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X-Files Is Here! Is This the Beginning?

X-Files Re-opened
X-Files Reopened Part 1 premieres January 24 at 9:00 PM central with Part 2 airing on its scheduled date and time, January 25 at 7:00 PM central.

In less than a week, Fox will air a six episode continuation of its unforgettable, highly successful X-Files franchise starring one of our most beloved science fiction couples, Mulder and Scully.

Fox has chosen a miniseries format, with many of us hopefully asking: “Could this be the beginning of a new X-Files era?”

David Duchovny, who portrays the character of Fox Mulder, said in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly that he’d be interested in a renewal of the series.

“I don’t know that I could do a 20-episode version of this show at this point in my life, and I don’t know that Gillian could. But I think everybody is open ended on what happens after this. Certainly, we didn’t bring it back with the idea of ending it.”  —David Duchovny

We can hope that Duchovny is right and that they didn’t bring the X-Files back without the anticipation of our search for the truth continuing into another dynamic science fiction series featuring the sexy duo.

 

Ten Things To Know About the New and the Old


 

1. The X-Files has its own mythology referred to as the mytharc by fans and staff. The story arc involves Fox being a believer in aliens and Scully being a skeptic, and the government conspiracy to cover up alien colonization.

(ProbeNote: This colonization was supposed to take place in 2012. Chris Carter, the X-Files creator, returns as executive producer and writer and says he will have to address the colonization in the miniseries. It will be interesting to see how it’s handled. Or if it is.)

ToomsXfiles
He may not look like a monster, but Eugene Victor Tooms is so perverse he warrants two episodes in the Monster of the Week classics. He appears in “Squeeze” (Season 1, Episode 3) and “Tooms” (Season 1, Episode 21). He can crawl through any hole to eat your liver. And he never ages. 

2. Not all episodes advanced the mytharc. Some were stand-alones and referred to as  Monster of The Week episodes. This is where we got our incredible monster fixes in the 1990s.

3. Creator Chris Carter always planned for the relationship between Fox and Scully to be platonic. But there were many heated internet debates over whether the relationship would and/or should become more. Many of us watched in anticipation of a Mulder/Scully romance, however, there was an actual group of fans who called themselves NoRomos and were against any love connection whatsoever between the two.

My question to them: Did you watch the show? The chemistry between the two characters was undeniable and oozed out every episode until the very end. And wait, whose baby did she have?

Spoiler: We do find out that the baby Scully gave up for adoption is indeed the spawn of  this chemistry between the couple.

Gillian Anderson, who portrays Scully, suggests there will be a similar dynamic as before between her and her leading man.“Huge intimacy and appreciation. And yet frustration. But still love. Care. And potential,”  Anderson says, offering those of us longing for the return of the chemistry between Fox and Dana—the dauntless duo dubbed internet sex symbols—some hope for their future romance.

A clip from the new trailer pretty much sums up where their relationship begins…again.

Dana: I’m always happy to see you.

Fox: I’m always happy to find a reason. 

Gotta say, makes my heart flutter a little.

4. Creator Chris Carter says about his characters, “Mulder and Scully came right out of my head. They are the equal parts of my desire to believe in something and my inability to believe in something.”

X-Files the Peacock family.
The only episode I will never watch again. “Home” (Season 4, Episode 2) features the Peacock family who are homicidal inbred mutants. This particular episode put a whole new spin on: “Don’t look under the bed.” And to name the family “Peacock”. I can see writers Wong and G. Morgan giggling a little when they gave the family that particular name. 

5. Some of the other cast members.

  • We will never forget The Smoking Man. The guy who lurked in the shadows and chained smoked. Actor William B. Davies will return in the miniseries. As unforgettable as he is, in the entire first season of the original, The Smoking Man says only four words and all of them are in the twenty-first episode titled, “Tooms.” He said, “Of course I do.” This was in response to Skinner’s question, “Do you believe?”
  • Walter Skinner, actor Mitch Pileggi, returns as the long standing assistant director at the FBI, and Mulder’s and Scully’s private friend and devil’s advocate.
  • Actress Annet Mahendru is a newcomer to the cast and has recurring roles as an alien abductee named Sveta.
  • Actor Joel Mc Hale joins the alien hunting as an Internet news anchor and Mulder’s fellow conspiracy theorist named Tad O’Malley.

6. In the upcoming miniseries, creator Chris Carter wrote the first and sixth episodes which align with the mytharc X-Files is noted for. He also wrote the fifth episode with the help of the real life Scully, Anne Simon. Simon is an American biology professor, scientist, and a science advisor in the field of biology on both the old and new X-Files. The middle episodes are stand-alones featuring the ever enticing Monster of the Week and were written by X-Files veterans James Wong and brothers Glenn and Darin Morgan.

7. There was a spin-off of The X-Files that premiered during a month long hiatus of TXF in March 2001. The Lone Gunman was to be a humorous spin-off of the popular series. It started out with quite a fan base that withered. It was cancelled after 13 episodes. I’d never heard of it. Had you? Could be why it didn’t fair so well even though it had positive reviews for the most part.

8. The X-Files first aired September 10, 1993 and ran for nine seasons and 202 episodes. In 2002, it was touted as being the longest playing science fiction series ever on US broadcast television. It was surpassed in 2007 by Stargate SG-1 and in 2011 by Smallville.

9. The X-Files is filmed in Canada. Visual effects supervisor, William Powloski, said, “We try to find parts of Vancouver that can play for parts of Washington, DC and create everything else digitally.” 

10. The X in X-Files stands for the unknown—those FBI files that are unsolved or put away.

ProbeFiling


I, for one, won’t miss a single episode and hope this is a new beginning for a favorite science fiction classic. I don’t care how many episodes the couple agree to do. A few is far better than none.

I’ve included two videos in this post. The first is a very short clip showing the crashing of a space craft. The scene is spellbinding and features the 50 foot alien craft designed for the miniseries.

https://youtu.be/Qi_9YuMynW0

Below is a twenty minute plus video and offers many details on the creation of the miniseries. Some of these details are mentioned above. I apologize for the repetition. And if you are more of a watcher than a reader, just watch the second video. (Notice how I buried that information here. What can I say as a former teacher of reading, except, “Hey, thanks for reading my blog and for being here.”)

https://youtu.be/UgRUzEdPfHA

In the same Entertainment Weekly interview, Duchovny admitted that on first reading the reboot script he became emotional.

“I just read it about an hour ago and I started crying reading the first page. It was just so strange to see the names on the page. It had nothing to do with the script itself. It was just like, I’d been talking about this for a long time. We’d been planning it for a long time. It took a long time to get all the people in the same place and get the deal with Fox. So let’s say two years we’ve been talking about doing it. Now it’s the fun part. Now we actually get to do it. That was nice and strangely emotional for me…”

If they revive some of the past monsters, who are you hoping they breath new life back into? I’m all for the resurrection of Flukeman. The monster totally freaks me out.

Flukeman from Season 2 Episode 2 "The Host"
Flukeman from Season 2 Episode 2 “The Host”

The Probe’s Mission Statement


The Probe is a blog devoted to the exploration of the unexplainable, to finding the truth in occurrences that resemble science fiction, and to researching and reporting on topics that could be flung upon the wall of weird. New posts are featured every week.

blog pix
Me and my Silver Bullet, Monsters, Inc. We ain’t afraid of no ghosts, or aliens, or monster. Much.

As previously reported,  I’m currently revising Books 1 and 2 of my young adult series THE OTHER KIND. Book 1 will be released in February with Book 2 close behind. Fingers crossed. Also,  I’m venturing into a new genre as well. I say this in case I’m late on my blog or miss a week. I hope you’ll forgive my tardiness/lateness. I’m not lazy. Or forgetful. Or giving up. Or minus my Muse. It’s just my editor, the awesome Jaimie Rasplicka, pushed up my deadline a week on Book 2. Yikes! Wish me luck. 

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Clara Bush
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