Ice (The X-Files)
"Ice" is the eighth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, premiering on the Fox network on November 5, 1993.
The plot of the episode shows FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigating the deaths of an Alaskan research team.
Isolated and alone, the agents and their accompanying team discover the existence of extraterrestrial parasitic organisms that drive their hosts into impulsive fits of rage.
The episode was inspired by an article in Science News about an excavation in Greenland; series creator Chris Carter said it was also influenced by the John W. Campbell novella Who Goes There?
FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully head for the outpost, accompanied by physician Dr. Hodge, toxicologist Dr. Da Silva, geologist Dr. Murphy, and the team's pilot Bear.
Something moves under his skin, and he dies when Hodge makes an incision at the location of the movement and removes a small worm from the back of his neck.
Da Silva breaks free and the rest pursue her through the outpost until Mulder and Scully restrain her, allowing Hodge to place the last worm inside her.
[1][2] Glen Morgan began writing the episode after he read a Science News article about men in Greenland who found a 250,000-year-old item encased in ice.
[9] The episode introduced invertebrate parasites as antagonists in the series; this plot device would recur in "Firewalker", "The Host", "F. Emasculata" and "Roadrunners".
The episode's few exterior shots were filmed at Delta Air Park in Vancouver, whose hangars and flat terrain simulated an Arctic location.
[6] Although extra footage of the worm scenes was shot so they would last as long as intended if Fox's standards-and-practices officials asked for cuts, no edits were requested.
[18] The episode is noted for exploring the relationship between its lead characters; Mulder and Scully's trust contrasts with the behavior of Hodge and Da Silva, who are united by a distrust of those around them.
In her essay "Last Night We Had an Omen", Leslie Jones noted this thematic leitmotif in several of their other X-Files scripts: "the meek animal-control inspector who is a mutant shape-shifter with a taste for human liver ["Squeeze"], the hapless residents of rural Pennsylvania driven mad by a combination of insecticides and electronic equipment ["Blood"], [and] the uptight PTA run by practicing Satanists ["Die Hand Die Verletzt"]".
[20] Anne Simon, a biology professor at the University of Maryland, discussed the episode in her book Monsters, Mutants and Missing Links: The Real Science Behind the X-Files.
Club article, listing ten "must-see" episodes of the series, called "Ice" "the first sign that this show had a shot at really being something special" and said that it "makes great use of claustrophobia and the uneasy but growing alliance between the heroes".
"[31] A New York Daily News review called the episode "potent and creepy", and said that its plot "was worthy of honorary passage into The Twilight Zone".
[37] Robert Shearman, in his book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, gave the episode five out of five stars.
Shearman further felt that although their script was derivative, Morgan and Wong created "a pivotal story" by combining crucial themes from The Thing with a "well rounded" cast of characters.
