The Uncanny X-Files

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are back. We wanted them back. But are they back for good?

When popular 90s cult TV shows make a comeback – including David Lynch’s next-day-water-cooler-gossip Twin Peaks (1990-1991) on the surreal horizon – we immediately want to believe that it will be good. And, as a Gillian fan from the likes of seeing her play Stella in The Fall (2013- ) and Bedelia in Hannibal (2013-2015), I really wanted to believe this was a good idea from the out-set. After watching two episodes I am cock-a-hoop and loving it. The truth is out here. Please allow me to pontificate…

Hello, my name is Antony and I was an X-Phile. I was obsessed with The X-Files growing up. I waited and saved up my pocket money to buy the VHS season boxsets from MVC (a once parochial equivalent to HMV) every year. I even bought the separate feature length videos, such as The Unopened File (which was deleted – conspiracy?) and the double episodes featuring iconic villain from season one: Eugene Victor Tooms. I collected magazine articles, manuals, I had posters and even a map of North America pin-pointing where all of the paranormal activities took place in the show.* David Duchovny was also one of my childhood crushes; together with Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly and Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones (mainly in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 1984).

*Just to confirm – this was collectible pull-out map intended for avid fan memorabilia. I did not plot out the locations based on latitude and longitude coordinates that I miraculously managed to discover.

For some reason I have not seen the entire series and stopped watching before Mulder left and was replaced by the T-1000. I remember seeing a trailer for the recent stand-alone movie The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008) and thinking “What?” and “Why?” which is a common reaction from people I have spoken to, including die-hard fans. Yet, when I started re-watching the series from the beginning the nostalgia from the initial five seasons came flooding back. The music, the opening credits and the unsettling episodes: S1E8 Ice (a homage to John Carpenter’s The Thing but with a worm-like parasite), S2E20 Humbug (with the circus performers and the dwarf from Twin Peaks), S3E6 2Shy (the man who sucked the life-force from his victims with a sloppy kiss) and S4E2 Home. The deformed incestuous family was particularly disturbing with the home invasion scene. Even now. Although, S5E12’s fun episode Bad Blood with Luke Wilson as the vampire sheriff, helped placate my televisual trauma. Eventually.

What I realised when watching the brand new mini-series was that the 90s style of slightly ‘shlocky’ effects, genre music and melodramatic acting that served as a brilliantly kitsch quality (as to not deflect the main attention from the best duo ever – Mulder and Scully) is still clear as Chris Carter’s signature. Apart from the noticeably aged main stars (Gillian has done far better) it does not feel like much time has passed since they last flashed their FBI badges on screen.

In the first episode My Struggle, we are bombarded with conspiracy theories which settles upon the infamous Roswell UFO incident in 1947. Star of Community (2009-2015) Joel Hale takes on a similar character as his pop culture presenter for the E! Entertainment programme The Soup (2004-2015) as the host Tad O’Malley. O’Malley’s show Truth Squad, which propagates public paranoia concerning the controversial tactics of the government, lures Mulder and Scully to investigate Sveta (Annet Mahendru) – an enlightened abductee. Is Sveta proof that the government have been harvesting alien DNA that dates back to 1947? Have past abductees, including Scully, been tested on for an insidious endgame of E.T. and human hybrid world domination? Forgive the pun, but his prospect is not exactly alien.

Admittedly, the reunion is a little bit wooden to start. Could this actually be a natural representation of awkwardness you would expect from two people who were in relationship, yet now estranged to a degree? Potentially, yes. Mulder is a recluse, Scully is pursuing her medical career and the memory of their son William hangs over them like a pall. You still excruciatingly expect one of them to chime in with a Riggs- Murtaugh “We’re getting too old for this shit” line. Thankfully not. One line that is welcome, however, is when Scully exclaims: “Someone has to stop these sons of bitches”. YES! That didn’t take too much convincing. It is spine-tingling to see her practically infallible scepticism has changed for the better. The episode climax will also have you cheering as a familiar face makes himself known before the Executive Producer Chris Carter fade out.

The second episode – Founders Mutation – is much better! It really affords the series with a comfortable stride and the rather stiff and distinguished Mulder and Scully shake off their Stepford doppelgänger aura. The human experimentation leads the agents to a laboratory run by Augustus Goldman (Doug Savant) whose subjects are children with genetic defects. Thus, My Struggle and Founders Mutations tie-in with the overall narrative arc, while still feeling like stand-alone episodes. I was more interested in the simultaneous storyline of dream-like sequences that show Mulder and Scully raising William, as opposed to giving him up for adoption. The poignant “what if” scenarios involve Scully taking William to school and Mulder lighting a rocket with him in the back garden, which are very touching. These fantasised flashbacks bear significance especially with the ominous visions of William being abducted by “aliens” and getting injured at school. When will adult William make himself known to us? When?

Gillian Anderson promised audiences during a Q&A at Fan Expo Canada 2015 in Toronto that the latest series will showcase a broad range of themes, episodic elements and a blend of different tones. We all enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek, comic episodes from the past and we can expect at least one to pop-up in the miniseries. According to the Inquisitr the next episode to be aired in the US – Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster – is a bit of a throwback in every sense: “a wild, playful, brain-twisting, heart-pulling, and above all adventurous episode of television.” And, “Suffice it to say that ‘Were-Monster’ feels like The X-Files you remember. Duchovny and Anderson both seem more relaxed, finally rediscovering their old zip-zap chemistry. Guest stars Kumail Nanjiani and Rhys Darby are delightful. It’s scary, then funny, then existential, then shockingly moving.”

Watch Gillian’s Q&A at Fan Expo Canada 2015 here.

As well as Moviepilot’s “Sexism is out there” article, it is worth highlighting the shocking revelation of how Anderson’s status since the early 90s doesn’t appear to have made an impact on the Fox network and its concept of equality. While it is a known fact that Anderson was very much regarded as the subordinate to Mulder and Duchovny (instructed to walk behind him in scenes and paid significantly less) news that Anderson was still offered only half of Duchovny’s salary for the 2016 reprisal will anger you.

Read more about the bizarre inequality of Gillian’s pay here.

Hopefully this won’t tarnish your opinion and stop you from watching the new miniseries. It may feel uncanny at first, however, from the second episode you will be hooked and eager for more!

Welcome back Scully and Mulder. We’re always happy to see them and always happy to find a reason.

The X-Files is due to be aired in the UK on 8^th February at 9:00pm on Channel 5