Information AboutThe X-files |
''The X-Files'' was a popular American Television series created by Chris Carter . It ran for nine seasons from 1993 until 2002 , spawning a Feature Film in 1998 and one Spin-off TV series. It originally aired on the FOX network. It was a critical and commercial success, due in part to its stars, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson . Fox Mulder , played by Duchovny, and Dana Scully , played by Anderson, are two FBI agents tasked with investigating the titular "X-Files", cases that often involve Paranormal Phenomena . With plots spanning Conspiracy Theories and high-level governmental cover-ups, the show mimicked episodic elements found in earlier shows such as '' The Outer Limits '', '' The Twilight Zone '', and the cult show '' Twin Peaks '', in which Duchovny had appeared as a cross-dressing DEA agent. The series became a surprise runaway success, with a devoted following. Fans of the show became known as "eXcers" or more commonly, "X-Philes", a term coined by Matt Grommes on an early Fidonet ''X-Files'' message board. ''The X-Files'' was declared by '' TV Guide '' to be one of the greatest television shows of all time, and the second greatest Cult TV show of all time, behind '' Star Trek ''. Chris Carter used ''The X-Files'' as a springboard for a spin-off show involving characters from ''The X-Files'', '' The Lone Gunmen ''. Carter's TV series '' Millennium '' survived three seasons. ''Millennium'' took place in the same Diegesis as ''The X-Files'', and eventually there were some crossover episodes. Carter also created another short-lived TV series, '' Harsh Realm ''. None of these three shows garnered the same level of public or critical attention as ''The X-Files''. CURRENT DISTRIBUTION In the United States, episodes are shown frequently on Cable Television on the Sci Fi Channel and TNT on at various times from Monday through Friday. Episodes can also be seen on a station-by-station basis in local markets because of Syndication and syndication episodes are also available on weekends on the cable super station WGN . All nine seasons of X-Files are available as DVD boxed sets for DVD players supporting Regions 1 And 2 . In addition, various "Myth arc" DVD sets are available that include all episodes of a particular story arc. INFLUENCES Television Chris Carter listed television series '' (played by Patrick Macnee ) and Mrs. Emma Peel (played by Diana Rigg ) in the 1960s British spy TV program '' The Avengers ''. Film Several feature films have also influenced ''The X-Files''. The producers have often cited '' All The President's Men ,'' '' Three Days Of The Condor '', '' The Thing '', '' The Boys From Brazil '', '' The Silence Of The Lambs '', and '' JFK '' as influences on the series. Gangster movies such as the '' Godfather '' trilogy are also frequently referenced in the show's conspiracy plotlines, particularly concerning the Syndicate. A scene at the end of the episode ''Redux II'' (5.03), for instance, directly mirrors the famous baptism montage at the end of ''The Godfather''. LEGACY ''The X-Files'' directly inspired numerous other TV series, including ''Strange World'', ''Burning Zone'', '' Special Unit 2 '', '' Mysterious Ways '', '' Carnivàle '', '' Dark Skies '', '' The 4400 '', '' Lost '' and '' Supernatural ''. The influence can also be seen on other levels: '''' is occasionally considered a successor to ''The X-Files'' because of its science-driven plots. Fox also screened a companion series based upon ''The X-Files'' entitled '' Millennium '', also produced by Chris Carter. The storylines of ''Millennium'' and ''The X-Files'' occasionally crossed over, with Scully and Mulder making cameo appearances — albeit on an overhead television — in at least one episode of ''Millennium''. Frank Black, the protagonist of ''Millennium'', eventually appeared in ''The X-Files'' to tie up loose ends after ''Millennium'' was abruptly cancelled. EMMYS Over the course of its nine seasons, ''The X-Files'' won two acting Emmy awards, one writing award, and several technical awards. Acting In 1996, Peter Boyle 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 1997 , Gillian Anderson won the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series award for her portrayal of Agent Dana Scully. Writing In 1996, Darin Morgan won the Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Drama Series for his episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose". "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" was one of four highly-acclaimed episodes Morgan wrote during his short time on the show's writing staff. Technical Throughout its run, ''The X-Files'' won the following awards in various technical categories:
MYTHOLOGY The series popularized the catch-phrases "Trust No One," "The Truth Is Out There" and "I Want to Believe" and fostered a substantial fan following. Fans commonly divide ''X-Files'' stories into "Mytharc" (" Mythology ") episodes, which concerned the ongoing tale of an impending alien invasion and a conspiratorial cover-up, and stand-alone "Monster-of-the-Week" episodes, which dealt with strange, other-worldly creatures and situations relating to the paranormal. The series was also known for its occasionally humorous episodes of this variety. 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 .
The Main plot The below is the ongoing storyline of the X Files as opposed to the stand-alone "Monster-of-the-Week" episodes in broadcast order. There is also a detailed and indepth explanation of the X-Files mythology written by a fan {Link without Title} .
Pilot, Deep Throat, Fallen Angel, EBE, The Erlenmeyer Flask, Little Green Men, Duane Barry, Ascension, One Breath, Red Museum, Colony, End Game, Anasazi, The Blessing Way, Paper Clip.
Nisei, 731, Piper Maru, Apocrypha, Talitha Cumi, Herrenvolk, Tunguska, Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man, Terma, Memento Mori, Tempus Fugit, Max, Zero-Sum, Gethsemane, Redux, Redux II.
Christmas Carol, Emily, Patient X, The Red and the Black, The End (season 5 finale, continued by Fight the Future movie...)
The series produced a motion picture, The X-Files. It was intended as a continuation of the season five finale, "The End" (5x20), but was also meant to stand on its own.
The Beginning, Dreamland, Dreamland II S.R. 819, Two Fathers, One Son, Biogenesis, The Sixth Extinction, The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati, Sein und Zeit, Closure, En Ami, Requiem, Within, Without. Note: The episodes Renascence, Resonance, and Reckoning from the game fit into the mythology, but have an unknown placement somewhere in the seventh season.
Per Manum, This Is Not Happening, Deadalive, Three Words, Vienen, Essence, Existence, Nothing Important Happened Today, Nothing Important Happened Today II, Trust No 1, Provenance, Providence, William, The Truth. HISTORY Early fan acclaim magazine.]] Many fans consider the show's creative peak to have occurred before the fifth season due to the presence of Glen Morgan and James Wong , whose involvement in the first two seasons was as great as (many would say greater than) Chris Carter's, and who returned for the first half of the fourth season. Morgan and Wong were Hired by Peter Roth (Carter's boss at 20th Television ) after the show's pilot had been shot. Their extensive production experience made them an invaluable addition to the show; in particular, their experience with the Vancouver area was of seminal importance. Carter had never produced a drama before, having helmed a series of unsuccessful light comedy shows for Disney in the 1980s . Most of the show's major directors, including Kim Manners , Rob Bowman , and David Nutter , had previously worked with them at Stephen J. Cannell 's production company, on such shows as '' 21 Jump Street ''. All of these were hired on Morgan and Wong's recommendation. It is also due to their influence that cinematographer John Bartley , who gave the show its early dark and atmospheric look, was hired. His work was honored with an Emmy in 1996 , the only Emmy for Cinematography the show ever won. Morgan and Wong also had considerable influence on creating and casting most of the best-liked secondary characters, such as The Lone Gunmen , the Scully family, and FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner . Their work in season one, particularly the episode " Beyond The Sea " (1x13), drew most of the early critical plaudits, as well as the enduring affection of fans. Their episode " Little Green Men " (2x01) was the kick-off for the crucial second season, and their influence on both the "standalone" and "mythology" episodes was immense. In the second and third seasons, Glen Morgan's younger brother Darin , hired thanks to his sibling's influence, wrote four legendary episodes, which gave the show greater critical respect than ever before, culminating in the only writing Emmy the show ever received, for " Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose " (3x04) in 1996 , as well as a guest actor Emmy for Peter Boyle in the titular role of that episode. These were the only non-technical Emmys the show ever received, excluding Gillian Anderson's win for best actress in 1998. ''The X-Files: Fight the Future'' '']] In 1998 the series produced a motion picture, '' The X-Files ''. It was intended as a continuation of the season five finale, " The End " (5x20), but was also meant to stand on its own. The film was a commercial success. However, it attracted generally muted reviews from many major critics and, although the worldwide popularity of the show helped the movie's intake, the domestic box office was substantially less than what the studio had spent on producing and promoting the film. The movie, like much of what followed it on the series, remains a point of contention among fans — some of whom appreciate its place in the narrative, others deploring it for being the beginning of an unwieldy narrative structure that continued throughout the show. The movie's opening sequence features a bomb attack on a Federal office building in Dallas. Several media commentators noted parallels between this and the real-life 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing . [http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=365 Change Over the course of the concluding seasons, the show underwent several changes by way of both character development and plot direction, in addition to a steady ratings decline. One of the fundamental mythologies of the show, Mulder's search for his sister, would finally be resolved, as well as a few turns of events involving the ever-deepening bond between Mulder and Scully and the interaction between the two characters. Whether they "should" or "shouldn't" consummate their relationship was a matter of immense debate among the fan community for several years, and is still subject to scrutiny, since even after abundant hints, Carter refuses to substantiate whether the two characters ever had sexual intercourse. Even after the show's termination it retains a fan following — this, despite the fact that portions of the show's initial fan base 'lost interest' during the later seasons. '' The Lone Gunmen '', a trio of Nerdish government watchdogs who sporadically assisted Mulder and Scully, had their own short-lived TV series. The termination of the show left it's storyline unresolved, but all the characters from the series returned in the ''X-Files'' episode " Jump The Shark " (9x15), an allusion to the Television Term , which served as a final ''Lone Gunmen'' episode. The trio also made a brief appearance, as Ghost s or memories appearing to Mulder, in ''The X-Files'' The film also marked the first, and passionately talked about near kiss between Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. It was the kiss many fans had been waiting for since the beginning of the series in '93, but others felt the sexual apprehension between the two main characters was better left as apprehension, and not realized. Duchovny leaves Following a contract dispute with Fox , David Duchovny quit ''The X-Files'' after the seventh season. {Link without Title} His departure made for some interesting plot twists. The Season 7 finale found Mulder abducted by aliens and Scully pregnant. At the very end of the Season 8 finale, Scully asks Mulder how this could have happened, and he responds by referring to "the truth we both know" and proceeds to kiss her. It is unclear as to whether she is referring to her supposed infertility or the possibility that she had not been with a man recently, although Mulder and Scully's kiss is suggestive that the two of them had been together. Having supposedly been rendered infertile during her abduction in Season 2, a fact first revealed during "Memento Mori" (4x14) in Season 4, this was indeed a shock to both Scully and the show's fan base. As far as the paternity of the child Baby William was concerned, there were scattered hints that Mulder could be the father. One of the most significant hints came in the Season 9 episode "Trust No 1." In this episode, a government agent known as the "Shadow Man" who had been spying on Scully tells her that: :"I know your blood type, resting heart rate and your childhood fear of clowns. I know the name of your college boyfriend, your true hair color, your ATM PIN, favorite charity and pet peeves. I know you spend too much time alone, and I know one lonely night you invited Mulder into your bed. (cut to Scully) I was as surprised as you are." The fact that Scully doesn't vehemently deny this statement (as would be in her personality to do so) lends credence to his claim. In the series finale "The Truth," Mulder also refers to William as "my son" when questioned by a military officer and "our son" when speaking to Scully. However, in the same episode, speaking under oath, he refers to both Bill Mulder and the Cigarette Smoking Man as being his own father, the implication being that he believes CSM is his biological father, but still considers Bill Mulder his true father. If so, this could mean that he is symbolically accepting William as his son as a gesture to Scully, not because of any biological connection. Since Scully is never seen to perform DNA testing of any kind on William, it can't be considered a certainty that William is even genetically related to her. Given the non-human abilities William has, and the fact that it was impossible for her to conceive normally, it is difficult to understand why she never performs such tests. Particularly given that her earlier alleged offspring, Emily (seen in season five), died at the age of three because of problems relating to her presumed alien hybrid biology. One would think any concerned mother, particularly a medical doctor, would try to learn everything she could about a child who came to being under such suspicious circumstances, but Scully seems to violently shy away from any implication that William is anything other than a normally conceived baby--although going by the dates we see on the show, she gave birth to him more than a year after Mulder's abduction at the end of the seventh season. The confused viewer can only guess that, as she had confessed in earlier seasons, Scully was simply "afraid of the truth." Gail Berman, the newly crowned president of Fox Entertainment at the time, asked Chris Carter who William's father was, at a press function introducing the Fox Network's fall season for 2000. Carter's response: "I am." (Pause) "I'm its father and its mother." Regardless of whether he meant this as a joke or not, when he realized that Scully's motherhood was yet another drag on the ratings, Carter wrote William out of the show entirely, having Scully give her baby to a couple she'd never met, after his apparently alien powers had been arbitrarily removed by Jeffrey Spender. Other than the two brief mentions in the finale, William was not referred to again for the remainder of the show's run. Season 8 and beyond Duchovny returned for brief stints in seasons eight and nine. In season eight, Mulder reappeared as a corpse, was buried for several months (of the story's time frame), and then later revived. With both Duchovny and Anderson's involvement reduced, the show introduced two new X-Files agents, John Doggett and Monica Reyes (played by Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish ). 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 Doggett and Reyes did not provide the ratings boost Chris Carter had hoped. 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 . The show ceased production at the end of the ninth season—on a Cliffhanger , though Carter knew that this would be the final episode. Plans for another movie are announced periodically but have yet to come to fruition. While Carter, Duchovny and Anderson have all expressed their desire for involvement, there is still no script and no official shooting schedule. It is widely believed that a second ''X-Files'' movie would be a standalone adventure, leaving some question as to how (or if) the mythology-based Series Finale cliffhanger will be resolved. DVD RELEASES See Also: The X Files DVD TRIVIA
TAGLINES 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.
MAIN CAST and Gillian Anderson as Mulder and Scully on The X-Files]] Format: Actor's real name - '''Character name''' (Years on show)
REGULAR GUEST CAST
FAN TERMINOLOGY
VIDEO GAMES ''The X-Files'' has inspired two '' was released for the PlayStation 2 . This game combines three episodes from season seven and allows the player control of both Mulder and Scully. Both games feature acting and voice work from several members of the series' cast. THE X-FILES AROUND THE WORLD
REFERENCES
SEE ALSO EPISODE GUIDE EXTERNAL LINKS
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