Since today is the 30th anniversary of The X-Files pilot airing I ( @lets-steal-an-archive ) started a thread on Twitter of where many folks found their first X-Files scripts and a thread of some of the more interesting (set-used) scripts in my own personal collection.
Between the "Official" Fan Club and places like Script Shop at least one version of every episode of the original series (seasons 1-9) have been available since the show was airing.
You don't need to fill out a form to request one at a time, and you can download the files to read offline.
Here's ones I shared here before bringing the total to around 70 episodes of scripts ⤵️
my favorite x files episodes in each of the first 5 seasons
“ice” (1x08)
“one breath” (2x08)
“jose chung from outer space” (3x20)
“memento mori” (4x14)
“bad blood” (5x12)
“ice” (1x08)
such a tense episode and really felt everybody’s stress in this scenario (even if you’ve never seen the x-files before i feel like you can enjoy this episode as if it’s a survival/horror movie) and the elements it reveals and ways it tests mulder and scully’s relationship really pulled at my heartstrings (“for God’s sake: it’s me” always makes me clutch my chest)
“one breath” (2x08)
love the way scully’s state is depicted artistically but mostly i’m moved by the devotion mulder shows to scully (clutching my heart once again) between his initial rage arriving at the hospital and his moving speech to scully before being moved to pray for her (even in just season 2 i understood how much that meant for him) - also melissa scully dropped an absolute BANGER of a quote with “just because it’s positive and good doesn’t make it silly or trite”!
“jose chung from outer space” (3x20)
honestly remember loving this episode for a lot of the same reasons as “bad blood” - unreliable narrators are always fascinating to me as artistic takes in any media and this was so funny and creative between bleeping out words and the way mulder and scully acted (all in all felt like a parody of an x-files episode and i’m here for it)
“memento mori” (4x14)
hot on the tail of an episode i (and i think many other people) kinda hate (i get its purpose but of course i’m perpetually rooting for mulder-and-scully as soulmates) is this hard hitter and honestly the way they both deal with something this serious and imminent was really moving - and for the same reasons i love “one breath” i’m moved by the way mulder takes dealing with scully’s cancer so hard (they’re partners and best friends and linked in a way not defined by traditional love of any form) also the discussion at the end touches me and BUH clutching my heart once again
“bad blood” (5x12)
honestly i think this was one of the first x-files episodes i saw before i ever started the series chronologically and so of course i didn’t fully appreciate it but i still found it very entertaining - having finally caught up through 5 seasons it’s SUCH a good silly take on yet again unreliable narrators but also a kind of parody of the show itself: a teenage pizza delivery vampire is such a refreshing take and the absurdity of playing upon popular beliefs about vampires within the scully-and-mulder way of operating is just so entertaining (besides: i read something recently about how mulder and scully’s individual tellings of the stories reveal the insecurities they possess about their roles in the partnership with each feeling like a sidekick and i found that a really interesting take)
*p.s. some of these i waffled back and forth on cause there are so many good episodes but this is what i settled on