Season 1- Ice

Ice (episode 1x07) originally aired on November 5 , 1993 .

The episode is written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by David Nutter . Guest stars include Xander Berkeley as Dr. Hodge, Felicity Huffman as Dr. Da Silva and Steve Hytner as Dr. Murphy.

The Arctic Ice Core project is a research station funded by the United States government. The station was supposed to procure samples of Arctic ice that could be in existence for millennia. A desperate transmission from a geophysicst comes, stating, "We are not who we are", after which all contact with the research station is lost. An investigation team is dispatched to clarify matters.

The investigation team consists of Fox Mulder , Dana Scully , Dr. Murphy, a geologist , Dr. Hodge, a physician and Dr. Da Silva, toxicologist and their pilot, nicknamed Bear. They all travel to Icy Cape, Alaska . Upon arriving on the research base, they see dead bodies everywhere. Apparently, all personnel either killed themselves or each other. It is, however, impossible to immediately determine why the scientists died.

Suddenly, a dog jumps out of somewhere and attacks Mulder. Bear assists Mulder and gets a bite from the dog. Together, Mulder and Bear manage to subdue the dog and sedate it. Scully performs autopsies on the scientists and concludes that they killed each other.

In the meanwhile, it becomes evident that some ice samples were acquired recently. It seems that there was some organism frozen in one of those and that it got free on the base. As the scientists made contact with the organism, something happened that resulted in them killing each other.

Scully demands that everyone has a test to ensure that the parasite is not in one of them. Bear gets very angry and refuses, and shortly a fight starts. In the struggle, Dr. Hodge notices a worm -like creature that uses Bear. The organism is removed, but Bear dies nonetheless. The team theorizes that this organism has something to do with hormone that causes aggressive behaviour, and is the reason why scientists on the base slaughtered each other.

Everyone becomes progressively more nervous and paranoid, as a storm starts outside that disrupts all communication between the research base and anywhere else. During the night, Mulder roams the base and finds Dr. Murphy in the refrigerator, his throat slit. Dr. Hodge and Dr. Da Silva suspect Mulder of murder and have him locked up in a room.

Later, Dr. Hodge is studying the parasites and Dr. Da Silva mixes two blood samples by accident. Meanwhile Dr. Hodge berates Dr. Da Silva, Scully realizes that the two parasites kill each other. They apply the parasite again to the dog that bit Bear, and the dog soon becomes normal. It becomes evident that infection can be cured by inducing another parasite.

Scully goes to the room where Mulder is kept separated. Mulder persuades Scully that he is not infected and must be let out. As Scully and Mulder leave the room, Da Silva and Hodge attack them, now locking Scully up and attempt to insert the last living parasite into Mulder's ear. As Mulder struggles madly, Hodge notices that Da Silva is actually infected. She is restrained and the parasite is inserted into her, thus saving her.

As the weather becomes normal, the survivors are able to call for evacuation. They all are taken away to safety. Mulder thinks that the parasite creature was probably of extraterrestrial origin, because the location of the ice samples that contained the parasite is close to a meteor crash site a long time ago, where it's buried under the ice. Mulder announces that he wants to go back to the base, but Dr. Hodge tells him that the military burned it to the ground.