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134-509: The X-Files is an American science fiction drama television series created by Chris Carter . The original television series aired from September 1993 to May 2002 on Fox . During its original run, the program spanned nine seasons, with 202 episodes . A short tenth season consisting of six episodes ran from January to February 2016. Following the ratings success of this revival, The X-Files returned for an eleventh season of ten episodes, which ran from January to March 2018. In addition to

268-724: A believer and Scully a skeptic. The first seven seasons featured Duchovny and Anderson relatively equally. In the eighth and ninth seasons, Anderson took precedence while Duchovny appeared intermittently. New main characters were introduced: FBI Special Agents John Doggett ( Robert Patrick ) and Monica Reyes ( Annabeth Gish ), among others. Mulder and Scully's immediate superior, Assistant Director Walter Skinner ( Mitch Pileggi ), began to appear regularly. The first five seasons of The X-Files were filmed in Vancouver , British Columbia , before production eventually moved to Los Angeles , apparently to accommodate Duchovny's schedule. However,

402-411: A chance to change things. The replacement shows various pictures of Scully's pregnancy. According to executive producer Frank Spotnitz , the sequence also features an "abstract" way of showing Mulder's absence in the eighth season: he falls into an eye. Season nine featured an entirely new sequence. Since Anderson wanted to move on, the sequence featured Reyes and Skinner. Duchovny's return to the show for

536-606: A continuation of the season five finale " The End ", but it was also meant to stand on its own. The season six premiere, "The Beginning", began where the film ended. The film was written by Carter and Spotnitz and directed by series regular Rob Bowman . In addition to Mulder, Scully, Skinner and Cigarette Smoking Man, it featured guest appearances by Martin Landau , Armin Mueller-Stahl and Blythe Danner , who appeared only in

670-528: A female superhero, wears traditional folkloric clothes and tries to save traditional elements of Dutch society against the factory owners. Italian TV shows include A come Andromeda (1972) which was a remake of 1962 BBC serial, A for Andromeda (from the novels of Hoyle and Elliott), Geminus (1968), Il segno del comando (1971), Gamma (1974) and La traccia verde (1975). French series are Highlander: The Series , French science-fiction/fantasy television series (both co-produced with Canada) and

804-438: A governmental agenda to hide positive proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life . Mulder and Scully's shared adventures initially lead them to develop a close platonic bond, which by series' end develops into a complex romantic relationship. Roughly one third of the series' episodes follow a complicated mythopoeia -driven story arc about a planned alien invasion, whereas the other two-thirds may be described as " monster of

938-453: A group of Dutch space explorers and their adventures, De duivelsgrot (The devil's cave), broadcast from 1963 to 1964, about a scientist who finds the map of a cave that leads to the center of the Earth and Treinreis naar de Toekomst (Train journey to the future) about two young children who are taken to the future by robots who try to recreate humanity, but are unable to give the cloned humans

1072-418: A group of extraterrestrials that intends to destroy the human species. They are usually represented by Cigarette Smoking Man ( William B. Davis ), a ruthless killer, masterful politician, negotiator, failed novelist, and the series' principal antagonist. As the series goes along, Mulder and Scully learn about evidence of the alien invasion piece by piece. It is revealed that the extraterrestrials plan on using

1206-458: A lot of people do, to have the experience of witnessing a paranormal phenomenon. At the same time I want not to accept it, but to question it. I think those characters and those voices came out of that duality. —Chris Carter on creating the characters of Mulder and Scully. California native Chris Carter was given the opportunity to produce new shows for the Fox network in the early 1990s. Carter

1340-630: A man who becomes trapped in a telephone booth, while passersby seem unable to help him, won the 1973 International Emmy Award for Fiction. The series Plutón B.R.B. Nero (2008) was a brutal SF comedy by Álex de la Iglesia , in the line of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , Red Dwarf , or Doctor Who , with 26 episodes of 35 minutes. Other series of the 2010s were Los protegidos (2010-2012), El barco (2011-2013), and El internado (2007-2010), all three inspired by North American productions, with minor SF elements. The latest success

1474-411: A new source of income for actors, who began to charge money for autographs that they had previously been doing for free. This became significant enough that lesser-known actors would come to conventions without requesting any appearance fee, simply to be allowed to sell their own autographs (commonly on publicity photos). Today most events with actor appearances are organized by commercial promoters, though

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1608-469: A number of fan-run conventions still exist, such as Toronto Trek and Shore Leave . The 1985 series Robotech is most often credited as the catalyst for the Western interest in anime. The series inspired a few fanzines such as Protoculture Addicts and Animag both of which in turn promoted interest in the wide world of anime in general. Anime's first notable appearance at SF or comic book conventions

1742-428: A number of smaller fiction/fantasy television series, including Tang in 1971, about a secret organization that attempts to control the world with a new super weapon, "Les atomistes" and 1970 miniseries "La brigade des maléfices". Another French-produced science fiction series was the new age animated series Il était une fois... l'espace (English: Once upon a time...space ). Anime-influenced animation includes

1876-590: A preset sound called "Whistling Joe". After hearing this sound, Carter was "taken aback" and noted it was "going to be good". According to the "Behind the Truth" segment on the first season DVD, Snow created the echo effect on the track by accident. He felt that after several revisions, something still was not right. Carter walked out of the room and Snow put his hand and forearm on his keyboard in frustration. By doing so, he accidentally activated an echo effect setting. The resulting riff pleased Carter; Snow said, "this sound

2010-654: A science fiction television series based upon Zoran Živković's story, winner of a World Fantasy Award . Návštěvníci (The Visitors) was a Czechoslovak (and Federal German, Swiss and French) TV series produced in 1981 to 1983. The family show aired in a larger number of European countries. For a list of notable science fiction series and programs on television, see: List of science fiction television programs . People who have influenced science fiction on television include: [REDACTED] Media related to Science fiction television programmes at Wikimedia Commons List of accolades received by The X-Files This

2144-556: A second location manager would be needed. The show remained in Vancouver for the first five seasons; production then shifted to Los Angeles beginning with the sixth season. Duchovny was unhappy over his geographical separation from his wife, Téa Leoni , although his discontent was popularly attributed to frustration with Vancouver's persistent rain. Anderson also wanted to return to the United States, and Carter relented following

2278-407: A sense, virtually all animated series allow characters and objects to perform in unrealistic ways, so they are almost all considered to fit within the broadest category of speculative fiction (in the context of awards, criticism, marketing, etc.) The artistic affinity of animation to comic books has led to a large amount of superhero -themed animation, much of this adapted from comics series, while

2412-408: A sentient virus, known as the black oil (also known as "Purity"), to infect mankind and turn the population of the world into a slave race. The Syndicate—having made a deal to be spared by the aliens—have been working to develop an alien-human hybrid that will be able to withstand the effects of the black oil. The group has also been secretly working on a vaccine to overcome the black oil; this vaccine

2546-400: A series of French-Japanese cartoons / anime , including such titles as Ulysses 31 (1981), The Mysterious Cities of Gold (1982), and Ōban Star-Racers (2006). The first Spanish SF series was Diego Valor , a 22 episode TV adaption of a radio show hero of the same name based on Dan Dare , aired weekly between 1958 and 1959. Nothing was survived of this series, not a single still; it

2680-462: A soul. All three of these television series were aimed mostly at children. Later television series were Professor Vreemdeling (1977) about a strange professor who wants to make plants speak and Zeeuws Meisje  [ nl ] (1997) a nationalistic post-apocalyptic series where the Netherlands has been built full of housing and the highways are filled with traffic jams. The protagonist,

2814-500: A split-screen image of a seed germinating and a "terror-filled, warped face". The latter was created when Carter found a video operator who was able to create the effect. The sequence was extremely popular and won the show its first Emmy Award, which was for Outstanding Graphic Design and Title Sequences. Producer Paul Rabwin was particularly pleased with the sequence, and felt that it was something that had "never [been] seen on television before". In 2017, James Charisma of Paste ranked

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2948-469: A wide array of software. Models have been an essential tool in science fiction television since the beginning, when Buck Rogers took flight in spark-scattering spaceships wheeling across a matte backdrop sky. The original Star Trek required a staggering array of models; the USS Enterprise had to be built in several different scales for different needs. Models fell out of use in filming in

3082-505: Is El ministerio del tiempo ( The ministry of time ), premiered on February 24, 2015 on TVE 's main channel La 1 . The series follows the exploits of a patrol of the fictional Ministry of Time, which deals with incidents caused by time travel. It has garnered several national prizes in 2015, like the Ondas Prize , and has a thick following on-line, called los ministéricos . Serbia produced The Collector ( Sakupljač ),

3216-439: Is a skilled criminal profiler , an ardent supernaturalist , and a conspiracy theorist who believes in the existence of the paranormal, whereas Scully is a medical doctor and skeptic who has been assigned to scientifically analyze Mulder's case files. Early in the series, both agents apparently become pawns in a much larger conflict and so come to trust only each other and a few select people. The agents discover what appears to be

3350-520: Is a talented profiler , conspiracy theorist , and an ardent supernaturalist . He is also adamant about the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life and its presence on Earth. This set of beliefs earns him the nickname "Spooky Mulder" and an assignment to a little-known department that deals with unsolved cases, the X-Files . His belief in the paranormal springs from the claimed abduction of his sister Samantha Mulder by extraterrestrials when Mulder

3484-438: Is found guilty and sentenced to death but escapes punishment with the help of the other agents, and he and Scully become fugitives. As the show progressed, key episodes, called parts of the " Mytharc ", were recognized as the "mythology" of the series canon; these episodes carried the extraterrestrial/conspiracy storyline that evolved throughout the series. " Monster of the week "—often abbreviated as "MOTW" or "MoW"—came to denote

3618-438: Is not known if the show was even recorded or just a live broadcast. The 60s were dominated by Chicho Ibáñez Serrador and Narciso Ibáñez Menta , who adapted SF works from Golden Age authors and others to a series titled Mañana puede ser verdad . Only 11 episodes were filmed. The 70s saw three important television films, Los pajaritos (1974), La Gioconda está triste (1977), and La cabina (1972), this last one, about

3752-427: Is partnered with Mulder initially so that she can debunk Mulder's nonconforming theories, often supplying logical, scientific explanations for the cases' apparently unexplainable phenomena. Although she is frequently able to offer scientific alternatives to Mulder's deductions, she is rarely able to refute them completely. Over the course of the series, she becomes increasingly dissatisfied with her own ability to approach

3886-514: Is revealed in the latter parts of season five , as well as the 1998 film . Counter to the alien colonization effort, another faction of aliens, the faceless rebels, are working to stop alien colonization. Eventually, in the season six episodes " Two Fathers "/" One Son ", the rebels manage to destroy the Syndicate. The colonists, now without human liaisons, dispatch the " Super Soldiers ": beings that resemble humans, but are biologically alien. In

4020-442: The 1999–2000 year, with 14.20 million viewers. This made it, at the time, the lowest-rated year of the show since the third season. The first episode of season eight, "Within", was viewed by 15.87 million viewers. The episode marked an 11% decrease from the seventh season opener, " The Sixth Extinction ". The first part of the ninth season opener, " Nothing Important Happened Today ", only attracted 10.6 million viewers,

4154-512: The Asgard characters are puppets in scenes where they are sitting, standing, or lying down. In Mystery Science Theater 3000 , the characters of Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo , two of the show's main (and most iconic) characters, are puppets constructed from random household items. As animation is completely free of the constraints of gravity, momentum, and physical reality, it is an ideal technique for science fiction and fantasy on television. In

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4288-527: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Later series made in the 1960s included The Interpretaris (1966) Vega 4 (1967), and Phoenix Five (1970). The country's best known Science Fiction series was Farscape ; an American co-production, it ran from 1999 to 2003. A significant proportion of Australian produced Science Fiction programmes are made for the teens/young Adults market, including The Girl from Tomorrow ,

4422-729: The Super Robots such as Mitsuteru Yokoyama 's Tetsujin 28-go ( Gigantor ) and Go Nagai 's Mazinger Z , and the Real Robots such as Yoshiyuki Tomino 's Gundam series and Shōji Kawamori 's Macross series. Other primary aspects of Japanese science fiction television are the superhero tokusatsu (a term literally meaning special effects ) series, pioneered by programs such as Moonlight Mask and Planet Prince . The suitmation technique has been used in long running franchises include Eiji Tsuburaya 's Ultra Series , Shotaro Ishinomori 's Kamen Rider Series , and

4556-619: The Super Sentai Series. In addition, several dramas utilize science fiction elements as framing devices, but are not labeled as "tokusatsu" as they do not utilize actors in full body suits and other special effects. Among the notable German language productions are: Danish television broadcast the children's TV-series Crash in 1984 about a boy who finds out that his room is a space ship. Early Dutch television series were Morgen gebeurt het  [ nl ] (Tomorrow it will happen), broadcast from 1957 to 1959, about

4690-526: The X-Files: I Want to Believe film proved successful at the box office, a third installment would be made going back to the TV series' mythology, focusing specifically on the alien invasion and colonization of Earth foretold in the ninth-season finale, due to occur on December 22, 2012 . In an October 2009 interview, David Duchovny likewise said he wanted to do a 2012 X-Files movie, but did not know if he would get

4824-458: The "pilot episode" and hinting that he had got the job. The theme, " The X-Files ", used more instrumental sections than most dramas. The theme song's famous whistle effect was inspired by the track " How Soon Is Now? " from the US edition of The Smiths ' 1985 album Meat Is Murder . After attempting to craft the theme with different sound effects, Snow used a Proteus 2 rackmount sound module with

4958-594: The 1950s". Doctor Who , which launched in 1963 and ran until 1989, then was revived in 2005, was listed in the Guinness World Records in 2006 as the longest-running science fiction television show in the world and as the "most successful" science fiction series of all time. Other cult British series in the science fiction genre include The Tomorrow People , Space: 1999 , Blake's 7 , Star Cops and Red Dwarf . Science fiction in Canada

5092-453: The 1970s. No other show attracted a large organized following until the 1990s, when Babylon 5 attracted both Star Trek fans and a large number of literary SF fans who previously had not been involved in media fandom. Other series began to attract a growing number of followers. The British series, Doctor Who , has similarly attracted a devoted following. In the late 1990s, a market for celebrity autographs emerged on eBay , which created

5226-472: The 1990s as CGI became more affordable and practical, but even today, designers sometimes construct scale models which are then digitized for use in animation software. Models of characters are puppets . Gerry Anderson created a series of shows using puppets living in a universe of models and miniature sets, notably Thunderbirds . ALF depicted an alien living in a family, while Farscape included two puppets as regular characters. In Stargate SG-1 ,

5360-426: The 1997–98 season. The sixth season premiered with " The Beginning ", watched by 20.24 million viewers. The show ended season six with lower numbers than the previous season, beginning a decline that would continue for the show's final three years. The X-Files was nevertheless Fox's highest-rated show that year . The seventh season, originally intended as the show's last, ranked as the 29th most-watched show for

5494-730: The Lambs , which provided the impetus for framing the series around agents from the FBI , in order to provide the characters with a more plausible reason for being involved in each case than Carter believed was present in Kolchak . Carter was determined to keep the relationship between the two leads strictly platonic, basing their interactions on the characters of Emma Peel and John Steed in The Avengers series. The early 1990s series Twin Peaks

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5628-634: The Lost Ark , Rashomon , The Thing , The Boys from Brazil , The Silence of the Lambs and JFK as other influences. In addition, episodes written by Darin Morgan often referred to or referenced other films. Duchovny had worked in Los Angeles for three years prior to The X-Files , focusing on feature films. In 1993 his manager Melanie Green gave him the script for the pilot episode of The X-Files . Green and Duchovny were both convinced it

5762-474: The actor was only pretending to be grumpy. Pileggi later realized he had been lucky that he had not been cast in one of the earlier roles, as he believed he would have appeared in only a single episode and would have missed the opportunity to play the recurring role. Before the seventh season aired, Duchovny filed a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox , claiming that Fox had undersold the rights to its own affiliates, thereby costing him huge sums of money. Eventually,

5896-400: The agents' efforts to uncover a government conspiracy that covers up the existence of extraterrestrials and their sinister collaboration with said government. Mysterious men constituting a shadow element within the U.S. government , known as " The Syndicate ", are the major villains in the series; late in the series it is revealed that The Syndicate acts as the only liaison between mankind and

6030-556: The alien invasion foretold within the series, due to occur in December 2012. The film grossed $ 4 million on its opening day in the United States. It opened fourth on the U.S. weekend box office chart, with a gross of $ 10.2 million. By the end of its theatrical run, it had grossed $ 20,982,478 domestically and an additional $ 47,373,805 internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $ 68,369,434. Among 2008 domestic releases, it finished in 114th place. The film's stars both claimed that

6164-448: The basic concept of a series, influencing all the artistic choices. By the late 1990s, improved technology and more training and cross-training within the industry made all of these techniques easier to use, so that directors of individual episodes could make decisions to use one or more methods, so such artistic choices no longer needed to be baked into the series concept. Special effects (or "SPFX") have been an essential tool throughout

6298-455: The cases scientifically. After Mulder's abduction at the hands of aliens in the seventh season finale " Requiem ", Scully becomes a "reluctant believer" who manages to explain the paranormal with science. Various episodes also deal with the relationship between Mulder and Scully, originally platonic, but that later develops romantically. Mulder and Scully are joined by John Doggett ( Robert Patrick ) and Monica Reyes ( Annabeth Gish ) late in

6432-669: The chance. Anderson stated in August 2012 that a third X-Files film is "looking pretty good". As of July 2013, Fox had not approved the movie, although Carter, Spotnitz, Duchovny and Anderson expressed interest. At the New York Comic Con held October 10–13, 2013, Duchovny and Anderson reaffirmed that they and Carter were interested in making a third film, with Anderson saying, "If it takes fan encouragement to get Fox interested in that, then I guess that's what it would be." On January 17, 2015, Fox confirmed that they were looking at

6566-459: The characters, those that dealt with the conspiracy, and the monster-of-the-week sort of stuff". Petrucha cited the latter as the easiest to write. Petrucha saw Scully as a "scientist [...] with real world faith", and that the difference between [Mulder and Scully] is not that Mulder believes and Scully doesn't; it's more a difference in procedure." In this manner, Mulder's viewpoint was often written to be just as valid as Scully's, and Scully's science

6700-519: The concept and returned a few weeks later, whereupon they commissioned the pilot. Carter worked with NYPD Blue producer Daniel Sackheim to further develop the pilot, drawing stylistic inspiration from the 1988 documentary The Thin Blue Line and the British television series Prime Suspect . Inspiration also came from Carter's memories of The Twilight Zone as well as from The Silence of

6834-494: The correct color balance. The Lone Gunmen is an American science fiction television series created by Carter and broadcast on Fox and was crafted as a more humorous spin-off of The X-Files . The series starred the eponymous Lone Gunmen and was first broadcast in March 2001, during The X-Files ' s month-long hiatus. Although the debut episode garnered 13.23 million viewers, its ratings began to steadily drop. The program

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6968-541: The development of the Massive software application permits producers to include hordes of non-human characters to storm a city or space station. The robotic Cylons in the new version of Battlestar Galactica are usually animated characters, while the Asgard in Stargate SG-1 are animated when they are shown walking around or more than one is on screen at once. In general, science fiction series are subject to

7102-470: The domestic television market, most Canadian productions involve partnerships with production studios based in the United States and Europe. However, in recent years, new partnership arrangements are allowing Canadian investors a growing share of control of projects produced in Canada and elsewhere. Australia's first locally produced Science Fiction series was The Stranger (1964–65) produced and screened by

7236-559: The earliest forms of media fandom was Star Trek fandom . Fans of the series became known to each other through the science fiction fandom . In 1968, NBC decided to cancel Star Trek . Bjo Trimble wrote letters to contacts in the National Fantasy Fan Foundation, asking people to organize their local friends to write to the network to demand the show remain on the air. Network executives were overwhelmed by an unprecedented wave of correspondence, and they kept

7370-418: The eighth-season episode " This Is Not Happening " in 2001, which was watched by 16.9 million viewers. When DVR and streaming are taken into account, "My Struggle" was seen by 21.4 million viewers, scoring a 7.1 Nielsen rating. The season ended with "My Struggle II", which was viewed by 7.60 million viewers. In total, the season was viewed by an average of 13.6 million viewers; it ranked as

7504-454: The episode was chosen and anecdotes from the set. These clips were later included on the full season DVDs. Wave eight, covering the last part of the fourth season, was the last to be released. No Carter interviews appeared on DVDs for later seasons. Many of the waves had collectible cards for each episode. All nine seasons were released on DVD along with the two films. Seasons 1-4 were in fullscreen and seasons 5 and onward were in widescreen with

7638-416: The episodes that received alternate taglines is as follows: The pilot premiered on September 10, 1993, and reached 12 million viewers. As the season progressed, ratings began to increase and the season finale garnered 14 million viewers. The first season ranked 105th out of 128 shows during the 1993–94 television season. The series' second season increased in ratings—a trend that would continue for

7772-512: The fast percussion featured in some tracks was inspired by the track "Prospectors Quartet" from the There Will Be Blood soundtrack. The soundtrack score, The X-Files: I Want to Believe , was released in 2008. The opening sequence was made in 1993 for the first season, and remained unchanged until Duchovny left the show. Carter sought to make the title an "impactful opening" with "supernatural images". These scenes notably include

7906-448: The fifth season. The season ended in May 1998 with "The End", the final episode shot in Vancouver and the final episode with the involvement of many of the original crew members, including director and producer R.W. Goodwin and his wife Sheila Larken, who played Margaret Scully and would later return briefly. With the move to Los Angeles, many changes behind the scenes occurred, as much of

8040-414: The film a positive review, with an average rating of 4.9 out of 10. The website wrote of the critics' consensus, stating, "The chemistry between leads David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson do live [sic] up to The X-Files ' televised legacy, but the roving plot and droning routines make it hard to identify just what we're meant to believe in." In several interviews around the release, Carter said that if

8174-424: The film. In November 2001, Carter decided to pursue a second film adaptation. Production was slated to begin after the ninth season, with a projected release in December 2003. In April 2002, Carter reiterated his desire and the studio's desire to do a sequel film. He planned to write the script over the summer and begin production in spring or summer 2003 for a 2004 release. Carter described the film as independent of

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8308-495: The film. It also featured the last appearance of John Neville as the Well-Manicured Man . Jeffrey Spender , Diana Fowley , Alex Krycek and Gibson Praise —characters who had been introduced in the fifth-season finale and/or were integral to the television series—do not appear in the film. Although the film had a strong domestic opening and received mostly positive reviews from critics, attendance dropped sharply after

8442-399: The first decade of the 21st century, changes in provincial tax legislation prompted many production companies to move from Toronto to Vancouver . Recent popular series produced in Vancouver include The Dead Zone , Smallville , Andromeda , Stargate Atlantis , Stargate Universe , The 4400 , Sanctuary and the reimagined Battlestar Galactica . Because of the small size of

8576-422: The first episode. It's like the audience had gone away and I didn't know how to find them. I didn't want to work to get them back because I believed what we are doing deserved to have them back." While news outlets cited declining ratings because of lackluster stories and poor writing, The X-Files production crew blamed September 11 terrorist attacks as the main factor. At the end of 2002, The X-Files had become

8710-406: The first film was made available in 2007, which contains all of the special features from the initial releases. The set also includes an additional disc of new bonus features and various collectibles, including a poster for the first film, a comic book, a set of collector cards and a guide to all 202 episodes across all nine seasons and the first film. Due to the fact that the set was released in 2007,

8844-644: The first film, The X-Files: Original Motion Picture Score , was released in 1998. For the second film, Snow recorded with the Hollywood Studio Symphony in May 2008 at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox in Century City . UNKLE recorded a new version of the theme music for the end credits. Some of the unusual sounds were created by a variation of silly putty and dimes tucked into piano strings. Snow commented that

8978-502: The first half of the first season: "Pilot"/"Deep Throat", "Conduit"/"Ice" and "Fallen Angel"/"Eve". Each wave was also available in a boxed set. Unlike later DVD season releases, the tapes did not include every episode from the seasons. Ultimately twelve episodes—approximately half the total number aired—were selected by Carter to represent each season, including nearly all "mythology arc" episodes and selected standalone episodes. Carter briefly introduced each episode with an explanation of why

9112-598: The first time that the series has been made available in the high resolution format in North America. In October 2015, it was confirmed that the complete series would be reissued on Blu-ray, and the full set was released on December 8, 2015. The set was criticized for using the wrong fonts for the title sequence and season 8 was affected by color balance issues making the picture appear darker in most episodes (an issue known as "black crush"). These issues led to Fox offering corrected discs and eventually issuing new sets with

9246-413: The first weekend. Although it failed to make a profit during its theatrical release—due in part to its large promotional budget— The X-Files film was more successful internationally. Eventually, the worldwide theatrical box office total reached $ 189 million. The film's production cost and ad budgets were each close to $ 66 million. Unlike in the series, Anderson and Duchovny received equal pay for

9380-404: The future is unwritten." The rights are now owned by Disney . On September 24, 1996, the first "wave" set of The X-Files VHS tapes were released. Wave sets were released covering the first through fourth seasons. Each "wave" was three VHS tapes, each containing two episodes, for a total of six episodes per wave and two waves per season. For example, the home video release of wave one drew from

9514-479: The history of science fiction on television: small explosives to simulate the effects of various rayguns , squibs of blood and gruesome prosthetics to simulate the monsters and victims in horror series, and the wire-flying entrances and exits of George Reeves as Superman . The broad term "special effects" includes all the techniques here, but more commonly there are two categories of effects. Visual effects ("VFX") involve photographic or digital manipulation of

9648-516: The impossible characters and settings allowed in animation made this a preferred medium for both fantasy and for series aimed at young audiences. Originally, animation was all hand-drawn by artists, though in the 1980s, beginning with Captain Power , computers began to automate the task of creating repeated images; by the 1990s, hand-drawn animation became defunct. In recent years as technology has improved, this has become more common, notably since

9782-511: The latter parts of season eight , and the whole of season nine , the Super Soldiers manage to replace key individuals in the government, forcing Mulder and Scully to go into hiding. Mulder and Scully came right out of my head. A dichotomy. They are the equal parts of my desire to believe in something and my inability to believe in something. My skepticism and my faith. And the writing of the characters came very easily to me. I want, like

9916-452: The lawsuit was settled, and Duchovny was awarded a settlement of about $ 20 million, but the lawsuit put strain on Duchovny's professional relationships. Neither Carter nor Duchovny was contracted to work on the series beyond the seventh season; however, Fox entered into negotiations near the end of that season in order to bring the two on board for an eighth season. After settling his contract dispute, Duchovny quit full-time participation in

10050-505: The long-running Mr. Squiggle , Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left , Ocean Girl , Crash Zone , Watch This Space and Spellbinder . Other series like Time Trax , Roar , and Space: Above and Beyond were filmed in Australia, but used mostly US crew and actors. Japan has a long history of producing science fiction series for television. Some of the most famous are anime such as Osamu Tezuka 's Astro Boy ,

10184-406: The longest-running consecutive science fiction series ever on U.S. broadcast television. This record was later surpassed by Stargate SG-1 in 2007 and Smallville in 2011. The debut episode of the 2016 revival, "My Struggle", first aired on January 24, 2016, and was watched by 16.19 million viewers. In terms of viewers, this made it the highest-rated episode of The X-Files to air since

10318-449: The main antagonist. During the early stages of production, Carter founded Ten Thirteen Productions and began to plan for filming the pilot in Los Angeles. However, unable to find suitable locations for many scenes, he decided to "go where the good forests are" and moved production to Vancouver . It was soon realized by the production crew that since so much of the first season would require filming on location, rather than on sound stages,

10452-413: The majority of science fiction media fandom has been represented by males of all ages and for most of its modern existence, a fairly diverse racial demographic. The most highly publicized demographic for science fiction fans is the male adolescent; roughly the same demographic for American comic books . Female fans, while always present, were far fewer in number and less conspicuously present in fandom. With

10586-444: The next three seasons—and finished 63rd out of 141 shows. These ratings were not spectacular, but the series had attracted enough fans to receive the label "cult hit", particularly by Fox standards. Most importantly, it made great gains among the 18-to-49 age demographic sought by advertisers. During its third year , the series ranked 55th and was viewed by an average of 15.40 million viewers, an increase of almost seven percent over

10720-455: The ninth season, Gish became a series regular. Glen Morgan and James Wong 's early influence on The X-Files mythology led to their introduction of popular secondary characters who continued for years in episodes written by others: Scully's father, William ( Don S. Davis ); her mother, Margaret ( Sheila Larken ); and her sister, Melissa ( Melinda McGraw ). The conspiracy-inspired trio The Lone Gunmen were also secondary characters. The trio

10854-402: The ninth-season finale, " The Truth " marked the largest number of cast members to be featured in the opening credits, with five. The revival seasons use the series' original opening credits sequence. The sequence ends with the tagline "The Truth Is Out There", which is used for the majority of the episodes. For certain episodes, the tagline was changed to be more thematically-relevant; a list of

10988-536: The onscreen image, usually done in post-production . Mechanical or physical effects involve props, pyrotechnics, and other physical methods used during principal photography itself. Some effects involved a combination of techniques; a ray gun might require a pyrotechnic during filming, and then an optical glowing line added to the film image in post-production. Stunts are another important category of physical effects. In general, all kinds of special effects must be carefully planned during pre-production . Babylon 5

11122-422: The original The X-Files crew was gone. New production designer Corey Kaplan, editor Lynne Willingham , writer David Amann and director and producer Michael Watkins joined and stayed for several years. Bill Roe became the show's new director of photography and episodes generally had a drier, brighter look due to California's sunshine and climate, as compared with Vancouver's rain, fog and temperate forests. Early in

11256-554: The original versions. Episodic DVDs have also been released in Region 2 , such as " Deadalive ", " Existence ", "Nothing Important Happened Today", " Providence " and "The Truth". Various other episodes were released on DVD and VHS. In 2005, four DVD sets were released containing the main story arc episodes of The X-Files . The four being Volume 1 – Abduction , Volume 2 – Black Oil , Volume 3 – Colonization and Volume 4 – Super Soldiers . A boxed set containing all nine seasons and

11390-404: The part of Scully in 1993. "I couldn't put the script down", she recalled. For the role, the network wanted either a more established actress or one that was "taller, leggier, blonder and breastier" than the 24-year-old Anderson, a theater veteran with minor film experience. After auditions, Carter felt she was the only choice. Carter insisted that Anderson had the kind of "no-nonsense integrity that

11524-417: The possibility of bringing The X-Files back, not as a movie, but as a limited run television season. Fox chairman Dana Walden told reporters that "conversations so far have only been logistical and are in very early stages", and that the series would only go forward if Carter, Anderson, and Duchovny were all on board, and that it was a matter of ensuring all of their timetables are open. On March 24, 2015, it

11658-484: The reach of current reality obliges producers to make extensive use of specialized techniques of television production. Through most of the 20th century, many of these techniques were expensive and involved a small number of dedicated craft practitioners, while the reusability of props, models, effects, or animation techniques made it easier to keep using them. The combination of high initial cost and lower maintenance cost pushed producers into building these techniques into

11792-532: The remainder of The X-Files episodes. These episodes, forming the majority of the series, dealt with paranormal (and in certain cases, merely criminal) phenomena, including: serial killers (with or without supernatural powers), cryptids , ghosts , mutants, science fiction technology, horror monsters and religious phenomena. Some of the Monster-of-the-Week episodes even featured satiric elements and comedic story lines. The main story arc involves

11926-404: The rising popularity of fanfiction , a large majority of which is categorized as slash fanfiction . Female fans comprise the majority of fanfiction writers. U.S. television science fiction has produced Lost In Space , Star Trek , The Twilight Zone , and The X-Files , among others. British television science fiction began in 1938 when the broadcast medium was in its infancy with

12060-424: The rising popularity of fanzines, female fans became increasingly vocal. Starting in the 2000s (decade), genre series began to offer more prominent female characters. Many series featured women as the main characters with males as supporting characters. True Blood is an example. Also, such shows premises moved away from heroic action-adventure and focused more on characters and their relationships. This has caused

12194-404: The role of Doggett, but only about ten were seriously considered. Lou Diamond Phillips , Hart Bochner , and Bruce Campbell were among the ten. The producers chose Robert Patrick. Carter believed that the series could continue for another ten years with new leads, and the opening credits were accordingly redesigned in both seasons eight and nine to emphasize the new actors (along with Pileggi, who

12328-484: The role required." For portraying Scully, Anderson won numerous major awards: the Screen Actors Guild Award in 1996 and 1997, an Emmy Award in 1997, and a Golden Globe Award 1997. The character Walter Skinner was played by actor Mitch Pileggi , who had unsuccessfully auditioned for the roles of two or three other characters on The X-Files before getting the part. At first, the fact that he

12462-403: The same financial constraints as other television shows. However, high production costs increase the financial risk, while limited audiences further complicate the business case for continuing production. Star Trek was the first television series to cost more than $ 100,000 per episode, while Star Trek: The Next Generation was the first to cost more than $ 1 million per episode. One of

12596-424: The second film, which was released in 2008, is not included. Release of The X-Files ' seasons on Blu-ray , restored in high-definition, was rumored to begin in late 2013. The German TV channel ProSieben Maxx began airing first-season episodes reformatted in widescreen and in high-definition on January 20, 2014. On April 23, 2015, Netflix began streaming episodes of The X-Files in high definition, marking

12730-412: The second season, making it Fox's top-rated program in the 18–49-year-old demographic. Although the first three episodes of the fourth season aired on Friday night, the fourth episode " Unruhe " aired on Sunday night. The show remained on Sunday until its end. The season hit a high with its twelfth episode, " Leonard Betts ", which was chosen as the lead-out program following Super Bowl XXXI . The episode

12864-721: The series and would be "providing feedback to the creative team regarding scripts and outlines to keep the new stories in line with existing and on-going canon." The series restarted the series' mythology, and the first arc of the story focused on "seek[ing] to bring the mythology of the Alien Conspiracy back up to date in a more paranoid, post-terror, post- WikiLeaks society." In addition, sequels to popular Monster-of-the-Week episodes were made. The X-Files Season 10 concluded on July 1, 2015, after 25 issues. Science fiction on television The need to portray imaginary settings or characters with properties and abilities beyond

12998-535: The series itself and lead actors Duchovny and Anderson received multiple awards and nominations , and by its conclusion the show was the longest-running science fiction series in U.S. television history. The series also spawned a franchise that includes Millennium and The Lone Gunmen spin-offs, two theatrical films, and accompanying merchandise . The X-Files follows the careers and personal lives of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder ( David Duchovny ) and Dana Scully ( Gillian Anderson ). Special Agent Mulder

13132-491: The series later returned to Vancouver with the filming of The X-Files: I Want to Believe as well as the tenth and eleventh seasons. The X-Files was a hit for the Fox network and received largely positive reviews, although its long-term story arc was criticized near the conclusion. Initially considered a cult series, it turned into a pop culture touchstone that tapped into public mistrust of governments and large institutions and embraced conspiracy theories and spirituality. Both

13266-450: The series' lowest-rated season premiere. The original series finale , "The Truth", attracted 13.25 million viewers, the series' lowest rated season finale. The ninth season was the 63rd most-watched show for the 2001–02 season, tying its season two rank. On May 19, 2002, the finale aired and the Fox network confirmed that The X-Files was over. When talking about the beginning of the ninth season, Carter said, "We lost our audience on

13400-453: The series, after 1998's The X-Files: Fight the Future . Filming began in December 2007 in Vancouver and finished on March 11, 2008. The film was released in the United States on July 25, 2008. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly , Carter said that if I Want to Believe proved successful, he would propose a third movie that would return to the television series' mythology and focus on

13534-420: The series, after Mulder is abducted. Doggett replaces him as Scully's partner and helps her search for him, later involving Reyes, of whom Doggett had professional knowledge. The initial run of The X-Files ends when Mulder is secretly subjected to a military tribunal for breaking into the top secret Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center and viewing plans for alien invasion and colonization of Earth . He

13668-403: The series, saying, "We're looking at the movies as stand-alones. They're not necessarily going to have to deal with the mythology." Bowman, who had directed various episodes of The X-Files in the past as well as the 1998 film, expressed an interest in the sequel, but Carter took the job. Spotnitz co-authored the script with Carter. The X-Files: I Want to Believe became the second film based on

13802-424: The seventh most-watched television series of the 2015–16 year, making it the highest-ranked season of The X-Files to ever air. A few years later, the premiere episode of the eleventh season, "My Struggle III", was watched by 5.15 million viewers. This was a decrease from the previous season's debut; it was also the lowest-rated premiere for any season of the show. The season concluded with "My Struggle IV", which

13936-462: The show after the seventh season. This contributed to uncertainties over the likelihood of an eighth season. Carter and most fans felt the show was at its natural endpoint with Duchovny's departure, but it was decided that Mulder would be abducted at the end of the seventh season and would return in 12 episodes the following year. The producers then announced that a new character, John Doggett, would fill Mulder's role. More than 100 actors auditioned for

14070-610: The show continuing without Anderson. In May 2018, Fox's co-CEO Gary Newman commented that "there are no plans to do another season at the moment." In October 2020, Chris Carter said: "I always thought there would be even more X-Files ." He admitted that continuing the series at this point with Duchovny and Anderson is unlikely, but has plans to continue the franchise with an upcoming animated spinoff. "Being that Gillian has decided to move on with her career, we certainly couldn't do Mulder and Scully again. But that's not to say there isn't another way to do The X-Files . And so right now I think

14204-487: The show on the air. Although the series continued to receive low ratings and was canceled a year later, the enduring popularity of the series resulted in Paramount creating a set of movies, and then a new series Star Trek: The Next Generation , which by the early 1990s had become one of the most popular dramas on American television. Star Trek fans continued to grow in number, and first began organizing conventions in

14338-435: The show's opening sequence #8 on a list of The 75 Best TV Title Sequences of All Time . The premiere episode of season eight, "Within", revealed the first major change to the opening credits. Along with Patrick, the sequence used new images and updated photos for Duchovny and Anderson, although Duchovny only appears in the opening credits when he appears in an episode. Carter and the production staff saw Duchovny's departure as

14472-567: The sixth season, the producers took advantage of the new location, setting the show in new parts of the country. For example, Vince Gilligan's "Drive" , about a man subject to an unexplained illness, was a frenetic action episode, unusual for The X-Files largely because it was set in Nevada 's stark desert roads. The "Dreamland" two-part episode was also set in Nevada, this time in Area 51 . The episode

14606-491: The television series, two feature films have been released: the 1998 film The X-Files and the stand-alone film The X-Files: I Want to Believe , released in 2008, six years after the original television run ended. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents Fox Mulder ( David Duchovny ) and Dana Scully ( Gillian Anderson ), who investigate the eponymous " X-Files ": marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder

14740-421: The timing of the movie's release, a week after the highly popular Batman film The Dark Knight , negatively affected its success. The film received mixed to negative reviews. Metacritic , which assigns a rating out of 100 reviews from mainstream film critics, reported "mixed or average" reviews, with an average score of 47 based on 33 reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 32% of 160 listed film critics gave

14874-420: The top and bottom of the opening credits cropped off. It is not widely known how accurate this is to the original broadcasts. The entire series was re-released on DVD in early 2006, in a "slimmer" package. The first five slim case versions did not come with some bonus materials that were featured in the original fold-out versions. However, seasons six, seven, eight and nine all contained the bonus materials found in

15008-503: The transmission of a partial adaptation of Karel Čapek 's play R.U.R. . Despite an occasionally chequered history, programmes in the genre have been produced by both the BBC and the largest commercial channel, ITV . Nigel Kneale 's The Quatermass Experiment (1953) and its sequels have been called "one of BBC Television's earliest audience successes" and Kneale became "one of the most influential television and film writers to emerge in

15142-500: The week " episodes that focus on a singular villain, mutant, or monster. The X-Files was inspired by earlier television series featuring elements of suspense, horror, and speculative science fiction, including The Twilight Zone , Night Gallery , Tales from the Darkside , Twin Peaks , and especially Kolchak: The Night Stalker . When creating the main characters, Carter sought to reverse gender stereotypes by making Mulder

15276-490: Was 12. Her abduction drives Mulder throughout most of the series. Because of this, as well as more nebulous desires for vindication and the revelation of truths kept hidden by human authorities, Mulder struggles to maintain objectivity in his investigations. Special Agent Scully is a foil for Mulder in this regard. As a medical doctor and natural skeptic, Scully approaches cases with complete detachment, even when Mulder, despite his considerable training, loses his objectivity. She

15410-443: Was a good script so he auditioned for the lead. Duchovny's audition was "terrific", though he talked rather slowly. While the casting director of the show was very positive toward him, Carter thought that he was not particularly intelligent. He asked Duchovny if he could "please" imagine himself as an FBI agent in "future" episodes. Duchovny, however, turned out to be one of the best-read people that Carter knew. Anderson auditioned for

15544-680: Was a major influence on the show's dark atmosphere and its often surreal blend of drama and irony. Duchovny had appeared as a transgender DEA agent in Twin Peaks and the Mulder character was seen as a parallel to that show's FBI Agent Dale Cooper . The producers and writers cited All the President's Men , Three Days of the Condor , Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Raiders of

15678-454: Was announced that The X-Files would return to comic book form with " Season 10 ", now published by IDW . The series, which follows Mulder and Scully after the events of The X-Files: I Want to Believe , was released in June 2013. Joe Harris wrote the series, and Michael Walsh and Jordie Bellaire provided the artwork. It was later announced that Carter himself would be the executive producer for

15812-466: Was asked back to audition for the recurring role slightly puzzled him, until he discovered the reason he had not previously been cast in those roles—Carter had been unable to envision Pileggi as any of those characters, because the actor had been shaving his head. When Pileggi auditioned for Walter Skinner, he had been in a grumpy mood and had allowed his small amount of hair to grow. His attitude fit well with Skinner's character, causing Carter to assume that

15946-628: Was cancelled after thirteen episodes. The last episode was broadcast in June 2001 and ended on a cliffhanger which was partially resolved in a ninth-season episode of The X-Files titled " Jump the Shark ", included in the DVD release of the series. The X-Files was converted into a comic book series published by Topps Comics during the show's third and fourth seasons. The initial comic books were written solely by Stefan Petrucha . According to Petrucha, there were three types of stories: "those that dealt with

16080-406: Was composed by Mark Snow , who got involved with The X-Files through his friendship with executive producer Goodwin. Initially Carter had no candidates. A little over a dozen people were considered, but Goodwin continued to press for Snow, who auditioned around three times with no sign from the production staff as to whether they wanted him. One day, however, Snow's agent called him, talking about

16214-505: Was confirmed the series would return with series creator Chris Carter and lead actors David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. It premiered on January 24, 2016. A year later, on April 20, 2017, Fox officially announced that The X-Files would be returning for an eleventh season of ten episodes, which premiered on January 3, 2018. In January 2018, Gillian Anderson confirmed that season 11 would be her final season of The X-Files . The following month, Carter stated in an interview that he could see

16348-406: Was filmed in the hiatus between the show's fourth and fifth seasons and re-shoots were conducted during the filming of the show's fifth season. Due to the demands on the actors' schedules, some episodes of the fifth season focused on just one of the two leads. On June 19, 1998, the eponymous The X-Files , also known as The X-Files: Fight the Future was released. The crew intended the movie to be

16482-455: Was finally listed as a main character). Doggett's presence did not give the series the ratings boost the network executives were hoping for. The eighth-season episode " This is Not Happening " marked the first appearance of Monica Reyes, played by Gish, who became a main character in season nine. Her character was developed and introduced due to Anderson's possible departure at the end of the eighth season. Although Anderson ultimately stayed through

16616-588: Was in the form of video showings of popular anime, untranslated and often low quality VHS bootlegs. Starting in the 1990s, anime fans began organizing conventions. These quickly grew to sizes much larger than other science fiction and media conventions in the same communities; many cities now have anime conventions attracting five to ten thousand attendees. Many anime conventions are a hybrid between non-profit and commercial events, with volunteer organizers handling large revenue streams and dealing with commercial suppliers and professional marketing campaigns. For decades,

16750-525: Was in the keyboard. And that was it." The second episode, " Deep Throat ", marked Snow's debut as solo composer for an entire episode. The production crew was determined to limit the music in the early episodes. Likewise, the theme song itself first appeared in "Deep Throat". Snow was tasked with composing the score for both The X-Files films. The films marked the first appearance of real orchestral instruments; previous music had been crafted by Snow using digitally sampled instrument sounds. Snow's soundtrack for

16884-414: Was introduced in the first-season episode " E.B.E. " as a way to make Mulder appear more credible. They were originally meant to appear in only that episode, but due to their popularity, they returned in the second-season episode " Blood " and became recurring characters. Cigarette Smoking Man, portrayed by William B. Davis, was initially cast as an extra in the pilot episode. His character, however, grew into

17018-401: Was largely filmed at "Club Ed", a movie ranch located on the outskirts of Lancaster, California . Although the sixth through ninth seasons were filmed in Los Angeles, the series' second movie, The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008), was filmed in Vancouver, According to Spotnitz, the film's script was written for the city and surrounding areas. The 2016 revival was also shot there. The music

17152-446: Was often portrayed to be just as convincing as Mulder's more outlandish ideas. Petrucha was eventually fired and various other authors took up the job. Topps published 41 regular issues of The X-Files from 1995–98. A 30 Days of Night / The X-Files cross-over graphic novel was published by WildStorm in 2010. It follows Mulder and Scully to Alaska as they investigate a series of murders that may be linked to vampires. In 2013, it

17286-611: Was produced by the CBC as early as the 1950s. In the 1970s, CTV produced The Starlost . In the 1980s, Canadian animation studios including Nelvana , began producing a growing proportion of the world market in animation. In the 1990s, Canada became an important player in live action speculative fiction on television, with dozens of series like Forever Knight , Robocop , and most notably The X-Files and Stargate SG-1 . Many series have been produced for youth and children's markets, including Deepwater Black and MythQuest . In

17420-418: Was seen by 3.43 million viewers, which was also a decrease from the previous season. "My Struggle IV", which became the de facto finale for the series, was also the show's lowest-rated finale. In total, the season was viewed by an average of 5.34 million viewers, and it ranked as the 91st most-watched television series of the 2018–19 year. According to the streaming aggregator JustWatch , The X-Files

17554-401: Was the first series to use computer-generated imagery , or "CGI", for all exterior space scenes, even those with characters in space suits. The technology has made this more practical, so that today models are rarely used. In the 1990s, CGI required expensive processors and customized applications, but by the 2000s (decade), computing power has pushed capabilities down to personal laptops running

17688-423: Was the ninth most streamed television series across all platforms in the United States, during the week ending November 7, 2021. After several successful seasons, Carter wanted to tell the story of the series on a wider scale, which ultimately turned into a feature film. He later explained that the main problem was to create a story that would not require the viewer to be familiar with the broadcast series. The movie

17822-493: Was tired of the comedies he had been working on for Walt Disney Pictures . A report that said 3.7 million Americans believed they may have been abducted by aliens, the Watergate scandal , and the 1970s horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker all contributed to trigger the idea for The X-Files . He wrote the pilot episode in 1992. Carter's initial pitch for The X-Files was rejected by Fox executives. He fleshed out

17956-466: Was viewed by 29.1 million viewers, the series' highest-rated episode. The fifth season debuted with "Redux I" on November 2, 1997, and was viewed by 27.34 million people, making it the highest-rated non-special broadcast episode of the series. The season ranked as the eleventh-most watched series during the 1997–98 year , with an average of 19.8 million viewers. It was the series' highest-rated season as well as Fox' highest-rated program during

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