Return of The X-Files
Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny talk about reuniting to play their iconic characters in a six-part miniseries that debuts tonight.
The X-Files
Returns Sunday, CTV/Fox
PASADENA, CALIF. The X-Files is not based on “some crappy comic book.”
Those words came from David Duchovny, who wanted to stress the point.
Inadvertently, Duchovny also was stressing the point of how much entertainment has changed since the original TV run of The X-Files, which began in 1993. These days, it seems as if every second show on TV, or every second movie, is based on “some crappy comic book.”
But if that’s what audiences are into now — or, perhaps more accurately, if that’s what TV networks and movie studios think audiences are into — where does The X-Files fit in 2016? First, the facts: The X-Files is returning to TV as a six-part miniseries, debuting Sunday on Fox and CTV. But here’s a digital
recorder warning: On both networks, the debut of The X-Files follows NFL playoff games, so beware of overruns and set your recorders accordingly.
For those too young to remember, The X-Files is an alien-conspiracy tale, mixing heavy mythology with an FBI procedural vibe, that truly was a TV phenomenon in the 1990s.
The X-Files popularized the catchphrase, “The truth is out there.”
Duchovny is back as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson is back as Dana Scully.
Obviously, they’re the two actors without whom this would not, and could not, have moved forward.
Also returning are Mitch Pileggi as FBI assistant director Walter Skinner (a.k.a. Mulder and Scully’s old boss) and William B. Davis, who reprises his role as the “Cigarette Smoking Man.” Guest stars include Joel McHale, Robbie Amell, Lauren Ambrose, Annabeth Gish, Annet Mahendru, Rhys Darby and Kumail Nanjiani.
The original version of the TV show ended in 2002. Duchovny already was gone as a series regular by then. There also were a couple of movies, one of them released in 1998 while the show still was on TV, and the second in 2008.
“When I left the show and when we ended the show, the idea that I always talked about with Chris (Carter, creator of The X-Files) was to come back and do movies,” Duchovny said.
“There just didn’t seem to be an appetite at Fox for the movie anymore, which surprises me, because we’re a homegrown property.
“It’s not some crappy comic book that you’re going to dig up and breathe life into. So I never understood. I think there’s probably more money in television for them. That’s probably why they want to do it.
“So when television kind of reinvented itself in terms of its season quality, and the amount of episodes it demands, it became obvious to all of us that we could come back and do it in a way that would suit us at this point in our lives.”
Duchovny, Anderson and Carter all stressed that the notion of being able to do a shorter season greatly influenced their desire, ability and availability to revive The X-Files.
“As much as I would have wanted to get away from Mulder at a certain point, I always hoped and knew that if there were a demand, we’d be able to come back and kind of revisit from time to time,” Duchovny said. “And this would be now.”
Anderson admitted she currently is far more comfortable with the ongoing legacy of The X-Files than she was in the years immediately following the termination of the original TV show.
“I think it took me a long time to embrace it after we were done with the series,” Anderson said. “I think it took a good decade for me to suddenly start thinking of it as the gift that it was and to properly appreciate the opportunity that I had. And also how fortunate I was to play such a great iconic character in a show that was iconic in and of itself, and for such a long time.
“It could have been something that I hated or had bad reviews,” she said.
“So I was very lucky. And I think it suddenly hit me some time later. But I’ve never really gotten involved in the trajectory of the character or the trajectory of the show, and I also have a huge amount of faith in (Carter) to determine what the tone is and the mood and what’s best for the audience.
“I feel like he’s done that with this, certainly with the first episode and how we re-enter, with everything that was on his plate to put into it,” Anderson said. “It was quite a tall order, if you think about it.”
Carter certainly thought about it, pretty much non-stop.
“I mean, the ’90s were great,” Carter said. “It was still, for me, a sort of residual paranoia that came out of my young adulthood, out of Watergate and such. But we’re living in a time now when there’s a tremendous amount of distrust of authority, government, even the media.
“Conspiracy sites are chockablock with the most outrageous stuff, but some of it actually is quite plausible, and I think that’s what you find in the mythology episodes here (two of the six, according to Carter). I’ve kind of cherry-picked through some of the things that are frightening to me, the prospect of them is frightening. And even if one of them comes true, it will be a bad thing for America and beyond.”
How familiar you are with The X-Files in some ways will determine your initial reaction to this new version. I was a big fan of the show back in the day, at least up until Duchovny left. But that was a really long time ago, so it’s not as if the specific storylines are fresh in my memory.
Is it fun to see Mulder and Scully back together? Of course it is. But the circumstances that reunite them in the opening episode are pretty flimsy, if you ask me. And regarding what they learn in the opening episode, I’m not quite sure how or why it “changes everything.”
Mulder has been tricked before. Couldn’t this be a trick, too?
He thinks it all has been a lie. But couldn’t the lie be a lie?
Bottom line is, what was so groundbreaking and mysterious and dark and on the cutting edge of special effects on network TV in the 1990s — pre-cable revolution in TV — doesn’t automatically come across that way now.
This version of The X-Files definitely feels more nostalgic than new to me. But Carter, for one, hopes that isn’t the majority opinion. Carter, Duchovny and Anderson all sound as if they’re open to making more.
“The thing about the show that was so amazing to me is that we wrote about what we were interested in and everyone else was interested in it, too,” said Carter, referring to the original run. “We never pandered.
“But I think, coming back, we have an opportunity here, and it is a chance to make good on a promise, that we are coming back for a reason. This is an opportunity to show people that the show has more life in it.
“We are coming back to do really fresh, original material, not a victory lap.”
But victory laps are OK, too, if that’s what this new version of The X-Files turns out to be.
“It depends on how it does,” Duchovny said. “It depends on whether people really want to see it. I feel that they do.”
At least it’s not another show based on “some crappy comic book.”