"Director: Ron Hardy"

• X Files: Season 8 | DVD | (14/03/2005) from £16.96   |  Saving you £18.03 (106.31%)   |  RRP £34.99

  From the arrival of Agent John Doggett in 'Within' and Mulder's miraculous resurrection in 'Deadalive' to the birth of Scully's baby in 'Existence' these Season Eight episodes are a must for every X-Files fan! Episodes comprise: 1. Within 2. Without 3. Patience 4. Roadrunners 5. Invocation 6. Redrum 7. Via Negativa 8. Surekill 9. Salvage 10. Badlaa 11. The Gift 12. Medusa 13. Per Manum 14. This Is Not Happening 15. DeadAlive 16. Three Words 17. Empedocles 18. Vienen 19. Alon

• The X Files: Season 8 | DVD | (15/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £79.99

  The eighth series of The X-Files was a year of brave decisions. David Duchovny's increasing dissatisfaction with the role meant he only appeared in a few episodes. The solution: enter Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick) who basically stole the show within his first two minutes of screen time (and watch out for several Terminator 2 in-jokes too). Scully switched roles to being the believer alongside Doggett's sceptic in a year that was more reliant on the background story arc than ever before. Her pregnancy remained at the foreground, while a more prominent Skinner joined in a hunt for the abducted Mulder that drew upon the black oil, cloning and bounty hunting aspects of the convoluted alien conspiracy story. A distinct lack of guest stars or writers indicated maturity beyond the need for ratings stunts: dedicated fans were pleased to see cameos from sinister Krycek, the reliable Lone Gunmen and the return of the show's very first abductee. The real strengths of the series came from new characters, including alternative female role model Special Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), and some terrific standalone episodes. Investigations covered a man going backwards in time, deaths aboard an oil rig, a contagion in the Boston subway tunnels and creatures resembling bats and slugs. Agent Leyla Harrison (named after an X-Files fan who died of cancer) got to ask all the petty questions regular viewers want to know themselves. This year turned out to be a remarkable achievement so late in the show's life. On the DVD: The X-Files, Series 8 is a six-disc box set with all the episodes presented in anamorphic 16:9 format with Dolby 2.0 sound. The extras are mainly confined to the final disc, though there are selected deleted scenes and "international" clips from the dubbed German, Japanese and Italian versions of the show on the other discs. Two audio commentaries for the episodes "Alone" (from director Frank Spotnitz) and "Existence" (from director Kim Manners) are supplemented by a routine 30-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, more deleted scenes (with optional commentary), character profiles and special effects clips. --Paul Tonks