Or Fredless, I could see that one being in there.

What? It's the boringest boring that ever boringed. Even if it does have a sweetass killer toaster.

A list without AYNOHYEB is not a list made by humans from my dimension. It stands alone beautifully.

This. This is the one that I'm scratching my head over why it's missing. Even Reunion requires more setup/follow-through than I could see it winning for, but ARE YOU NOW... is one of the great one-offs.

Viewer choice marathons are weird, though. Look at TXF marathons on Fx and SciFi; the choices always include eps like Arcadia, Bad Blood, PMP, How the Ghosts Stole Christmas, Triangle, The Natural. A bunch of X-Files Lite shows that were kinda shippy and mildly entertaining, but also pretty brainless. Now I'll fight to the death for the Ship, but the best XF eps were the early arc episodes, and those are almost never chosen. Looks like the same thing's going on with the Angel marathon.

Hmm. As a lover of Bad Blood and PMP and The Natural and Triangle -- I think those episodes kept best -- they're not so wrapped up in the craptastic arc that went nowhere, and are therefore less tainted by my resentment. They're well written and acted, and I think it makes perfect sense for best-of lists to be arc-light.

What ita said.

What's always confused me is anytime there's a "best of" ST:TNG marathon, "The Best of Both Worlds" 1 and 2 are always in it. While I don't dislike them, they're not my favorites and the fact that they always take up two slots out of the 10 (or whatever) kind of bugs.

As a lover of Bad Blood and PMP and The Natural and Triangle

I like 'em too, just not all the time. They didn't really define TXF in any special way, either---the plots could easily have been exported to Night Stalker, or Outer Limits, or something.

they're not so wrapped up in the craptastic arc that went nowhere, and are therefore less tainted by my resentment.

You're so right about that. I used to wish that Whedon had had TXF instead of Surfer Dude. TXF (and Millenium) and a touch of that when Morgan and Wong were doing the day-to-day production, but Carter was truly the Hack-who-got-lucky. After what was it, the fourth?, revelation of The Truth About Samantha, I just threw up my hands. And it kept getting worser and worser and worser. I've read here in b.org some people complaining about BtVS melting down in S6-7, but that was nothing to what happened to TXF.

Now I'll fight to the death for the Ship, but the best XF eps were the early arc episodes, and those are almost never chosen.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this, as I can pretty much only stomach the standalones these days. But that may be in part because I can't forget where the arc went (i.e. nowhere really slowly) enough to see even the good arc-y episodes without feeling a slow burn of rage.

I would put "Bad Blood" on my top ten list of XF, easy, because as parodies go, it's pretty damn perfect. PMP does get a bit heavy-handed in a few spots, but it's still enjoyable.

"Arcadia" and "Unnatural"--meh. Shippy XF-lite seems about right. And I've always thought "Triangle" was overrated.

As for the Angel list--agree that lack of AYNOHYEB is a head scratcher. But I like most of the picks on that list... well, except IWRY, which always makes me laugh like the drain and roll my eyes instead of making me cry. I'd have put in Rm w/ A View instead of "Spin the Bottle", and I've always thought "Hero" was poorly conceived, anvilicious, and shamelessly manipulative (I still bawl like a baby at the end every time I watch it, then I get vaguely pissed afterward), but I could see why people picked it.

A list without AYNOHYEB is not a list made by humans from my dimension. It stands alone beautifully.

I agree. There was so many amazing moments in Season Two and Three that never made the list. And five from Season Five? Bah! We just saw them.