The X-Files

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For other uses, see The X-Files (disambiguation).

The X-Files is a popular American television series created by Chris Carter. The show first aired on FOX in 1993, and ended after a nine-year run on May 19, 2002. The X-Files was one of the network's first major hits, and its main characters and slogans ("The Truth Is Out There," "Trust No One," "I Want to Believe") became pop culture touchstones, simultaneously tapping into and inspiring a plethora of conspiracy theories, paranoia about the U.S. government, and belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life.

In the series, Fox William Mulder and Dana Katherine Scully are two FBI agents tasked with investigating the titular "X-Files." These cases, marginalized by the FBI, often involve paranormal phenomena. They are called the "X" files because while the subject matter was originally kept under "U" (for "Unexplained"), a number of other subjects begins with U, and it was decided to switch the files to X (a much less-frequently used letter). Mulder is the "believer," believing in aliens and the paranormal, while Scully was the skeptic, initially assigned by her departmental superiors to debunk his unconventional work and contain its profound implications.

As the show progressed both became embroiled in the same larger conflicts (termed "the mythology" or "mytharc" by the show's creators) and developed a close and ambiguous friendship — which some fans, known as "shippers," saw as more than platonic. The X-Files was declared by TV Guide to be the second greatest cult TV show of all time, behind Star Trek.

Cast of characters

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as Mulder and Scully on The X-Files.

Main cast

|align="center"|1993–2002

Recurring guest cast

see also: List of recurring characters from The X-Files

|align="center"| 1994–2001, 2002 — Lea was credited as 'Also Starring' from season 5

Plot and Mythology

Fans commonly divide X-Files stories into two categories: "Mytharc" ("mythology") episodes, which concerned the ongoing tale of a governmental conspiracy regarding the extraterrestrial, and stand-alone episodes (sometimes called "Monster-of-the-Week" episodes), which dealt with unusual creatures and situations relating to the paranormal, generally being unrelated to the series mythology. Several installments also explored the relationship between Mulder and Scully, while some episodes focused on popular supporting characters such as Walter Skinner or the Lone Gunmen.

Below is a list of episodes that concern the mythology of The X-Files in broadcast order. Some fans have even gone so far as to write up the entire storyline of the show, including all important dates. [link]

• Season 1: Pilot, Deep Throat, Conduit, Fallen Angel, EBE, The Erlenmeyer Flask
• Season 2: Little Green Men, Sleepless, Duane Barry, Ascension, One Breath, Red Museum, Colony, End Game, Anasazi
• Season 3: The Blessing Way, Paper Clip, Nisei, 731, Piper Maru, Apocrypha, Wetwired, Talitha Cumi
• Season 4: Herrenvolk, Tunguska, Terma, Memento Mori, Tempus Fugit, Max, Zero-Sum, Demons, Gethsemane
• Season 5: Redux, Redux II, Christmas Carol, Emily, Patient X, The Red and the Black, The End (season 5 finale, continued by Fight the Future movie...)
• X Files: Fight the Future
• Season 6: The Beginning, Dreamland, Dreamland II, S.R. 819, Two Fathers, One Son, Biogenesis
• Season 7: The Sixth Extinction, The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati, Sein und Zeit, Closure, En Ami, Requiem
• Season 8: Within, Without, Per Manum, This Is Not Happening, Deadalive, Three Words, Vienen, Essence, Existence
• Season 9: Nothing Important Happened Today, Nothing Important Happened Today II, Trust No 1, Provenance, Providence, William, The Truth

Legacy

The influence can also be seen on other levels: television series such as Alias have developed a complex mythology that brings to mind the "mytharc" of The X-Files. In addition, many procedural dramas feature a Mulder-esque lead with a supervisor similar to Skinner or Kersh. Some of these procedurals, such as NCIS, also feature a quirky technogeek similar to the Lone Gunmen characters. Other shows have been influenced by the tone and mood of The X-Files, e.g., Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which drew from the mood and coloring of The X-Files, as well as from its occasional blend of horror and humor.

Influences

Television

In the late 90's, The X-Files were lampooned on an episode of The Simpsons. The episode revolved around a strange occurrence in Springfield, with Mulder and Scully coming to investigate and working closely with Homer Simpson.

Film

Awards

The show earned a total of 16 Emmys; two for acting, one for writing, and 13 for various technical categories. In September 1994, The X-Files won its first award, the Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Graphic Design and Title Sequences.

Peter Boyle later won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of the title character in the third-season episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose". In the same year, Darin Morgan won the Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Drama Series for the same episode. "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" was one of four highly-acclaimed episodes Morgan wrote during his short time on the show's writing staff. In 1997, Gillian Anderson won the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series award for her portrayal of Agent Dana Scully.

Throughout its run, The X-Files also won Emmy awards in the following technical categories: Graphic Design and Title Sequences, Cinematography, Sound Editing and Mixing, Art Direction, Single Camera Picture Editing, Makeup, and Special Visual Effects.

History

Seasons 1–3

In the first two seasons, Morgan and Wong introduced some popular secondary characters, such as The Lone Gunmen, the Scully family, and FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner. Their first episode for the show was "Squeeze", featuring the elastic Eugene Victor Tooms. This episode became the template for the popular "Monster-of-the-Week" episodes that became a mainstay of the series over the next nine years.

They also helped to establish the show's fledgling "mytharc," which was initially established as a government plot to cover up anything pertaining to the existence of extraterrestial life, and Mulder's attempts to discover the fate of his sister, who was abducted some years previously. As the show went into its second and third seasons, it confirmed the existence of extraterrestial life within the show and suggested that a shadowy sub-governmental group known as The Syndicate — one of the members being the Cigarette Smoking Man — were in co-operation with these aliens, in order to allow them to colonize Earth, which would be achieved via use of the so-called Black Oil.

Seasons 4–6

The X-Files: Fight the Future

Promotional photo from The X-Files: Fight the Future.

In 1998 the series produced a motion picture, The X-Files (also known as The X Files: Fight the Future). It was intended as a continuation of the season five finale "The End" (5x20), but was also meant to stand on its own. The season six opener "The Beginning" picked up where the movie left off.

Seasons 7–9

The X-Files main cast as of Season 9.

It was Chris Carter's belief that the series could continue for another ten years with new leads. This was not to be the case, however, as over the course of the final two seasons, Doggett and Reyes did not provide the ratings boost Chris Carter had hoped.

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson filming the finale episode in 2002.

The show completed its ninth and final season with the two-hour episode "The Truth", which first aired on May 19, 2002, finishing third in its timeslot in the Nielsen ratings. The show ceased production at the end of the ninth season—on a cliffhanger, though Carter knew that this would be the final episode.

The future of The X-Files

DVD releases

Season Episodes Originally aired DVD release date DVD cover Region 1 Region 2 1 24 1993 – 1994 May 9 2000 November 6 2000 2 25 1994 – 1995 November 28 2000 April 30 2001 3 24 1995 – 1996 May 8 2001 November 26 2001 4 24 1996 – 1997 November 13 2001 April 22 2002 5 20 1997 – 1998 May 14 2002 October 14 2002 6 22 1998 – 1999 November 5 2002 March 17 2003 7 22 1999 – 2000 May 13 2003 September 22 2003 8 21 2000 – 2001 November 4 2003 March 14 2004 9 19 2001 – 2002 May 11 2004 June 7 2004

Miscellaneous

Trivia

• At the time of its final episode, it was the longest running sci-fi show in American television history, a title since lost to Stargate SG-1.
• The season 8 episode "Alone" has artifacts from previous episodes: in Scully's desk drawer are Queequeg's dog tag (from the episode "Quagmire"), the keychain Mulder gave her (from "Tempus Fugit") and the fused coins (from "Dreamland"). Also appearing in this episode is the character of Agent Leyla Harrison, named for an actual person. Leyla Harrison was an X-Files fan and a writer of fanfiction who died in February 2001. Well-known and well-loved among The X-Files Internet community, writers on the show created the character (a self-professed admirer of Mulder and Scully) to honor her memory.
• It was David Duchovny who suggested that Skinner play a larger role, hoping that it would result in some time off for him due to his increasing dissatisfaction with the role.
• The theme song was written by Mark Snow. It was released with other songs from and inspired by the show on the 1996 soundtrack Songs in the Key of X.
• Much of the season 3 finale, "Talitha Cumi" was inspired by The Grand Inquisitor, including the Cigarette Smoking Man's line "Anyone who can appease a man's conscience can take his freedom away from him."
• The show, perhaps to add to the mystique, never displayed episode titles on screen. This was one of the first TV series whose fans disseminated information such as this strictly via the Internet.
• The controversial and violent episode "Home", which featured a story about a family that has been inbred to almost proto-human levels of development, was kept out of syndication for three years after its initial airing.
• The town known as Gibsonton, Florida in the circus freak-centric episode, "Humbug", is a real town that really is populated with former circus performers.
• Creator Chris Carter's birthday is October 13, thus the frequent references to the number 1013 on the show and the reason Fox Mulder's birthday is also October 13. It is also the name of Carter's production company, Ten Thirteen Productions. The number 1121, and especially the time 11:21 PM, also appears regularly on The X-Files, particularly in the early seasons. This is a reference by Chris Carter to his wife Dori's birthday, November 21.
• While Mulder believes in extraterrestrial life, and Scully does not (until season 6), the opposite is true of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson (i.e. Duchovny does not believe EBEs exist, while Anderson does).
• In "Little Green Men" and "One Breath", Glen Morgan and James Wong wrote opening teasers that used offscreen narration by one of the cast members as a dramatic motif. This technique, never previously used on the show, became a standard device in the teasers for many subsequent Mythology episodes.
• The episode "Scary Monsters," named after an album/song by David Bowie, ends with what can be considered an allusion to the film The Man Who Fell to Earth — the audience sees the child Tommy in a chair watching a wall covered with televisions, much like Bowie's character in the film.

Taglines

Fox Mulder in his basement office, now on display at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum.

The phrase "The Truth is Out There" is usually shown on screen at the end of the opening credits sequence. However, over the course of the series, this phrase would occasionally be replaced with something else, especially for "mytharc" episodes.

• Trust No One — "The Erlenmeyer Flask"
• Deny Everything — "Ascension"
• 'éí 'aaníígÓÓ 'áhoot'é' — "Anasazi" ("The truth is far from here" in Navajo)
• Apology is Policy — "731"
• Herrenvolk ("Master race" in German) — "Everything Dies"
• Deceive Inveigle Obfuscate — "Teliko"
• E pur si muove — "Terma" ("And still it moves" in Italian)
• Believe the Lie — "Gethsemane"
• All Lies Lead to the Truth — "Redux"
• Resist or Serve — "The Red and the Black"
• The End — "The End"
• Die Wahrheit ist irgendwo da draußen — "Triangle" ("The truth is out there somewhere" in German)
• In the Big Inning — "The Unnatural" (a baseball-themed episode)
• Amor Fati — "Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati" ("Love of fate" in Latin)
• Believe to Understand — "Closure"
• Nothing Important Happened Today — "Nothing Important Happened Today II"
• erehT tuO si hturT ehT — "4D" ("The Truth is Out There" backwards)
• They're Watching — "Trust No 1"
• Dio ti ama — "Improbable" ("God loves you" in Italian)

Fan terminology

• CSM — Cigarette Smoking Man
• MoW or MOTW — Monster-of-the-week
• OBSSE — The Order of the Blessed Saint Scully, The Enigmatic (a group of fans of Scully who have their own group on the Internet) [link]
• Shipper (relationshipper) — a fan who wants Mulder and Scully to get together romantically. Although 'shipper' is a term for any fan who wants to see two main characters of a show romantically involved, the first use in North America could very well have been on the X-Files newsgroup. In contrast, "Noromos" wish for Mulder and Scully to keep their relationship platonic.[link]
• TLG - The Lone Gunmen

Video games

X

Relationship to other Ten Thirteen Productions shows

Millennium

• In the season 1 "Millennium" episode "Lamentation", Frank Black visits the FBI Academy in Quantico. In the background of one shot, two agents resembling Mulder and Scully are seen walking down a staircase. In reality, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson's photo doubles were intentionally included in the episode as an inside-joke.
• Actor David Fredericks plays J. Edgar Hoover in the Season 3 "Millennium" episode "Matryoshka", reprising his role from "X-Files" episodes "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" and "Travelers".
• Lance Henriksen and Brittany Tiplady make their final appearances as "Millennium" characters Frank & Jordan Black in the Season 7 "X-Files" episode entitled "Millennium".

Harsh Realm

• In the season 7 X-Files episode "Sein Und Zeit", one of the characters is watching Harsh Realm on his TV. He remarks, "I don't know what this is but it's fantastic."

The Lone Gunmen

With the cancellation of The Lone Gunmen series before a resolution to this cliffhanger could be produced, The X-Files episode entitled "Jump the Shark" — a reference to the television term — served as an epitaph to the show. It featured the Lone Gunmen, Jimmy Bond, Yves Adele Harlow, Kimmy the Geek, plus Walter Skinner and Morris Fletcher, two "X-Files" characters also featured on The Lone Gunmen.

Broadcast history

Approximately a year later, it started showing in the United Kingdom upon the terrestrial channel BBC2, airing at 21:00. Since then, it has expanded into other countries across the world, either being dubbed or subtitled to accommodate for foreign language viewers. A short time after the United Kingdom started airing The X-Files, Channel 10 acquired to the rights to broadcast it on Australian television, which it did so until the finale in 2002.

References