Ice (The X-Files)

Film adaptations of Who Goes There? by Howard Hawks (left) and John Carpenter (right) influenced the episode.

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.[3][4] The setting—an icy, remote research base overcome by an extraterrestrial creature—is similar to that of John W. Campbell's 1938 novella Who Goes There? and its two feature-film incarnations: The Thing from Another World (1951), directed by Christian Nyby and produced by Howard Hawks, and The Thing (1982), directed by John Carpenter.[3][5] Chris Carter has cited them as the main inspirations for the episode.[4] As in the novella and films, the characters cannot trust each other because they are uncertain if they are who they seem to be.[3] Carter particularly enjoyed this aspect, because it pitted Mulder and Scully against each other and provided "a new look on their characters early on in the series".[6]

The episode's premise became a recurring theme in the series, with episodes such as "Darkness Falls" and "Firewalker" repeating the combination of remote locations and unknown lifeforms.[7] A similar plot was featured in "The Enemy", a 1995 episode of Morgan and his writing partner James Wong's series Space: Above and Beyond,[8] and according to UGO Networks the Fringe episode "What Lies Below" has "basically" the same plot as "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".[10]

The similarity to Carpenter's version of The Thing was due in part to new production designer Graeme Murray,[11] who worked on Carpenter's film and created the complex in which the episode took place.[12] Although "Ice" was intended as a bottle episode which would save money by being shot in a single location,[4] it went over budget. According to Carter, The X-Files typically worked from a small budget and "every dollar we spend ends up on the screen".[12] As a bottle episode, "Ice" used a small cast and its interiors were filmed on a set constructed at an old Molson brewery site. The episode's few exterior shots were filmed at Delta Air Park in Vancouver, whose hangars and flat terrain simulated an Arctic location.[11] Carter said that he would have preferred to set the episode at the North Pole, but he believed that this was unfeasible at the time.[13]

For the worm effect, one member of the special effects department suggested putting a "baby snake" in a latex suit. After explaining that that couldn't be done, animal trainer Debbie Coe suggested using a "super mealworm" to achieve the desired effect.[14] The effect of the worms crawling in the host bodies was achieved with wires under fake skins, including a skin with hair for the dog.[6][14] Digital effects were used for scenes involving the worms swimming in jars and entering the dog's ear.[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.[15] "Ice" was the first significant role in the series for makeup effects artist Toby Lindala, who become its chief makeup artist.[15] The dog used in the episode was a parent of Duchovny's dog, Blue.[16] Ken Kirzinger, who played one of the scientists killed in the episode's cold open, was the series' stunt coordinator.[17]

"Ice" originally aired on the Fox network on November 5, 1993, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on November 10, 1994.[23] The episode's initial American broadcast received a Nielsen rating of 6.6 with an 11 share; about 6.6 percent of all households with television and 11 percent of households watching TV viewed the episode,[24] a total of 6.2 million households and 10 million viewers.[24][25] "Ice" and "Conduit" were released on VHS in 1996,[26] and the episode was released on DVD as part of the complete first season.[23]

"Ice" was praised by critics. In The Complete X-Files, authors Matt Hurwitz and Chris Knowles called the episode a milestone for the fledgling series.[27] An Entertainment Weekly first-season retrospective graded "Ice" as A−, calling it "particularly taut and briskly paced".[5] On The A.V. Club, Keith Phipps praised the episode and gave it an A. According to Phipps, the cast "plays the paranoia beautifully" and the episode was "as fine an hour as this first season would produce".[28] "Ice" was included on an A.V. Club list of greatest bottle episodes, where it was described as "us[ing] its close quarters as an advantage".[29] A third A.V. 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".[30]

Digital Spy's Ben Rawson-Jones described the episode's stand-off between Mulder and Scully as "an extremely tense moment of paranoia."[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".[32] Matt Haigh called it "an extremely absorbing and thrilling episode" on the Den of Geek website, noting its debt to The Thing,[33] and Juliette Harrisson called "Ice" the "finest" stand-alone episode of the first season.[34] On the TV Squad blog, Anna Johns called it "a spectacular episode" with an "excellent" opening.[35] UGO Networks called the episode's worms among the series' best "Monsters-of-the-Week" and the cause of "much pointed-guns aggression".[36] In Tor.com, Meghan Deans compared the scene where Mulder and Scully inspect each other for infection to a similar scene in "Pilot"; in "Ice", both characters were equally vulnerable and (unlike the pilot scene) Scully was not portrayed as "an idiot".[37] Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, gave the episode five out of five stars. They called it "the most influential episode ever made", noting that the series reprised its formula several times during its run. Shearman 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.[38]

"Ice" was also considered one of the best episodes of the first season by the production crew. According to Carter, Morgan and Wong "just outdid themselves on this show, as did director David Nutter, who really works so hard for us. I think they wrote a great script and he did a great job directing it, and we had a great supporting cast".[39] Nutter said: "The real great thing about 'Ice' is that we were able to convey a strong sense of paranoia. It was also a great ensemble piece. We're dealing with the most basic emotions of each character, ranging from their anger to their ignorance and fear. It established the emotional ties these two characters have with each other, which is very important. Scaring the hell out of the audience was definitely the key to the episode".[39] Anderson said that "it was very intense. There was a lot of fear and paranoia going on. We had some great actors to work with".[39]