the FBI.

Upon entering the outpost, the group find the bodies of the scientists, as well as a dog that attacks Mulder and Bear. Upon tranquilizing the dog, Scully notices black nodules on its skin, and suggests that it may be infected with bubonic plague. The group also notices something moving underneath the dog's skin. When cleaning his wound from the dog attack, Bear starts feeling ill and notices the nodules on him as well. An autopsy shows that none of the bodies display the nodules. Murphy finds an ice core sample in the scientists' lab, and believes it to originate from a meteor crater; when ammonium hydroxide is detected in one of the corpses, Murphy theorizes that the core sample might be 250,000 years old.

An increasingly agitated Bear insists on leaving, but the others are worried about infecting the outside world with a possible contagion. When the others ask him for a stool sample, Bear attacks Mulder and tries to flee. When the others find something moving underneath Bear's skin, Scully removes a small worm from the back of his neck; Bear dies as a result. Without a pilot to fly them back, Mulder calls in a transmission to pick them up, but is told help won't be available because of the weather.

The worm removed from Bear is placed in a jar of ammonia, and another one is recovered from one of the corpses. Mulder believes the worm to be from an alien world and wants them kept alive, while Scully feels that they should be destroyed to risk from infecting others. The agents and doctors check each other for black nodules, but don't find any, although Mulder reminds Scully that this may not be a definitive proof of infection since the nodules on the dog disappeared after a while. That night, Mulder hears some noise and finds blood dripping from the freezer. He opens the Freezer and finds Murphy inside, dead with his throat slit. After being caught outside his room, the others—including Scully—believe Mulder became infected and killed Murphy. Mulder is then locked up in the store room.

While investigating the worm, DaSilva accidentally mixes two drops of infected blood. Examining the blood, Scully and DaSilva discover that two worms put together will kill each other. They place one of the worms into the infected dog, which results in the dog's recovery. Hodge and DaSilva decide to put the other worm in Mulder. However, Scully is cautious, thinking he may not be infected after all. Regardless, Hodge and DaSilva lock up Scully and forcibly restrain Mulder, trying to put the worm into him. However, Hodge notices a worm moving under DaSilva's skin and realizes she is the infected one, not Mulder. He and Mulder restrain DaSilva and put the last worm inside of her.

Upon returning to civilization, DaSilva is quarantined; Hodge, Mulder and Scully are released. Mulder wants to return to the site, but Hodge tells him that it was destroyed by an unknown agency after their departure.

Production

Co-writer Glen Morgan was originally inspired to write this episode after reading an article in Science News about men in Greenland who dug up something 250,000 years old out of the ice. The overall setting of a remote icy research base overcome by an extraterrestrial creature is somewhat similar to that of the Who Goes There? novelette by John W. Campbell, as well as its two feature film incarnations—1951's The Thing From Another World, directed by Howard Hawks, and 1982's The Thing, directed by John Carpenter. Series creator Chris Carter has called them the biggest inspiration for the episode. Just as in the novelette and movies, people do not trust each other because they are unsure if they are what they seem to be, an aspect Carter added that he enjoyed for putting Mulder and Scully against each other in a way it gave "a new look on their characters early on in the series". The similarity was also a result of the fact that the complex in which the episode took place was created by newly-arrived production designer Graeme Murray, who had worked on John Carpenter's version of The Thing. One of the team members in the episode is named Campbell, an homage to the novelette author.

"Ice" was originally intended as a bottle episode—one which would save money by being shot in a single location—but still ended up going over budget. As a bottle episode, the cast of "Ice" was quite small. The episode featured guest appearances by Xander Berkeley, Felicity Huffman, Steve Hytner, Jeff Kober and Ken Kirzinger as the crew accompanying Mulder and Scully on the expedition. The interior shots for the episode were all filmed in a set constructed at an old Molson brewery site; whilst the episode's few exterior shots were filmed at Delta Air Park in Vancouver chosen because its hangars and flat terrain would not give away that it was clearly not in the Arctic. The production company had at first planned to portray the worms using snakes wearing latex suits, but when this proved to be infeasible, the decision was made to switch to beetle larvae instead. The worms crawling in the host bodies was done with wires under fake skins, including one with fake hair for the dog. Digital worms were employed for scenes such as them swimming in the vats and entering the dog's ear.

Broadcast and reception

"Ice" premiered on the Fox network on November 5, 1993, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on November 10, 1994. The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 6.6 with an 11 share, meaning that roughly 6.6 percent of all television-equipped households, and 11 percent of households watching TV, were tuned in to the episode. A total of 6.2 million households watched this episode during its original airing.

This episode was highly praised as one of the best episodes of the first season by its creators. Chris Carter felt that writers Glen Morgan and James Wong "just outdid themselves on this show, as did director David Nutter, who really works so hard for us. I think they wrote a great script and he did a great job directing it, and we had a great supporting cast". Director David Nutter stated that "the real great thing about 'Ice' is that we were able to convey a strong sense of paranoia. It was also a great ensemble piece. We're dealing with the most basic emotions of each character, ranging from their anger to their ignorance and fear. It established the emotional ties these two characters have with each other, which is very important. Scaring the hell of out of the audience was definitely the key to the episode". Actress Gillian Anderson stated that "it was very intense. There was a lot of fear and paranoia going on. We had some great actors to work with".

In their book The Complete X-Files, authors Matt Hurwitz and Chris Knowles called the episode a milestone for the fledgling series. In a retrospective of the first season in Entertainment Weekly, "Ice" was rated an A-, being described it as "particularly taut and briskly paced". Keith Phipps, writing for The A.V. Club, praised the episode, rating it an A. He felt that the cast "plays the paranoia beautifully", and that the episode was "as fine an hour as this first season would produce". Digital Spy's Ben Rawson-Jones has described the stand-off between Mulder and Scully in the episode as "an extremely tense moment of paranoia", whilst a review in New York's Daily News called it "potent and creepy", claiming that the plot "was worthy of honorary passage into The Twilight Zone". Matt Haigh, writing for Den of Geek, reviewed the episode positively, calling it "an extremely absorbing and thrilling episode", whilst acknowledging its debt of influence to The Thing. Anna Johns, writing for TV Squad, thought positively of "Ice", calling it "a spectacular episode" and praising its opening as "excellent". A UGO Networks countdown of the top "monster-of-the-week" appearances on the series listed the worms featured in "Ice" at number 11, describing them as the cause of "much pointed-guns aggression".

Footnotes

References

• Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0316218081. 
• Goldman, Jane (1995). The X-Files Book of the Unexplained Volume I. HarperPrism. ISBN 0061686174. 
• Gradnitzer, Louisa; Pittson, Todd (1999). X Marks the Spot: On Location with The X-Files. Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 1551520664. 
• Lovece, Frank (1996). The X-Files Declassified. Citadel Press. ISBN 080651745X. 
• Lowry, Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. ISBN 0061053309. 

External links

• "Ice" on The X-Files Wiki, an external wiki
• "Ice" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Ice" at TV.com