Chris Carter listed this as the Essential 10 back in June. An Essential 8 was previously released on DVD, wonder what the other 10 episodes Chris Carter choose are:
1. “Pilot” (Season 1, Episode 1)
The one that introduced Mulder, Scully, their defining characteristics, their relationship, their world.
2. “Deep Throat” (Season 1, Episode 2)
This ep introduces the idea of a government conspiracy/cover-up of E.T. activity and a mysterious informant, code-named Deep Throat.
3. “Beyond the Sea” (Season 1, Episode 13)
The episode that sees Scully become the believer after the death of her father overlaps with the case of an allegedly psychic serial killer.
4. “The Erlenmeyer Flask” (Season 1, Episode 24)
There’s a shocking death, and from this point forward, the conspiracy storyline become the driving narrative of the show.
5. “The Host” (Season 2, Episode 2)
There’s something sinister lurking in the sewers in this classic monster-of-the-week episode. One word: Flukeman.
6. “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” (Season 3, Episode 4)
In one of the greatest X-Files episodes ever (the only one to win a writing Emmy), Peter Boyle guest stars as a morbid psychic.
7. “Memento Mori” (Season 4, Episode 14)
Though it features the usual alien rhetoric, this episode is best remembered as the one in which Scully learns she has cancer, launching a major character arc.
8. “Post-Modern Prometheus” (Season 5, Episode 5)
A Frankenstein-inspired tale about a lovelorn monster, it’s notable for its beautiful black-and-white cinematography.
9. “Bad Blood” (Season 5, Episode 12)
The signature episode from a young Vince Gilligan, Mulder and Scully investigate a vampire case told in flashback from both Mulder and Scully’s POV.
10. “Milagro” (Season 6, Episode 18)
A favorite of the X-Files writing staff, Mulder and Scully contend with an author whose gruesome fiction becomes reality.
CTV will air the new episodes in Canada along with Space Canada (Space will also air the 20 episode Essential Collection).
edit (*tbc):
11. “Squeeze” (Season 1, Episode 3)
One of Scully's friends from the FBI academy, now working in the Violent Crimes Unit, asks her to assist him on a homicide investigation involving no clear point of entry. Mulder realizes that this is similar to a series of X-Files case that have occurred every thirty years, and joins in the investigation to stop the latest cycle.
12. “Tooms” (Season 1, Episode 21)
Eugene Tooms, the genetic mutant, is released from the sanitarium and Mulder becomes personally involved to ensure that he is caught in the act of getting the last human liver he needs to go into hibernation for another 30 years.
13. “Aubrey” (Season 2, Episode 12)
When a detective mysteriously uncovers the remains of an FBI agent who disappeared in the 1940s while investigating a murder case similar to a modern-day one she is investigating, Mulder and Scully believe that the original killer had passed his genetic trait of violence to his grandchild.
14. “Paper Hearts” (Season 4, Episode 10)
Mulder's dreams help him in finding the body of a little girl which re-opens one of his old cases in the Violent Crimes Unit and leads him to believe the killer he captured had more victims and may have taken his sister many years before.
15. “The End” (Season 5, Episode 20)
Cigarette Smoking Man returns as Mulder investigates the attempted assassination of a young boy with psychic powers who may be the proof that he has looked for all his life. On his way he encounters many enemies especially in the finale' as his office and every X-File is torched by CSM.
16. “The Beginning” (Season 6, Episode 1)
Mulder is less than thrilled when an Office of Professional Conduct board refuses to reassign him and Scully to The X-Files and even more so when he learns that Agent Spender and Agent Fowley have become their successors. When Gibson Praise reappears and comes to them for help, Mulder and Scully attempt to continue their quest undercover despite having fewer friends and less access and protection than ever before.
17. “X-Cops” (Season 7, Episode 12)
A filming of an episode of COPS gets in the way of the collaborative effort between the FBI and the local police department. Mulder later finds out that the monster feeds on fear. While Mulder embraces the publicity, Scully is not so sure of it. The episode was filmed as if it was an authentic episode of the TV series COPS.
18. “Theef” (Season 7, Episode 14)
Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate a series of murders where the victims are all in some way related to a wealthy, well-educated doctor. As they search for clues the FBI agents discover the apparent motive is revenge. Years ago the doctor was involved in the euthanasia of a young girl on the verge of death. Once again, Mulder must race against time to find who is behind the killings before the doctor and (more importantly) Scully become the next victims.
19. “Vienen” (Season 8, Episode 18)
After Agent Mulder goes beyond his jurisdiction to shine light on a possible X-file, Doggett is assigned to investigate the mysterious disappearance of two men aboard an oil rig. Once he arrives, he finds Mulder has taken it upon himself to start his own investigation. Mulder soon becomes convinced that the rig is drilling the black oil. Doggett and Mulder must attempt to stop the spread of the alien virus while avoiding the infected crew.
20. “Improbable” (Season 9, Episode 13)
When Reyes uses numerology to connect the murders of several women to an obsessed serial killer, she and Scully become trapped with a mysterious checker-playing man who may or may not be the killer. The question then becomes who is going to be the next victim.
