The X Files Deadalive

Agent Mulder is not around any more. He's been abducted by aliens. Agent Scully is pregnant. But who is the father? Agent Doggett is new to the team and thinks this UFO malarky doesn't add up to a phial of moondust.

Combining two episodes from Season 8, that have not been shown on BBC TV, Deadalive is the first DVD to have been spawned from the series. Things are odd, to say the least, and if you are not familiar with the characters, it may feel self indulgent in its apparent seriousness.

Gillian Anderson, as Scully, looks permanently on the brink of tears. Robert Patrick, as Doggett, keeps his upper lip rigid and never cracks a joke. David Duchovny, as Mulder, could do with a face massage, since he's in no position to talk.

Scully and Doggett search for Mulder, despite the fact that aliens are probably treating him as a science project right this minute. Doggett brings in an FBI agent (Annabeth Gish), who specialises in religious cult abduction. Scully hates her on sight, because she's a woman who smiles too much and suggests that maybe - just maybe - Mulder hasn't been taken by little green men, but by pagan ritualists.

A couple of other people, who were abducted at the same time as Mulder, return in mysterious circumstances, barely alive. Horrible things have happened to them, such as anatomical surgery. This gives Scully hope. If these victims of extra terrestrial torture are now in vegetative states in hospital, maybe Mulder will come back, too. He does. But he's dead. Or is he?

Aficionados of the TV show cannot be without this DVD. It may not be great cinema, or even credible drama, but the life - or not - of Fox Mulder matters to the waiting world, as much as to Agent Scully, who must stop crying, for heaven' sake.