The Unnatural

'The Unnatural' is cute humorous episoode that was written and directed by David Duchovny himself. He based the character Josh Exley on real life pro-baseball playes Joe Bauman who held the home run record, but still never got to play in the major league. Unfortunately Darren McGavin couldn't reprise his role as Arthur Dales because of illness, but the replacement player M. Emmet Walsh did equally charming job as Dales' brother Arthur Dales. It also gave nice quirky joke about Dales' parents.

Also the episode playes on the idea that many incomparable artists and sportsmen are every once in a while speculated to be aliens.

This episode also includes one of my favorite quotes from the show - I have seen the life on this planet, Scully and that is exactly why I am looking elsewhere.

I think this is one of those episodes where you depend entirely on finding the right person to play the part. They just hit the nail on the head with Exley, this guy is so charismatic, I was hooked. Of course, baseball is the most north-american sport to have ever been invented, so I can't say I relate to it, but I can get over that, for the most part. It's a nice change of pace from the usual stories, and I can see why some people have an issue with it, but to me, this was always the best part of the show: you can have funny episodes, you can have dramatic ones, action packed ones, I mean, it's not always taking itself seriously. Some plot holes are there, but it's nothing too bad in this type of stand alone episode. I just have a bit of an issue because the show is so white, and this episode kind of tries to be all like "we are not racists" but, after mister x died, there were zero black recurring stars (Kersh had a minuscule part, it doesn't count). I could never get over the fact that CCH Pounder never had another appearance, she was amazing and totally deserved it, and would be an awesome addition to the show's more suspenseful episodes. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I didn't buy the trying to be "we are all inclusive" when the show was, unfortunately, not.

The best pièce of TV you could ever find, its as simple as that. I truly believe this is the Greatest episode ever of any show. And X files got like 20-30 episodes just as Amazing. And more than 100 more with Incredible quality. But man " the Unnatural" is a Masterpiece from A to Z , every second of every minute is a Masterpiece of writting directing and acting. Beautiful poetic , love story , supernatural story, human story. X files Greatest show ever for a reason.

On a quiet, sunny afternoon at The Office with Scully, Mulder spots something unusual, an image of The Alien Bounty Hunter, alongside some baseball players.

The best X Files episode of all? Maybe, I can imagine for some that this is just that, and rightly so, this is one incredible piece of TV.

It didn't surprise me one bit to see that this masterpiece was written by no other than David Duchovny himself, it shows someone who had a true understanding for the show, the characters, and dare I say it, the fans.

The humour here was perfectly used and meaningful, funny throughout, from Exley's revelation, to Arthur Dales's meeting with Mulder, I love that there was a sister called Arthur too.

Quite a sad story in a sense, you could see there was a real bromance between Dales and Exley.

Jesse L. Martin is phenomenal here as Exley, an awesome performance, and a smile that's genuinely quite something.

Pretty awesome visuals too, those special effects stand up all these years later, it looked so good.

I loved it, I had to watch it twice.

10/10.

okay, let me begin with saying I don't know baseball - well, in fact I didn't know it until now. off course I had heard about it, but I never really cared to search anything that's got to do with it. then, the episode 'The Unnatural' started, and wow man, these baseball images were so fascinating! I want to know more and more about baseball. thank you, Chris Carter, for letting David write and direct this episode. it's very obvious David liked baseball and he managed to make a good tequila mix of baseball and science fiction. yes, the story was a bit like all the other X-Files episodes I've seen till now, but it was original using baseball in the series, even if it was only this episode. it changed my habits. Baseball rules!