It’s Halloween! Another #Millennium-related update, this time on the series’ *other* #Halloween-themed episode: “The Curse of Frank Black”. Millennium is available only on DVD, and it’s getting difficult to find them for new fans (if new fans have a DVD player to begin with). Now, a fan is upscaling it into HD. Is this legal? Well, considering how difficult it is to find MM legally these days…let’s say this is a one-off. Disney/Fox should rescue this show from oblivion.
In the link below you will find a link to download “Curse” in HD — it’s just A Click To Save the file… Warning: it’s a 2.5 Gb file! Here are some HD/SD comparisons. It’s not the best upscale quality work but it is still an improvement. The photography of that show was sumptuous and the DVDs rendered that quite well already.
It’s #Halloween! Here’s an all-new #millenniumgroupsessionsredux interview with Michael R Perry, writer of the weirdest Halloween-themed episode that Ten Thirteen produced, “…Thirteen Years Later”, in #Millennium. Perry joined MM during season 2, his first episode was “The Mikado”, followed by four episodes in season 3. Some highlights:
Before working on MM, he saw Carter in the Fox lot and congratulated him for making the MM pilot, he was impressed.
Unmade “Dirty Snowball” episode: during s2, Morgan & Wong had an idea to focus on a suicide cult like Heaven’s Gate, have Frank Black investigate it, have Roedecker be in love with a girl in the cult. The episode got approved, he did the outline and wrote the script, then they decided to do “Owls” & “Roosters” instead. As a result, he did “The Mikado” to write a banger quality script that he could show as proof even if it got cancelled.
At the end of s2 everybody thought the show would be cancelled, everybody had moved on, were surprised it was renewed.
The writers room was just a construction trailer in the Fox lot.
They had an office assistant that would answer the phone in the voice of Frank Black.
Nothing but praise for Chris Carter (the importance of forcing writers to produce their episodes, he would go to Vancouver for casting, locations, tech scout), for director Tom Wright (meticulously prepared with a shot list with drawings in the script, thinking of lenses, involving all production departments in preparations), for Mark Snow’s music.
On “Thirteen Years Later”: it came to him just by the rotation of scripts among writers. A Fox executive decided on doing a Kiss-themed night and put Kiss references during many shows. Hilarious stories of Kiss behaving like rock star divas. If he were to change one thing: if the whole episode were the ravings of a lunatic, they had the opportunity to kill the main characters. Lance initially was not into doing the episode, eventually he came around when he saw it was going to be a break between serious episodes. Standards and Practices were worried that they were violating all the norms!
MM cancellation: happened despite good Lance/Klea chemistry, they probably learned about it after the sweeps (March/April).
During the recent writers strike he saw Glen Morgan (who probably still hasn’t watched s3!) and Chip Johannessen.
HARSH REALM in HD! Chris Carter’s short-lived show (aired during season 7 of #TheXFiles) is only available in a standard definition DVD, and that is unlikely to change. However, ironically, thanks to AI algorithms, a fan remastered it entirely in HD (upscale, colour balances, cleaning). The result is impressive. Treat yourself to some of the best things Ten Thirteen did — in particular the first three episodes are like an extended pilot. 25 years later, #HarshRealm proves to be very prescient and I think it would become a huge success would it be made today.
Interview with Brad Follmer — we can finally put a face to the name! — Chris Carter’s assistant on #TheXFiles over seasons 7-9 and staff writer in the revival. Several points similar to last year’s interview with him. Some new bits:
He got the job despite not knowing almost anything about the show — over another candidate that had an “I heart TXF” button on her! [For the record I don’t think this is sexism — I think Carter and the producers were not looking to hire a fan]
He asked Carter which episodes he should watch to catch up on his work, “Triangle” was among them.
Various stories reading fanmail, merchandising, about invasive fans trying hard to get into contact with Carter, about increased security at the studios after 9/11
He was in the same office as Carter, daily — Carter always arrived early, he used to sit down and start typing, immediately
Interacting with Carter when Brad first read the script with the character named after him
Every year, director of photography Bill Roe was throwing big Superbowl parties at his place with much of the crew
After TXF, he helped Carter develop “The After” for Amazon, but only the pilot was produced; they had broken the stories for all of the 8 episodes of the first season when Amazon cancelled it [I want to see those stories!]
After that, Carter helped him develop his own pilot for a show, but it was not picked up [Carter seems like a mentor, really helping people he has worked with before]
It’s #Tenthirteen! Chris Carter is 68 years old (and Fox Mulder 63). Time to celebrate: here is the script for the unproduced #TheXFiles seventh episode of season 10! Kindly uploaded for everyone to see by the fans who acquired it from an auction for charity. The cover page is missing, so the episode remains untitled. Apparently the episode was ready to be shot, and it was not budget but only a scheduling issue (main cast availability?) that prevented it from being made. It was written by Gabe Rotter (Carter’s assistant during season 9 and IWTB, who would eventually write “Kitten” in season 11) and Brad Follmer (Carter’s assistant over s7-9).
Some impressions (very mildly spoilery) when reading this: This is a monster-of-the-week episode focusing on killer ants. Impossible not to think of several previous episodes: War of the Coprophages (for the panic settling in among the local population), Zero Sum (for “foreign” bugs introduced in the USA being the killers, and for a scene with bugs attacking children) or Schizogeny and the episode Millennium (for weird things taking place in basements in the climax). Perhaps unexpectedly, the overall tone is lighthearted and with many references to popular culture (especially The Walking Dead and fears of the zombie apocalypse) and some Mulder-Scully flirting. At other times it’s like a very straightforward action movie. It is weirdly structured, with short acts in the beginning and the final act lasting for half the script; and the whole episode takes place over one day or two; this gives it the feeling that there’s less story here than would warrant an entire hour-long episode. And it ends, in classic TXF fashion, with a promise that not everything is over.
I found the script not particularly strong — could this be the reason why it was not picked up again when season 11 was greenlit? It’s an entertaining, if not memorable, read.
(Image from the “Season X” behind the scenes documentary)
#TheXFiles Official Archives Volume II book, which is to focus on the mythology, has again been postponed to 21 April 2026, on both the editor’s site and Amazon. Initially it was coming out October 2024, then October 2025. What’s going on behind the scenes with Disney?…
