And for the next nine years, this was exactly the case. The reward for a long week of work was getting to ride the paranormal rollercoaster along with Special Agent Fox "Spooky" Mulder, Special Agent Dana Scully MD, AD Skinner, the Smoking Man, and the most eclectic assortment of characters ever casted. The onion conspiracies created by Chris Carter, affirmed my wildest, lunatic-fringe, tinfoil-hat theories.
Last Christmas, my son and daughter-in-law gave me a gift subscription to Netflix. I enjoyed the service so much that when the gift subscription expired, I renewed the service. One of the first things we did, was to put The X-Files on our queue, starting from the beginning of the series. We are now in the middle of season 2, and continue to be amazed all over again as we relive the cutting edge horror and humor of each succeeding episode. We share Mulder's frustration as the truth slips through his fingers, and fear for Scully's safety as dangerous forces beyond our comprehension manipulate reality.
We saw the movies. We displayed the calendars. We bought the cassettes and soundtracks. And we continue to hope for a new theatrical release.
Carter cites many influences for the creation of The X-Files, but perhaps none more so than another of my personal favorites, the 70's TV series The Night Stalker starring Darren McGavin as the hapless investigative reporter Carl Kolchak. In fact, Darren McGavin guest starred on several episodes as Mulder's hero X-Files founder, retired FBI Special Agent Arthur Dales.
Side note: The X-Files introduced the world to the Lone Gunmen (a reference to the JFK assassination), a trio of cyber activists who appeared in various episodes in all nine seasons, and assisted Mulder and Scully by providing research and background information on government cover-ups. Long before there was an info-war, the Lone Gunmen were the original alternative news journalists.
The eerie and iconic X-Files theme song, titled "Materia Primoris," was written by Mark Snow, who went on to compose the background music for the run of the show. Outside sources for the show's soundtrack range from Bach and Beethoven to Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper, with a little Bobby Darin, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and the Partridge Family thrown in for good measure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKO-aBQ6DPs
The X Files Theme (P.M. Dawn Remix)
Unfortunately, in my opinion, as the series progressed, it became ever more reliant on the mythic story arc that involved not one but THREE different interwarring, extraterrestrial species, alternately trying to enslave, colonize and save mankind, each to varying degrees in collusion with separate factions of our government, foreign governments and shadow governments. As the show wound ever more deeply into these confusing and unfathomable plotlines, I started to lose interest, and in fact, by season 7, the show had moved from a guilty Friday night pleasure to a ho hum Sunday evening obligation, and Fox Mulder had left the lead role and appeared only intermittently for the final two seasons.
Interestingly enough, at this same time, the show introduced Scully's new partner, FBI Special Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick), of T2 fame. In a 180 degree role reversal, Scully was now the firm believer in the unbelievable and Doggett the wide-eyed skeptic. A fan of the actor, I reluctantly tuned back in and was surprised to find that these were some of the best shows of the series.
By the time The X-Files ended, the show had become the longest-running science fiction series in U.S. television history. The series won multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Awards, and David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson received multiple award nominations with several wins.
The show also holds the distinction of being both a cult classic and a mainstream hit, that spawned several catch phrases including: "I want to believe," "The Truth Is Out There," and "Mulder, it's me. I just had something incredibly strange happen."
Side note: In all nine seasons of The X-Files, there was never a "Halloween" episode. But if I was going to nominate one, it would be, "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas." Yes, yes, I know. There are dozens of creepier, more disturbing, more gruesome, more intense, and more twisted stories to choose from. And yes, this was written and produced for a completely different holiday. But hear me out. This episode, originally conceived as a haunted house tale, stars Ed Asner and Lily Tomlin as an elderly pair of happily married ghosts. The thought of being separated from each other was so unthinkable that in 1917 they entered a consensual murder/suicide pact, and since that time have tried to lure unsuspecting couples into the same fate.
Scully comments, "The dark Gothic manor, the omnipresent low fog hugging the thicket of overgrowth... Wait. Is that a hound I hear baying out on the moors?" Mulder, alarmed at a noise, says, "Shhh! What was that?" to which Scully replies, "These are tricks that the mind plays. They are ingrained clichés from a thousand different horror films. When we hear a sound, we get a chill, we, we - we see a shadow and we allow ourselves to imagine something that an otherwise rational person would discount out of hand."
The episode has Mulder and Scully shooting each other and crawling towards the front door drenched in blood before the story resolves itself.
From the pilot episode, simply (or satirically) titled "Pilot" where Fox Mulder welcomes Dana Scully to his dark, cluttered, claustrophobic, basement office (thereby setting the tone for all that is to come) with the words, "Sorry, nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted," to the series two-part ending, "The Truth," when Mulder is secretly subjected to a military tribunal, but escapes punishment with the help of the other agents, and he and Scully become fugitives, few other shows before or since have had the cultural impact of The X-Files.
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