In 2002, after 9 seasons and a movie, The X Files came to an end. It needed to. The writers knew it and deep down the fans knew it too. It had just gone on too long; the storylines, both mythology and anthology had been getting worse and more convoluted and Mulder and Scully were fast becoming nothing more than sideline characters. Although it wasn’t long after the finale that fans wanted more. The show’s creator Chris Carter had promised a continuation in the form of feature films and it wasn’t long until we got one in 2008. However The X Files: I Want To Believe didn’t quench the thirst of fans who wanted the alien invasion movie we were promised instead of the paedophile psychic priest film we got. The lack of critical and commercial success meant as far as we knew it The X Files was dead. But then the revival was announced. A six episode mini-series coming in 2016 to continue the storyline from the original series. The X Files history lesson is over for the future adventures of Mulder and Scully are yet to be told but what should those adventures be? Let’s take a look:
Right off the bat The X Files has some explaining to do. The show obviously has to appeal to new fans but nor can it forget about the old ones. We want to know what’s been happening with Scully’s Jesus-esque son William. We need to know why the alien invasion, the event the entire series has been leading towards and what we were supposed to see in a third film, didn’t happen on the prophesised date of December 22nd 2012 like the Cigarette Smoking Man told us in the series finale. And speaking of the Smoking Man, or CGB Spender to give him his real name (or real initials), how did he survive? We know he will be returning but we did see him die in the series finale by a helicopter firing a missile at him causing the skin to melt off his skull. Although let’s not forget we did think he died before when that pesky Alex Krycek pushed him down the stairs. Hopefully they can answer these questions without having to go back and retcon what actually happened. Chris Carter and the gang have had long enough to come up with the answers to these questions.
All those questions are based around the expansive and, dare I say it, convoluted mythology portion of the show. As fans know it’s not all alien super soldiers, black oil, smoking men, abductions and conspiracy; the majority of the old X Files was anthology. When I think of my favourite and most memorable X Files memories they are all from the anthology episodes. Just some are Eugene Tooms, from the aptly named episodes “Squeeze” and “Tooms”, who could squeeze through very small gaps and lives in a nest made from his own bile. The season 2 episode “The Host” featuring the genetic mutant “The Flukeman”, the episode “Humbug” featuring the sideshow performers and “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” which is probably the weirdest episode ever. That’s just scratching the surface and the revival needs to continue this anthology style of storytelling. It’s been rumoured, but not confirmed, that the 6 episode revival will be split down the middle with 3 mythology episodes and 3 anthology episodes.
Another thing I want from The X files revival is the return of the funny episodes. The show was primarily a sci-fi/horror series but every now and then they would do a straight up comedy episode. Many episodes used humour including my favourite episode from the series “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” which features a great performance from Peter Boyle, but none more so than the season 5 episode “Bad Blood” which explores a cult of OCD vampires. It would be fantastic if one of the upcoming episodes could embrace the underlying ridiculousness of the show just like “Bad Blood” did.
The relationship between Mulder and Scully is a big question I have about the revival. Is it romantic? Is it professional? Is it currently neither? I never liked that the relationship went towards romantic especially considering Chris Carter claimed it never would. Mulder and Scully are at their best when they are arguing about the cause of some strange incident with Scully on the sceptical side and Mulder on the believer of the supernatural/extraterrestrial side. The original series ended with Scully also being a believer but hopefully they can encounter some odd cases which can lead Scully back to her scepticism of the early seasons. I’ve always wanted to see an episode where Scully is the one who is right at the end and nothing supernatural was actually going on, much to Mulder’s dismay.
Speaking of Scully I think it would be cool if they pursued a storyline that was only hinted at during the original series: her immortality. The psychic, Clyde Bruckman, could see peoples deaths and when Scully asks him how she will die he answers “you don’t”. Then in the season 6 episode “Tithonus” she encounters the 149 year old Alfred Fellig who, when Death came looking for him, turned his eyes away at the last second and survived. At the end of the episode Scully does the very same thing.
My final want is to have as many of the original writers back as possible. Chris Carter, James Wong, Glenn Morgan and Darin Morgan are all returning but what about Frank Spotnitz? Would be cool if Vince Gilligan could return even for one episode if he isn’t too busy rolling around in all his Breaking Bad money and writing Better Call Saul. I know that there are only 6 episodes but it’s bound to get another season. And even so, 6 episodes is still pretty annoying considering Twin Peaks is getting a rumoured 29 episodes!
What do you want from The X Files revival? Let me know in the comments or on Facebook/Twitter @kylebrrtt. Like, Subscribe and why not have a look at all the awesome stuff on the site. Come back next week to see my take on whether Deus Ex: Mankind Divided can save the futuristic shooter genre on First Time Writing.
