Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.

Apr 06, 2023 19:54

New Chris Carter interview, courtesy of the Conspiracy podcast @[195561691234370:274:Sammensværgelsen – en dansk X-Files podcast]!

As usual, summary below [and my comments]:

• Was the original plan to stop #TheXFiles after 5 seasons and do a movie franchise after? “No”. [Ha! Persistent rumour has been shot down. So this information, as old as the internet, must only refer to the objective of making enough episodes to go to syndication, not anything related to the mythology or long-term planning.]
• CC reminisces about making the first movie (25 years ago!). They didn’t try to bring Armin Mueller-Stahl (Strughold) back after the film in season 6 because he lives in Europe; CC did think of him for season 11 (hence the role of Mr Y was created).
• CC recently wrote something with Terry O’Quinn (Peter Watts in Millennium, among others) in mind for a role, but he’s busy. [CC seems to have plenty of projects, but nothing has materialized yet.]
• The mix of episodic-serialized was conceived from the beginning before the pilot was made.
• CC is still very proud of “Duane Barry”, the first episode he directed. He used David Nutter’s method of using drawings for planning the blocking of scenes.
• CC’s “Syzygy” was “directly inspired” by Darin Morgan’s “Humbug”. [Obvious, but finally, a direct confirmation!]
• He no longer remembers the plans he and Spotnitz had for films after season 9 regarding the 2012 and the alien invasion. [So much information about all this is now water under the bridge…]
• Again, CC reiterates that he never imagined that “My Struggle IV” would be the finale of the show.
• CC let the cat out of the bag with that interview about the Ryan Coogler remount of TXF, Fox TV actually wants to make a big announcement about it. [So Disney is very much serious about this project. I expect we’ll know more not too long from now.]
• Fox/Disney entirely owns TXF, so they can do whatever they like, they just have been kind enough to be collaborative with CC in their decisions up to now. [Contrary to what I thought, CC/Ten Thirteen doesn’t co-own the brand! Perhaps CC’s involvement is good news in this case.]
• CC cancelled the “Albuquerque” TXF animated project because he couldn’t imagine it without Mulder and Scully. [But wouldn’t Coogler’s re-whatever be without M&S too? Or is Coogler planning to recast M&S?]
• CC and Glen Morgan discussed at length making a prequel around the Cigarette-Smoking Man shortly after season 11, Morgan pitched it, but couldn’t convince Fox about it. [I can’t imagine what this would look like! Unreliable narrator like in “Musings”? Mythology-only with historical persons cameos like Dark Skies? Sound like a mythology fan’s wet dream, but I can’t imagine it being more than a limited series.]
• CC and Glen Morgan discussed at length doing a reboot of #Millennium, but “we put that on the back burner, it’s closed right now”. [Impressive, but disappointing, and he didn’t expand on why they abandoned it. Interesting that Carter & Morgan worked together on all these potential projects! I’m curious if a MM reboot could have worked — Carter has used the word ‘reboot’ for the TXF revival as well, so they might have had a MM revival in mind with Lance Henriksen, now 82, as old as Patrick Stewart in Star Trek Picard. Possible, but also an extremely uphill battle.]

https://www.facebook.com/Sammensvaergelsen/posts/pfbid027KW8h9uadi7pTk819Nucz5uSgzQjH1eBeCZxcJbx26L53cygxvGzArLunRk9Wfr5l

https://sammensvaergelsen.libsyn.com/website/interview-chris-carter-2

Apr 13, 2023 10:11

[FRENCH] Podcast sur le film #TheXFiles, sorti il y a quand même 25 ans ! A l’époque, l’excitation était à son comble. Habitant en Europe, le film était sorti des mois après les Etats-Unis, et j’avais été spoilé sur une grande partie des révélations mythologiques en lisant des magazines.

https://podcast.ausha.co/le-coin-pop/the-x-files-fight-the-future-le-premier-film

May 05, 2023 20:23

Coverage of a January interview with Chris Carter (catching up on my backlog) from @[100064600333206:2048:The X-Cast\: An X-Files Podcast]!

A summary and highlights below [with my comments]:

About #TheXFiles:

• DD & GA’s casting process with Randy Stone: they were both CC’s first choices. On the casting sheets, CC wrote for DD “yes”, for GA “test”. CC stuck to his guns to cast GA, there was a second actress that the network wanted. [We will probably never know who that was!]
• Their chemistry was obvious already from shooting that first scene in the basement office.
• Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish both got their roles thanks to their previous work, they didn’t actually read for their parts. Fire in the Sky was a precursor to TXF and CC cast RP because of it.
• On the pilot: there are tweaks he could make to it; a comedic bit that he could have left in (during the driving scene, Mulder makes a joke about a bagel), but he wanted the show to be dramatic before comedic; he didn’t know if the bloody nose effect would work.
• Gender-consistent choice would have been for man to be skeptic, woman to be intuitive, M&S made the pilot distinctive.
• TXF’s serialized quality was a precursor to today’s shows. The first movie resulted in season 8’s serialized approach, the show took a “right turn”. [Linking FTF to s8 is an odd connection, given how much later s8 happened and the circumstances around DD’s partial presence. Note the use of “right turn”, the same expression CC used for describing the revival mythology compared to what came before, for him it looks like this can mean something new in style or in content.]
• Advice to aspiring show-runners: stick to your guns. So many people gave notes, and that impacted the quality and compromised the excellence of what CC set out to do. Of all the people who gave CC notes, now there are only two in business. [I love a show-runner with a vision. But doesn’t CC sound a bit vindictive here?]
• TXF/Picket Fences cross-over was cancelled by the network to avoid a cross-pollination of audience.
• Challenging times: shooting End Game, Paper Clip, FTF, that year of TXF s5 + FTF + MM s2 (and 20+ episode seasons) was the hardest year of his life. [I can believe that!]
• Again, he stresses that he didn’t do this show alone and that it was a team effort. Throughout, there are nods to Dan Sackheim, Bob Goodwin, David Nutter, Peter Wunstorf (MM pilot director of photography), Kim Manners, Rob Bowman, Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, the women who worked on the show. [I have criticized CC myself on certain storytelling choices, but I will never criticize how strong he was as an overall show-runner, pushing and motivating everyone around him.]

About the revival:

• My Struggle I & II appear to have pleased the “Q-Anon crowd”, and he doesn’t know what to think about that. [As Darin Morgan astutely commented in his episode, conspiracies no longer mean what they meant in the 1990s in general culture. Difficult to do TXF’s mythology today in the same way as back then.]
• While shooting was going on for My Struggle IV, he was still undecided about the ending. Gillian Anderson made some comments online about this being the end for her. So he had to make some dramatic choices for the ending. [Again, this doesn’t align that well with the chronology of events, unless Carter didn’t believe Anderson meant it until the 11th hour.]

About #Millennium:

• David Fincher sought Carter out, they had lunch and discussed the project of doing the greatest serial killer series, which turned out to be #mindhunter, which Carter finds excellent [it is!], CC feels Millennium was an inspiration.
• The Millennium pilot was the result of TXF: “Irresistible”, there was an appetite for telling stories about things that were not supernatural.
• CC feels sorry that MM went off the air, he inadvertently pulled the plug on it, whereas Fox would have gone forward with a 4th season and maybe more. Given that CC was going to launch Harsh Realm, he wouldn’t have had time to spend on MM, and that was a premature decision. CC advised Jon Bokenkamp, the creator of #TheBlacklist, on its pilot an on how to spend your energy; years later, Bokenkamp was hesitating to pull the plug on the series and CC told him it would be a mistake: you never know where your next hit will be, you’d better stay with the winner until the bitter end. [This is an interesting confession from CC. The mind races with what could have been: MM seasons 4 and 5? On the other hand, this approach of sticking with what works no matter what is a two-edged swords, it explains CC’s unwillingness to ever, ever end TXF despite the writing being on the wall.]
• More MM/TXF crossovers would have happened if MM had continued. [And I would hope better too!]
• Recently, he saw Ryan Murphy’s Jeffrey #dahmer series and liked it, and this inspired him to talk to “somebody” about a MM reboot. [I am both excited and afraid. Amazing how the greenlight for many projects seems to be dependent on the mood of TV executives and what’s trendy these days.]

About the legacy of the show:

• The TXF novel that is currently being worked on follows on chronologically from the events of My Struggle IV. [All previous tie-in novels have essentially been stand-alone investigations and I can’t imagine a novel continuing the story in a substantial way, it will feel weird if it does. Until it’s retconned by something else in the future, like with the comics?]
• He thinks that Joe Harris did an excellent job with the comics, but doesn’t remember much about the MM comics. [Nice! But again, too bad that the revival de-canonized them and that the revival forced Harris’ Season 11 being cut short from the initial plans.]
• If anybody watches 30 years from now, it will be because of Mulder and Scully and their relationship.
• There are no plans for the show’s 30th anniversary this year. [So nothing from Fox/Disney, only fan-organized events.]

https://www.facebook.com/xfilespod/posts/pfbid02Pk9Eu2TeoTugyWmHxKGjfF6YU1KyxoPneA5DScomxhdNhRcNcRKTrt7DJvyThEuPl

https://pod.link/1157097612/episode/534ef2668ededfe3790cfc22a5ef805d

Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.

Mar 06, 2023 17:00

A rare interview with the recently deceased Jeff Vlaming, who wrote on #TheXFiles season 3, from 2021. The whole thing is great if you’re interested in TV writers’ careers, and he is very passionate! But if you want the TXF highlights you definitely have to watch from minute 22 to see how he got hired, with a handcrafted alien in a test tube that got Carter’s attention! (he even shows his own sketches of this on camera!) Also, these interesting and revealing bits (around 31′ and 39′):

On the way scripts were written:
There was no writers’ room in X-Files. We had our own respective offices. What you do is you come up with your idea on a bulletin board with cards, and then when you wanted to pitch it you pitch to Chris exclusively, Chris Carter would be your audience. Unfortunately Chris’s office was about a block from the writers’ offices we were in, so you’d carry bulletin boards with cards tacked on with tacks and you’re hoping against hope that it wasn’t raining or windy because you had to go a block outside to set up in Chris’s office and pitch to him. The writers all were accessible to each other and so you’d run ideas past them, individually or as a group, but there was no room. Chris was sort of the the hearing and all opinion on this, and so he’d give you notes and stuff like that, which was good. I think that helped to sort of stick with his sort of vision of the series that i think made it succeed so well.” [No writers’ room confirmed! This helped individual voices, and it all went through Carter for that extra layer of rewriting to give the whole thing coherence. Carter ran a tight ship.]

On why he had to leave after one year on staff:
“I sort of had to make a choice because this group was very much, you know, would work late into the night, would have some scotch, maybe smoke some cigars and it’s just like — first I didn’t drink scotch and I didn’t smoke cigars — but yeah I’m happy to be part of the team and wanted to be part of the team, but I was a brand new dad and that was the most important thing right then.” [Sounds like an exclusive gentlemens’ club! Doesn’t sound like a place for people with families or for women. I wonder what Kim Newton has to say about that.]

From @[100063644167284:2048:TV Writer Podcast]: https://tvwriterpodcast.podbean.com/e/118-jeff-vlaming/
Also on YouTube:

Mar 07, 2023 10:33

Let the #TheXFiles 30th anniversary festivities begin! Pilot, March 7, Mulder & Scully enter the town of Bellefleur, Oregon. (Apologies for the BluRay font that messed up the original.) But wait, is it 1993 or 1992?

Mar 08, 2023 16:00

One of the rare interviews with the extraordinary director Rob Bowman. I love listening to this man! There’s a guy who helped shape #TheXFiles look and feel, beginning from GenderBender in season 1 and into him directing the “Fight the Future” film and all the way to season 7. He was all about the work, the definition of bringing the quality of cinema to television. He describes here how he was bored with making interviews back then because they took time away from shooting, so it’s great to have him ramble on on this today. I especially liked hearing him talk about how Chris Carter or Frank Spotnitz would hint to him that it’s OK to go over budget on specific episodes because the quality of the result would sell itself. And about “Memento Mori”, how he initially thought the script was going to be too much soap opera with tears and violins, but it worked out great. He is even keen to do more TXF if the opportunity arises (and he even teases that there’s one issue preventing Chris Carter from doing more, I suppose he means Gillian Anderson’s reluctance but it could be something else).

Mar 12, 2023 20:00

Waiting to hear more about how advanced Carter and Fox/Disney are in the talks about a #TheXFiles reboot. Carter mentioned the possibility before in 2022, but in a manner that meant that he was not taking the idea seriously. This just in from science advisor Anne Simon:

“Chris Carter just said on a Q &A at the London Science Museum screening of episode 1 that Fox has contacted him about a reboot of the #TheXFiles with a diverse cast! I’d be so happy if this happens!”

https://www.twitter.com/Annealiz1/status/1634941007472238594

H/T Adam Silva for spotting this.

Edit: more context from other sources in social media who were there at the event (which I hope was recorded and we will see it eventually!):

“He said he’s willing to do one, and he’s been in preliminary talks with fox. He also said he had more stories to tell about the mythology and Scully’s pregnancy” [again the pregnancy? I’m out!]

“he reiterated that he personally couldn’t see a future of The X-Files without Mulder and Scully, but said that Disney/Fox had their own plans for that future. He said Fox had been on the phone to talk about a reboot with a “more diverse” cast. Essentially he was implying that a series without Mulder & Scully is in the works, but “in the works” could mean anything” [so this is coherent with what Carter said in 2022: he hopes that if more TXF happens it will be with M&S, but Fox/Disney have other plans because GA is reluctant and to bring TXF to a younger generation. Not clear to what extent Carter, most likely co-owner of the TXF IP, can completely veto Fox/Disney decisions.]

Mar 16, 2023 9:54

[FRENCH] #TheXFiles La saison 5! La première saison qui a commencé à décevoir une partie considérable des fans de la première heure. Vu la qualité de la photographie et la qualité de nombreux scripts, comment est-ce possible direz-vous ? Et pourtant, il y a beaucoup à dire, la preuve ce podcast dure presque 4 heures et je vais mettre un moment pour l’écouter en entier !…

https://podcast.ausha.co/le-coin-pop/the-x-files-saison-5-resister-ou-servir

Mar 28, 2023 19:55

Things get more specific! Chris Carter talks about shooting #TheXFiles in Vancouver (some nice trivia here!) and repeats that there are attempts to do a new reimagined version of the show:

“I just spoke to a young man, Ryan Coogler, who is going to remount The X-Files with a diverse cast. So he’s got his work cut out for him, because we covered so much territory.”

Ryan Coogler, born 1986 (!), wrote and directed the first Creed and the two Black Panther films.

I’m quite phlegmatic about this. The way the modern entertainment industry centers around ‘content’ and ‘brands’, this was going to happen sooner or later. I will follow what happens, but don’t think I will be the target audience for this — not at all because of the ‘diverse’ part but because I don’t see much creativity and risk-taking in *most* modern genre TV — plus I will have no emotional attachment to a product that doesn’t feature the Carter/Duchovny/Anderson combination. Who knows? Let’s say it’s an uphill battle.

Plus, more from that interview:

Carter’s first visit in Vancouver was in 1986, when his wife was shooting something in the forests there, those forests that would be so much useful to the show.

Lots of love for Vancouver, its people, the crew there, the mood because of the weather: “I owe it all to Vancouver”.

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-46-on-the-coast/clip/15974795-its-30-years-since-x-files-began-filming-vancouver

Mar 29, 2023 00:25

#TheXFiles animated project “Albuquerque”, rumored in 2020, is no more. (After having seen some of the similarly-sounding Star Trek: Lower Decks, maybe that’s not a bad idea.)

But also this bit, in relation with today’s other news about Ryan Coogler developing a revamped TXF: “TVLine has learned, however, that Coogler’s X-Files would not be for Fox.” I’m not sure what this means. Disney owns Fox, TXF is (most likely) co-owned by Fox and Ten Thirteen. So, does this mean that this new project is for Disney+ directly, or something to that effect?

https://tvline.com/2023/03/28/the-x-files-albuquerque-cancelled-fox-animated-series-spinoff/

*Edit: this from Variety clarifies that, under Diney restructuring, Fox and 20th TV are no longer the same company, which explains the above, and that Coogler has a contract with Disney TV to develop new projects, so this is one of them: “As the project is in its very early stages, there is no word on what network or platform on which it would air. More than likely, though, it would air on Hulu rather than “The X-Files’” original network home, Fox, as Fox and 20th TV are no longer part of the same company following Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox. To that point, there are currently revivals of the Fox shows “Futurama” and “King of the Hill” set up at Hulu. Coogler would be developing the project under his five-year overall deal with Walt Disney Television, of with 20th TV is a part.”

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/ryan-coogler-x-files-reboot-1235567129/

Mar 29, 2023 17:00

#TheXFiles 30th anniversary interviews continue at CBC with two Vancouver locals reminiscing about the past:

Nicholas Lea (Alex Krycek): “The number one reason is not necessarily the subject matter, but really the talent of the people behind the show: the line producers, the people who found the locations…”

William B. Davis (Cigarette-Smoking Man): “There was a commitment you saw on that set from everybody to do their very best work: whether it was the focus puller, or whether it was Chris Carter or it was the actors…”

(And both would be in for appearing in the “remount” of the show which is being worked on.)

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-46-on-the-coast/clip/15975059-x-files-turns-30-william-b.-davis-nicholas-lea

Mar 31, 2023 20:31

#TheXFiles 30th anniversary interviews continue at CBC with Vancouver producer J.P. Finn, a key person for all first five years of the show. He shares some stories of how Vancouver was transformed by shooting TXF there. In a nice story of circularity, he remembers shooting among the first episodes in the same place where later a stadium was built, where they shot the last episode of the series for the Vancouver era: he must be referring to the Plaza of Nations (Squeeze, Little Green Men) which is right next to the Rogers Arena (The End), built in 1995.

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-46-on-the-coast/clip/15975602-x-files-vancouver-turns-30-producer-jp-finn-city

Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.

Jan 10, 2023 18:39

Happy new year, 2023 is the year #TheXFiles reaches the impressive age of 30!

There have been many interviews by the TXF Fan Retrospective, especially of lesser known crew members, but I am singling this out. This person articulates well how important working on the show was for his career, how innovative he felt the show was for bringing cinema aesthetics to television in the 1990s, and how driven and close-knit the behind-the-camera crew was. Philip Azenzer is a colorist who worked on the early years — IMDb credits him for seasons 4-5-6, but in his interview he mentions working with Carter from the very beginning, the pilot and episode 1 (so much work goes uncredited!). He did color grading of the footage, very important for the look and feel of the show (I learn that this was done with the DaVinci software at the dailies stage, before any editing was done!). A good example of how the medium of television is collaborative.

Jan 13, 2023 9:57

[FRENCH] Suite du podcast mensuel. Saison 3, la saison de la maturité à tous les niveaux ! Chris Carter pense que c’est la meilleure saison, et je suis d’accord. Jusqu’au mois prochain.

https://podcast.ausha.co/le-coin-pop/the-x-files-saison-3-rien-ne-disparait-sans-laisser-de-trace

Jan 26, 2023 9:10

After being coy about it, Mark Snow finally spills the beans on what composers specifically inspired him on writing music for #TheXFiles, among classical and avant-garde composers: Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, Brian Eno. I can definitely hear the avant-garde in his TXF score, now I need to enrich my knowledge of classical composers to see the other connections.

Feb 01, 2023 9:35

Sad news today. Jeffrey Vlaming has died (cancer — he must have been in his 50s). He was a story editor in #TheXFiles season 3 writers’ room (he wrote “2Shy” and “Hell Money”) and was responsible for plenty of doodles that entertained the writers during that year. He worked on many other shows (#battlestargalactica #BSG, #fringe, #Hannibal…).

Announced by fellow writer Tom Schnauz:

You have most likely enjoyed a show the talented Jeff Vlaming worked on. He passed away after a long fight with cancer. Scroll thru his Twitter artwork to see what a fun and clever artist he was with a Sharpie. https://t.co/IcvOKuP4wu

— Thomas Schnauz (@TomSchnauz) February 1, 2023

Feb 10, 2023 16:54

Five years have passed since the second #TheXFiles revival season and William B Davis takes questions about his character very, let’s say, humorously! Here he is talking to @[100063679957588:2048:Radio of Horror]:

“There was lots I liked about the revival, there was a lot of stuff I liked. I got bogged down in the story about the child and all of that. I liked I ran over Skinner in my car and stuff like that. There were some really clever episodes, but as for the ongoing story it got a little complicated. And of course I got killed again. […] After we shot that last episode, I said ‘you know what Chris, I’m still not dead, that was a hologram that wasn’t me, so if you want me back you can bring me back’.”

Maybe we should all think of the revival humorously.

Feb 10, 2023 20:00

There are few people as responsible for the success of #TheXFiles as executive producer Bob Goodwin. He brought to the show a deep knowledge of the filmmaking craft and he ran a tight ship with schedules and budget. His interviews are rare so it’s always nice to hear from him, this time thanks to The X-Files Fan Retrospective (if you stick around there’s a cameo from his wife Sheila “Ma Scully” Larken!). I think this third element in his recipe for success is key and often underappreciated:

“I’ve always felt there’s three elements you need to have:
– the material of course; you know without the script, and in this case we didn’t have much, this was even before we started production but just the very beginning, but we knew the stories, I had already seen enough of the story outlines and I participated enough that I knew they were really fascinating stuff;
– the cast has to work; and and we already knew from the pilot that David and Gillian had amazing, you know, charisma and, you know, they were just so great together;
– and then the other element is how it’s mounted and directed, and I knew what I could do with it, so I said to him [Chris Carter] just, you guys this could be a huge hit really, you know, as long as you don’t make it cheesy!
So yes I honestly did know [right from the start that the show was going to be a big hit].”

Feb 15, 2023 13:24

[FRENCH] Podcast sur #TheXFiles saison 4. Les fans ont la tendance de vouloir classer et comparer, et s’il faut vraiment le faire alors oui la saison 4 présente certains défauts par rapport aux saisons immédiatement précédentes — mais c’est vraiment chercher la petite bête, surtout par rapport à ce qui va suivre…

https://podcast.ausha.co/le-coin-pop/the-x-files-saison-4-croyez-au-mensonge

Feb 22, 2023 15:09

In the 1990s, MADtv not only made a #TheXFiles parody (that I posted a few months ago): there was also a #Millennium parody too — in the style of the sitcom”Suddenly Susan”!

Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.

Nov 03, 2022 13:22

Some nice graphics from the official #TheXFiles account to promote the series on streaming!

Nov 10, 2022 17:46

Some x-cellent discussion of some of my favourite #TheXFiles media: the original Topps comics run by Petrucha/Adlard: #4-6 “Firebird” and #7 “Trepanning Opera”! By @[930414780360852:274:The X-Cast\: An X-Files Podcast].

https://pod.link/1157097612/episode/98235e5d203a11dc968c05ab18df2929

Nov 15, 2022 12:37

[FRENCH] Plongée profonde dans la saison 1 avec ce podcast de pas moins de 3 heures bien remplies ! J’adore l’utilisation des musiques de Mark Snow appropriées lors des discussions sur chaque épisode. Quels joyaux d’écriture déjà avec la 1re saison ! #TheXFiles #LVEI

https://podcast.ausha.co/le-coin-pop/the-x-files-saison-1-la-verite-est-ailleurs

Nov 18, 2022 18:31

Just found out that the Flexifinger Terrestrial Mix of #TheXFiles theme was only in certain versions of “The Truth and the Light” CD — it was there in UK, Europe and Australia and not in US and Canada (and France?), looks like.

https://www.discogs.com/master/101667-Mark-Snow-The-Truth-And-The-Light-Music-From-The-X-Files?format=CD

Nov 19, 2022 19:58

I had the impression that the first episode of “Dark” had a 1013 reference but I was not sure (the time 22:13, i.e. 10:13 pm, was on a suicide note, to keep it vague). With the number 1013 also appearing in the first episode of the new series “1899” (room number where some weird things happen), I’m pretty sure the writer/director duo of Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar are #TheXFiles fans!

#1899Netflix #darknetflix

Nov 20, 2022 17:11

RIP Nicki Aycox, gone just at 47 years old! She was Chastity Raines in the season 7 episode “Rush” and Cheryl Cunningham (the swimmer that gets abducted) in “I Want To Believe” in #TheXFiles.

https://x-files.fandom.com/wiki/Chastity_Raines

https://x-files.fandom.com/wiki/The_X-Files:_I_Want_to_Believe?file=Janke_Dacyshyn_looks_through_Cheryl_Cunningham%2527s_window.jpg

Nov 21, 2022 17:21

Today is 11/21, the birthday of Chris Carter’s wife Dori (74 years old!). Carter being big on #numerology, here are all the appearances of 1121 in #TheXFiles (taken from http://www.lunacynet.com/xfiles/xf1013.html):

Pilot: time on Scully’s clock
Deep Throat: Colonel Budahas’ birthday
Fire: the case is X-File #11214893
Miracle Man: Autopsy time
Erlenmeyer Flask: time on Scully’s clock
Little Green Men: 1121’s on ‘WOW Signal’
The Host: Autopsy case #DP112148
Irresistible: time on Scully’s clock
Colony: time on Scully’s motel room clock
F. Emasculata: Package #DPP112148
Paper Clip: Samantha Mulder’s birthday
Syzygy: Time Mulder brings first girl to police station
Piper Maru: Flight 1121 to Washington
Talitha Cumi: time when Mulder first visits his mother at the hospital
Talitha Cumi: time when Scully is working at her computer
Unrequited: time when Mulder & Scully see the upset woman at the war memorial
Redux: time one of the calls was made (from above Mulder’s apartment)
Travelers: date Mulder first meets Arthur Dales
FTF: time Mulder goes to the Dallas Field Office, where Scully joins him and analyses the fossils
FTF: a number on one of the domes in Antarctica
One Son: time everyone meets at the air force base
Millennium: time the policeman stops to help Mr. Johnson with his flat tire
William: time of the first scene in the X-Files office, with Doggett doing push-ups
The Truth: time Knowle Rohrer pulls up to the USMC Base Brig to “retrieve” Agent Mulder

Dec 13, 2022 10:00

“Today, no music.” Angelo Badalamenti will only live on now in our dreams and nightmares.

“Where we’re from the birds sing a pretty song and there’s always music in the air.” I think without the precedent of the music of #TwinPeaks, the music of #TheXFiles would have been different, less moody and surrounding, and there would have been less of it over the length of an episode.

There is plenty of Badalamenti I listen to, but I often listen to these fan mixes by Twin Peaks Soundtrack Design:

https://www.mixcloud.com/TwinPeaksSoundtrackDesign/

Dec 14, 2022 16:56

[FRENCH] La rétrospective #TheXFiles continue avec la saison 2! C’est là où j’ai commencé à regarder la série aussi.

https://podcast.ausha.co/le-coin-pop/the-x-files-saison-2-ne-faites-confiance-a-personne

Dec 19, 2022 19:13

Catching up — another Chris Carter interview, this time for #TheXFiles 25th anniversary fan retrospective. Several things are similar to what he said earlier this year; here are some quotes (and my notes):

On the ‘original’ show:

• Before TXF, he tried to sell a new Kolchak: The Night Stalker series with a twist to NBC.
• He remembers discussing with FOX executives about complaints that they didn’t wrap each episode up with an explanation, and that the executives had him add to the Pilot the “based on actual events” note.
• He reminisced the production side of the series, it was important that everybody was feeling to be a part of something significant. After the writers, the crew was the first audience.
• “I didn’t do it alone and I think that sometimes goes unappreciated. I did it with the help of so many people.”
• He wanted to do a homage to the 1981 Whitley Streiber film “Wolfen”: M&S go to a small town, something happens with wolves, mix it with classic UFO mythology.
• He enjoys reminiscing about the episodic nature of the show, something no longer done today.
• He thinks there are ways to tell ghost stories that they didn’t go for during the series.
• He liked Robert Patrick in the 1993 alien abduction film “Fire in the Sky” (– confirmed!)
• During the show’s wrap party (in 2002 I am guessing), the International Space Station sent them a message! (I want to see that!)

On the revival:

• The revival (that he keeps calling “reboot”) was also to introduce the show to a new generation.
• Were seasons 10 & 11 derived from the script for a 3rd film that was written at some point? “No. Completely different. Actually I wrote a script that was a terrible idea for a 3rd movie. At the time I don’t know what inspired me. The reboot was not really a result of that script, gladly. The reboot was really taking individual characters, Mulder, Scully, the CSM and William, and telling about what had happened to them, catching up with them, telling about each of their struggle.” (This XF3 script that Frank Spotnitz has also referred to is my holy grail, I want to know what could have been. There is a possibility that Carter here was referring to a different iteration of a script than the one he worked on with Spotnitz, who knows.)
• On Reyes siding with the CSM: “I don’t remember what the thinking was on that to be honest, I would have to go back and figure it out. It made sense to me in the end.” (too bad he doesn’t remember, some insights would have been welcome!)
• On Doggett in the revival: “there were places to use him but I felt it wasn’t a big enough part for him” (so I am guessing that instead we got one scene with a healed Jeffrey Spender?)

On William and the series ending:

• When Wiliam moved that mobile when he was an infant: “That kid has a kind of a supernatural quality. And I think that everyone attributed that to Scully, that that came from Scully. But it was never in my mind that it was something inherited from her. It was something greater and different than that. That’s how you got the William that you saw in the series finale.” (All sorts of avenues and red herrings were explored throughout the series, seasons 8 and 9 had the divine miracle and the organic Supersoldier experiment, then Ghouli came and added yet another layer of experiments on William; so it’s not as if this would specifically make reference to any involvement by the CSM. Note: “series” finale.)
• What questions should the fans be asking? “Everyone assumes that the CSM had sex with Scully. That is an assumption that you should question. The CSM has lots of access to, controls, alien technology. There’s something in that night of Scully’s life that needs to be explained and explored.” (OK, but it’s an assumption that he planted in our minds with the subtelty of a scud missile and I would have been fine with letting sleeping theories from “En Ami” lie. Does he really plan to open season 12 with more flashbacks to “En Ami”?)
  (A lot has been made about William being only a creation of the CSM, but still to this day CC uses the word “son”, as in “the CSM’s son” to describe what the CSM told Reyes.)
• Why is William smiling at the end of My Struggle IV? “What did he succeed at? What was his plan all along? What would be some of his intentions in that motel room telling Mulder emphatically that he’s not his father? Who’s saving who there?” (This is still about the reading of the last episode being that William is manipulating Mulder in order to get away from him at the end and have Mulder and Scully stop searching for him.)
• About William and the end: “People made lots of assumptions. I always thought there would be more X-Files episodes. I didn’t think that last one was going to be the last. I thought there’s always more stories to tell. So I would have answered a lot of those questions for…satisfied a lot more people with what came after episode 218.” (Reversal of the reversal twist confirmed! That’s good to know but it’s sad he couldn’t sacrifice some stand-alone in season 11 to flesh out his mythology ideas properly, he was *extremely* lucky to have been given not one but *two* seasons of a revival…)
• Where are Mulder and Scully today? “I think I would have flashed forward, I wasn’t interested in dealing with that pregnancy. I don’t know. I have some ideas but I don’t know if we’ll ever get to ever see them.” (He’s really thinking about the setup of season 12!)

The future:

• He likes the idea to do all comedy with animation, he put out the idea to put people back to work during Covid, and two writers came up with an interesting approach. (Since the news that this “TXF: Albuquerque” idea came out in 2020, there have been no more developments. Maybe it’s for the best.)
• What does Disney plan on TXF’s legacy? No news. “I never imagined doing the show without Mulder and Scully.” (He really makes it sound as if Gillian Anderson’s departure derailed his plans. I don’t know that FOX would have greenlit a season 12 anyway, now Disney even less.)

Dec 20, 2022 14:06

Matt Allair from The X-Files Lexicon discusses the 1980 UFO/conspiracy film “Hangar 18”, #TheXFiles and his work, in “Creature Features”, a staple of US TV.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/8273206453?multi_permalinks=10160921698891454

Dec 21, 2022 17:00

Happy #solstice! One day away from the ten year anniversary of December 22 2012, a date all x-philes were looking forward to for a decade: the date of the final alien invasion. Somewhere, in a parallel universe, this was the premiere date of #TheXFiles 3 feature film, an underground conspiracy thriller with more atmosphere than action. Recent interviews have confirmed that one or even several film script treatments exist, and I would definitely want to see these before I die, if the Fox/Disney gods would be kind enough.

This is the opportunity to link to an interview I missed from earlier this year, with this precious quote:

Frank Spotnitz: “the story that I’m saddest not to have told was the culmination of the alien mythology. We ended the TV series on a cliff-hanger that I fully expected would continue in a movie franchise. That obviously didn’t happen, and I consider it by far the greatest lost opportunity in the history of The X-Files.”

https://www.cbr.com/x-files-robert-patrick-annabeth-gish-frank-spotnitz-interview/

Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.

Aug 01, 2022 16:33

“It’s what I will be remembered for.” The X-Files Diaries interviewed Chris Carter and as always it’s a mix of joy and frustration hearing from him!

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/114-chris-carter-interview/id1076322073?i=1000571541534

There’s a *lot* to unpack here. Now that it appears that the show is over for good he sets some things straight about some controversies from the revival’s My Struggle episodes that he didn’t have the opportunity to clarify before, years after the fact, especially about William’s parentage: “I knew it would be controversial, it was a huge turn in the mythology.”

After En Ami (season 7), did he always know that CSM being the father was a possibility? “Yeah, he spends a night with Scully, he’s got alien technology, she has a child that spins a mobile on its own. We always thought that Scully’s implant or her DNA resulted in that mobile spinning, but he had her somewhat at a disadvantage and could have taken advantage of her. People aren’t asking the right questions because someone can take credit for the parentage issue and there was that flash on the screen ‘I Want To Lie’. I think there’s an element of disbelief by the audience but also disbelief by the CSM himself that he may or may not have been rightly able to call himself William’s father.” (It appears that Carter wanted to entertain the *idea* that the CSM was the father but not really go through with it. In interviews after MS3 and in MS4’s audio commentary, Carter defended the idea that CSM could be, if not William’s biological father, at least his creator.)

Carter strongly agrees that the show never definitively stated that the CSM was the father. “Was the truth being told? Were we to believe the CSM, a person who had been entirely untrustworthy his entire career? We’re also looking at the CSM as a person who maybe wanted himself to be the father, not knowing whether he was the father or not.” (In concept this similar to Two Fathers/One Son, when the CSM *wanted to believe* he was Mulder’s father because Mulder was the worthy son (and it turned out that indeed Mulder was the CSM’s son!). But it could be very well argued that it was definitively stated that the CSM was William’s father, given that in the opening to MS4 William identified his father with the CSM in his visions; that’s stronger “proof” than whatever we got before, stronger than whatever the show told us about Mulder being the father.)

On William telling Mulder he is not his father: “Do we believe him? Who’s protecting whom?” “When you see that smile when William comes out of the water, he knows a truth that he hasn’t spoken. I wanted to leave that ambivalent. I think people take everything at face value.” (Is Carter back-tracking given how most fans received this, in a particularly shipper-pleasing interview? So William was manipulating Mulder and Scully to convince them to abandon him so that he could pass as dead and be free. The implication here is that William knows Mulder is the father, somehow. Hiding the truth in dialogue is typical TXF, but this contradicts William’s opening narration.)

Did you have a destination in mind for the William story that you didn’t get the chance to finish playing out because you didn’t get a season after 11? “Yes. […] I to a point thought there were continue to be more XF episodes where I could answer some of those questions that I had posed and created these controversies. I thought that the show would go on.” (Carter introduced a twist but he didn’t write the twist over that twist even when season 11 appeared to be the very end.)

Where are M&S today? “I can’t tell you. Sworn to secrecy.” (So he *still* thinks he can continue telling their story after all? If not, why hold out so tightly to these thoughts?)

On Scully’s second pregnancy: “It set up a lot of things in motion going forward.” (Going forward to where?) It was a late decision: “When I learnt that Gillian wasn’t coming back, I had actually not given Gillian a full script of the season finale because I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do.” “It’s a relationship that’s a decade old and consummated in the most mysterious ways. That it would come down to a moment at the end of a dock, wrapped in each other’s arms, revealing possibly the biggest secret ever on the show, that was for me a fitting end.” (Some weird uses of the word ‘mysterious’ and ‘secret’ here…)

Overall, Carter continues the “who’s the daddy” trend of season 8. Ever since En Ami and Requiem, the fan theory has existed that the CSM violated Scully and gave her back her fertility by manipulating her chip, allowing a natural conception with Mulder. MS3/4 seems to pick up that thread while adding more ambiguity on whether the CSM is the biological father too, and transposes season 8’s climax of the miracle child to Scully’s new pregnancy.

The idea of the CSM as creator, not actual father, still introduces an additional traumatic medical rape for Scully nearly two decades after the fact and never lets Scully comment on it: it’s drama yes but it’s a weird decision at a time when the world is finally overcoming the spell of toxic masculinity. CSM-as-creator would not negate William as Scully and Mulder’s child, yet William is summarily rejected by his parents at the end of MS4. Still, unfortunately, I don’t see the CSM-as-actual-father as being ruled out in MS4 either. Was it necessary to fix something that was not broken?

Moreover, there is a big disconnect between what Carter now presents as his intentions and how they were translated in the episodes. The CSM-as-father possibility was a storm in a teacup that occupied a very short narrative span, just two episodes, certainly less than necessary for following through the consequences of such twists, and was presented in a very soapy dramatic way. MS3 used elements of the cinema language to mark this reveal as significant, yet it is easy to point out that they were just unverified statements. MS4 did nothing to reverse that revelation (and in my opinion strengthened it), a bit like how the big twist of there being no colonization of MS1 was both reversed and not reversed in MS3 (depending on which line of dialogue one follows). This leaves the paternity issue in a limbo that was not the author’s intent. Most fans are in denial, some consider the CSM as the father, and some few are holding on to saying it was ambiguous. What most people will take from this interview is comfort that the CSM was not the father after all, but what’s really on display here is that the material itself was lacking. Instead of using the opportunity of the revival to provide a coda to the series, Carter chose to be more ambitious; but it appears to have back-fired.

Now, I don’t particularly enjoy being negative and I don’t want to end on this very bitter note, so I will have a second post on this interview about the rest of the series!

Sep 10, 2022 19:47

29 years! #TheXFiles Pilot

Oct 05, 2022 14:09

The blog name says it all: #TheXFiles Statistics! How many times did Scully save Mulder? Screencaps of all the times Scully was wearing glasses or Mulder was holding a gun, and more. For people that, like me, love lists, this is great! Too bad it’s been abandoned for a while.

Times Scully has saved Mulder

Oct 13, 2022 17:53

Happy Ten Thirteen! Happy birthday to our favourite surfer and to Spooky M! Here’s some fun: the opening credits to The CAT Files. Follow the link for actual cases of the Feline Bureau of Investigation.

https://catfiles.tumblr.com/post/136403082063/cat-files-opening-credits

Oct 20, 2022 10:38

Carter’s script from My Struggle IV reads like an ALL CAPS screaming ASSAULT on your SENSES. As Clyde Bruckman would say, “visions of a mad man”. #TheXFiles

https://www.twitter.com/jamesjordan555/status/1507443207633834016

Oct 21, 2022 18:56

[FRENCH] Un podcast excellent commence avec l’analyse du pilote ! La série de podcasts culminera avec le 30e anniversaire de #TheXFiles l’année prochaine.

Ca se passe par ici : https://podcast.ausha.co/le-coin-pop/the-x-files-nous-ne-sommes-pas-seuls

Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.

Feb 23, 2022 13:06

Map lovers, do you remember #TheXFiles Official Map that covered seasons 1-3? It was like a mini-episode guide. Today, most of everything can be found online. If you missed that rare item, you can find the HQ version (50 Mb!) here: https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7635/26490967354_90964b09d0_o.png

Mar 07, 2022 19:53

#TheXFiles the very first case in Bellefleur, Oregon : 30 years ago today, already! Wow!

Mar 30, 2022 22:18

For those in the back that are still asking for a #TheXFiles season 12. Harsh words from #GillianAnderson but I’m fine with leaving the memory of the series as it was.

“It just feels like such an old idea,” says Anderson. “I’ve done it, I did it for so many years, and it also ended on such an unfortunate note.”
“In order to even begin to have that conversation [about another season] there would need to be a whole new set of writers and the baton would need to be handed on for it to feel like it was new and progressive. So yeah, it’s very much in the past.”

https://tribunecontentagency.com/article/gillian-anderson-variety-icon-awardee-on-playing-radical-women-and-what-shes-rebelled-against-in-hollywood/

Apr 30, 2022 5:19:03pm

Happening right now in New York state: the inauguration of the @[1618472925051059:69:X-Files Museum] with Chris Carter cutting the ribbon! I wish them the best of luck, and I hope to visit in the future.

May 19, 2022 12:21

20 (TWENTY!) years ago today, “The Truth” finale first aired in the USA and with it #TheXFiles ended! A day to celebrate!

The show ended with an implicit promise that before long the mythology would have a continuation and a resolution. At the time, December 22 2012 was such a faraway date in the future, yet that date came, and passed, as do all things, and the TXF Cinematic Universe barely materialized. Who could have predicted the trajectory the show took back then?

The good thing with a nine-year long show is that you can run 10-year anniversaries on a loop: next year marks the 30th anniversary of season 1, and so on and on!…

Jul 11, 2022 18:48

I often wonder how the appreciation for #TheXFiles changes over time. Its IMDb rating has dropped by 0.5 points from 9.1 to 8.6 since 2009. Part of this is due to IMDb changing its algorithms on how this is calculated, but part of it is also people rating it lower over time (for what that’s worth). There are exceptions but as a general rule, as time passes, more recent things are rated high and older things are re-evaluated lower.

Recent viewers might be less forgiving of the mythology’s overall non-conclusion compared to more recent end-focused series, and there is less patience for the episodic format — I have even seen the monster-of-the-week episodes being described as “filler”! The general negative reception of the revival certainly didn’t help in the series’ overall appreciation. As a comparison, #TwinPeaks dropped by 0.7 (!) and #TheWire by 0.4.

Source: this tool allows you to see the evolution of IMDb ratings over time: https://yathish1618.github.io/imdb-rating-history-graph/