The X-Files (TV and movie franchise, first appearing 1993)
The X-Files
(TV and movie franchise,
first appearing 1993)
Introduction.
I loved “The X-Files,”
but I almost missed out.
I was not-quite thirty when “The X-Files”
first hit the screens, and though a SF,F&H fan since childhood, I had to
been talked into watching it. I missed part of the first season out of pure
snobbery.
As a kid I loved UFO books and (to paraphrase
this show) “I wanted to believe.” By the 1990s I’d begun to sour on it, but not
because of the accumulating improbabilities and debunkings of UFO-ology (the
term “UFO-ology,” coined by True Believers, refers to the study, but I’ll use
it to refer to the Myth), it was a mythology after all, like the more
respectable “Argonautica” (oldest surviving version from 3rd c. BCE) and a rich one,
connected to our own experiences the way “Argonautica” probably once
did, but never will be again.
No, my sourness came from the
annoyingly credulousness of the True Believers, they were about as appealing as
Jehovah Witnesses ringing your doorbell, and even though they didn’t actually
ring doorbells, they seemed more aggressive in their stridency. They ruined a
really good Fantasy.
I wasn’t alone in this.
UFO-ology borrowed (or stole) from legitimate SF and made compelling speculations
seem foolish by childishly proselytizing them. The idea of Ancient Astronauts
is legitimately cool and not inherently silly, as demonstrated by Scriptwriter
Nigel Kneale’s TV serial “Quatermass and the Pit” (1958) and Novelist Arthur C.
Clarke’s and Director Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, “2001: A Space Odyssey”
(1968); but the same year as “2001…” came out, Eric Von Däniken published the
fake-non-fiction “Chariots of the Gods: Unsolved Mysteries of the Past” and
turned the theme so sordid and most good Writers wouldn’t touch it anymore. Flying
Saucers/UFOs were a staple of 1950s SF, but became largely exhausted by
over-proliferation and stupidity by the mid-1980s, when I was entering college
and looking for better books to read.
By the 1990s, everything
attached to UFOs seemed embarrassingly cheesy like the TV series “Unsolved
Mysteries” (first aired 1987) which promised True-Crime and instead bolstered
the transparently hoaxed Gulf Breeze UFO Incident instead.
But with the first episode of “The X-Files” I
saw (“Ice,” first aired November 5, 1993), I was shocked. It was a
legitimate and intelligent SF, with rich characterization and exceptional
production values, and a level of suspense that TV almost never achieves.
I’ve stuck with “The X-Files”
even since. It proved to have amazing longevity (nine-seasons, two-feature
films, two revivals, two-and-a-half spin offs, and more rip-offs than you can
shake a stick at) and endeavored to reflect a mutating world (chaotic and
painful three-decades that included four Presidential Administrations, the last
of which featured the chosen candidates of both major Parties being people
incapable of passing a National Security back-ground check, the worst Terrorist
massacre in USA history, three USA invasions of foreign nations leading to
forced regime changes, and the worst financial crisis in 70-years). Clearly, it
deserves careful, critical, attention.
Part one
The appearance of the
first series.
The Chairperson of the
University of California at Santa Barbara Film Studies Department, Constance
Penley, was only half joking when she told an audience, "The creation of
'The X-Files' was arguably the most important event of the decade, except for
possibly the discovery of the Mars rock, or the impeachment of the president
[Bill Clinton]. Of course, in the 'X-Files' universe, the two would be
connected … The show was so sophisticated in its presentation of the ethical
and social dimensions of science that you would have thought that Chris Carter
had been trained as a philosopher, rather than a journalist."
Actually, Creator and Executive Producer Chris Carter,
then-37-years-old, wasn’t “trained” as a Journalist, though he did work as one,
for a surfing magazine, before he turn to Scriptwriting. As a Producer he had
only a few credits under his belt, none especially successful, when he sold
“The X-Files” to FOX network. His pitch was based on the popularity of the
highly credulous commentary on Alien Abduction presented by the previously
until-then-respected Harvard Professor John E. Mack and a 1991 Roper Survey that
suggested that at least 3.7 million USA residents had been so Abducted
(actually, the evidence in the survey didn’t say what people said it said, but
whatever). Carter told FOX, “Everybody wants to hear that story … [Abduction]
is tantamount to a religious experience.”
The show was green-lit, but little was
expected of it. It was modest-to-low budget, not heavily promoted, and the network
seemed far more committed to a different SF,F&H series starring the
far-better-know Bruce Campbell, “The Adventures of Brisco Country Jr” which
died in only one season (a sadly under-rated show but not as good as “The
X-Files”).
“The X-Files” proved a surprise hit, and was
not only renewed, but the network asked for 25 episodes for the second-season,
not the usual 22. By the end of that season, it was still gaining an audience,
up another 40% and the top-rated Friday-night-show among the golden demographic
of 18-to-49-year-olds, plus it had been sold to 60 additional countries.
“The X-Files” was built
around the fringiest of Fringe Beliefs, but told like a Cop show, and offered
entertaining paranoias as a mirror of near-universal anxieties suffusing the
Real World. It spoke of our times, our distrust in Government and our anxiety
about not being able to fully grasp the nature of the world around us. It made
the Abyss something we could safely look into without fear of falling in.
Critics Zack Handlen and Emily Todd
VanDerWerff observed, “It was about a moral reckoning with what the United
States had done to win the Cold War.” The Cold War had officially ended
on December
26, 1991, and even such a short time later, that victory didn’t taste sweet.
Even while the Cold War raged, it seemed as if we were paying an extreme price
in terms of Freedom to achieve our victory over Tyranny, and now we had to ask,
with the Tyrants vanquished, how much Freedom did we have left?
Cater was not particularly
attracted to UFO-ology as a representation of an objective truth, but a goodly
number of its Fans were. The Fans called themselves “X-philes,” and thronged conventions
to meet Carter, whom they sometimes called by them as “God.” Said Carter,
"The autograph sessions at events like this are always really odd. People
try to slide you things, tapes of their abduction. My wife and I have gone to
bed at night listening to tapes of people's abductions. It's better than
counting sheep."
Despite quips like that
last line, Carter seemed to have enormous affection for his eccentric Fans,
going as far as sending them a love-letter in the form of the popular
supporting Characters, “The Lone Gunmen” (Tom Braidwood and Dean Haglund and Bruce
Harwood), created
by Writers Glen Morgan and James Wong the first-season one. Carter again, “Basically when you go to
conventions you see the Lone Gunmen. It is a flattering portrait of our
fans." (More
about them later).
Carter also observed, "The Internet and
'The X-Files' grew up together and it was great. The show originally aired at 9
o'clock on Friday night and at 10 o'clock, I could get on the Internet and see
what people thought of it.”
The show danced a careful
line, the Conspiracy-Myths it indulged all had Real-World True Believers who
not only longed to capture (again, paraphrasing the show), “The Truth that was
Out There,” but were also so convinced of their groundless “Truths” that they
had made themselves become toxic, sometimes murderous. But “The X-Files” never
seemed to be created by, or for, Timothy-McVeigh-types or the Satanic-Panic
pitchmen, any more than did the “The Nightstalker” franchise (TV movies and
series franchise, first appearing 1972), which had been the primary inspiration
for “The X-Files.”
The basic idea that FBI Agent
Fox William Mulder (David Duchovny) was once a promising member of the
much-lauded Behavior Sciences Group, but had fallen into disrepute because of
his insistence on pursuing hypothesis of Paranormal and/or Extraterrestrial
involvement in certain cases. He was regulated to a basement office and handed
the X-Files, a dumping ground for the weirdest and most dead-end Cases. Because
of his special expertise, he still got him called in on significant Investigations,
but always there’s the looming threat of some higher up would exploit some
small mistake and get him fired.
Enter Agent Dana
Katherine Scully (Gillian Anderson), a graduate of Medical School who
joined the FBI and assigned to the X-Files because her background in the hard
sciences might curb some of Fox’s wildest speculations. Also, the higher-ups
want her to report on any indiscretions he might commit.
That dynamic alone would’ve been enough for a
successful string of TV movies, but Carter wanted more from the show, or
perhaps recognized more was needed. As I read up on his inspiration, “The
Nightstalker” I learned that the original Scriptwriter, Richard Matheson,
hadn’t wanted to be involved in the TV series, though his first two films had
been hugely successful (the first broke ratings-records) and he’d created a
terrific Hero, the over-worked, underappreciated, and underestimated,
Beat-Journalist Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin). Matheson said he struggled to
find a fresh story to fit into the format for the second film and didn’t think
the series Writers would fare any better. Matheson proved correct, though the
series itself is now considered classic, back-in-the-day it lasted less-than a
season. The death wasn’t just flagging ratings, the struggle against redundancy
in the well-made show proved a losing battle; the Scriptwriters were exhausted
and Actor McGavin wanted out of his contract early.
What are now known as the “Monster of the
Week” ("MoW"
to Fans)
episodes are the ones closest to “The Nightstalker,” and “The X-Files” deserves
high praise for making those tales as diverse as they were. But the real heart
of the series was the “Mythos” stories, a longer narrative arc that explored
Alien Abduction as a Global Conspiracy. By the third-season (1995), MoW were
generally the comedic ones, while Mythos were dead-serious.
When Character Fox was a child, he witnessed
his sister be Kidnapped and later concluded it was an Alien Abduction, this was
what drew him to Paranormal Investigation. As he probed, he uncovered the
wickedness of the Syndicate, a Secret Cabal within the US Government that held
the key to the Truth of his sister’s fate. Piece by piece he, with Dana first a
half-adversary, then 100% ally, struggled to piece together what would prove to
be the Conspiracy to End All Conspiracies.
The Mythos would eventually be a burden to the
show (I lost patience with Mythos episodes after the sixth-season (1998),
though I remained devoted otherwise), but in the early years it was the Mythos
were what made it a Fan-sation. We rarely saw what Mulder doesn’t see, we
mostly knew only what he knows, so like Watsons to his Sherlock Holmes, we had
to accept his conclusions when he puts the fragments together. But he’s wrong
more than once, and lied to even more often. Some within the Syndicate do
assist him, the main one was called “Deep Throat” (Jerry Hardin), but they did
mostly for their own goals, not there out of the goodness of their hearts.
Fox’s Allies reflected internal dissention within the Syndicate, and as a
result Fox’s Allies were more apt to lie to him than his real Enemies, because
his real Enemies generally didn’t say anything at all.
Well, except the one called the
Cigarette-Smoking Man or Cancer Man (William Bruce Davis). He was quite
talkative, and before the series was done, his friends in the Syndicate were
trying to kill him because he talked way too much.
Fox could be easily be eliminated, so much so
that we wondered why he isn’t dead yet. Over time we learn the Syndicate is
held together by familial connections, and professional connections so intimate
they might as well be familial. Fox’s own family has a long and deep history
with them, so he was (most of the time) off-limits to assassination. The
Syndicate preferred to try and manipulate and/or discredit him than make him
dead, but they weren’t not shy about making other people dead.
I’ll only rough-outline the Conspiracy. It’s
so elaborate and often threatens to become nonsensical, but after all the
pieces were finally assembled, it has a strong internal logic. It’s worth
comparing “X-Files” to another show that influenced it, “Twin Peaks” (1990, and
Duchovny had a recurring role in that program). “Twin Peaks” pilot didn’t solve
the Murder at the center of the story, and when it was picked up as a series,
creators David Lynch and Mark Frost didn’t actually know who killed Laura
Palmer (Sheryl Lee), because they never expected to beyond the pilot; the
not-really-knowing-where-they-were-going was an on-going challenge to that
franchise.
With “The X-Files” I was always confident that
Carter knew where he was going … at least mostly. And only until sixth-season.
“The X-Files” central Mystery became a lever
for Carter to explore the corrosiveness of the Culture of Secrecy. The
Syndicate demonstrated that men forced to live lies eventually can’t tell the
truth to anyone, not even themselves. Because they lie to themselves so much,
they, on the inside, eventually they don’t have much more idea what’s going on
than Fox and Dana on the outside.
The Conspiracy started with the famous Roswell
Flying Saucer Incident, 1947, which was just after horrors of WWII and at the
dawn of the terrors of the Cold War. The Syndicate was dedicated to protect
humanity, but preconditioned by the era’s fears to use the worst methods to do
so. Over time, they became corrupt, not out of greed, but intoxication of the
power their Secret Knowledge gave them and because they were accountable to no
one. They started to fragment, some feeding half-truths to Fox to undercut the
others, some willing to act like Quislings and write-off most of the human race
because they saw that as the clearest path to their own survival.
Though the Hero of “The
X-Files” was fanatic Fox, the subject was often the Evils of Fanaticism. As Bob Marley sang, “Is there a place for the hopeless sinner/Who has hurt
all mankind just to save his own beliefs?”
Third-season, “Talitha Cuma”
had a particularly telling dialogue exchange between the Cancer Man and
Jeramiah Smith (Roy Thinnes), a Rebel Alien who worked for the Social Security
Administration and ran afoul with the Syndicate:
Jeramiah: “I’m not ashamed of
my actions.”
Cancer: “Ashamed? You’re not
allowed the luxury of human weakness and penitence. You’re not allowed to put
you indulgences ahead of the greater purpose.”
Jeramiah: “I no longer
believe in the greater purpose.”
Cancer: “Then your fate is
just.”
Jeramiah: “My justice is not
for you to mete out. You may have reason, but you have no right. And no means
either.”
Cancer: “You presume to
dictate duty to me? Do you have any idea what the cost of your actions are?
What their effect might be? Who are you to give them hope?”
Jeramiah: “What do you give
them?”
Cancer: “We give them
happiness and they give us authority.”
Jeramiah: “The authority to
take away their freedom under the guise of democracy.”
Cancer: “Men can never be
free because they’re weak, corrupt, worthless and restless. The people believe
in authority. They’ve gone tired of waiting for miracle and mystery. Science is
their religion. No greater explanation exists for them. They must never believe
any differently if the project is to go forward.”
Jeramiah: “At what cost to
them?”
Cancer: “The question is
irrelevant and the outcome is inevitable. The date has been set.”
Jeramiah: “At what cost to
them for your selfish benefit? How many must die at your hands to preserve your
stake in the project?”
Jeramiah’s rebelliousness is
evidence that the ambiguous Alien Adversary was torn by descension, just like
the Syndicate. Later it will prove that the Rebel Aliens were trapped in their
own Culture of Secrecy and self-interest, just like the Rebels within the
Syndicate. When most of the Conspiracy is understood, we learn that our Enemy’s
Enemy is not necessarily our Friend.
Another essential element
was the great chemistry between lead Actors Duchovny and Anderson.
Actor Duchovny brought a
surprisingly lot of Real-Life experience to the role. He had a background in
Academia and drew from that for Character Fox. Carter observed, “It was David
who pointed out correctly that if he were a nerd with pocket mechanical-pencil
protectors, you wouldn’t be interested. But a smart, educated, perfectly sane
guy can get you to believe outrageous things.” Duchovny, himself, has a
naturally Skeptical nature, and projected that while Fox said the wildest and
most credulous things, very likely saving the show from perdition, because Fox
never came off as wild-eyed as the crazy things that came out of his mouth.
Related to this, Duchovny consistently resisted Directors’
wishes that he over-play scenes, especially not over-reacting to Homicides; Fox
is a Cop after all, and also a man intellectually fascinated by the
Unexplained. “Sometimes I have to fight, because [Directors] say, ‘Here’s this
dead body, how come Mulder’s not more emotionally involved?’ Everybody’s
aghast, and I’m detached, like, ‘Look at those beautiful maggots.’” Duchovny
was often compared to Actor Richard Gere, and shared with him a surface
passivity from which the deeply-considered and the deeply-felt could emerge.
Actress Anderson came to
the show with much less of a resume than Duchovny, but projected a
ferociously-intense intelligence that contrasted nicely with Duchovny’s
coolness and casual wit. Anderson joked in interviews that Character Dana was
far more intelligent than she was, but Anderson was so convincing, one couldn’t
believe the Actress was anything less than Genius-level.
Cater had to fight for
her casting, “I couldn't get the executives to see what I saw, no matter how
much I tried, and it really came down to the idea of how she would look in a
bathing suit. And I kept saying to them, she's not going to be in a bathing
suit. She wasn't the bombshell they envisioned. They thought it was going to be
a show much more like 'Hunter' [first aired 1984]."
Character Dana is clearly modeled on Clarise Starling from “The
Silence of the Lambs” (1991, and played by Jodie Foster) in her poker-faced
determination to impress her chauvinist superiors. Dana was the Skeptic, but in
Real-Life the Anderson is a Believer in the Paranormal saying, “Psychokinesis
appeals to me. ESP, telling the future, I love that stuff.” Like how Duchovny’s
natural Skepticism informs Fox’s Credulousness, Anderson’s tendency towards
Believing informed Dana’s Empiricism.
An important detail about Dana comes into play here, she’s
Religious, a Catholic, while Fox apparently has no Spiritual faith (or at least
not until third-season when he bonds with a Native American Shaman).
Christianity, especially Catholicism, has long been on the bumpy path to
increasingly Rational Faith: Darwin eventually got accepted, Galileo’s
Conviction by the Inquisition was over-turned centuries after the fact,
Exorcisms have become rare, and Miracles faced tougher-and-tougher standards by
the Congregation (more recently Dicastery) for the Causes of Saints, a group
that could, flippantly, be referred to the Church’s version of the X-files.
For example, the
third-season episode "Revelations" featured a Murder victim (Michael
Berryman) whose corpse smelled like flowers, marking him as an “Incorruptible,”
which was considered by the Church as evidence of Blessedness and the
Miraculous. But even before the episode was aired, the Catholic Church had
moved away from using Incorruptibility as evidence of Blessedness because of a
combination of alternative Scientific Explanations and examples of some very
corrupt people who demonstrated Incorruptible corpses.
Dana had a Faith that
gave her comfort and strength, but didn’t require Evidence/Miracles. She was,
by nature, hyper-conscious of the temptations of self-deception and
false-Prophets. Fox, on the other hand, had a Belief-system made him desperate
for his specific Evidence/Miracle, the solution to the Mystery of his sister,
so more often than Dana, he got fooled. Fox is
frequently mocked by Skeptics for his strange Beliefs, but when Dana is
similarly challenged, it comes from the Believers, and they’re more aggressive.
Carter, "The most difficult
thing to reconcile is science and religion and so we created a dilemma for her
character that plays right into Mulder's hands. So that cross she wears, which
was there from the pilot episode, is all-important for a character who is torn
between her rational character and her spiritual side. That is, I think, a very
smart thing to do. The show is basically a religious show. It's about the
search for God. You know, 'The truth is out there.' That's what it's
about."
Another
telling dialogue exchange comes from the fourth season episode,
"Gethsemane":
Fox: “You think it's foolish?”
Dana: “I have no opinion,
actually.”
Fox: “You have no opinion?”
Dana: “This is your holy
grail, Mulder. Not mine.”
Fox: “What's that supposed to
mean?”
Dana: “It just means proving
to the world the existence of alien life is not my last dying wish.” [Dana is
undergoing cancer-treatment. Fox is mostly there for her, but there are times,
like this, that he’s way-too-far down his own rabbit-hole.]
Fox: “What about Santa Claus
or the Easter Bunny? This is not some selfish pet project of mine, Scully. I'm
as skeptical of that man as you are, but proof... definitive proof of sentient
beings sharing the same time and existence with us, that would change
everything. Every truth we live by would be shaken to the ground. There's no
greater revelation imaginable, no greater scientific discovery.”
Dana: “You already believe,
Mulder. What difference would it make? I mean, what would proof change for
you?”
Fox: “If someone could prove
to you the existence of God, would it change you?”
Dana: “Only if it were
disproven.”
Fox: “Then you accept the
possibility that belief in God is a lie?”
Dana: “I don't think about
it, actually, and I don't think it can be proven.”
Fox: “But what if it could
be? Wouldn't that knowledge be worth seeking? Or is it just easier for you to
just go along believing the lie?”
Dana accepted the
Conspiracy early on, she’s a Cop, Conspiracies are part of her job, but it took
far-longer to accept Alien and the Paranormal explanations for the Conspiracy’s
misdeeds. Unlike accepting ordinary human veniality, she demanded that
extraordinary claims be supported by extraordinary evidence.
The Religious themes would
become stronger and stronger as the show progressed, often deftly contrasting
the difference between living a Spiritual life and slipping into Cultism. The
show was Ecumenical about these themes and that enriched the content – well,
for a while at least. Actress Anderson got pregnant near the end of
first-season, the scripts worked around it by having character Dana Adducted in
second-season; that, and its consequences, were a source of a number of
excellent episodes which stretched across seasons two through five (1994 –
1997) but by eight-season (2001) it was more-than-hinted that Dana had given
birth to an immaculate conception and maybe the Messiah, and things got
flat-out silly.
Wrote Critic Joyce
Millman, “Scully's sexiest quality was, arguably, her luminous integrity, while
Mulder … was an unlikely cross between a broodingly handsome hunk and a
wisecracking nerd -- part Richard Gere, part Alfred E. Neuman.”
There was sexual tension
between the two, but unlike previous TV power-couples, Sam and Diane from
“Cheers” (first aired 1982, Characters played by Ted Danson and Shelly Long) or
David and Maddie “Moonlighting” (first aired 1985, the Characters played by
Bruce Willis and Sybil Shepard respectively) there was more soulfulness than
tension. It was an unusually enduring relationship, they had a shared purpose,
Fox became Dana’s idealism while Dana was Fox’s anchor. Dana repeatedly greeted
Fox over the phone with a slightly odd, but telling, phrase, “Mulder, it’s me.”
Using his last name suggested a professional distance, but “it’s me,” spoke of
intimacy.
The relationship found
additional glue in shared grief. Until the two finally became a romantic couple
(that took more than six years), they both had short romantic attachments to
others but remained fundamentally loners outside their biological families.
During the shows-run, both had to bury loved ones. Fox and Dana were soulmates
long before they were lovers.
There was a great deal of
humor buoying the long-unconsummated relationship, like Dana giving Fox the
stink-eye when he became smitten with a curvaceous Scientist named “Bambi”
(Bobbi Philips) in “War of the Croprophanges” third-season (1995), Fox mocking
Dana’s crush on a small-town Sheriff who proves to be a Vampire (Luke Wilson)
in “Bad Blood” fifth-season (1997), and then there’s a couple of occasions when
a fake-Fox tried to put the moves on an unsuspecting Dana, “Small Potatoes”
fourth-season (1996 and Darren Morgan played the fraud) and “Dreamland”
sixth-season (1998 and Morris Fletcher played the fraud).
Amusingly, the two Actors
apparently didn’t socialize off-set.
I must admit to a huge
crush on Actress Anderson. Back in the day, my two biggest Celebrity-crushes
were her and Angelina Jolie. Duchovny got to play opposite Jolie as well, in
“Playing God” (1997). We should all thank God that the film was so God-awful,
had it been a big hit, Duchovny likely would’ve left the series earlier, and
there would be fewer episodes to love. Anderson got to play opposite Jolie in “Playing
by Heart” (1998), which was a much better movie, but also bombed.
“The X-Files” also benefited from a large
array of supporting Characters, wonderfully written and then realized by the
Actors:
The above-mentioned Cancer Man was one of the
all-time great TV Villains:
The above-mentioned Lone
Gunmen were a trio Conspiracy Nerds who Mulder often turned to for the inside
dope on the Secret Government. They were meant as a love-letter to the show’s
obsessive Fans and the running joke in the patter between the Gunmen and Fox
was that both sides believed the other had the crazier Beliefs.
Deputy Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) was Fox and Dana’s
superior. He began as an antagonist on the fringes of the Syndicate, but soon
evolved into a courageous and loyal ally when he realized he was being
manipulated to do wrong.
Agent Alex Krycek
(Nicholas Lea) Scully’s replacement in 1995 when Scully was kidnapped. He was
charismatic but wholly without conscience. He betrays Mulder, then is betrayed
himself, and spends several seasons on the run, causing trouble for both the
X-Files and the Syndicate.
Agent Diana Fowley (Mimi
Rogers), Fox’s old flame. She returned to him in 1998, only to prove a Marta
Hari.
Arthur Dale (McGavin from
“The Nightstalker,” but also played by Fredric
George Lehne in flashbacks) a retired FBI Agent who had investigated the
very first X-File before Fox or Dana were even born. This character was
included for pure nostalgia appeal in 1996 and McGavin was always a captivating
actor. He was only in two episodes, but likely would’ve appeared in more had
McGavin not (mostly) retired from acting in 1999.
Actors Duchovny and
Anderson got virtually no rehearsal time and were burdened with the bulk of the
dialogue, but also inhabited those roles constantly, so basically the last
episode is almost the rehearsal for the next, only with different lines.
Rehearsal time was allotted for their guest stars who generally got fewer
lines. That, combined with the major talents the show was able to draw,
enriched the series tremendously. Over the years, the show featured such major
names as Ed Asner, Richard Belzer, Peter Boyle, Brad Dourif, Jodie Foster,
Charles Nelson Reilly, Tony Shalhoub, Carrie Snodgress, Lili Taylor, Lily
Tomlin, Alex Trebek, Jesse Ventura, and J.T. Walsh. Then there were the
soon-to-be famous like Tobin Bell, Jack Black, Seth Green, Lucy Liu, Jane
Lynch, Ryan Reynolds, and amusingly, appearing separately, most of the leads of
the TV show “Breaking Bad” (first aired 2008), Bryan Cranston, Dean Norris, and
Arron Paul.
Said Duchovny, “My character comes across better in reaction to
them. Thank God for the guest stars.”
It is often said the TV is a Writer’s medium while film belongs
to the Directors. “The X-Files” certainly had an extraordinary group of
Writers, including Carter himself and the fore-mentioned Morgan and Wong, other
top-Scripters were Vince Gillian and Glen Morgan’s brother Darin. The mix of
writers allowed the series to alternate between dark-and-light. Though
season-one was unrelentingly dark in both the Mythos and MoW episodes, climaxing
in the murder of an appealing, regularly-appearing character (“The Erlenmeyer Flask”), strong comedic
elements entered the mix in a second-season episode written by Glen Morgan,
“Humbug.” After that, the funniest episodes frequently ranked among the Fan-favorites.
The Writers were mostly in Los Angeles, even
when the Production were mostly in Vancouver, but unusually, they were closely
involved in the Productions, sometimes even providing shot directions in the
scripts. Screenwriter and Executive Producer Frank Spotnitz said, "That's
kind of something unusual about this show. But the truth is, if you didn't do
that on an ‘X-Files’ show, you'd just never make it." Kim Manners,
the most honored of the many honored Directors the show was blessed with, added
that these, "are the scripts that, when I read them, visually I am
excited. When I read the script, I go to the movies."
And the show’s scripts pushed the limits of
what TV allowed. Second-season’s “Irresistible,” written by Carter, was one of
very few episodes without a SF,F&H element and faced pre-production
censorship because it concerned necrophilia. Fourth-season’s "Home,"
written by Morgan and Wong, featured multi-generational incest, grotesque
disabilities, infanticide, some other stuff, and was famously censored after
its first airing. Of that episode, Director Manners said, "The picture
opened with this woman giving birth on a kitchen table during a thunderstorm.
You never saw the baby, but these three brothers carried it outside and buried it
alive, because they didn't want this terrible genealogy to continue. I read it,
and I went, 'Now this is a classic horror script.' There are episodes that,
when you read them — bang! — the images just leap into your head."
But superior scripts were not “The X-Files” only distinction.
Here, the influence of “Twin Peaks,” and its devotion to Production values,
Cinematography, and Score was most evident. Both shows also even filmed in the
same region, “Twin Peaks” in Washington State, USA and “The X-Files” in
Vancouver, Canada. An important difference is that “Twin Peaks” had a generous
budget for TV, but “The X-Files” first-season was modest-to-low, yet it still
managed feature-film-level visual quality.
Among the best Directors were, in addition to
Carter himself and the fore-mentioned Manners, were Rob Bowman, R.W. Goodwin,
Michael Lange, David Nutter, and Tony Wharmby. Each had its own aesthetic but
also had the look of the show nailed down pat. “The X-Files” style was unified
though almost every episode and stood apart from everything else on TV. Some
made their Directorial debut on the show, including both lead actors. Duchovny
Wrote and Directed sixth-season’s “The Unnatural" (1999), which was one of
the great ones. Anderson Wrote and Directed seventh-season’s “All Things” (2000)
but that one didn’t quite work.
Legendary French New Wave Director Alain
Resnais became a big Fan of Manners who Directed about 25% of the episodes.
Manners said, “This is a very difficult show. If you don't do this show right, it
would be the most ridiculous show on television. I mean, I directed an episode,
'Leonard Betts' [fourth-season, 1996] where a guy had his head cut off in the
teaser, and he grew a new one."
Lack of rehearsal time was a necessity, and complained about by
regular cast members, but Manners preferred it, "We'll normally shoot the
rehearsal. I like the spontaneity of it. And most of the actors would rather
shoot it first time.” He was also involved with the Editing, “What airs is most
often my cut."
Manners was closest with Director Bowman, and
early on they established a rhythm for the show that would stay in place even
after Bowman’s departure after seventh-season. Bowman’s first episode was a
first-season’s "Gender Bender," and would late say, "I thought
the whole process and the way the team worked and the way Chris [Carter] was
aiming the show was something I wanted to be a part of badly. So, I asked to
come back as much as possible." He was soon offered a full-time gig and
title of Producer. "It took me about a second and a half to make that
decision."
Manners on Bowman, "Robby and I set a
real different look for the show. It's a much different look in seasons two and
three than in season one. Our styles are similar but not exact.” Though
Bowman’s first episode was MoW, he preferred the Mythos episodes; Bowman said
in an interview, "At one point, I told Chris, 'Please don't give me those
monster episodes.' I just have such a tough time looking at the man in a rubber
suit and taking it seriously." Meanwhile, Manners focused on the MoW and
the balance between the two was "a perfect marriage."
Spotnitz on Bowman, “Rob is very precise, very
aware of everything going on in the scene … always looking for the detail
that's going to distinguish that moment from any other moment ever done."
Director Lange was responsible for the largest number of
episodes, and said that the Producers, “encourage cinematic stuff … Instead of
shooting at a normal eye level as the Salamander Man takes the gun, I tilt up,
and now I’m shooting up his nose almost, and it was kind [first-season’s “Young
at Heart”] of like very disorienting. The show’s got a certain ennui that
appeals to me, the film noir-y movies of the ’40s look, an undercurrent of
tension and anxiety ’cause of all the weird things going on.”
In those days, an hour of TV, minus commercials, was about 45
minutes of actually story-telling (these days, on commercial TV it’s been cut
42, but on streaming shows an hour closer to a full-hour), and the cast and
crew generally had only eight-to-eleven days for principal shooting.
First Assistant Director Barry Thomas observed
about the rigorous organization that went into the show, "We have all the
special effects, all the scope, all the production value that you'd have in a
feature film, just in a compact period of time. The difficulty is shooting a
one-hour movie in eight main unit days." Line Producer Harry V. Bring
added, "The 2nd unit's really another main unit. It's not like we give
them all the car crashes and all the stunts. It's whatever fits the schedule
with the actors' scheduling. They get drama scenes, spooky scenes, monster
scenes, just like the 1st unit. We don't necessarily delineate."
Part of the unity came from relying heavily on
Cinematographer John S Bartley who shot almost all of the first-through-third
seasons, though interestingly, not the pilot, which set the tone for all that
followed. The Cinematographer for “Pilot”, Thomas Del Ruth, was an industry
veteran who started as a Cameraman on classic films like “Cool Hand Luke” and
“The Graduate” (both 1967) and graduated to the team-leader on “ABC’s Wide
World of Sports” (first aired in 1973) when that Sports show was better-looking
than any TV Drama.
Bartley proved especially gifted in shooting
shadowy scenes, a challenge since the emergence of color film. Obviously, the
audience must see what’s going on, and the illusion of the set being darker
than it really was could be created through back-lighting, creating strong
silhouettes, and spot-lighting, so everything can be dark except one thing,
which is easier with B&W which made it easier for the audience to visually
accept abstractions, while color often sucked the definition out of
chiaroscuro. Color-film first hit it big in the 1930s, but was so expensive
B&W thrived for quite-some-time, up to about 1965; but B&W’s commercial
viability was also extended because the grittiest Dramas, Crime, and Horror just
looked better in B&W. In the 1980s an aesthetic emerged where shadows were
simulated with cool hues, so the darkness often wasn’t really (Dario Argento’s
“Suspiria” (1977) led the way in that) but “The X-Files” was more Cop-show in
tone than Supernatural Horror, so harking back to German-Expression-influenced
Film Noir. Bartley explained the challenges, “If we were shooting in a smaller
format, we’d need a lot more light to keep grain from building up. That means
we’d have to give up our minimalist approach to low-key lighting. We’ve done
many scenes with just practicals. That’s living on the edge.” He worked with
the pallet established by De Roth during first-season, then added in brighter
colors to contrast the dark during second-season.
Bartley responded to how much of this
dialogue-heavy show had a telling-manner that was show-over-tell. In second-season’s
“Soft Light,” he had to visualize a man in a darkened alley whose shadow was
darker than all the others because his shadow was the Monster. In “3,” also
second-season, a character is wordlessly revealed to be a Vampire by his terror
of a beam of sunlight creeping across the floor of a jail-cell. An image that
the show became known for, Fox and Dana working their way down darkened
hallways or forests with xenon flashlights probing the abyss before them, was
introduced during second-season’s “End Game,” a Rosco pebble bounce was used to
kick just enough light back define to glint off the whites of the shadowed Character’s
eyes. “We actually blend light and dark. Some things the audience can see, and
other things they’re not sure if they saw them or not. It adds to the aura of
mystery.”
Vancouver
offered the Production everything they needed, large soundstages, diverse
architecture in the various neighborhoods, nearby forests and farmland. Bartley
again, “The storylines have taken the characters all over the US, to Puerto
Rico and even up into the Arctic Circle. But it’s really all shot right here.
Vancouver can look like any city in North America.” (I feel the need to say here
that the few New-York-City-based episodes never looked quite-right.) Vancouver
was also far enough-north that that winter sun stayed low, a better shooting
light, and made for more comfortable working conditions at noon-time in the
summer. The near-constant rain and snow (which earned Actor Duchovny some bad
press when he complained about it) was used as well, “We’ve been lucky with the
weather. We’ve been in the forest during the rain, and we used it: we
backlighted and used a lot of steam, and had lights panning across the frame as
search lights,” the effect was described by Bartley’s interviewer as
"chaotic, eerie and discomforting: vintage X-FILES."
Observed Critic Emily St. James, “If nothing else, week
after week, it sent its two central FBI agents out into a scarier, more
cinematic America than had ever been seen on the small screen.”
The Music was provided by Composer Mark Snow,
already a prominent for TV scores. He achieved his greatest fame because of his
work on “The X-Files.” There's the moody beauty of Mark Snow's synth scoring
and unlike most great TV theme music, “Materia Primoris” (the official name, an
refers to the “first matter” a starting material
from with a Alchemist would forge the Philosopher’s Stone) has is an ambient
piece full of echoes and ghostly whistles. A combination of the strength of the
composition and unique power of the TV medium brought the theme music to #2
spot on English and Australian Pop charts and #1 in France.
Another propeller of its popularity, and other
dream-like instrumental hits from the same period, was that that era’s Rave
Culture (the Club goers were same age demographic as “The X-Files” Fans) had
started to examining itself. The Italian phrase, “strage del sabato sera” (“Saturday
night slaughter”) referred an epidemic of car accidents among Club-Goers, and
DJs began reacting to this by playing slower, calming, music at the end of the
night’s set. This theme song joined the works of, and/or was performed by, the
likes of DJ Dado, Robert Miles, and Triple X.
Part
two
Increasing
challenges
Carter’s strong hand kept the quality of the
show high through a series of challenges, inevitable given that the first
series was the better-part of a decade of high-pressure labor.
Neither Actor Duchovny
or Anderson wanted to continue filming in Vancouver Canada, they never expected
the show to run as long as it did and didn’t want to continue to be separated
them from families and homes. In sixth-season (1998), production moved to Los
Angeles. This gave Carter access to more resources, but it was more expensive,
and became a challenge for the extensive location work (Spotnitz said,
"One of our editors made a joke the first season in Los Angeles: 'The show
used to be dark and wet, and now it's dark and dry.'"). Further, he had to
leave much of its top-notch Production Team behind either immediately or within
the year, (examples: Directors Bowman and Goodwin, Art Director Graeme Murray).
Bowman, who worked on sixth-season but not seventh, said, "Leaving those
people behind, who had basically helped make life for the show, was the hardest
for me."
But the show did retain
its cast and several key behind-the-camera players (examples: Directors Lange
and Manners, Art Director Shirley Inget and Sound Mixer Michael Williamson).
The show also added new, talented, behind-the-camera people (example: Art
Director Gary Allen) many of whom came from an “The X-Files: Fight the Future”
feature film, an LA-based production that coincided with both the move and the
show’s peak-popularity.
On top of that, the lead
Actors were becoming restless. Duchovny was given more film opportunities and
engaged in a bitter law suit with the FOX network. He started distancing
himself from “The X-Files” after the feature-film. In 2000, with eight-season
secure, but everything else up in the air, Carter joked, "Elian Gonzalez' future is
more certain."
(Gonzalez was
three-year-old Cuban boy who was the center of an International custody battle.
His mother defected Cuba to the USA with him, but she drowned enroute. His
father, still-in-Cuba dad wanted Elian back. USA and International law, plus basic
morality, were on the father’s side, but anti-Castro feelings in Florida ran
passionate and deep. Gonzales return to his dad was never really in question,
but in the heat of the moment, it looked like it was and ultimately required a
raid by Federal Law Enforcement on the house where Elian was staying with
relatives.)
Anderson had her own gripes,
like most women in Hollywood she was not paid at the scale of the men, but
these remained hidden until a spat over what she was offered for the first
“X-Files” feature film became public. She started distancing herself from the
show in 2000.
Thankfully, neither lead
left abruptly, given the show time to adjust. New leads were gradually
introduced, first Robert Patrick as Agent John Doggett in eight-season (2000),
who was very good and allowing a nice dramatic switch, Character Dana, now a
Believer, taking over Fox’s role in the dynamic with John becoming the Skeptic.
Next was Annabeth Gish as
Agent Monica Reyes in ninth-season (2002), she took the part of the Believer
against John’s Skeptic, and I didn’t like her nearly as much.
The Mythos ran its course
in sixth-season and became both annoying and incoherent, but for the most part,
the MoW held up. Unfortunately, by ninth-season, with Agents John and Monica
were facing the unknown (mostly) alone, it just wasn’t worth watching anymore.
The last episode was aired on May 19th, 2002.
There was another
important reason why “The X-Files” had to go, but later for that.
Part three
Feature films and spin-offs
“The X-Files” initial run was from 1993 to
2002. It peaked in 1998, creating demand for movies and spin offs. There were
two theatrically released films:
“…Fight the Future” (1998) is a film I don’t
want to trash too much because it is so well made (I especially liked the
prologue) but it was also, painfully obviously, merely cashing-in. It was a
Mythos story, burdened with the fact that it had to bring the new viewers
up-to-date, but then couldn’t resolve the story, which was still on-going on
TV. The big-budget granted better Production Values and FX, but the series was
already pretty cinematic, so the improvements were of only modest impact. It
wasn’t bad, merely un-necessary.
I liked the second
feature film much more, “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” (2008). It appeared
after the series cancelation, was a MoW, and better conceived. A lot of “The
X-Files” was nostalgic (casting McGavin as retired-Agent Arthur being only the
most obvious example) but this film’s nostalgia reached farther-back. Between
1923 and 1942 was the Golden Era of Universal Studios’ Monsters but then, with
radical quickness, perhaps because of the arrival of WWII, Universal’s out-put
degraded and this was reflected in the SF,F&H out-put of most other studios
(RKO Producer Val Lewton’s Psychological Thrillers for RKO were an exception).
During those sad years, stretching from 1943 to 1949, the majority of the films
were poverty-row and terrible, but they just happened to be ripe with highly
entertaining Mad-Scientists improbably teamed with Gangsters.
“…I Want to…” was an
old-school Mad-Scientist film, but not as campy as the actual old ones, nor as
campy as much of the TV show. It was a tauntly suspenseful tale of Heroes, Fox
and Dana are joined by Assistant Special Agent in Command Dakota Whitney (Amanda
Peet), from our Consensual Reality colliding with Villains whose Morality was
so warped that though they were Human, they might as well have been Alien. It
beautifully captured the bleak, snowy, West Virginia landscapes (actually British
Columbia, Canada, and we can tell, but it still looks fabulous). I was
surprised to read that its reviews weren’t as good as the previous theatrical
outing, as I thought it was far superior. It also did unimpressively in the
box-office, but it was competing with “The Dark Knight,” a similarly dark, but
undeniably superior, entertainment, which sucked up all the market (highest
grossing film of the year, fourth-highest grossing film of all time, first
comic-book move to get Oscar recognition, etc, etc, etc).
And then there were Carter’s other shows:
The first “The X-Files” spin-off was
“Millennium” (1996) featuring a similarly impressive production and the always
laconically-compelling Lance Hendrickson as Character Frank Black in the lead.
It was thematically similar to “X-Files,” but more a straight-forward a Cop
show (at least in the first season) and also too bleak when the original show
was just beginning to lighten up a bit. It also offered up some potently
original ideas.
Though there’s merely hints of the Paranormal
and Conspiracies in first season, as the title suggests, the narrative-arc was
aimed at the end-of-the-century New Years-Even less than four-years in the
future.
Frank is a retired FBI Agent, now freelance Forensic Profiler, associated with the
Millennium Group, inspired by, but baring little resemblance to, the Real-World
Academy Group, a
society of retired Law Enforcement Agents and Officers who lend their expertise
to high-profile and especially complex cases. The first-season mostly had Black
jumping around from place-to-place in trying to resolve Serial Killer and
Kidnapping cases.
Though not related to “The X-Files” Syndicate,
the Millennium Group proved to be similar in that they were an association of
the best-of-the-best who began with noble ideals, but became corrupted by their
own Culture of Secrecy and Fanaticism. The longer narrative arc drew from a
tract of Christian Theology called “Dispensationalism” which is followed almost
exclusively in the USA; it’s a Millennialist brand of Biblical Inerrancy that
insists that both the Old Testament and New Testament are to be interpreted
with rigorous grammatical-historical literalism, thus rejecting main-line
Protestantism’s embrace of Covenant Theology.
Dispensationalism is not popular outside its
own circles, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the
United States (later merged with the United
Presbyterian Church) declared it an "evil and
subversive" heresy, and the Churches of Christ was angrily split between
followers of Dispensationalist Robert Henry Boll and Millenarism-rejecting
Foy E. Wallace.
Dispensationalism was
an answer to the biggest textural challenge any Millennialist brand of
Inerrancy, the Bible passage Matthew 24:34,
“Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away, till all these
things be accomplished.”
As a generation is
generally thought to represent a block of twenty or forty years, and Jesus was
crucified between 30 and 36 CE, the End-of-the-World should’ve happened between
50 and 76 CE. But the earliest Christians were aware of that: the oldest
Gospel, Mark, was likely put on paper (something one only did for distant ages
in an era of mostly oral traditions) between 66 and 70 CE, and Matthew, itself,
was likely recorded between 85 and 90 CE, so when the prophesized time was already
near or already past.
Dispensationalism,
and many other Christian Philosophies, have concluded that “generation” really
meant “race,” specifically the Jewish race, and that made the fate of the
Nation Israel central to Dispensationalist speculations about Prophesy (Note:
this TV show skips Israel pretty much completely). Dispensationalists believe
that Prophesy was stalled in the 1st c. To quote Wayne Jackson, who was referencing “The
Scofield Reference Bible” (first published 1909), “Accordingly, the Lord was
indicating that these signs would be fulfilled while the Jewish race was being
preserved.”
When someone gives the date
of the end of the World, he/she is usually a Dispensationalist who’s seen the
signs suddenly appearing around him/her, and therefore, the “pause button” on
the Millennium has been un-pushed. (In that context, Millennium usually doesn’t
mean the Millennium on the Calendar year).
Across second and third
seasons of the show, Frank realizes that his colleagues in the Millennium Group
have gone nuts, they are creating the signs, trying to force the
End-of-the-World, and he’s nearly-alone in his campaign to stop them as the
Supernatural events mount.
The show had a following and
an internally-projected conclusion, but oddly, the fans liked the straight-Cop-show,
with stand-alone episodes, of the first season, better than the Conspiracy arc
that emerged later. Critic Joseph Maddrey wrote, "over the course of
Seasons Two and Three, the Millennium Group appears to become more dedicated to
promoting fear of the future than to fighting it."
The conclusion of "Millennium" wasn’t even on the show
itself. FOX canceled it without an official statement when the Conspiracy-arc
nearly concluded. Soon after, Frank showed up on “The X-Files” in 2000, in an
episode titled “Millennium,” to join Fox and Dana to stop some Zombies and save
the World.
Carter’s next series, "Harsh Realm" (1999), wasn’t part of
the franchise, but I bet had it lasted longer, it would’ve found its way in.
Another Conspiracy show, it revolved around people trapped inside a VR
simulation created by the Military Industrial Complex for purposes never made
clear before cancelation. It had an inferior Cast and Production Values to “The
X-Files” and “Millennium,” even Actors who worked on all three shows were
weaker here. Was riding the coat-tails VR craze among theatrical movies and
simply couldn’t compete with the coolness of “The Matrix” (released the same
year). Rob Owen wrote, “[A]t this point dark
conspiracies and paranoia have become tiresome. How many viewers will stick
with ‘Harsh Realm’ to a point it starts to make sense?”
My
favorite of the spin-offs was the most direct, “The Lone
Gunmen” (2001), based around those marvelous conspiracy freaks. Purely
episodic, and intended to be more a comedy than a drama, so it was a refreshing
break. Its zaniness reflected the same era of cinema that would inspire the
upcoming “…I Want to…” but not the same films. 1943 through 1949 may have been
lean years for SF,F&H, but they were great for Comedy (I guess the reality
of WWII was driving both trends). It appears that back in the mid-1970s Carter,
then nearing twenty-years-old, was watching the same old movies on Saturday
morning TV that I was at the time.
“The Lone Gunmen”
borrowed heavily from “Mission Impossible” (TV and film franchise that began in
1966) than anything else, there were two explicit references to both the TV and
film incarnations of the franchise in the episode one. Carter was a fan of the
old-TV “Mission Impossible” and cast one of that shows leads, Martin Landau, in
“…Fight the Future.”
Carter said of this show,
“I'm basically a geek; I'm just not in a geek package. I'm much more interested
in geeks and geeks' company than cool guys' company. I think one of the most
foolish things in the world is to go chasing what's cool. It's not interesting
to me -- it's very self-conscious. I very much prefer the unselfconsciousness
of geekdom.”
In a sperate interview
there was this telling exchange:
Jeff Stark: “In ‘The
X-Files,’ the enemies were government. This time it's looking like the enemies
are –”
Carter: “The enemies are
capitalists. Not so much arms dealers, but people who have selfish motives.”
Stark: “Have you moved
on? Have you personally said, ‘It's not the government that I'm worried about,
it's the corporations?’”
Carter: “That's kind of
where I am right now. I'm looking at the consolidation of large corporations
and of media and of power in America as not necessarily something that's in the
best interest of the public.”
Stark: “He says from the
second floor of the FOX building ...”
And then they both laugh.
And then the interview is
paused because of a bomb scare. Carter was unperturbed because FOX got so many
bomb threats.
(Note: The Government was the enemy in episode
one, and that would have unexpected significance. I’ll get to that later.)
Unfortunately, despite positive reviews, the
show bombed. Even if it had lasted longer, Real-World history was soon going to
turn remarkable ugly.
Part
four
The
real reason “The X-Files” died.
The world was changing
and there was less place for “The X-Files.” Critic Joyce Millman observed, “But
the truth is, even if ‘The X-Files’ hadn't self-destructed, it still would have
been pushed into irrelevance by the events of Sept. 11 [2001]. You might think
a show that warns us to trust no one, that depicts human-looking alien sleeper
agents living among us, would have taken on new resonance. But, oddly, it
hasn't.”
Creator Carter agreed,
“9/11 killed ‘The X-Files.”
Mythologies are rich, and
Conspiracy is a fun hobby, but Mythologies can lead to poisonous Fanaticism,
and Conspiracies can be murderous. The
Russian Pogroms were inspired by the Conspiracy book, “The Protocols
of the Elders of Zion” (first published in 1903), and Adolf Hitler was
inspired by the same book. Hitler was further immersed in, and heavily
promoted, the German-specific Conspiracy Myth of the “November
Criminals” or “Stab in the Back Myth,” (circa
1918), and those lies laid the foundation for WWII and the Holocaust.
“The X-Files” first
appeared during the Presidency of Bill Clinton. Its rise was connected to rise
of Internet Culture, and Clinton was the first President to be harassed by
Internet Trolls. At the time, only about 7% of US households had the Internet,
but even so, it was hugely influential. As I write this, that number has
surpassed 92%.
The ugliest campaign
against Clinton, the “Clinton Body Count,” was born in popular email-chains and
chat rooms but ignored by most major Media, was a list of people allegedly
murdered by the then-Governor, soon President, Bill and his wife Hillary, who would
later become Federal Senator, Sectary of State, and a candidate for the
Presidency with the unusual distinction of losing the election though she
carried the popular vote by a more-than decent margin.
The Hit List was promoted
by some prominent figures of questionable mental-health like Rev. Jerry Falwell
and soon-to-be-disgraced Journalist Mike Nichols.
Falwell shared a
video-taped interview of an alleged Deep-Throat Character played by another
Wing-Nut, Documentary Film Director Patrick Matrisciana, who was silhouetted to
conceal his identity as he claimed he was afraid for his life, which simply
wasn’t true because Matrisciana’s anti-Clinton stance was already publicly
known and he was never threatened, so his anonymous pose was disingenuous.
Then First Lady Hillary
was much mocked when she spoke of a “vast conspiracy” against her husband, but
she was mostly correct, as President Clinton was Impeached in 1998 because of
an ex-marital affair that was somehow conflated into a Constitutional crisis.
In time, as the Internet
got more important, it also got more dangerous.
“The X-Files” spin-off
“The Lone Gunmen” was intended as a comedy show. Its first episode, aired March
4th, 2001, and featured a
Secret Government Conspiracy wherein a commercial airliner full on innocent
civilians was to be flown into the World Trade Center to justify Foreign
Adventurism, but at the last moment, our Nerd-Heroes save the day.
Six months later, that
wasn’t so funny anymore. That episode was temporarily censored after 9/11, but
by then, the show had already been canceled anyway.
Regarding the 9/11 controversy Spotnitz said: “We were really
upset, and worried that somehow, we had inspired the plot. But we were relieved
to discover that the plot pre-dated ‘The Lone Gunmen,’ and that 9/11 had nothing
to do with our work. And then once we realized that, my next thought was how
the government hadn't known about this plot.”
And the government didn’t, though “9/11 was an inside job!” was
chanted by Real-World Clowns who imagined they were fictional Character Fox and
dreamed Dana might find them attractive. This went on for decades, but
honestly, out Secret Government proved itself weak at that time is September,
when life was slow, and oh, so mellow. On that beautiful Tuesday morning,
without a cloud in the robin’s egg blue sky, and our Enemies proved to be small
and ignorant and we learned we lived in a world where Small Evils could
accomplish Big Things.
The main show was still
running at that point, and tried to work in the catastrophic changes to our
reality, like sinister Secret Prisons inserted into the plotlines, but it
seemed distasteful for many, and many others were even more disgusted because
they had chosen to root for the US Government’s new policy of legalizing
torture.
The “Paranoid Style of
American Politics” (the title of the classic essay by Richard Hofstadter, first
published in 1964) has always been with us, evidenced at least as far back as
the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-3. But 9/11 made it style more garish and
deadlier, think of it as a polyester leisure suit that poisons all who don it.
Not only did the 9/11
Truther-movement borrow from “The X-Files” franchise, but so did the
Anti-Vaccers, who entered the mainstream of a major political party during the
2012 Presidential Primary Season.
Prior to 9/11, the
debunking website “Snopes” was dedicated mostly to challenging amusing Urban
Myths, but after, to quote Snopes founder Dan MacGuill, “hundreds of millions
of social media users share multimedia misinformation, almost all of it
political and hyper-partisan, or racially or culturally inflammatory, at
lightning speed, and to a potentially global audience, largely from handheld
mobile phones.”
Snopes,
by accident, had become a vital defense against the newest versions of “The Protocols of …” and “November
Criminals,” Myth-Makers sharing false Conspiracy to further their own
Conspiratorial, sometimes Criminal, goals. Snopes became the model for other,
regularly-appearing, fact-checking features now carried by many major news
outlets, and looking back a generation later, the heroic work of these
Journalists is clearly a losing battle.
The
first 9/11-related story Snopes tackled concerned the Prophesies of
16th-century French Astrologer Nostradamus, and it appeared on the internet
only hours after the attacks. Snopes pointed out that the predictive Quatrain
cited wasn’t actually written by Nostradamus.
Soon
the 9/11 Truthers became more explicitly political and bigoted. There were the
obvious anti-Muslim Conspiracies penned by people making claims about the Koran
that had nothing to do with the book, but anti-Jewish Conspiracies were just as
common as anti-Muslim ones. There was also junk-science regarding Engineering,
claims of it being a “false flag” attack to justify US Military adventurism, and
tales of Insurance Fraud and Pentagon over-spending presented as motives for
someone other than Osama Bin Laden to be the true Mastermind behind the
attacks.
Despite
repeated debunkings from multiple, reliable, sources, not one of these
Conspiracies have ever completely disappeared from the Internet chat rooms and
other Social Media because the Internet is a place where Lies are far-more
forever-ish than True Love.
9/11
Truthers were initially, mostly, ideologically Left, compelled by their hatred
of then-President, the younger George Bush. But that Conspiracy moved
hard-Right by 2006 when radio and TV talk show host Alex Jones (his on-air
career began on Public Access TV 1993) organized a “9/11 and the NeoCon Agenda”
promising that “the evidence is overwhelming that 9/11 was an inside job.” He
was lying through his teeth, but his lies built him an empire, and before his
on-going financial crisis hit (as I write this, Jones’ is being crushed in
Libel suits) he’d become a muti-Millionaire and among his friends and guests on
his show was Billionaire and future US President (as well as
Conspiracy-mongering Criminal) Donald Trump.
Starting in 2017 a new
Conspiracy Movement emerged on the Internet, QAnon. Its followers believed that
then-President Trump stood bravely and alone against a World-Wide Conspiracy of
Satan-worshipping Cannibalistic, Child-Sex-Traffickers that dominated the
Democratic Party and the Hollywood elites. The Conspiracy Trolls followed “Q”
an anonymous, certainly fictional, figure claiming to have an above-Top-Secret
Security Clearance who has turned into the ultimate Whistle-Blower to “save the
children” (when Social Media finally started restricting QAnon pages,
QAnon-followers changed their moniker to “Save the Children” creating fund-raising
complications for the actual charity that was more than a century old).
Of course, Q offered no
evidence that his Conspiracy even existed, but QAnon-followers didn’t care,
they just followed the cryptic clues he dropped (called “Q-drops”) and impatiently
waited for the “Storm” when President Trump will order the mass arrest of
Liberals and make everything right and happy and great again in the USA. The
massive following’s imagined relationship to the Mythical Q that was remarkably
similar to Character Fox’s relationship with the TV shows various Deep-Throat
Characters.
“The X-Files” wove a vast array of Conspiracy
Beliefs into a not-very-neat but still tightly-packaged bundle. Real-World
Conspiracy Fanatics did much the same, and eventually there were enough to
launch an attempted Coup, incompetent but still violent and deadly, on January
6th, 2022, now known as 1/6.
The medium-age of an Insurrectionists was forty, so there’s a good chance a lot
were of them were once Fans of this enormously popular TV show.
Snopes’ MacGuill again:
“After
all, if you are willing to believe elements within the U.S. government conspired
in secret to plan the deadliest ever terrorist attack on American soil,
slaughtering thousands of their own citizens … your mind [should] also be open
to the possibility that the same government is planning to use (or create) natural disasters or epidemics in order to imprison
millions of Americans in internment camps … From there, it’s not a
giant leap to imagine that governments would covertly implant
microchips in their own citizens, under the guise of a vaccine, and so on,
and so forth.
“Back in
the 2000s, listeners to Jones’ radio show might have tuned in to hear him speak
about 9/11, but they would also have been exposed to his claims about the New World Order. In the 2010s,
suspicious viewers might have watched Infowars for Jones’ rants about the Sandy
Hook school shooting, which he claimed was a ‘false flag’ operation designed to
encourage stricter gun control laws [this is the story-line that has gotten
Jones into so much trouble in Civil Court]. But they might well also have heard
him and his guests assert, in earnest, that then-President Barack Obama was stockpiling half a
million disposable coffins for some nefarious, genocidal purpose…
“It’s
significant that Donald Trump first endeared himself to many on the American
right in 2011, when he became a leading and vocal
proponent of yet another hyper-partisan conspiracy theory, ‘birtherism’ — the debunked claim
that Obama was born outside the United States…
“Four
years later, and facing an uphill battle to defeat Democratic candidate Joe
Biden, Trump refused to denounce or
distance himself from QAnon …
“In
October 2020, Trump, the sitting president of the United States, promoted to
his 87 million Twitter followers a bizarre conspiracy theory that claimed the
operation that killed Bin Laden, mastermind of the attacks of 2001, had been a
hoax. The journey from the ‘9/11 truth’ movement to the age of QAnon had come
full circle, two decades on.”
As
Conspiracy-based beliefs became increasingly cancerous to our Republic,
Conspiracy as a Hobby became sordid, like you mom finding the dirty magazines
hidden under your bed and then challenged you to make the case that the
Pornographer behind the magazine was an upstanding citizen and fine
humanitarian and prove that the women in the pictures were treated fairly and
respectfully and provided quality medical insurance and good retirement plans.
Conspiracy
Faith does kill, and is a clear-and-present threat to our Democracy, leaving
“The X-Files,” just a little bit of fun, pretty spoiled.
Real-World
Murderers are such party-poopers.
So, why
did I spend so much time on Alex Jones in this essay?
Because
of a specific Character in the tenth season (a revival season) of “The
X-Files.” I’ll get to that shortly.
Part
five
Legacy
and revivals
“The X-Files” would prove
one of the most influential TV shows ever made. “Twin Peaks” may have
demonstrated more was possible with TV, but “The X-Files” demonstrated those
possibilities could be achieved.
It was heavily imitated,
perhaps most disappointingly with the limpid revival of “The Nightstalker”
franchise (2005) and most successfully with “Fringe” (2008) which often rivaled
“The X-Files” in Film-Making, Acting, and Writing.
Other shows, more
distinctly different, were part of an explosion of SF,F&H TV that followed.
An example was how a barely successful movie from 1992 surprisingly got
green-lit to be a TV show in 1997 and achieved Cult-Hit status by applying many
similar Social Media strategies -- I’m, of course, talking about “Buffy the
Vampire Slayer.”
In “The X-Files,”
science was sometimes (actually often) inaccurate, but there was an
appreciation of scientific process that was stronger than the inaccuracies.
This enthralled, and this show about the triumph of Credulousness paradoxically
hinted that there might be an audience from dramatization of Empiricism. “The
X-Files” no doubt inspired its near-opposite, “C.S.I.: Crime Scene
Investigation” (first aired 2000), which for all the differences, had
the same visual feel and focus on deductive process. Like “The X-Files” little
was expected of that Crime-Show, but the Monster-obsessed proved also to be equally
Science-obsessed, and the same nerdy audience of “The X-Files” became
equally rabid Fans of “C.S.I…” It became a hit of similar proportions and similarly
imitated.
Though “The X-Files”
Mythos was past its expiration date long before the show was canceled, the
quality of the program remained high through the MoW after that juncture. Even
as those episodes lost their edge, the quality of the craftsmanship never
faltered. Carter, on the other hand, never had a non-“The X-Files” related hit.
“The X-Files” Alumni
Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa would spearhead two popular Espionage shows, “24”
(2001) and “Homeland” (2011), both of which carried on the trend of
extended narrative arcs that stretched across an entire season or several
years. “24” is especially notable, because though 9/11 killed “The X-Files” it
created “24,” notably the shows shameless pro-torture politics, never seen on
TV before.
1999 saw the appearance
of “The Sparanos,” the first big hit of the emerging Streaming and
Binge-Watching market, which “The X-Files” long narrative-arc seemed suited for
even though it didn’t exist when the show first aired. Probably the best
post-“The Sparanos” show aimed for that market was “Breaking Bad” filled with
“The X-Files” guest-stars and created by “The X-Files” alumnus Vince Gilligan.
Actor Duchovny secured
the lead in hit the TV show “Californication” (first aired 2007), but it became
increasing embarrassing over its seven-year run.
Actor Anderson got a large handful of
significant roles in film and TV, but oddly, the greatest interest in her work
was not within the USA. Her best post-“The X-Files” role was likely in the
Irish/English Crime show, “The Fall” (first aired 2013).
So, there was an extraordinary team that
worked well together combined with a Fan base proved one that could be tapped
into even after lousy ninth-season and cancelation, so the dead-show didn’t
really die.
The second film. “…I Want to…” was released
after cancellation, underperformed in the box-office, but then became a DVD and
streaming hit. The advent of streaming also brought renewed popularity to the
older episodes of the show as well.
Finally, in 2016, “The X-Files” returned for
six episodes with the vast majority of the old team both in-front and behind
the camera.
The first and last
episodes of this revival were Mythos-related, but two-through-five were MoW. Of
the MoW’s, two-through-four were hugely entertaining, especially Greg Morgan-scripted
“Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” which was howling funny (sorry, I
couldn’t resist) and Carter-scripted “Babylon” which sends Fox on a psychedelic
trip where he encounters beloved Characters the original show killed off.
But the Mythos stories were terrible. In part
because they weren’t terribly coherent, but mostly because they were offensive.
They wallowed in Anti-Vaccer fantasies (introduced during the show’s
third-season) and those fantasies had just driven a serious, real-world,
measles outbreak in California just the year before, while the revival was in
production. Worse, it introduced as a Hero the Character Tad O’Malley (Joel McHale) who was clearly modeled
on cynical, moral-less, substance-abusing, compulsively lying, huckster, Alex
Jones. Jones’ morally degenerate abuse of the families of the Sandy Hook
Massacre began four-years prior.
Despite its unevenness, the ratings were
excellent when first aired, and that was well into the era when Streaming and
Binge-Watching which had been devastating broadcast TV. This guaranteed a
second revival.
The second revival,
dubbed the eleventh-season, came 2018, this time with ten episodes. After a
poor episode-one (tied to the terrible Mythos-plot of the tenth-season that
ending in a cliffhanger) what followed was stronger than the previous revival,
and again, the most comedic story, another Greg Morgan-scripted, “The Lost Art
of Forehead Sweat” was the best of the bunch.
Like everything since
sixth-season, the Mythos episodes were weaker than the MoWs, but they were a
hell of a lot better than they had been. Thankfully, Character Tad was barely
present (no offence intended towards Actor McHale) and there was a clearer
emotional-through line as Fox and Dana searched for their missing son. It
showed less interest in pandering to sordid, Real-World, whack-a-doodles, and
brought back the deliciously wicked Cancer Man.
So, is it really over
now?
Probably. Miles
Raymer wrote in 2016, “Conspiracy theories have changed fundamentally as
they've made their way from obscure bookstores to your extended family's
Facebook posts. They've lost their mythological aspects and become more darkly
existential, as well as drifted further and further toward the political right.
It's no longer dreaming about hidden alien technology–it's about seeing the
grieving families of shooting victims on TV and thinking they're hired actors.
“The
phrases ‘crisis actor,’ ‘creeping sharia,’ and ‘white genocide’ didn't exist
when the X-Files first aired, and they don't really exist for the new series
either. Thanks to social media and fake news sites, we're awash in conspiracy
theories—from Obama's plans for a military invasion of the American Southwest
to subliminal messages about interracial sex encoded in the new Star Wars
movie—that the show's creators have decided, reasonably, to ignore in favor of
almost quaintly old-fashioned stuff like Roswell and gravitational warp drives.
It seems like real life has finally gotten too weird for The X-Files”
And
even I wrote in 2017, “I don't want to see its return. Things that go bump in
the night are fun. In the light of day, those same things are just plain ugly.”
It ran its course before
the dawn of this calendar-Millennium, and has been propped-up since only by our
love and the creators’ skills. The time has come for new stories to be told for
a new era, but never forget, few told stories in “The X-Files”-era better than
the “The X-Files” did.
Part six
List of best episodes
“Pilot” (Season 1, Episode 1)
“Squeeze” (Season 1, Episode 3)
“Ice” (Season 1, Episode 8)
“Beyond the Sea” (Season 1, Episode 13)
“Darkness Falls” (Season 1, Episode 20)
“Tooms” (Season 1,
Episode 21)
“The Erlenmeyer Flask”
(Season 1, Episode 24)
“Host” (Season 2, Episode
2)
“Blood” (Season 2, Episode 3)
“Duane Barry" & "Ascension"
(Season 2, Episodes 5 & 6)
“One Breath” (Season 2, Episode 8)
“Irresistible” (Season 2, Episode 13)
“Die
Hand Die Verletzt” (Season 2, Episode 14)
“Colony” & “End Game” (Season 2, Episodes
16 & 17)
“Humbug” (Season 2, Episode 20)
“Anasazi” (Season 2, Episode 25)
“Paper Clip” (Season 3, Episode 2)
“Clyde Buckman's Final Repose” (Season 3,
Episode 4)
“Nisei” & “731” (Season 3, Episodes 9
& 10)
“Revelations” (Season 3, Episode 11)
“War of the Coprophages”
(season 3, episode 12)
“Pusher” (Season 3, Episode 17)
“Jose Chung's From Outer Space” (Season 3,
Episode 20)
"Quagmire" (Season 3, Episode 22)
“Talitha Cuma” (Season 3,
Episode 24)
“Herrenvolk” (Season 4, Episode 1)
“Home” (Season 4, Episode 2)
“Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man” (Season
4, Episode 7)
“Paper Hearts” (Season 4, Episode 10)
"Never Again" (Season 4, Episode 13)
“Memento Mori” (Season 4, Episode 14)
“Small Potatoes” (Season 4, Episode 20)
“Redux” Parts I & II (Season 5, Episodes 1 & 2)
“Unusual Suspects” (Season 5, Episode 3)
“Detour” (Season 5, episode 4)
“The Post-Modern Prometheus” (Season 5,
Episode 5)
“Bad Blood” (Season 5, Episode 12)
“Folie à Deux” (Season 5, Episode 19)
“Drive” (Season 6, Episode 2)
“Triangle” (Season 6, Episode 3)
“Dreamland” Part I and II
(season 6, episodes 4 & 5)
"How the Ghosts Stole Christmas"
(Season 6, Episode 6)
“Tithonus” (Season 6, Episode 10)
“Two Fathers” & “One Son” (Season 6, Episodes
11& 12)
“Monday” (Season 6, Episode 14)
“Arcadia” (Season 6, Episode 15)
"The Unnatural" (Season 6, Episode
19)
“Field Trip” (Season 6, Episode 21)
“Millennium”
(Season 7, Episode 4)
“X-Cops” (Season 7, Episode 12)
“Je Souhaite” (Season 7, Episode 21)
“Deadalive”
(Season 8, Episode 15)
As
for Season 9, I didn’t much like anything.
“Mulder
& Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (Season 10, Episode 3)
“Babylon” (Season 10, Episode 5)
“This” (Season 11, Episode 2)
"The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat"
(Season 11, Episode 4)
“The X-Files” first season trailer:
the x-files season 1
trailer - YouTube
“…Fight the Future” trailer:
The X-Files: Fight the
Future (1998) Trailer C - YouTube
“…I Want to Believe” trailer:
The X-Files: I Want to
Believe | Online Trailer | 20th Century FOX - YouTube
Comments
Post a Comment