Analysis of themes, aspects, art, merchandise and occasional thoughts on The X-Files

Music

[The Truth And The Light]
Mark Snow’s 1996 soundtrack for The X-Files

[More Music from The X-Files]
A list for Mark Snow’s (as of yet) unreleased music

[La La Land Records : The X-Files Volume 1]
Mark Snow’s much-awaited 2011 4CD soundtrack for The X-Files

[La La Land Records : The X-Files Volume 2]
2013 follow-up to Volume 1

Mythology

[The Truth Revealed 10:13]
Chirs Carter’s hidden speech in the Fight the Future album

[Hybridization round-up]
From Victor Klemper to Cassandra Spender

Artwork

[“Wave” VHS art]
Thom Ang and Cliff Nielsen’s artwork for the “Wave” VHS cards

[Sue Coe art]
Artwork by Sue Coe for the X-Files

Comics

[The X-Files comics]
A round-up of all of 80 published issues (1995-2010; does not include the publications from IDW begun in 2013)

[The X-Files comics by IDW]
Publications begun in 2013: Season 10 & Season 11 | Beyond

Production

[List of Writers and Directors]
1993-2002, 202 episodes

[Story and visual influences on the X-Files]
Film, TV and literature inspirations, both story-wise and cinematography-wise: 203 references and counting

[Chris Carter interview]
An ETC/XFL exclusive, on the occasion of the release of the pilot for The After (March 2014)

Thoughts

[Notes beyond the world’s ending]
Some thoughts on The X-Files and Millennium right after December 22, 2012

[The X-Files and the Future]
The X-Files and the directions it could take, post-season 9 finale

• Part 1: What’s left hanging?
• Part 2: What new can it add?
• Part 3: Where could it go?

Insight in the scriptwriting process of the X-Files is quite scarce compared to more recent series. There are some episodes in which writers have gone uncredited. Chris Carter, as the showrunner, is said to have done rewrites, smaller or larger, on more than half the episodes. Rewrites are an important part of the scriptwriting porcess; for example, Darin Morgan, script editor for season 3, rewrote 3X22: Quagmire, with the infamous Conversation On The Rock.

Also, scriptwriting in a television series is a team effort: there is a staff of writers who gather, pitch ideas, break down the structure of each episode. Then there is one (or more) of them who takes the task of writing the scipt and dialogues themselves, and it’s only him that is credited as writer. The main writer might ask another writer to write a specific dialogue for him — indeed, staff writers are often co-producers or have other jobs within the show. For example, John Shiban wrote part of 4X18: Max, an episode otherwise written by Carter & Spotnitz. Attributing a script to a single specific person might be far from the truth. So, even though personal styles can very often be felt, don’t blame only Shiban for 3X18: Teso Dos Bichos and don’t praise only Gilligan for 5X12: Bad Blood.

This might not apply to many mythology episodes however, given how secretive Chris Carter was on the ‘Truth’ behind the show. Beginning with season 2, Frank Spotnitz became Carter’s right hand with the mythology, and he was probably as instrumental as Carter in shaping the direction of the mytharc.

Coming soon… : The X-Files

[Project Aquarius]
Analysis of the first 12 issues of the XF Topps comics

[Rat Boy Odyssey]
Alex Krycek has betrayed everyone and everything but his own cause

[Meet the Mulders]
How Samantha was a means to manipulate Fox

[The X-Files and post-World War II America]
From the Cold War to Watergate and All The President’s Men

[3X79: Agrippa]
The 1998 PC game: another XF episode

[Purity]
The Colonists: their biology, their technology, their goals

[Production logs]
– Season-by-season behind the scenes breakdown of the show’s history and mythology.
– Selection of quotes from interviews with the writers, showing the sources and inspirations for the different stories.

Yellow House

Coming soon… : MillenniuM

The “other” show: 3 seasons, 3 worldviews, a flawed work of art

[MillenniuM season by season thematic reviews]
It is still the middle of the night

[MillenniuM s1&2 ep guide]
Frank Black lives!