Coverage of each episode is split into several sections. The trivial: Scully Here is a Medical Doctor (obviously), Don’t be in the (pre-opening titles) Teaser, Scully’s Radical Explanation of the Week, the obligatory writing/directing/etc credits and cast listings, a brief write-up of the plot, Dialogue Triumphs, Phwoar! (are Mulder and Scully shagging, etc), How Did He Do That? (plot absurdities). The serious: The Truth, Continuity, The Conspiracy Starts at Closing Time, Scientific Comment (by a scientist - some X-Files’ science is spot on, some highly inaccurate - the division is about fifty-fifty) and The Bottom Line, a paragraph by each of the three authors. With these three writers, this section is a significant plus point rather than the self-indulgent weakness it might have been in a lesser book.

The book comes complete with Day’s essay I Want to Believe: The X-Files and Faith, and a number of small, extra sections on such subjects as Ask the Lone Gunmen, Do We Need the Conspiracy, The Trailer, and so on. Unfortunately, these are scattered around in boxes and difficult to lay one’s hands on at will. While it can be enjoyable to come across these, the option of a list would have been welcome. This, however, is the one flaw; if you want either a guide to The X-Files or a good critique, this is the best - and, most unusually for an X-Files book, it’s damn good value.