This may not have gotten its own post were I not blogging here. But for better or worse I am, and so you get to read about Don S. Davis, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 65.

Davis is one of the many versatile, unheralded character actors to have moved through Hollywood in relative anonymity. I wouldn't say he was a phenomenal talent, though he was certainly very good, but it so happens that he played two pivotal roles on two television shows that, more than any other works of art, shaped my taste in movies and stories when I was a young teenager.

As Captain William Scully, Agent Scully's father, Davis was the heart of what may have been The X-Files' finest hour (as any self-respecting X-Files fan knows, the Season 1 episode in which he appeared was called "Beyond the Sea"). And as Major Briggs on Twin Peaks, he carried one of that show's creepiest, most memorable plotlines. Whenever he would appear, I knew I was in for another amazing Lynchian what-the-hell moment.

The critics have spoken and the massive, $300 box set Ford at Fox was named the best DVD of 2007 by the contributors at DVDBeaver.com. For the fourth annual poll, Thirty-six DVD critics from all over the world submitted their individual top ten lists -- each of which is featured -- and then editor Gary Tooze tallied up points for the final results. The coveted John Ford box contains 24 John Ford films on 21 discs; kudos to any critic who had time to watch it all.

In second and third place are The Films of Kenneth Anger Vol. 2 and Vol. 1, both distributed by Fantoma Films. Volume 2 earned a few more points, probably due to the inclusion of Anger's most famous work, Scorpio Rising. In fourth place is another huge box set, the Criterion Collection's Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), assembling Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 15-hour film on 7 discs. Showing off DVDBeaver's dedication to international DVDs, fifth place went to the BFI's second Region 2 box set of films by Mikio Naruse, containing When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960), Floating Clouds (1955) and Late Chrysanthemums (1954). The US release of When a Woman Ascends the Stairs from the Criterion Collection was counted as a tie.

Sixth place went to my personal favorite of the year, Criterion Eclipse's five-disc box set Late Ozu, featuring five great films from the 1950s and 1960s by the Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu. In seventh place was Warner Home Video's Film Noir Classics Collection, Vol. 4, with ten films on five discs, including Nicholas Ray's debut They Live by Night (1949) and Andre de Toth's essential Crime Wave (1954). Milestone's amazing 2-disc Killer of Sheep DVD, featuring several more features and short films by Charles Burnett, ranked eighth. Paramount's Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition took ninth place, sneaking out a few months after people spent their hard-earned cash on the Season Two box. Criterion sealed up the list at tenth place with their two-disc Sansho the Bailiff (1954), directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.

Tooze also included the first 40 runners up. Top vote-getters include Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Inland Empire and Ace in the Hole. Other categories are "best commentary track," "best extras" and "best transfer." Voters included Jonathan Rosenbaum, Theo Panayides, Tom Charity and the staff of Slant Magazine.

'Tis the season to get away from your family, bundle up with a gallon of moonshine (preferably one with "XXX" written on the label), and watch endless hours of movies! What follows is not a comprehensive or "Best Of" list. These are simply seven DVD box sets that any film buff would be thrilled to find in his or her stocking this Christmas. Most of them were released in the past few months, and a couple have been out a while but just got amazingly cheap. Have a few gifts left to buy? Consider picking one of these up. You don't even have to get off your fat ass, if you click on the titles you'll be taken to the links on Amazon. I've included items to suit every budget, and they've been arranged in order of price. Naturally, the more expensive the set you purchase, the more you love the person you're buying it for. That's just the way it works.

The Alien Quadrilogy ($33.99)

Pretty much the gold standard for DVD box sets. This collection's price recently took an incredible drop. It was worth every penny of the $80 bucks I paid for mine years ago, so you can better believe it's worth $34. The set gives you several versions of each film in the beloved Alien series -- Alien (one of the best suspense movies ever made), Aliens (one of the best action movies ever made), Alien 3 (David Fincher's misunderstood take is a stronger movie with each viewing), and Alien: Resurrection (Nobody's perfect). An unprecedented amount of extra goodies that includes the amazing Director's Cut of Aliens, extremely cool fold-out packaging, and the absence of Alien Vs. Predator make this set a must-own. I've owned it for four years, and still haven't seen everything in there. Plus, don't you just love the word "Quadrilogy?"

Oh, boy. I still get chills thinking about the debut of David Lynch's Twin Peaks on television. With the lights out in my tiny room, I eagerly tuned my tiny TV to the well-publicized pilot episode -- and within 15 minutes I was in tears. David Lynch made me freaking' cry about the death of a fictional character I knew nothing about! At that point I'd only seen The Elephant Man and was in no way prepared for what Lynch could do with framing, lighting, pacing, music, mood and characters. All I knew was that I'd never seen anything like that on television before and that I definitely wanted to see more.

The pilot episode has never been available on DVD in the US, though I once owned an apparently legal copy from overseas with fuzzy picture quality. Lynch produced a different version of the pilot -- in which the question of "who killed Laura Palmer?" was answered -- for release in Europe as a theatrical feature. The first season was released by Artisan as a box set -- sans either version of the pilot -- in 2001 but has been out of print for quite a while. The second season was released by the current rights holder as a box set just a few months ago, amid rumors that a complete edition would be forthcoming. Reporting from Comic-Con in July, Cinematical's Kevin Kelly gave us a preview of a box set that sounded impressive.

Now we have details courtesy of James Israel at Jump Cuts, who says that the show was what initially got him and his brother interested in independent film. Israel posted the official press release about "The Definitive Gold Box Edition." The 10-disk set includes all 29 episodes plus both the original and European versions of the pilot. Yay! The material has been newly remastered from the original negative and approved by Lynch. Double yay! The extra features are said to include "hours of newly-minted bonus content ... never before released on DVD," which might convince those who already own both seasons to double dip. A promotional Quicktime clip can be downloaded from this location. Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition streets on October 30.

Beyond the toques, hockey, and those ever-rampant igloos, Canada houses a veritable smorgasbord of media talent. Unfortunately, much of it migrates to the States and becomes part of the "They're Canadian!?" contingent -- including game show host Alex Trebek, and actors from Michael J. Fox to Fay Wray. Heck, even Jack Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers, was born in London, Ontario. Yet on the northern side of the 49th parallel, a lot of talent still thrives. This is the inaugural post of Northern Exposures, a monthly column that will highlight great Canadian films you should check out, and the wider-recognized work they are similar to.

Film: The Saddest Music in the World
Director: Guy Maddin
Year: 2003
Comparable to: David Lynch

The Saddest Music in the World might not be the most accessible film to throw at wide-release audiences, being a grainy, 8mm black and white film blown up for the big screen, but being the indie side of Cinematical, I can't help but start off with my favorite Canadian film. Before he wowed audiences with Brand Upon the Brain!, Guy Maddin concocted the movie he'd been waiting years to make – one with recognizable, real movie stars and a $3.5 million budget. While it sounds like dreary fare, Saddest Music is actually a quirky, almost fantastical satire about love, greed, pain, and the undeniable allure of show.

I know, I know. Rumors about Twin Peaks have been circling forever. Fans are still fighting to see the cut footage from Fire Walk With Me. According to the myspace site devoted to the deleted footage, a whole mess of characters are said to have filmed scenes that never saw the light of day. How different would the film have been with the rough drawl of Jack Nance as Pete Martel or the creepiness of Richard Beymer as Benjamin Horne?

Although the series and film have been done for a while, little nods and blips hit the surface now and then. I still rue missing Russ Tamblyn playing "Dr. Jacoby" while his daughter, Amber, was on General Hospital. Now, there is the tiniest morsel of hope, which is more likely a taunt to the fragile ego of fans rather than a valid news bit. Moviehole has reported that dugpa.com, a Lynch/Twin Peaks site, got wind of some hopeful words from Catherine Coulson, The Log Lady and one of Lynch's long-time cinematic consorts.

During a public appearance, Dugpa reports that Coulson said the world of Twin Peaks is "absolutely not closed." She had asked Lynch if they were done with Twin Peaks, and he replied that there were still stories to be told. I realize that it's almost nothing. Yet, considering that time is ticking away on the movie DVD, so much is possible. Will the Black Lodge make its way back to television or the big screen? Or maybe it just means that all the deleted goodies will be here soon.