TV

So, I picked up Season 1 of X-Files this weekend since the sets have finally dropped to a reasonable price (I wish there were more extras, but at $34.95 for 24 episodes, I can overlook it). As I watched it, I realized that some of the strongest eps in the entire series can be found in that season and that Carter established the basic structure of the show within the first 3 episodes.

This got me thinking about stand-alone episodes: shows that can be watched without ever having seen another episode and yet provide a complete story. So my question is, what are some of the best stand alone episodes you've seen? In other words, you could show these episodes to someone who has never seen the show before and hook them on the series little to no explanation of ongoing subplots and character development.

Since X-Files started me down this road, I'll start with that. The show has two basic episode structures: "mythology" episodes, which serve to further the central plot of alien abductions and government conspiracies, and "monster" episodes, which have Scully and Mulder hunting down the freak of the week. I picked one of each from the first season.

Ice: A brilliant homage to John Carpenter's The Thing, in which Mulder and Scully are trapped in an arctic research station investigating why the team originally stationed there went bonkers and started killing each other. The paranoia is absolutely palpable, combined with a real sense of isolation and desperation. Easily one of the best hours of television I have ever seen.

E.B.E.: M and S attempt to track down the government's secret transportation of an "alien" in the back of a non-descript 18-wheeler. Not only did this episode introduce supporting characters who would become an important part of the series (The Lone Gunmen), it also turned Mulder's relationship with Deep Throat completely on it's head, leaving him to wonder if he could trust anyone other than Scully. The best part of the episode is that the final reveal not only doesn't answer any of your questions, it leaves you with a whole new set to ponder (such as which side is DT on and how much has what he has told Mulder in the past been outright lies?). While the show eventually became so convoluted that it disappeared up its own ass, this ep showed that the core concept had legs when distilled to its purest form.

Okay, your turn.

Interesting question - the real meat of THE X-FILES was always in its stand-alone episodes, whereas the mythology arc just got more and more convoluted and boring. In that respect, DISTURBING BEHAVIOR was a better X-FILES movie than, well, THE X-FILES movie.

A number of good stand-alone eps give a lot of focus to characters outside the main cast of a show, letting us see familiar characters through different eyes. Such an episode is "Dear Sigmund", of M*A*S*H - recurring guest character Dr. Sidney Freedman writes a letter to Sigmund Freud detailing his thoughts on the 4077. Takes in everything the show's about (the chaos of war, and the wilfull insanity embraced to deal with it), and culminates in a spectacular prank against Frank Burns, which still makes me laugh.

Star Trek: The Next Generation has these in spades. While the ongoing stories of DS9 proved themselves superior, there is very little IMO more emjoyable than wathcing some of the best individual eps of TNG, in particular:

Cause & Effect -- The Enterprise blows up. In the first five minutes.

The First Duty -- Picard tries to get to the bottom of a flight accident at the Academy. Knowing the players (esp. how different this Wesley is from the one we knew in the first three seasons) enhances the episode somewhat, but it's not what makes it.

FIrst Contact (not the movie) -- The Enterprise makes first contact with a race of humainoids while Riker is marooned on their planet.

Darmok -- Picard tried to communicate with Paul Winfield, who speaks in metaphor.

Disaster -- When the ship is badly damaged due to an accidet, Troi must take command.

There are several others.

--Alex

Actually, iirc, it's in the first 15 seconds. It was the teaser.

What was the one called where they had the 'is Data human?' trial? I vaguely remember enjoying that one, and then not being surprised when I found out it was written by Melinda Snodgrass...

God help me, I know that:

THE MEASURE OF A MAN

<<What was the one called where they had the 'is Data human?' trial?>>

"The Measure of a Man." One of the best episodes in the otherwise pretty lame first couple seasons.

<<Actually, iirc, it's in the first 15 seconds. It was the teaser. >>

I know it exploded in the teaser, but I thought the episode opens on the poker game first. Upon reflection, I think you're right and the crisis is already upon them when the show begins, and we don't see the poker game until Act I.

--Alex

God help me, I know that

I never doubted it for a second.

I am actually a big fan of "Eve"(I think) about the exsanguinating twins

and the one where Mulder and Scully Lose big time and end up getting wrapped in cocoons in the Canadian forest.

One of my favorite standalone XF's (maybe the last one I really liked) was "Drive," early in the sixth season and with a pre-MALCOLM Bryan Cranston as a guy who had to keep going west(?) or his head would explode.

I still think BUFFY's "The Body" (the one where they deal with Joyce's death -- spoiler!) is one of the best meditations on death and loss ever made for television.

To the extent that any WEST WING episode is either standalone or serial, I loved the first Big Block of Cheese Day episode as its own unit.

For that matter, I'd stack a lot of Sorkin's teasers for TWW, particularly those from seasons 1 & 2, up against full-blown episodes of most other series any day.

"Bad Blood"- my second favorite X-Files ever, right behind "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man". Mulder kills a guy with fake vampire teeth in the opener, and then he and Scully spend the episode debating what exactly happened Rashomon- style. Vince Gilligan, who at his best wrote some seriously bent scripts for the show, manages to clown Mulder, Scully, and their relationship. Mulder sees Scully as an insufferable nag; Scully sees Mulder as an overgrown child. It's hilarious stuff abetted by a very game Duchovny and Anderson.

And then there's my third favorite episode, "Kill Switch", which was written by William Gibson and Tom Maddox. In addition to having my personal favorite "what the HELL just happened?" teaser in the show's history, it's, well, Neuromancer Begins guest starring Mulder and Scully. Great guest performance by Kristin Lehman, and Gibson and Maddox do a great job with Mulder and Scully.

Hmmm, the three favorite episodes are a shaggy dog mytharc/satire of conspiracies in which only the Cigarette Smoking Man appears on screen, an out and out parody of the show, and an episode written by two guys who had little involvement with the show.

Oh well.

--Dan

Superb episode. "I was drugged!"

"Bad Blood" was wonderful--one of my favorite episodes. Between one of the Wilson brothers as the sheriff (I can't remember which one), and Mulder on the hotel vibro-bed, it's pure gold.

The show eventually became a parody of itself, but I maintain that it has one of the strongest first seasons I've ever seen (with some notable clunkers of course).

Okay, some more.

Millennium: The Mikado.
Frank hunts down a Zodiac-like killer who escaped him in the 70's. Now, he's broadcasting his murders over the internet, taunting for the FBI to find him. Frank finally tracks him down for a face-to-face confrontation, only to have the killer escape with his identity intact. This was arguably the strongest single episode of a great season and better than most of the serial killer movies that have come out since it aired.

Homicide: Every Mother's Son.
Bayliss and Pembleton track down a 13-year-old boy after he shoots another 13-year-old in a bowling alley. The scene where the mothers of the two boys talk while waiting in the police station is one of the best scenes in the show's history.

Space: Above and Beyond: Who Monitors the Birds?
Almost 4 years before B*uffy did a "silent" episode, these guys did it first. Trapped alone behind enemy lines on a top secret black op, Hawkes has to avoid enemy patrols long enough to make it to his extraction point. The only dialogue in the episode occurs in flashbacks, and even then it's sparse. There's something like 35 minutes without a word spoken, and yet we are never confused as to what is happening or why. I think this ep is a phenomenal accomplishment and Morgan and Wong really should have gotten some recognition for it.

Luke Wilson, who was in the Gilligan-scripted Home Fries (which, sad to say, isn't very good IMO) appeared in "Bad Blood", one of the few "names" the show used before they moved to LA.

--Dan

homicide: life on the street - "three men and adena" - bayliss and pembleton have twelve hours to get the araber to admit he killed adena watson (the ongoing case from the first season). bayliss goes in convinced of the man's guilt, pembleton not so much, and through their questioning, over the course of most of the episode (with only a few scenes outside the "box"), their opinions of the man change a bit, with great performances from both of the regulars and the guest moses gunn. this episode won tom fontant a writing emmy

the x-files - "clyde bruckman's final repose" - like the previously mentioned episode of buffy, "the body", this one's a nice dramatic meditation on death, with clyde bruckman (peter boyle who won an emmy for this guest spot), a guy who can see the future, at least the moments of people's deaths, including his own, which he knows is coming soon and the usual mulder and scully debate as to the reality of what he can or cannot see

There's not a lot of shows that would have an entire episode take place in one room, even today. That show was groundbreaking for so many reasons.

I think The Body is probably the best single episode of television I've ever seen, and is head and shoulders above everything else Whedon ever did (and bear in mind, I think Whedon is a pretty damn good writer).

My favorite two X Files episodes, and two of my favorite stand alone episodes in general, are the one with the Genie, and the one with the guy with weird luck trying to save his neighbor's kid. When the X Files was on, it was really on.

Which is odd, considering how budget conscious so many producers are.

It's the ADD factor. The longer you stay in one place, the more likely people are to tune out after several minutes.

That's what most producers think, anyway.

I hated said episode, though for the reason that it's one that would have worked better early on in the show's run when the whole "M&S don't like each other" running gag was still fresh/viable. By the time they actually DID do the episode, it came off so forced and contrived for the sake of contriveness since M&S had progressed as friends beyond the sort of pettiness that the episode heavily implied still existed between the two.

Somehow, I'm not surprised you didn't like it. I didn't mind the out of character stuff as it worked in the context of the episode.

--Dan

I was a huge fan of the Darin Morgan-scripted standalone episodes of X-Files. There was "Humbug," about murders among a group of circus freaks; "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," which won Emmys for Peter Boyle's acting and Morgan's writing; "War of the Coprophage," about a series of coincidental deaths that drives a small town to anti-cockroach hysteria; and "Jose Chung's From Outer Space," with Charles Nelson Reilly as a writer researching one of Mulder and Scully's cases. Jose Chung reappeared in an equally-great episode of Millenium.

Agreed. The Darin Morgan episodes are the best episodes of the show's glory days and I hope to god Fox might put them out as a compilation DVD ala the Mythology arc episodes.

Batman:TAS:

It's Never too Late: An aging mobster learns his son is hooked on the product he was selling. Probably one of the most poignant super-hero stories I ever saw.

The Two-Face two parter: This episode was damn depressing and damn gripping stuff.

Millennium:

Satan Got Behind Me: Four demons discuss damnation over coffee. It's weirdly thoughtful, surprisingly funny, and just damn good television.

Toby: "I'm a little ashamed to admit that I was worried. How I might feel sympathy for this being. And seeing her like that reminded me what ridiculous creatures they are... to destroy themselves over something so fleeting as emotional attachments and biological needs. I was overcome with relief. Plus, it had been so long since I had notched a soul."
Greb: "You see? You still got it!"
Blurk: "Just like riding a bike!"
Toby: "But that's when I saw him. I don't who he was or what he was doing there, but there he was, just him."
Frank: "You must be so lonely."

Another Darrin Morgan special. What's that guy up to now?

Looked up on IMDB, and the only thing since Millennium was a consulting producer on the new ABC 'Night Stalker', so in other words, living off the residuals from X-Files.

I'd like to see him do more, but there are worse fates, I guess.

The CSI:OG "Stalker" episode was on the other night - i had forgotten how scary it was (eeeep!), and it would be just as intense without knowing any of the characters' backstory.