Jun-??-1999
SFX Magazine
One hit wonder?
Jeff Craig

With Millennium floundering, will Chris Carter ever be more than a one hit wonder? Jeff Craig talks to him on the set of his new show, Harsh Realm…

“I was never a science fiction fan. I spoke to a group once, and they were shocked that I’d never seen Star Trek. But I’m just not a science fiction fan. It’s never interested me.”

It’s a bit of a shock admission from a man who, thanks to the massive worldwide success of his first SF series, The X-Files, now has the creative autonomy and network clout to produce whatever he damn wants… and has returned to the SF fold for the third time. With the X-movie franchise now assured and Millennium into its third series, the former surf-boy journo is now shifting his attention to Harsh Realm, a new series inspired by the comic book by James Hudnall.

“It’s not really an adaptation,’ Carter explains. “It’s really quite different from the comic book. We’re just using the name and the concept of virtual reality. It’s a broad-canvas kind of show, kinda like The X-Files. This is going to play with reality in ways that I think The X-Files has done so well over the years.”

It’s the theme of playing with reality that excites Carter more than spaceships or anal probes. And he knows where this more down-to-Earth fascination with the macabre stemmed from. “When I was a 13-year-old boy growing up, The Night Stalker was my favourite TV show. I always wanted to make The X-Files as scary as The Night Stalker was for me. I’m really interested in personal experiences that could affect me in this place and time. I like that method of storytelling. I think that’s what makes The X-Files so scary – it seems very, very real. I just didn’t want to do creepy science fiction violence.”

Carter says other conscious influences are “Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock – these are three film-makers who’ve had the greatest effect on me”.

Harsh Realm is set to continue the theme of blurred reality in recognisable settings. The pilot of Harsh Realm will air sometime in the autumn of 1999. The show is the first in his deal with 20th Century Fox, rumoured to be worth up to $30 million over five years, making him one of the highest-paid producers in Hollywood. A deal which, incidentally, came shortly before he signed a high seven-figure contract to write two novels for Bantam Publishing.

In describing the comics for those unfamiliar with the series, author Hudnall says that his main character, Dexter Green, “is a private eye specialising in finding missing persons. It is the far future when pocket universes are created by computers, providing real worlds for people to experience. A teenager has gone missing in a world called Harsh Realm and his parents want Dex to find him. Harsh Realm is a fantasy world where magic and monsters are real. You can die there. But you can also become a god. Dex’s journey into this world teaches him a lot about himself and the human race.”

Carter remains cagey about how similar the show will be to the comic, but while the cast has been announced, it now seems unlikely that the Dex character – long rumoured to be played by The X-Files’ Nicholas Lea (Krycek) – will even feature in the show. For years now, in fact, Carter has made an effort to guard against news leaks of his shows reaching fans before he wants the truth out there. Scripts have leaked before and bootleg tapes of Millennium were being sold at swap meets before its 1996 premiere.

Since then, scripts – particularly for The X-Files film – have been printed on non-copiable paper. He’s even leaked dummy scenes to his staff to determine where leaks are occurring – and to confuse fans to maintain some surprise.

“If you put enough bogus information out there it starts to work for you and against itself,” he says. “Everybody saw that there was an angle to being a spoiler. It’s the world we live in. If you want to maintain the element of surprise, you have to be vigilant and try to confound people. I realise that I sound as paranoid and secretive as the show itself, but there are some things that are meant to be secrets.

“We need to keep people guessing. We only give away fragments. The viewer has to put the pieces of the puzzle together. When it comes to The X-Files, you can’t be a passive viewer.

“The storytelling on The X-Files is obtuse and that is on purpose,” he says. “It’s very tantalising, just like the investigating they do in the film. You get fragments and you have to connect the dots.”

Joining the dots on Harsh Realm, therefore, is particularly tricky, but at least the main cast for the pilot has been confirmed. It’s headed by DB Sweeney (Strange Luck), Scott Bairstow (Party of Five), Max Martinini and Samantha Mathis (Thing Called Love) for what could be called the next generation of television science fiction. But even though this is his umpteenth pilot (he produced a host of teen-orientated dramas before The X-Files) things don’t get any easier.

“Well, no, it’s not easy,” he admits from the Vancouver set of Harsh Realm, three days into the pilot’s 16-day shoot. “With a pilot, of course, it’s a new cast. Everyone’s feeling around, paying a great deal of attention to their characters. We’re just trying to see how it all falls together. This is all the stuff that just falls into place once a show goes to series. Every day is very long. I suppose that now I’m more confident in my approach to making decisions to solve the problems that present themselves, but it’s still very hard work.”

It seems, then, for a a while at least, Chris Carter must officially be the ‘busiest man in Stateside TV’. If the pilot for Harsh Realm impresses the men in suits it will go to a series, meaning that Carter will be performing a juggling act between the Los Angeles-based X-Files and the Vancouver Millennium and Harsh Realm, plus his new career as an author. But, bizarrely, if Harsh Realm gets the thumbs down, he could end up with little else other than the X-movie franchise to occupy his time, with The X-Files seemingly coming to the end of its run and Millennium still having a very uncertain future.

While acclaimed by a fiercely loyal following, Millennium has lagged in the ratings from its debut, and Carter has returned to the show with season three after leaving the day-to-day running for season two in the hands of Glen Morgan and James Wong. He’s defensive about the show some viewers have found too nihilistic and dark for prime-time viewing.

“It’s got a magnificent fan base, but that’s never translated into big ratings,” admits Carter. “Man, I’ve worked hard on Millennium this year. I’ve written and rewritten several shows. It’s not like it was in the first year, but I’ve certainly paid a lot more attention to it this year than last. There are some really good episodes coming up. Really scary episodes. I took the lessons from the things [Morgan and Wong] did but moved the show in a new direction.”

Part of the stumbling block with Millennium, Carter adamantly believes, is that it was set in Seattle. This season, he’s moved the show’s setting to Washington DC and had Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) join the more identifiable FBI. “That establishes a firmer common ground from which to tell the stories, which are still ultimately about good and evil,” Carter says.

He’s also introduced the kind of humour more associated with The X-Files. This season’s Hallowe’en episode contained references to Psycho, Scream and Oral Roberts, and featured an appearance by the mightily, frighteningly made-up rock band KISS.

“I’m very proud of the work we have done. I really think that the show is hitting its stride. I wish that more people watched it. I wish more people would give it another chance. And I hope it comes back next year.” But whether the show can survive “is anybody’s guess right now. I just don’t know,” he admits.

More clear is the fate of The X-Files – at least The X-Files “as we know it”, Carter says archly. It’s scheduled to wrap its run at the end of next season, marking the beginning of what he hopes to be a long film franchise. While the first X-Files movie wasn’t the blockbuster some had expected it to be last summer, it’s gone on to top $200 million in takings internationally. And, that, Carter insists, “is a success by all measurements”.

Much has been written about the strained relationship on the weekly X-Files set between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, and Duchovny himself has publicly criticised Anderson over her dispute for more money. But Carter says: “It’s a relationship that’s bound to have its stresses and strains and it’s understandably complicated. What’s important is that this particular relationship has passed the test of time. When you work together, day after day, month after month, as David and Gillian do, you form a relationship that is not unlike a marriage.”

For the film, each actor was reportedly paid $4 million – an equity which, allegedly, made everyone happy.

“I’m looking forward to the next movie because I anticipate the show will be over, and we’ll be free to re-invent ourselves,” Carter says. “But it won’t be on this summer’s hiatus [1999]. It seems like the actors are very excited to do it. It’s just a matter of finding the time, and I think it would either come out in the summer of 2001 or possibly 2002. It would have been great to culminate the series and go right into the next big movie. I think there will be a year, or possibly two years, in between.”

While there is still the possibility Fox might ask Carter to continue The X-Files television show – with or without Duchovny and Anderson – Carter says: “I’ll just have to cross that bridge when I get to it.”

An X-Files: The Next Generation, anyone? “I just don’t know.” speculates Carter tantalisingly. “It is conceivable that the show could be done without the both of them”.

Whether he’s indulging in the mythology or running with the stand-alone episodes, Carter boasts that, “The thing about The X-Files is that the plot is so elastic. We can do just about anything we want – from comedy to horror to religion – and it just pops back into shape. I think that’s the true test of any good television show.”

It’s a similarity he is anticipating with Harsh Realm – although he’s quick to add that this is “where the similarities between this and The X-Files end; they are very different shows. Harsh Realm deals largely with the subject of war. With the two worlds (real and virtual) the allegorical possibilities are exciting. I think we can be telling stories in quite interesting ways.”

Some critics have wondered if the so-called mythology of The X-Files – the grand black oil, killer bees, abducted relations and alien abduction-colonisation plot – has perhaps spun a little too much out of control and gone on for too long. But Carter, unsurprisingly, disagrees.

In recent shows, Carter has been revealing the grand conspiracy in his own veiled way. “We’ve got to prepare for a big unravel,” he says of the show’s sixth season.

“We figured it would be better to explain the conspiracy now, and make the final season more action driven… less hampered by baggage.”

One thing Carter is eager to clear up is the misconception that the arc plot is part of one tangled web of unanswered questions and opaque explanations. “The conspiracy is not as complicated as you think,” he insists. “It’s one of the things I’m most proud of. Whenever we go out into one of the mythology episodes – or series of episodes – I think we consistently hit a high level of quality.

“And we hardly ever have a crappy episode.” he adds with a smile.

May-16-1999
The Arizona Republic
The Truth is out there for Phoenix native – Frank Spotnitz
Davie Walker

“I think that part of the fun of the show is how people struggle to decipher the conspiracy,” Frank Spotnitz (above) says of The X-Files, which stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. (Photos courtesy of Fox Television)

Frank Spotnitz knows The Truth.

Chris Carter, creator of the paranoia-prone Fox drama The X-Files, has shared with Spotnitz his vision for what has come to be called The Mythology.

That places Spotnitz, a Phoenix native and one of the show’s executive producers, inside a tiny band of Earthlings who knows how the series’ long-running alien-invasion story arc will resolve itself a year from now.

For the record, he’s not sharing. Would you?

After tonight’s season finale, only 22 episodes of The X-Files remain. According to Spotnitz, six or seven of them will advance The Mythology story line, a complicated macramé of conspiracy.

Several elements of The Mythology were resolved (or not, but please resist sending withering e-mail) earlier this season, and Spotnitz said tonight’s episode opens up “a new chapter” that will set up the series’ concluding season – whatever that means.

“It’s a new story line, beginning with the season finale and continuing next year, which will bring this to an end,” he said, adding that the new story won’t require “prior knowledge” of Mythological minutiae.

“Anyone who’s intimidated or lost by the previous episodes won’t need to worry. It’s not an entirely clean slate, but it will be simpler than it has been.

“What you need to know about what came before, I think you’ll be able to pick up.”

You’d think the responsibility of knowing The Truth would weigh heavily on Spotnitz, a mild-mannered scuba enthusiast (when there’s time, and there never is) whose first job out of film school was staff writer on the series.

Worse, it would seem, would be having to decipher the known pieces of the puzzle for confused viewers, network executives – not to mention baffled TV critics.

“No, I’m happy to explain it to people,” Spotnitz said over a recent breakfast near the 20th Century Fox studios. “I went to a fan convention once, and as my presentation, I tried to draw a flow chart of all the stories. By the end, it was this tangled mess. No wonder people get confused.

“I think that part of the fun of the show is how people struggle to decipher the conspiracy,” he continued, adding that its complications are “what make it seem plausible.”

“It (a real-life conspiracy to cover up an alien invasion or whatever) would be complicated,” he says.

Movie franchise

Of course, The X-Files franchise won’t die a year from now. Show creator Carter has planned a series of movies to perpetuate what has become one of the most successful and influential TV series of its era.

The X-Files at times has been agonizingly skimpy with big-arc revelations. Mythology episodes that promise to be (and are promoted as) illuminating often spark more questions than they answer.

Spotnitz promises that the series’ last season won’t be treated like a protracted run-up MG cq MG to its feature-film afterlife.

“It’s not like the series finale’s going to be a tease for the films,” he said. “It’s going to be a conclusion of the television series, and of the stories that have been in the television series. But we’ll leave room for more stories.”

Good thing. Spotnitz is president of Carter’s Ten Thirteen production company, which gives him significant oversight not only of The X-Files brand but whatever else Carter comes up with, including Harsh Realm, a new Fox series for fall.

Spotnitz also has his own multimillion-dollar production deal with 20th Century Fox Television, and he intends one day to create his own series, TV movies, miniseries and feature films.

“I think it’ll be very sad” when the end of The X-Files comes, he said. “And yet at the same time, I’ll be ready to work on other things.”

As a lad in Phoenix – attending the same east Phoenix public schools as Clay Graham, executive producer of The Drew Carey Show, and if that isn’t paranormal, what is? – Spotnitz said he “grew up obsessed with movies and television.”

“I was such a TV watcher as a kid,” he added. “Fortunately, my parents (who’ve since moved to Nevada – hey, isn’t Area 51 near there?) tolerated that.”

Spotnitz, who’s now married with one small child and another en route, enrolled at UCLA, intending to pursue an education in filmmaking.

“But I quickly got sidetracked by journalism,” he said, thanks to “a great, charismatic teacher” during his freshman year.

Spotnitz interned for the Los Angeles Times and worked for two wire services after graduation, but he eventually grew disillusioned with the news biz.

“I looked at other journalists who I thought were great and realized that I wasn’t as good as they were and never would be, probably,” he said. “So, I decided to go back to my original passion.”

Spotnitz returned to LA, free-lanced for Entertainment Weekly and attended film school at the American Film Institute. He wrote three film scripts and had all three optioned (or purchased for potential production, although none has yet made it to the screen).

By this point, Spotnitz had known Carter casually (they were both in the same book group) and was asked by another friend to call Carter on the friend’s behalf to set up a possible meeting to pitch story ideas for The X-Files, which was then in its first season.

“He said, “I’m not interested, but why don’t you come up with some story ideas?’ ” Spotnitz said. “It had never dawned on me to do that.”

Carter quickly shot down Spotnitz’s first few ideas but called back later and encouraged him to try again. Carter eventually invited Spotnitz, who shares his boss’ appreciation for The Night Stalker TV movie and subsequent series, as well as The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, to join the show’s writing staff.

“That was on a Thursday,” Spotnitz said. “On Monday, I started at The X-Files, and my life has never been the same.”

“You never know how your lucky break is going to come, but when it does come, you have to be ready to capitalize on it. I instantly felt that I understood this genre, and this type of material.”

Back then, The Truth was germ-size. Nobody knew how long the series would run, or that it would cause such a cultural spaz attack.

Approximately 172 Entertainment Weekly covers later, all of the interlocking Mythology pieces have come together, at least in the minds of The X-Files creative team. The Truth, Spotnitz said, didn’t reveal itself with the clarity many fans no doubt imagine.

“Early on, I learned what Chris’ idea was for the end point of the series, what the final episode would be,” he said. “But on purpose he didn’t spell out all of the steps we’d take to get there, because he wanted to make room for things that come up in the news, and actors you find who are good.

“It turned out to be very wise, because some of our best characters and stories have been things we couldn’t have predicted.”

Finale countdown

Provided the Y2K glitch doesn’t send society skidding to a dead stop, the countdown to next May’s series send-off likely will build fan frenzy to near-Seinfeldian levels. It’s hard to imagine hard-core followers getting much more intense, considering the current density and fervor of X-Files-related Internet action.

Spotnitz occasionally trolls the online chatter, and he manages to resist correcting wayward fan-boy analysis. He does take cyber criticism seriously, however.

“Even if 80 percent of the posts are positive after an episode, you’re going to find the 20 percent that are negative, and those are the ones that stick in your memory and eat away at you,” he said.

The Internet interest, as well as the series’ highly successful history of fan conventions, illustrate the sense of ownership its viewers feel for The X-Files. As one of the keepers of Carter’s keys, Spotnitz has attended a few conventions, and he found them fascinating.

“In the beginning, I was very wary, because I didn’t know what kind of weirdos would show up to a convention for a TV show,” he said. “But it actually ended up being a really enjoyable experience. I was amazed at how much these people know. They knew more than I did.

“I got the feeling that this was their show, and they were begrudgingly letting me work on it and talk about the characters.”

May-05-1999
The Cave’s X-Files Commentary Archives:  Encounters with the show
Title: Encounter with CSM
Author: Zuffy

[Original article here]

William B. Davis was speaking the merest ten minutes from Zuff’s own abode this evening (5-5-99), so off she went with family in tow. He was very entertaining and very relaxed. Here’s the report (apologies if you’ve heard or read some of these things elsewhere).

First, William B. Davis looked just like CSM. No cigarette though. Nice to see that he is the same face without the makeup. Very smiley though. That was a little discomfiting. You know he’s up to no good when he smiles.

CSM attempted to convince us that he was the hero of TXF and not Mulder. He suggested a comparison on several grounds. 1) What would happen if they each got what they wanted? If Mulder finds out the truth, he intends to broadcast it. That would horrify everyone and create panic on “Independence Day” scale. If CSM gets his way, there will be a massive cover-up. No one will feel bad because we’ll never know. 2) Who sacrifices more? Mulder is basically doing what he wants to do, has a cushy job with the FBI, and works with a beautiful woman. Maybe he’s given up his personal life, but then we haven’t seen any sign that he is capable of a personal life, so maybe it’s not a true sacrifice. CSM, he said, has sacrificed his health, personal life, wife, son, maybe other unacknowledged children. 3) Acts of love: Sure Mulder goes chasing off after Scully when she gets abducted, but what happened when Skinner put his career on the line for Scully’s cure? Did Mulder offer to take the burden? CSM thinks not. CSM risked his standing in the Syndicate and with the project to get the Bounty Hunter to cure Mrs. Mulder. 4) Thoughtfulness: Mulder is impetuous. Always acting without considering the consequences. Waves his gun around a lot. CSM is always thinking, trying to come up with the best strategy. Doesn’t even carry a gun as far as he recalls. 5) Eyesight: Every time it’s a little dark, Mulder has to get out a flashlight. CSM, though, he *lives* in the dark. 6) Potency: Frankly, he thinks Mulder is a virgin. Well, in the shower scene, he finally took a look at Scully, but then he seemed to grimace. What was that? CSM, well, it’s still possible that he is Mulder’s father, it’s been intimated that he is Samantha’s father, he is Spender’s father.

So, pretty much across the board, he thinks CSM comes out ahead. So why do people prefer Mulder? Lighting. If they bathed CSM in pink light and played ominous music when Mulder appeared, it would be a different show.

Davis also had some things to say about the choices made to cooperate with the aliens. He compared it to Vichy France where compromises were made to forestall invasion and attempt to save the population from a worse fate than occupation. It may not have been the right choice in retrospect, but it was a situation of people trying to make the best decisions they can. He sees X-Files as a show without true heroes, only people trying to take actions as best they can in light of some terrible options.

Davis gets very much into his character. He plays him as human whose actions make sense, not as evil incarnate. In fact the way he plays CSM, he sees Mulder as the bad guy. [Zuff’s note: I think that’s one thing that makes the character so effective.]

He talked for a while about people who believe in aliens and the power of hypnotic regression to create false memories, etc. He’s not a believer himself, that was clear. He also said that from what he could see TXF didn’t create much belief in the paranormal. But it does feed into the present moment when people have stopped being certain about what they know. A post-literate time in many ways. There is more information, but also more skepticism growing out of the fact that people have come to distrust information that they sense is associated with some sort of power structure. He polled the audience (several hundred people, mostly college students) about belief in aliens and in alien abduction. Almost no one raised his/her hand. Then he asked whether the government was engaged in conspiracies and almost everyone did. He said some things suggesting that he did distrust some of the info we get from authorities (he was talking about Kosovo and the rationales for bombing), but he also said that in general large bureaucracies are too incompetent to pull off real conspiracies for any length of time.

Someone asked about “Musings.” He said he was really surprised when he read the script and found out this was what he character had been up to. It seemed inconsistent. Writing a novel? That really surprised him. Anyway he interpreted the ep as Frohike’s version as told to M&S, not necessarily the truth. In the original script CSM was supposed to shoot and kill Frohike, but CC nixed it.

He thinks Scully is too good for Mulder. Actually, with her rational, scientific approach she would be a much better match for CSM. CC has said no Mulder-Scully relationship, no Skinner-Scully relationship, no Mulder-Skinner relationship, but he hasn’t said anything about CSM-Scully. [Stay away, fanfic writers. Do not go there.]

Davis has finally decided to write a script himself and hopes that something might be produced next year. It was really hard work to come up with an idea and he has great admiration for the writers who do it over and over.

Unlike some series that start out with a plan for where the plot will go, XF had nothing. The stories have developed as they’ve moved along. It’s been amazing.

When he auditioned for the show it was for the senior FBI post. That character had three lines! He felt that CSM had developed as a really long audition. They thought he did pretty well at standing around smoking, so they gave him a line. He handled that pretty well, so they gave him some more.

What does he smoke on the show? He’s a spokesman for the Canadian Cancer Society, so he smokes herbal cigarettes instead of tobacco. They taste pretty bad, but the smoke smells like marijuana, so kids if you want to surprise your parents…

Why did he burn the X-Files office? He really didn’t remember. He was angry about something—maybe about being shot–really angry, so something had to burn. That’s all he recalls.

Why does he hang around with Diana Fowley. Well, like all men, he has no judgment when it comes to women. [Sorry, Hobrock. Those are his words.]

Someone asked how he could play some of the scenes knowing that what happens is going to be contradicted. What about the scene in Redux with Samantha, for example? Well, he certainly thought she was the real Samantha and that’s how he played it. Then a year later, he heard someone say, “No that wasn’t her,” and his reaction was “huh?”

What would he like to be remembered for? Mostly being Canadian national water-ski champion!

There were a variety of miscellaneous comments and questions, but these were the ones that stuck in my mind.

Apr-21-1999
Richmond.com
Southern Fried Sci-Fi – Vince Gilligan
Melissa Lee

The “X-Files'” Vince Gilligan may be a big-time Hollywood writer, but at heart he’s just a Southern boy. Gilligan reflects on peach milkshakes, Hardee’s biscuits and all things Southern.

To X-Philes Vince Gilligan is revered as the “writing god” responsible for such memorable episodes as “Pusher,” “Paper Hearts,” and “Bad Blood.” To those who work with him he’s just Vince, the Southerner from Farmville, Va., who lives in Los Angeles, but still considers himself a Virginian.

“I don’t get back as much as I’d like to, but I still have a home there in Powhatan County,” Gilligan says. “I grew up there. I attended L.C. Bird High School in Chesterfield, and went to church at St. Teresa’s in Farmville. If I could do my job from there, I would. Nothing against Los Angeles, I just like Virginia better.”

When asked what he misses most about the South, Gilligan pauses for a moment. “I miss Hardee’s peach milkshakes and biscuits,” he says. “They’ve got pretty good chicken too. I hear there is a Hardee’s in Compton, but I haven’t gotten down there yet.” When asked if there is anything he likes better in Los Angeles than in Virginia he immediately responds: “Iced tea. They have better tea here than in the South which is kind of surprising. I’d miss the tea if I went back.”

Gilligan considers himself to be a Southern writer. “I think who you are and where you’re from greatly influences your writing,” he says. “It’s not so much that you set out to write Southern scripts, but it’s what you know. It’s natural for that to leak into your writing.” Chuckling he adds, “Sometimes I let a little Southern dialogue slip into Mulder and Scully’s lines. My co-workers call me on it by saying, ‘Hey buddy, you might want to take a look at this. I don’t think Mulder and Scully would say this.”

After three years in Hollywood Gilligan still has a subtle yet distinctive accent. Asked if he believes Southern accents are overdone he hesitantly agrees. “But I think it’s just because they don’t know any better,” he says. “A good Southern accent is really hard to do. It’s a very subtle thing. It’s easier to go overboard than to do it well.”

Accents aside, Gilligan has just inked a multi-year, multi-million dollar development deal with Fox Broadcasting and 1013 Productions. His film career is also taking off. His second screenplay, “Home Fries,” starring Drew Barrymore, was released late last year. His first screenplay to be turned into a feature was 1993’s “Wilder Napalm” starring Debra Winger.

“‘Wilder Napalm’ was a learning experience,” Gilligan says. “I’d never been on a movie set before and had no idea about production. … While on the set I saw some things I didn’t think were right. I just figured they’d fix it in the editing. When I saw the final product, what had looked bad on the set was still bad on the screen.”

Four years and several “X-Files” episodes later he was ready to try again with “Home Fries.” “It was a completely different situation,” he says. “I knew more about production and that helped the writing. Knowing what could and couldn’t be achieved. I wouldn’t have had that knowledge without my ‘X-Files’ experience.”

When asked where he gets his inspiration for the “X-Files,” he admits to reading comic books growing up. “My grandfather owns a used book shop on Broad Street in Richmond. It’s called the Richmond Book Shop. He used to get stacks of comics in and I’d spend the day reading them.” His favorites, he says, were Archie and Richie Rich. “I think I liked them over the superhero’s because they were real people,” he says. “I could relate to them.”

It’s that ability to relate that Gilligan keeps in mind when creating villains on the “X-Files.” “People remember them because they can relate to why they are the way they are,” he says. “They know it could happen to them.”

Apr-??-1999
TV Zone
The X-Files: Chris Carter Six Underground
Richard Moore

[Typed by alfornos]

There’s something different about TXF this year. By all rights, a series in its sixth season should be flagging, as the writers run short of ideas, the actors lose their energy and settings and scenarios begin to look frustratingly familiar. Furthermore, following in the wake of last year’s blockbuster movie, one would expect a sense of anti-climax, a feeling that it’s all so much smaller and less significant on the tv screen.

This hasn’t happened. Against the odds, fans and critics have been quick to praise the latest series as one of the best yet, which showcases an extraordinarily diverse range of stories, feature quality production values and an impressive range of guest characters. Mulder seems more animated (DD almost looks as though he’s having a good time) and Scully retains all her inner fire and determination. It’s a far cry from the obvious feeling of fatigue that bled onto the screen during seasons four and five.

“I can tell you that actually moving to LA rejuvenated the show by giving us new stories to tell, new places to tell them, new staff, new crew,” says CC, addressing the press in Pasadena. “I think the show looks as good as it’s ever looked.”

Of the season so far, The Beginning bridged beautifully from the movie screen back to tv, taking M&S away from the X-Files and placing them under the authority of AD Kersh (James Pickens Jr). It was up to Spender and Fowley to investigate the mayhem caused by a gestated alien on the loose, a plot that would intriguingly tie-in with child genius Gibson Praise. Drive offered some high-speed thrills and grisly body horror, while Triangle found CC directing long steadicam shots in widescreen for a homage to The Wizard of Oz. The two-part Dreamland was an hilarious body-swap story, The Ghosts that Stole Christmas [sic] was a black comedy featuring Ed Anser [sic] and Lily Tomlin, while episodes like Rain King, Tithonus and SR 819 have explored more standard, gloomy XF territory. Some viewers might be disappointed that we have seen less of the CSM and the Syndicate than in recent years, but CC and his team of producers (FS, VG and JS) have been busy flexing their creative muscles.

In Theory

“You know, the movie was the biggest mythology episode,” he muses, “so we knew we had to service the mythology in the season finale coming into the sixth season. But then we wanted to take a lighter tone. We made a definite choice to take the show in some new directions, to see where we could push it, in terms of storytelling, and I think what you’re seeing is a result of that. A lot of people have come to love the lighter stories, beginning with the work that Darin Morgan did, it showed the show is very elastic. Because of that, it excites the writers and the actors to take the show in different directions, and because it can pop back into shape for a mythology episode, we decided this year to explore some different kinds of storytelling, and I think it’s been very satisfying for everyone. Certainly the ratings reflect it.”

Of course, you can’t keep good villains out of the picture for long, and CC saved the ultimate mythology episode for the February sweeps period, when the eagerly awaited 2F and 1S hauled in the viewers by promising to tie up a lot of loose ends.

Tying the Loose Ends

“You’re going to understand this conspiracy after the end of the two parter,” admits CC. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that everything’s wrapped up and finished. In fact, there’s a lot to do. We’re making some choices, knowing that the show is moving toward a kind of completion, and so we are planning ahead for that.

“So, [the two-parter] is part of that move to get the ultimate answer about what happened to Mulder’s sister. You actually understand a lot about how Mulder didn’t necessarily choose the X Files, they were kind of chosen for him. You learn historically how the X-Files came about, and what Mulder’s father’s part was in them.

“We all know that Agent Spender is the Cigarette Smoking Man’s son, so that creates an interesting dynamic and if you’ve paid attention, you know that Mulder’s father and the Cigarette Smoking Man have some history together. We’re playing with a big, familial story here that I think enriches the idea of The X-Files in a very personal way for the characters.”

It’s a Mystery

With so many mysteries blown open, and the conspiracy finally fully exposed to viewers, one wonders where CC can take the show from here. Certainly, Babylon 5 lost much of its mystique when the bulk of its story arc was resolved prematurely during its fourth season. Could TXF face a similar problem?

“You know, watching The X-Files for some 130-odd episodes, every time we give you an answer, we also ask a question,” CC responds. “I think you can look for more of that.

“You’ll see that the show will have to change. You might wonder where we’re going to go. We’ve thought about all those things. I think that will be the thing that keeps people coming back, is ‘Where can they go now?’ I look forward to dealing with a whole new set of problems. I think when you see the conspiracy exploded, you’re going to see that there are lots of characters who were out there working as free agents who might create strange bedfellows, and I think that’s going to be fun. The Cigarette Smoking Man is all but stripped of mystery, to an extent, and I think that’s going to be interesting, for him to be so exposed in the series.”

Auto-Pilot

One might argue that one difference between TXF and Babylon 5 is that CC’s franchise has developed slowly over the years, while J Michael Straczynski had mapped his five-year story arc out before shooting even began. While the pilot of TXF served as a workable template for the series, it was by no means the prologue for a story that was already set in stone.

“It’s amazing to me, [looking] back over five and a half years of work, how many questions we ask in that pilot, not ever knowing how completely we’d be able to explore everything about the Cigarette Smoking Man, the conspiracy, or what happened to Mulder’s sister.

“When you start, you make certain choices, and those choices accumulate and create a number of [other] choices. The story starts to tell itself, and that’s been very exciting in a way. There’s so much that has come and been told that you are, in a way, a slave to the facts you’ve created, and it’s a really fun way to tell stories. That’s not to say it’s simplified. In fact, it becomes complicated, but it all starts to make sense, and that’s been a really wonderful thing.

“It does take twists and turns you don’t imagine, but if you have a rough idea of where you’re going, then you don’t get lost. If you try to define it too early, then you lose some of he [sic] fun of discovering it along the way, as you go.”

Samantha’s Return

2F and 1S addresses the mystery surrounding Mulder’s abducted sister Samantha, a thread which began as long ago as the pilot episode. This explanation did actually feature in the initial cut of TXF movie, during a conversation between FM and the WMM, although it was edited from the theatrical release, and later re-instated for the video.

“That was taken out of the movie because we felt it was too much information,” offers CC. “It was something we wanted to play with in the series as we went forward. It is important to the two-parter and the mythology that you’ll see, but you’ll understand it whether you saw that special cut or not.”

Harsh Realm

One of the busiest television producers in Hollywood, CC currently divides his time between shaping TXF, preparing the sequel to last summer’s feature, and overseeing Millennium. He is also currently developing Harsh Realm, a new series for Fox which is rumoured to star Nicholas (Krycek) Lea and Chris (Spender) Owens.

“It’s a Science Fiction idea,” he reveals. “It’s based on a comic book called Harsh Realm, but it really owes the title to the comic book, and not a whole lot more. It deals with virtual reality, but a spin on what we think of as the visored approach to that.”

There is talk that HR will debut in the fall in a Friday night slot. Whether this means that MM will end this year has yet to be confirmed, and CC has no further insight into the situation.

“I think that we’re still doing really great work on that show,” he stresses. “That’s something I’m very proud of, and I wish it had a larger audience because I think it deserves it. I hope Millennium comes back next year. I’m not counting on it, but I think it deserves to come back because I think it’s still quality storytelling.”

Despite a strong audience for the pilot episode back in 1996, MM has failed to capture the kind of following that has supported TXF. In fact, few of Fox’s new shows (with the exception of Ally McBeal) have achieved such mass appeal, and one might imagine that the network would be very unwilling to let such a major money-spinner come to an end. Apparently, DD, GA and CC remain under contract to the show until the year 2000, after which we should expect it to continue as a series of theatrical movies.

The End

“Right now, everyone is prepped for the seventh year to be the end of The X-Files,” CC states. “I think that we are all planned for that, because it has to do with the actors as well, what they want to do. But things have a way of changing, and it has a lot to do with enthusiasm. It has a lot to do with contracts. There are many different factors.

“As a storyteller, I want to know where I’m going, and what my parameters are, so that I can choose when to say what. Certainly with the mythology, it’s important to know where I’m heading. I don’t want to have the rug pulled out from underneath me.”

“An eighth season could happen. I’m not anticipating it, but I don’t want to say that it wouldn’t happen.”

Embracing the Future

The only certainty in the whole situation remains that there will be a second XF feature, thanks to the box-office success of FtF.

“I don’t know when this movie will happen,” the executive producer admits. “It would have been great to have it happen at the end of the seventh year, but that means it would have to be made this summer, and I can tell you that it is not going to happen this summer. But I can see it possibly happening in 2001 or 2002.

“Gillian asked me the other day about doing the next movie, so I know she’s excited to do it. I’m assuming David is excited too. We’ve spoken about it. It’s a matter of setting the time aside. Both David and Gillian have movie careers ahead of them, and they’re very anxious to start doing something besides playing Mulder and Scully. Who could blame them? So I think it’s giving them some time to exercise those creative urges, and them [sic] come back and put on the FBI clothes again.”

With DD and GA ready to pursue other roles, the possibility still remains that the tv show could continue without them – a kind of The X-Files: The Next Generation, featuring a whole new cast. Just picture it: the Lone Gunmen could carry on, Skinner could remain the boss, but two new agents could assume the leading roles…

“It could happen,” concedes CC. “I just don’t know. The thing is that right now, it’s hard to do what we do. Just to put 22 episodes on the air, you’re really focused on that. Until someone takes the ball away and says, ‘We’re not going to play anymore,’ you just focus on doing that work. If I started to have anxiety about the future, or finding new Mulders and Scullys, I think it would actually get in the way of doing that good work. Right now, I don’t think about problems that don’t exist. I wouldn’t not consider it. But because I don’t have to consider it right now, I don’t.”

A new cast, a new setting and with new X-Files to explore…it’s a possibility. After all, stranger things have happened.

Mar-27-1999
Vancouver Sun

SATURDAY, MARCH 20

8:17 a.m. Burly, bearded assistant director Vladimir (Val) Stefoff squints into the early morning sun, takes one look at a mockup of a bombed-out church near Cordova and Abbott streets and yells, Robin Williams-style: “Good mooorning, Vancooouver!”

9:03 a.m. A lighting technician asks cinematographer Joel Ransom if one of his colleagues is qualified to pull off a tricky camera move. Ransom: “If he knows the difference between four feet and five feet, then he can do the job.”

10:17 a.m. A studious-looking extra, dressed in a tattered, torn grey longcoat in his role as a Sarajevo refugee, is reading The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis while waiting for his scene to be shot. I later mention this to Harsh Realm writer-producer Chris Carter. “One of the things you learn quickly in this business,” he says, with a wry smile, “is that extras will do anything to get noticed.”

10:23 a.m. “I hate the sunshine,” key grip Al Campbell says, casting a sour look at the uncharacteristically clear sky. The crew anticipated rain; now they will have to fake a cloudy sky in case it rains the next day.

2:10 p.m. Props assistant Ina Brooks wanders around the set with a plastic bag filled with earplugs while armourer Rob Fournier unpacks a crate of M16s. “For my protection and your protection,” Brooks intones loudly while handing out the plugs. Most of the crew take her up on her offer.

2:12 p.m. How can people communicate with each other if they have plugs stuck in their ears? Ransom: “We just kind of make it up as we go along.”

2:41 p.m. I pick up a prop M16 and feel the cheap, plastic workmanship where one would expect metal. I imagine real M16s are much heavier, I tell Fournier. “That is a real one,” he replies.

3:41 p.m. Joanne Service, Carter’s assistant in Vancouver for five years before leaving with the departure of The X-Files, blocks her ears for an upcoming shot. “Has it happened yet?” she asks plaintively, and uncovers her ears. The quiet is instantly shattered by a hail of gunfire.

4:10 p.m. Gaffer Richard (Bucky) Buckmaster proudly shows off his three-month-old son to an admiring crew. “Good thing it looks like him,” Campbell says. “I wonder when he had the time to do that?” “Too many hour lunches,” Carter replies.

5:03 p.m. A woman’s voice, seemingly disconnected, heard above the noise: “I’m getting a headache from all this gunfire.”

5:17 p.m. A props assistant spills a bag of Cheezies all over the street and sheepishly scoops them up, one by one.

“Yeah, spill Cheesy Poofs all over a Sarajevo street, why don’t you?” another technician says, witnessing the scene. “That’ll look real good in continuity.”

5:46 p.m. “We’re losing the light,” co-executive producer Tony To announces. By now, everybody is too tired — and too cold — to block their ears against the gunfire.

7:10 p.m. “I lose the kids at 7:30,” To tells director Daniel Sackheim, referring to an industry rule that says young actors can work no later than that hour. “We wrap at 7:30.”

8:45 p.m. Shooting wraps.

SUNDAY, MARCH 21

7:08 a.m. The day dawns pissing with rain, a biting wind blowing hard from the east. Production manager George Grieve folds his arms and regards the sky unhappily. “It could be worse,” he says.

8:19 a.m. Sackheim calls for a gunfire test. Muzzle flashes and gunshots erupt from the Downtown Parking Centre parkade on Cordova, echoing off the surrounding buildings. Ungurait looks up from her notes happily. “Good mooorning, Vancooouver!” she yells.

8:26 a.m. Sackheim wants to make the Sarajevo street set look more realistic. “How about a dead dog with flies buzzing around it?” he says.

“How about a two-legged dog with flies?” Ungurait adds. “How about one dead American director?” To says.

8:35 a.m. “How do you take your coffee?” a production assistant asks Sackheim. “With cyanide,” To interjects.

10:41 a.m. Between setups, To tells anybody who will listen an old show-business joke. “There’s this movie package being put together in heaven that’s going to be the greatest movie ever made, see?” he says. “The pitch from the top goes something like this: Will Shakespeare is going to write the script. Michelangelo is our designer. We’ve got Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for the music. Perfect. So far, the best movie ever. There’s just one other thing, by the way: God has a girlfriend who can sing.”

11:17 a.m. Sackheim calls a crew meeting. “Group hug!” Stefoff shouts. “Group hug!”

8:03 p.m. As the Oscars drone on, Harsh Realm cast-member Max Martini, who appeared in Saving Private Ryan as Matt Damon’s squad commander, is engaged in a spirited contest of wills with Ungurait, who is rooting for her own favourite, Shakespeare in Love.

Martini is suffering the barbs of the crew over being trapped in the basement of the old Woodward’s building in a pool of cold, brackish water and mud while his Private Ryan compadres are dolled up in tuxes and tails for the evening, with a night of serious Oscar partying to look forward to.

Ungurait has managed to tune a weak, snow-impaired signal from CTV on her video monitor and the crew is giving Martini a running commentary of the evening’s events. Martini breaks up the crew with his sarcastic rendition of a typical Gwyneth Paltrow acceptance speech — plenty of sobbing and clutching the chest — but Ungurait gets the last laugh when Paltrow cops the Oscar for best actress.

Martini briefly gets his own back when Spielberg wins the best director award, but Ungurait is appropriately thrilled when Shakespeare in Love does the unthinkable and tops Ryan for best picture.

9:41 p.m. Shooting wraps to a round of applause and spontaneous hugging. Sackheim: “Thanks for a great week, everybody.”