Happy new year! It’s hard to believe it’s already 25 years — a quarter century ago — since the turn of the millennium — and that new year’s kiss at the end of the crossover episode 7X05: Millennium! But then, at the risk of sounding like a math geek, 2001 was actually the start of the new millennium. The series is getting seriously old — but more and more people keep discovering it. It seems to have passed television muster to become the rare artistic creation that crosses over to a new generation. Here’s to another year of covering all things X-Files.
31 years ago — thirty one! on 24 Sep 1993 — the first non-aliens-related “monster of the week” episode of #TheXFiles aired, “Squeeze”, and a myth was born with Eugene Victor Tooms! With his green eyes against a pitch black background, he became one of the most recognizable aspects of the X-Files “brand”. His influence is still felt today: here is a 2022 song entirely dedicated to him, video clip and all, named after Tooms’ address, from the German thrash metal band TRAITOR!
(And 30 years ago, Piper Maru Anderson was born, all the while “The Host” and “Blood” were airing.)
Today is the 30th anniversary of #TheXFiles season 2 premiere, “Little Green Men“! Yes, time flies and the series as a whole 31 years old, not just 30. “LGM” had a great atmosphere and plenty of memorable character and visual moments with unique photography (Mulder’s introductory monologue, Mulder’s recollection of Samantha’s abduction, the introduction of Senator Matheson, Mulder recording his thoughts for Scully at Arecibo, Scully trying to escape her surveillance, “contact”…). And yes, this was my first X-Files episode, way back then (but not in 1994).
Here’s a quick interview with Chris Carter about the new book “Perihelion” in this episode of XF Diaries: in short, he is very glad that there are still new things TXF coming out. He was consulted and offered notes, but this was really Claudia Gray’s work. As usual, he avoids answering anything directly, but he stresses that the book is “keeping with the canon” (a nuance of “canon” per se), I think he just makes the distinction because this is a novel and not a live continuation and it’s not his own work; but it also means that whatever happens in the novel does not comes into contradiction with what he would have done were there to have been a season 12. It’s not clear if he directly shared his own ideas for the future with Gray or just tried to steer Gray away from something. But if the book series continues, more answers will have to be given and we might end up knowing what he’s hiding. For what that’s worth.
He also teases that there’s an easter egg in “My Struggle IV” about where the show and the characters were going and leaves us wondering My bet? William/Jackson was shown holding an egg hatching, and the episode ends with Scully pregnant: he is a life-giver, and he could have had a role in Scully’s new pregnancy, hence the final smile. What do people think?
30 years ago already, May 8 1994, The X-Files season 1 ended with a bang, and the buzz from that resulted in the show getting renewed for season 2 and beyond! “The Erlenmeyer Flask” was one of Chris Carter’s best scripts and includes so many memorable images — a man breathing underwater, a secret room full of tanks with people being experimented on, proof of alien biology, Scully finding an alien fetus, Deep Throat being killed… The music is mysterious and the mystery is thick, this is the series at its best. 30 years!
Happy birthday to Dana Katherine Scully, born on February 23, 1964! She has reached the round and respectable age of 60. By now she must have retired from the FBI, after becoming FBI Director! Incredible that her abduction back in season 2 was 30 years ago, which is now just at the mid-point in her life…
