TM
“THE X-FILES
IS THE MOST
COMPLETE
THE OFFICIAL COLLECTION
SEASON
PARANOID, SUBVERSIVE
GUIDE
TM
SHOW ON TV .”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
THE OFFICIAL COLLECTION:
From abductions to
cloning, the black
oil to alien-human
hybridization, follow
the epic journey of
two agents battling
to discover the
truth - whatever
the cost...
CONSPIRACY THEORY - THE TRUTH, SECRETS & LIES
EXCLUSIVE
INTERVIEWS
INCLUDING
CHRIS CARTER,
DAVID DUCHOVNY &
WILLIAM B. DAVIS
READ THE
INSIDE STORY
OF THE MAKING
OF THE FIRST
EPISODE
other x-files collections available CONSPIRACY THEORY - THE TRUTH, SECRETS & LIES
TM
CONSPIRACY THEORY -
THE TRUTH, SECRETS & LIES
WWW.TITAN-COMICS.COM
The Cigarette-Smoking Man: “You can kill a man... but you can’t kill what he stands for.”
INTRODUCTION
the moment his sister was abducted, Fox Mulder’s quest for the truth began. But as the fabric of deceit and lies unraveled to reveal a global conspiracy of a colossal scale, a personal quest for answers became a crusade to uncover the unimaginable truth for an entire generation.
Thwarted at every turn by a shadow syndicate whose unscrupulous behavior knew no bounds, Mulder and Scully became unwitting pawns in a fatal game.
While their investigations lead them closer to the truth, the intricate web of deceit became increasingly elaborate until it was impossible for agents and viewers alike to determine where the lie ended and the truth began.
From Double agents and alien bounty hunters to alien abductions, the black oil, Scully’s cancer and everything inbetween, over the course of nine thrilling seasons that turned The X-Files into a global phenomenon, viewers hung on every twist and turn as Mulder pursued the truth and sought to prove his belief - that a shadow government was acting in collusion with extra-terrestrials to colonize the planet into a slave race.
This volume collects together some of the best features and interviews from The Official X-Files Magazine to celebrate one of the greatest conspiracy theories of all time. Now see for yourself that the truth really is out there.
The X-Files
the Official X-Files
Editor
- Conspriracy theory
Magazine
Natalie Clubb
ISBN: 9781782763734
1993-2002.
Senior Designers
Rob Farmer, Andrew Leung
Contributing Editor
Published by Titan
No part of this publication
Martin Eden
A division of Titan
may be reproduced, stored
Senior Executive Editor
Publishing Group Ltd.,
in a retrieval system, or
Divinia Fleary
144 Southwark Street,
transmitted, in any form or
Art Director
Oz Browne
London SE1 0UP.
by any means, without the
Studio Manager
prior written permission of
Emma Smith
The X-Files™ & © 2016
the publisher.
Publishing Manager
Twentieth Century Fox
Darryl Tothill
Film Corporation. All
A CIP catalogue record for
Publishing Director
Chris Teather
Rights Reserved. The
this title is available from
Operations Director
X-Files™ and all other
the British Library.
Leigh Baulch
prominently featured
Executive Director
characters are trademarks
First Edition May 2016
Vivian Cheung
of Twentieth Century Fox
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Publisher
Film Corporation. Titan
Nick Landau
Authorised User.TCN 0828
Printed in China.
Titan.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Titan Would Like to Thank…
Collecting material
The cast and crew of The X-Files for giving previously published in
up their time to be interviewed, and Josh Izzo and Nicole Spiegel at Fox for all their help in putting this volume together.
3
INTERVIEWS
FEATURES
14 Chris Carter
mytholoGy 101
6
Guest Gallery - steve railsbaCk
49
The X-Files pilot
20
steven Williams
58
return of the livinG DeaD
24
Guest Gallery -
history of ConspiraCy
veroniCa CartWriGht
103
theories
32
CONTENTS
sheila larken
106
romanCinG the Clone
44
brian thompson
110
rosWell exploreD
50
DaviD DuChovny
126
musinGs of a
CiGarette-smokinG man
64
the lone Gunmen
132
the ConspiraCy Clones
80
William b. Davis
140
94 the takinG of fliGht 549
The X-Files ChilD aCtors
156
the movie mytholoGy
104
alex kryCek
162
94
C
O
N
T
E
N
T
S
64
80
4
GUIDES
ClassiC episoDe: “nisei”
31
episoDe report: “Colony”/“enD Game”
40
ClassiC episoDe: “anasazi”
56 episoDe GuiDe: “paperClip”
57 episoDe GuiDe: “piper maru”
CONTENTS
62
84
episoDe GuiDe: “apoCrypha”
63 episoDe report: “tunGuska”
70
episoDe GuiDe: “talitha Cumi”/
episoDe GuiDe: “terma”
79
84 “herrenvolk”
88 episoDe report: “tempus fuGit”
episoDe report: “patient
96 x”/“the reD anD the blaCk”
episoDe report:
116 “tWo fathers”/“one son”
148 episoDe report: “Closure”
155 ClassiC episoDe: “Within”
58
168 episoDe report: “provenanCe”
C
O
N
T
E
N
T
S
168
14
5
mythology 101
6
7
8
>
9
10
11
12
CHRIS CARTER
14
15
16
17
18
19
There’s something quite extraordinary about the pilot episode of chillingly underscored opening teaser – in which a girl in a nightdress is The X-Files, and it has little to do with the story. What is truly pursued through an Oregon forest, Evil Dead style, by an approaching remarkable about The X-Files’ first ever episode is that, unlike figure surrounded by swirling leaves and an eerie light – to the meat of the almost every other pilot show, it does more than simply set up story itself.
the characters and situations which will become the staples of the series.
The FBI’s Dr Dana Scully is assigned to the errant agent Fox It hints at far more complex matters – subplots, character nuances, inter-
‘Spooky’ Mulder to report back upon (and hopefully debunk) his work personal relationships, background details and more – the importance of on the bureau’s unofficial ‘X’ Files. Scully already knows of Mulder’s which will only become clear as the series progresses.
reputation (and even his nickname) from her time at the FBI academy, and Re-watching the pilot show after four subsequent seasons and therefore the first example of her soon-to-be-omnipresent almost 100 episodes is therefore an
skepticism comes when she first learns that she is to be immensely rewarding experience,
his new partner.
and a surprising one. One comes
Mulder’s character, too, is established early: his away from it less with a sense of
opening line, “Nobody down here but the FBI’s most how far we’ve come, than how
unwanted,” illustrates both his standing within the bureau much The X-Files’ creator (and
and his sense of humor. This is possibly the first example pilot scriptwriter) Chris Carter had
pre-planned for the series which he
hoped would follow.
At first glance, several things
are unique to the pilot episode: most
obviously, it has no opening titles
and no theme music. Instead, the
programme is preceded, for the first
and only time, by a tabloid-style
caption which reads:
THE FOLLOWING STORY IS
INSPIRED BY ACTUAL DOCU-
MENTED ACCOUNTS
This is a little like saying, ‘The
following story isn’t true, but others
might be.’ The absence of a title
sequence and Mark Snow’s music
means that the episode uniquely
moves directly from the atmospheric,
20
of a ‘Mulderism’ – The X-philes’ term for Mulder’s witticisms.
‘higher-ups’ the true villains, rather than the bureau
“It was important to me that he have a sense of humor,” explains itself. “I always saw the characters at the FBI as Duchovny, “and to have a certain strength from the fact that he really being not the ultimate bad guys, but the middlemen, didn’t care what other people thought. Those were the two major
[so that] the people above them, represented by the decisions I made. This was not a person that cared whether he was liked Cigarette Smoking Man, were the people who were pulling the or even cared whether he was believed – and that lent him a kind of strings – the puppeteers, if you will.”
irreverence and a kind of power. I think the greatest power you can have The depiction of Mulder and Scully and the implied significance is when you don’t care what people think.”
of the Cigarette-Smoking Man are not the only X-Files elements The Cigarette Smoking Man, first glimpsed in Blevin’s office as established in the pilot. The facts about the abduction of Mulder’s sister Scully is briefed, clearly agrees; his own status is quickly established –
are relayed, not merely to give his investigations into the paranormal a he is powerful enough to smoke unchallenged in a government building, personal angle, but to give his character an element of sympathy, which despite the fact that it’s illegal in the US. His importance is reinforced Scully might otherwise find lacking.
by the closing scene; a scene echoed 23 episodes later in “The Erlen-Surprisingly, the sexual tension between the two agents meyer Flask.”
– later to become an implied staple of the series – is also Chris Carter says that it was always his intention to make the far more obvious in the pilot episode than any other to date. The scene in which Mulder examines a scantily-clad Scully, by candlelight, for marks left by aliens remains one of the series’ most overt acknowledgements of the unrequited sexuality between the partners.
“I love that scene,” says Carter, perhaps offering a clue as to why he decided to cut scenes between Scully and her boyfriend, Ethan (check the boxout). (Another scene, in which Mulder and Scully literally howl at the moon, was also cut.) Finally, the destruction of the agents’ evidence by someone who feels they may
be getting too close to the truth
would become another recurring
element of the show. “This thing
exists,” Mulder tells his new partner
in frustration. “The government knows
about it. And this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to it.”
Carter’s original inspiration for the series is well-docu-mented. “First and foremost, what I wanted to do was scare 21
people’s pans off,” he is fond of saying.
“I said I wanted to do something as scary as a show that was on when I was a kid – Kolchak: The Night Stalker. I came up with The X-Files…
as a new way to explore paranormal phenomena.” Other inspirations are more obvious. The scenes in which the agents’ car loses power and shuts off is straight out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (a homage which Carter acknowledges when Mulder knocks at Scully’s motel room claiming to be Steven Spielberg).
In addition, Agent Scully seems at least
partly inspired by Jodie Foster’s portrayal of FBI Agent Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs, which may explain why Carter had a clearer idea about Gillian Anderson’s character than Duchovny’s. “When I first went in for the pilot audition,” the actress says, “it was very obvious that Chris Carter had a strong, solid and concrete formula for who Scully was, and he guided me through whenever he felt I was getting off track. I was still trying to formulate who she was for myself in the pilot episode.”
Although the pilot show’s visual effects were a walk in the park compared to some of the things achieved in the series which followed, there were a number of shots which proved problematic.
“We had to get a girl’s nose to bleed on cue,”
Carter says of one particularly troublesome scene.
“We had to run a tube up through the girl’s hair, down her forehead, along one side of her nostril, and shoot her in profile. That tube was covered by thick, flesh-colored make-up. And it worked. I can’t believe it worked! Toby Lindala, who did the special effects, is one of our biggest assets on the show. He came through heroically.”
Another special effects artist whose first of many tasks on the show came with the pilot was visual effects supervisor Mat Beck, who would remain with the show until the end of the third season (even writing one episode – season three’s “Wetwired”). “They were trying to figure out how to make a vortex of leaves swirl around this character,” he says. “I said I’d do it, and after the pilot I got a message from Chris Carter saying he was delighted with how it went, and he wanted to work with me again.
And the rest is… whatever the rest is!”
With the pilot show finally completed under the direction of Robert Mandel, whose feature film credits include the hit thriller F/X: Murder by Illusion, Carter’s next obstacle was convincing the executives at Twentieth Century Fox that the intriguing premise offe
red by the pilot could be converted into a series. The reaction to the pilot could hardly have been better. “It was a riveting plot,” remembers Bob Greenblatt, head of Fox’s drama development. “We were all really excited about it.
“When we screened it for a group at the company, it was one of the most well-received screenings we’ve ever had. Then we did some test market focus groups here in Los Angeles [where they show a programme to a cross-section of the viewing public], which was equally positive…
I was always concerned that, first of all, the story be very clear, and sec-ondly, that people buy it, because we were asking them to make this big leap of faith and suspend their disbelief. And people were eager to do it!
“It was the right time for this kind of show,” he adds, “because people are so curious and interested in what’s possibly going on out there.”
22
CASUALTIES OF WAR
24
CASUALTIES OF WAR
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
episode report - colony
40
episode report - colony
41
42
THE
CONSPIRACY
: CLONING
44
THE
CONSPIRACY
: CLONING
45
46
47
48
GUEST GALLERY: STEVE RAILSBACK
The X-Files - The Official Collection, Issue 3 Page 1
