When The X-Files return next week (!), we are going to re-enter the world of Chris Carter. Throughout all his works — The X-Files and its two theatrical movies, Millennium, Harsh Realm, The Lone Gunmen, The After — certain common themes, threads, ways to tell a story, leitmotivs come up again and again, making his work recognizable and giving it a unique voice. Among these recurring themes is history and memory, loss, religion, trust, family.
Next week Carter not only returns with the cast from the original series, along with key writers Glen Morgan, James Wong and Darin Morgan. It’s also such key people, some of which have been with Carter since 1993, as: composer Mark Snow and sound editor Thierry J. Couturier; visual effects supervisor Mat Beck; casting director Rick Millikan; production designer Mark S. Freeborn; production assistant Gabe Rotter. Carter also returns to Vancouver, where The X-Files established its identity in its first 5 seasons and returned to to shoot I Want To Believe. It really is a family.
To delve deeper into this, EatTheCorn proposes below an article that looks at these “obsessions” of Carter’s, written in 2006 by Séverine Barthes — a long time ago, but these very interesting arguments are developed here in an elegant way. Read it after the jump.
A press release is also up for the second episode (http://www.spoilertv.com/2016/01/the-x-files-episode-1002-founders.html)
This order is production order 1-5-3-2-4-6, so very different compared to what we naturally thought would be the airing order — especially since the second produced “Home Again” sounded like a natural choice for the a second episode. Mulder and Scully are said to follow an emotional arc throughout the six episodes, with each episode evolving from the previous one and significant elements of the past we believe are revealed in the two “My Struggle”s but also in “Founder’s Mutation”.
Whether the exact airing order was determined beforehand, with production order following actor or other constraints, or whether it was decided in post-production once executive producers Carter and Morgan saw the whole 6 and how they flowed, we do not know (https://twitter.com/Annealiz1/status/684814044767883265). Perhaps this whole business shows that episodes are more independent from each other than Carter would like to admit, perhaps not.
Some more thoughts on the reordering, including some spoilers on actors appearances and re-appearances around the episodes, can be found here: https://twitter.com/DemijanOmeragic/status/684879670450491394
Jan 08, 2016 19:00
All the writers room and much more is here! An excellent history from inception success twilight and revival!…
#mythXplained “Within/Without”: The main shortcoming of Season 8 is that…it exists! that the story was not wrapped up properly with the two leads at the end of season 7. Otherwise, these episodes launch one of the most interesting periods of the show, with a solid new lead in Robert Patrick, a great sense of purpose and a welcome return to the darkness of earlier seasons. But these episodes are not free of flaws: mainly the ret-conning of Mulder’s illness, and long scenes in the desert as if material for a bit more than one episode was spread over two episodes.
#mythXplained “Per Manum”: The plot thickens, with some great material — experiments in fertility clinics, double agents and general paranoia — and some less so — the unnecessary “who’s the daddy?” plotline. Still, in hindsight, this episode shows how well the season as a whole had been plotted in advance, possibly the only XF season where this happened! (Despite the feature film at its end, season 5 was much more loosely plotted/interlinked.)
#mythXplained “This Is Not Happening”: Everyone will agree that this is one of the best X-Files mythology episodes. The Mulder missing/dead drama at its height, the introduction of Monica Reyes (back when her character was still quirky and thus interesting), the return of Jeremiah Smith, alien cults and great performances overall!
#mythXplained “DeadAlive”: …and then things get more complicated. A dramatic time jump — to allow for the launch of The Lone Gunmen spin-off series — and Mulder very literally returns from the dead. While the episode tries to mix older mythology elements (Krycek, the vaccine against the Black Oil) with new mysteries, it really fails to clearly explain the central mystery: why were these replicants-to-be dumped randomly, and why Mulder’s replication failed. The tense mysterious atmosphere and production values still make this a success, but at this point the mythology starts challenging suspension of disbelief seriously.
X-Files Files podcaster and #XFilesRevival guest star Kumail Nanjiani’s much-awaited chat with Gillian Anderson & David Duchovny, one late night during the shooting of Darin Morgan’s episode, “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster”!…
“The two may watch now that they will be shown in flashbacks on the reboot. They will appear in episodes two and four.”
“Founder’s Mutation” and “Home Again”? Surely this is wrong. I guess more like “Babylon” and “My Struggle II”.
Duchovny being very candid about Fox’s (non)promotion of IWTB — very different from what we are seeing now for the promotion of the revival from Fox *Television*. #XF3, why not?
Cast: They managed to bring back the two stoner kids from “War of the Coprophages” and “Quagmire”! + Alex Diakun, another 1013/Darin familiar!
“When a dead body is found in the woods, Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate whether it was an animal attack, a serial killer or just maybe a strange creature as described by eyewitnesses. Meanwhile, Mulder is able to confront some of his own demons about feeling disillusioned with his life’s work”
#mythXplained “Three Words”: By now The X-Files is a fully serialized show, with an ensemble cast and storylines unfolding on a week-to-week basis. These are episodes of transition between the old guard, chief among them Mulder, who feels awkward, and the new. A good, classic, efficient episode that recalls many previous ones, notably the Lone Gunmen-aided infiltration of a facility in “Memento Mori”, and a meetup with an informant in a running field like in “Deep Throat”…
#mythXplained “Vienen”: The buddy action adventure of Mulder and Doggett! “New” writer Steven Maeda resurrects the Black Oil, last seen (in this form) in the movie 3 years before, and has the obvious idea to link it…to the oil drilling business. A solid episode, that hints at story developments that could have been followed around the Black Oil virus and immunity that were not exploited fully…
#mythXplained “Essence/Existence”: Season 8 ends and like with the previous season it could have been the end of it all. Same issues as with “Within/Without”, too many scenes in a single setting (here, underground parking lot). Confusing happenings with who hunts the baby and why. An oddly directed ending for a beloved character that should not have been. A “who’s the daddy?” that is unnecessarily drawn out to beyond the end. And, in retrospective, a very interesting season that ultimately raises too many questions for this to be the end, making a season 9 necessary (as opposed to last year)!
It is now 2016 and not only have we survived another winter solstice since December 22nd 2012 but we are presently less than a month away from entering the world of the X-Files again!
The revival
The FOX marketing machine is gearing up accordingly. “I Still Want To Believe” is the new tagline, echoing the old and underlying the fact that this is a repeat, “more of the same”. This fine line to walk between repeating the old — cozy, reassuring, nostalgic — and the new — bold, risky, unsettling — is a balance that all continuations must face. The recent Star Wars sequel (only very relatively successful, in my opinion) is the most recent example in the impulse to keep on continuing pop culture franchises.
So far there have been exclusive premieres of the “pilot” episode at select festivals (Monte Carlo, Los Angeles, Italy), we have seen posters, trailers, and a behind the scenes documentary. This is a lot of material for a six-episodes event, and goes a long way to show that FOX really believes in this and wants it to succeed. Also, the amount of images revealed goes very far — fans have been trying to assign each single frame to not only individual episodes but also chronologically within episodes — and key plot points have been revealed by the promotional campaign disregarding Carter’s previous obsession with secrecy and spoilers control. This is a very modern way to promote entertainment — the social networks buzz must be fed continuously and at all costs — but could prove counter-productive. Already, there is very little one cannot find on the first episode and many story details on the other five by searching the internet.
However, as a fan, I must admit that it all looks extremely exciting! (Including some worrying aspects on the mytharc, but coming up with theories to fill the gaps/plot holes is what we do for a living here.) It is all calibrated to appeal to those who remember the X-Files from the early seasons, including the radical approach on the Mulder-Scully relationship — which is a mix of a non-risk-taking return to how it used to be in the early days and part of a greater plan to reveal what has happened since 2002 progressively throughout all episodes, especially on the fate of William and their romantic split, using elliptic narration and flashbacks. Hopefully the episodes will actually deliver on the good buzz.
Of course, everything is done to promote the new series, which also means that the old series benefits from this buzz too — some even say that financially the new series is made so as to pump up the value of the old series as well for broadcasting rights for internet streaming services. The one-episode-a-day event that FOX marketing is animating over all its social media (head over to EatTheCorn’s Facebook page for some comments on each mytharc ep) is not only a way to count down to the new series but also a way to bring in new fans.
The BluRay
The most important event however, and quite possibly the ultimate and, well, last possible thing that could ever be done with the “old series” is its release in BluRay. Long anticipated with HD broadcasts in Germany and the USA since 2013, the whole package, including the two films and all bonus material from the DVDs, and a slot for the future new series’ BluRays (I wonder where “season 11” will fit if there is one?) was released on December 8 2015. After being one of the very first TV series that was edited in complete form in the DVD format in 2000, the X-Files has made the jump to the next format.
The challenges to do such a release were many — head over here for an interview with Jim Hardy, CEO of Illuminate, the company behind the transfer — chief among which the fact that every single episode had to be recreated from scratch by scanning the films of the raw unedited dailies. Post-production in the 1990s was done directly on VHS, and creating HD transfers is comparatively easier for shows both before and after that period! We’ll leave the debate on whether original 4:3 aspect ratio or feature-like revisionist 16:9 widescreen was better to the experts — what is out there looks amazingly fresh regardless. However, no release is perfect: the fonts that were used for the XF logo, the opening credits, the cast and crew credits, and the place and time tags are different from the original; some departures from “The Truth Is Out There” tag were not respected; and some other issues. These things are all the more frustrating that they could have easily been respected, and I don’t expect FOX to do a re-release (or a re-scan for 4K for example) any sooner than one or two decades. You can see some DVD to BD comparisons and a detailed list of differences here.
“The rest”
Another important “old series” release could also be very close. The third volume in the X-Files music by La La Land has been postponed from 2015 to early 2016, and I could very well see LLL taking the opportunity to make use of the revival to release it. After two volumes for both X-Files and Millennium, it’s going to be worth the wait — and in the case where LLL lacks inspiration, here is a requests list.
The interest on the X-Files has been rising steadily since IDW started publishing X-Files comic books in mid-2013, and EatTheCorn has been covering closely the storylines developed by Joe Harris. “Season 11” should be drawing to a close with three more issues and what follows next is still unclear, apart from an independent “what if” alternative history issue in April. What is certain though is that IDW will be continuing to publish X-Files comics, with Joe Harris very much involved! What form will these comics take (unique stories, continuing storyline) and what continuity they will follow (alternate universe, pre-revival, post-revival) is not yet revealed.
It’s no wonder that IDW is also expanding its X-Files merchandising line: after the X-Files board game (which should have a couple of extensions in the future) and re-prints of all older comics and novels, a trilogy of X-Files short story collections is coming out, edited by horror writer Jonathan Maberry. The stories mostly take place in the “golden age” of the series, around 1996, but not exclusively. The first volume, “Trust No One“, was released in July 2015 and the second, “The Truth is Out There“, will be released in March 2016. There are some older XF alumni in here: Stefan Petrucha, writer of the (excellent) first 16 issues of the XF Topps comics in 1994-1995, Sarah Stegall, famous XF reviewer of old; Joe Harris and Dean Haglund might participate in a future third volume.
Titan also publishing two X-Files Companion books that seem to consist in collections of already published material, namely articles from the official XF magazine (some of which can be found on EatTheCorn) published by Titan in the 1990s. There will be two volumes: the first “The Agents, the Bureau, and the Syndicate” in January and the second “Monsters & Villains” in March.
I wonder what else we will be seeing in terms of merchandising in the coming weeks and months.
The fandom is also gearing up to the revival. Professional genre expert John K. Muir, who has written on X-Files and all things Chris Carter several times on his blog, also published his book on XF, The X-Files FAQ, featuring reviews and analysis of The X-Files and Carter’s other works. Darren Mooney finished his epic series of reviews of all four Ten Thirteen shows on his site, an incredible amount of text and many amazing insights. The reference site X-Files News has relaunched their website afresh. Retrospective articles in the media abound.
FOX is planning to broadcast the episodes in over 60 countries all around the world within 24 hours of their broadcast in the USA. Barely three weeks remaining for the launch of potentially the first season of the revival.
