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The X-Files was heralded as one of the US's best new
programmes of the 1993/94 season. Initially picked up by the Fox
Broadcasting Company for a thirteen episode run, the series of excursions
into the supernatural and unexplained was extended to a full twenty-two
episode season. Upon its arrival in Britain, it was described by TV Guide
as 'better than it sounds'. Although this may appear to be praise with
faint damning, it is in fact a highly accurate observation of the first
series as a whole.
It has been claimed that each episode has been based on a true reported
incident of the paranormal. These include a variety of UFO sightings and
alien abductions, half-human, half-animal creatures living wild. Ghosts
who help solve their own murders and alien parasites from an aeons-old
meteor buried in the ice. To some extent the series sounds like a
reworking of the late seventies series, Project UFO, and the paranormal
has been common ground for much on tv and film. Even after watching The
X-Files, one still feels that there is little that is new as far as the
basis of the story is concerned. However, an old story is still worth
telling if it is told well and it is here that The X-Files scores most
highly indeed. It tells its tales extremely well.
FBI agent Fox 'Spooky' Mulder, is the main focus of the series. Mulder's
own sister was abducted when they were both children. Mulder firmly
believes that she was kidnapped by aliens and has searched ever since for
proof of the existence of extra-terrestrials. Not the average clichéd UFO
nut, Mulder is handsome, reserved, and not without a dry wit. He is well
used to his interest in the paranormal being ridiculed, but seldom rises
to the bait. He does, however, despair of people's unwillingness to open
their minds and at least consider the possibilities of strange activity.
Dana Scully is also an FBI agent with a strong medical background who
deals with hard facts and tangible evidence. As such, she is assigned to
work with Mulder who is investigating the X-Files, the name given by the
FBI to their documentation of incidents which have no apparent rational
explanation. The FBI bosses are clearly unhappy with Mulder's predilection
with the X-Files but needs a strong case to have him reassigned. Scully is
told to report on Mulder's activities in the hope that her more
down-to-earth approach will reveal him to be a time waster. Of course,
Scully finds Mulder is not at all the person she imagined. Her first
experience of an X-File surprises her and although she is unwilling to
embrace all of Mulder's theories she is not able to provide alternative
explanations of her own. As a result her report is inconclusive, and
Scully remains on assignment to the X-Files. Both agents grow to respect
and like each other but hold fast to their convictions.
The series was skillfully made, and deftly avoided the clichés and
melodrama which traditionally accompany its subject matter. David Duchovny,
who played Mulder, is so deadpan that some may find him bland. However,
his sensitive portrayal shows a man who is serious, determined,
idealistic, and committed to his beliefs without being obsessive. Although
rather more up-front, Gillian Anderson's Scully is nonetheless a
controlled performance. Anderson's portrayal, which owes at least a little
to Jodie Foster's character in Silence of the Lambs, acts as the
audience's anchor for the show. Scully asks the questions the viewers want
answered, and yet she does not succumb to being a mere cipher. She is
intelligent and, although a little stubborn, she is not stupid, and is
willing to accept that there are some things which have no readily
available answers.
Something that only begins to emerge in the first season, but which is
greatly expanded later, is the background conspiracy. In true JFK manner
it is strongly implied that there are those in the FBI and US government
who are more in the know about UFOs and such things than Mulder is
himself. One particular individual seems to have his own hidden agenda,
and wants Mulder to remain in place, despite the protests of the FBI. In
sporadic meetings, he appears to be helping Mulder, pointing him in one
direction, steering him away from others.
Like many 1990s US programmes, The X-Files took a long time to appear on
network tv, the first-screening rights being bought by cash-laden BSkyB.
It started out on Wednesdays on Sky One, being repeated on Saturdays, and
was later moved to Mondays, where it clashed nicely with Bravo's screening
of
The Avengers. Despite this obstacle, the series slowly built up a
following, and eventually became a front-line programme on both satellite
and network stations. A special 44-minute documentary on the making of the
series, The Secret Of The X-Files, was made in 1995 and screened on Sky
one on 26th September that year. More Secrets Of The X-Files followed in
1996. A big-budget movie was released in 1998, its story dove-tailing
nicely from the end of the fifth season.
Season Eight saw a large shift in the programme as David
Duchovny moved on temporarily to his film career and Terminator 2 actor Robert
Patrick was drafted in to replace him. Scully took on Mulder's role of the
believer while Doggett was even more unbelieving and less scientific about
explaining his disbelief than Scully was before him. Rearranged opening
titles saw Mulder falling away from the viewer and into darkness
as Scully tried to keep an eye open for him throughout the season's early
episodes. By now,
much of the previous seven years' story arc seemed to have been abandoned,
or even worse, contradicted, and viewing numbers had dropped from the
series' heyday in the UK between seasons three to six. Mulder's
reoccurring appearances in the series were always announced by his name
being displayed in the main title sequence.
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Creator/Executive Producer: Chris Carter
Co-Executive Producers: Glen Morgan
(Season 1 Only), R W Goodwin
(Seasons 1-3), James Wong (Season 1
Only), Howard Gordon (Season 3 Only)
Supervising Producers: Daniel Sackheim
(Episode 1 Only), Howard Gordon and
Alex Gansa (Episodes 2-24),
Charles Grant Craig (Season 3)
Producers: Paul Brown (Season 2 Only),
Joseph Patrick Finn, Kim Manners,
Rob Bowman (Season 3)
Co-Producers: Paul Rabwin (Seasons 1-3),
Paul Barber and Larry Barber (Season 1
Only)
Line Producer: Joseph Patrick Finn
Music: Mark Snow
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US Production/UK Screenings:
Season One: 24 Episodes
1993-94/19th January - 25th June 1994 1
Season Two: 25 Episodes
1994-95/21st February - 8th August 1995
Season Three: 24 Episodes
1995-96/5th March - 13th August 1996
Season Four: 24 Episodes
1996-97/12th January - 13th July 1997
Season Five: 20 Episodes
1997-98/8th March - 28th June 1998
Season Six: 22 Episodes
1998-99/7th March - 25th July 1999
Season Seven: 22 Episodes
1999-00/31st December 2000 - 27th May 2001 2
Season Eight: 21 Episodes
2000-01/3rd March - 25th August 2002 3
Season Nine: 18 Episodes
2001-02/3rd November 2002 - 23rd March 2003
A Ten Thirteen Production in association with Twentieth
Century Fox Television
200 colour episodes, all 44-minutes except final 90-minute episode
(Sky One/BBC)
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