The X-Files - "Tunguska"

"For the scene in 'Terma' in which rogue agent Alex Krycek dangles over the balcony of Assistant Director Walter S. Skinner's apartment, actor Nicholas Lea decided he'd rather perform the stunt himself than have a double do it for him. 'When it came time to do the scene, we had built a little platform for him [for him to stand on],' special effects coordinator Dave Gauthier recalls. 'He went out there and got used to it, and he did a couple of shots with the platform in place.

'Then at the end of the day, it's raining, it's cold, and now we want to take the platform away and we want him to hang off the balcony, 16 stories high, with nothing underneath him,' Gauthier continues. 'He was very securely attached to the building by a harness, by cables, and by every means we had to hold him up there, but still and all, it doesn't matter. When you take everything away, and you have to step into nothingness and hang from a cable, you're trusting your entire life on that piece of cable. I held Nick's hands as I let him down in the cable, and he said [in a grim whisper], "Okay, I'm ready." And I stepped back, and they shot, shot, shot the scene, then I heard Nick's voice saying, "Get me out of here!" The shot ended up looking fantastic, and I take my hat off to him -- I don't know if I could have done that. It took a lot of courage."

"The thing I liked about this episode was Krycek -- the only character who didn't seem to be making weird decisions in a drug-induced haze -- and Nick Lea's kinetic performance made everybody else look sluggish and stupid."

"Nick Lea stole this one. Sure, there was some over-acting in the I-am-a-patriot scene, but he had more lines than in the past three seasons. Who can blame him? He was great. His Russian probably sucked, but it sounded cool to the untrained ear."

"The actors are on top form, particularly Nicholas Lea as Krycek, whose expert use of Russian greatly impresses."