"Ice" was an episode that aired way back when The X-Files was still a fledgling series, and perhaps more so than any other episode at that time, proved what a powerhouse of actors and writers 1013 had in their arsenal. After a rather average stretch of standalones, "Ice" delves into the paranoia and un-solidified trust between Mulder and Scully. Paranoia had always been a driving force behind the scripts of early episodes, but not until this one did it really hit home run. In a script that puts Mulder and Scully at each other's gunpoint, the intensity of its scenes are thicker than the crystalline phase of water it's named after.
Morgan and Wong's premise is straightforward: a research team in Alaska is found dead, ostensibly having done each other in, and the FBI is called in to investigate, with the assistance of a doctor, toxicologist, professor and pilot. When a vicious dog attacks the pilot (Jeff Kober, who I always forget isn't actually Steven Tyler), and causes him to behave in a quarrelsome manner, it's clear that something out of the ordinary is going on.
Although the basic plot of "Ice" is not far removed from John Carpenter's classic horror film "The Thing," the addition of Mulder and Scully and the first real test of their partnership make for some memorable moments. The real crux of the dilemma is that everyone is a potential candidate for infection (of an acetylcholine-hungry arctic worm that coincidentally bears similar qualities to the black oil from later seasons). Scully's barely masked horror and Mulder's instinctive inclinations do not keep them from being potential suspects; they realize this. Ironically it is the team of Hodge (Xander Berkeley of 24) and Da Silva (Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives and Transamerica) who falter in their unquestioning trust.
Perhaps even more so than the web of mythology arcs that dominated the show's later years, "Ice" is really what the heart of The X-Files is all about. Trust, vulnerability, friction, the fear of the outsider on the inside. This script would serve as an archetype for a countless number of subsequent episodes ("Darkness Falls," "Firewalker," "Dod Kalm," "Agua Mala" and so on and so forth). All of those varied in quality, but it can be confidently stated that none matched the cutting intensity of this seminal predecessor. This is widely regarded as one of the series's finest hours, and with a plot that still provides chills (pardon the pun) some seventeen years later, it's not hard to comprehend why. 10 out of 10.
