★★★★★ 0/5

The X-Files in HD on SBS VICELAND

Retro drama gets remastered and HD -and primetime on a multichannel.

10
Leave a comment

In a very unusual move, Season 1 of The X-Files will air on SBS VICELAND from June.

Airing in HD and remastered for the first time on Free-To-Air television, this is a 24 part series from 1993.

This may be another one that raises questions about fitting with Charter….

The X-Files is a one-hour drama about an unconventional FBI agent, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny). Mulder takes it upon himself to investigate a group of unsolved cases, known as the ‘X-Files’, that he believes involve paranormal phenomena. To keep tabs on his work – and in the hopes of debunking his theories – the FBI teams him up with Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), a young, skeptical agent who has a degree in medicine and a strong bias toward the scientific. As the pair works to solve these unexplained cases, Mulder’s strong belief in the forces of the unknown continues to challenge Scully’s
rational mind.

Series One, Episode One: Pilot Monday
Agent Dana Scully is instructed to debunk an FBI project dubbed ‘The X-Files’, cases linked to the paranormal that have been reopened by Agent Fox Mulder.

Episode Two: Deep Throat Tuesday
Mulder and Scully investigate the mysterious case of a military test pilot who disappeared after experiencing strange psychotic behaviour.

Episode Three: Squeeze Wednesday
Mulder and Scully search for a humanoid killer whose savage murder spree recurs every thirty years.

7:30pm weeknights from Monday June 10 on SBS VICELAND.

10 Responses

  4. With 10 losing the FOX contract, I thought Seven would have nabbed the rights. This is a good grab for SBS, though they may need to skip or cut some of the MA15+ episodes later on in the series. I wonder if Ten had played the revived series in its entirety or whether they had cut them to comply with the M classification.

    The remaster looks great though, some dodgy visual effects notwithstanding (I have only seen the first season on Blu-ray). I think the practical effects still hold up really well, but some of the lighting and video-related effects look really tacky and silly on today’s high definition displays. Still, I applaud their efforts with these remastered episodes.

      2. The broadcast would be identical to the HD remasters which have since been released on Blu-ray. The seasons that were initially broadcast in 4:3 have been re-edited as 16:9, however, it is worth noting that the cinematographer(s) had the foresight to film the entirety of the series with a widescreen “safe area” in mind so that no crew or equipment was visible within the frame (unlike other “remasters” such as Buffy).

        The situation with the early X-Files seasons are similar to what happened with Seinfeld, which usually results in more horizontal information, with the occasional sacrifice in vertical information. I have not noticed any framing issues thus far.

      3. My understanding is that The X-Files was always shot on 16:9 film but framed 4:3 in camera on set as that was how it was being broadcast back then. They’ve gone in and remastered the original prints back to 16:9 so apparently by widening the frame you can see things you weren’t originally supposed to see like boom mics and crew off to the sides and at the top of framing. They’ve gone in and digitally taken out most of the obvious things but apparently there are still quite a few ‘elements’ in there they’ve missed. One for the eagle eyed boffins to spot haha.

        1. That is incorrect. 35mm is neither 4:3 nor 16:9; it’s somewhere in between, so, a sacrifice will need to be made either way. You mention digital removal of crew and equipment despite the fact that I specified that the forward-thinking cinematographers of the day had filmed the early seasons with a “safe area” in mind so that none of that would make it into the frame.

          Cinematographers generally do not film something thinking, hey, we’ll key it out in post. It was always filmed with a safe area in mind. However, Buffy, which was recently given a widescreen/HD remaster frequently contains crew and equipment in shot because it was never framed for 16:9. In that case, they should have retained its original aspect ratio to retain the integrity of its original composition.

          1. @ idiotbox likely never saw your post when they made there one as yours is at 3:44 pm and there’s at 3:50 pm so yours was probably awaiting moderation, even if you don’t see that when you post replies it still is.

Leave a Reply