I Want to Believe
The X-files... American pop-cultural catalyst of High
Strangeness
- Annotated Edition -
- by Jack Heart
On September 10th,
1993 the Fox
Network, along with (then) relatively unknown screenwriter
Chris Carter,
launched what would become one of American television's
most influential series...
The X-files. The series, pitched as Drama/Sci-Fi/Horror, would delve into multiple
facets of the paranormal, such as psi-phenomena,
cryptids,
conspiracy theory, and especially Ufology & alien
abduction. The show struck a nerve with a significant segment of
viewers, quickly building a loyal fan base. In the ensuing
years, the X-files would become a Pop-Cultural
phenomenon, rivaling Rod Serling's "Twilight
Zone"
in it's impact on the psyche of the American viewing
public.
Building upon the
paranormal milieu established by such classic television shows as
Kolchak: The Night Stalker,
The Outer Limits, and Rod Serling's "other"
foray into the macabre: Night
Gallery...
the X-files would, in many ways, surpass these earlier
shows in it's impact. Due in part to timing and in part
to the times... the X-files would become an influential
component of the rapidly morphing
zeitgeist at the closing of the 20th century. The
show's
subject matter would act as a lightning rod of
"conspiracy thinking" that would, in part, trigger the "High
Strangeness" that was to come, at the dawn of the new
millennium.
The X-files' original
9 season run, came to an end in 2002. By that time, the
American public and American culture had gone through a
harrowing metamorphosis, culminating in the horrific
9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan,
the previous year. It bears noting that an X-files
spin-off show:
The Lone Gunman, had received considerable notoriety
(within conspiracy circles) for airing what has been
labeled "predictive programming" in it's
inaugural episode. Airing on March 4th, 2001...
the plot involves a computer hacker taking control of a
Boeing 727 passenger plane and remotely piloting it
towards the World Trade Center, with the specific
intention of crashing the plane into one of the Twin
Towers.
This (albeit dramatic)
example, typifies the way in which a fictional
television series influenced the viewing public's
impression of the machinations of
covert, political
power. Consequently, the
X-files became a very real information stream of
possibility, taken very seriously by it's viewership.
For some, the
weekly episodes of the X-files aligned
with an understanding that the truth can be told more
effectively in fictional form. For others, the X-files
came to represent more than entertainment... it became a
gospel of truth... depicting the real story
behind the alleged government cover-up and international
conspiracy.
For conspiracy minded fans,
the X-files came to be viewed as a very
real dossier of
how governmental entities operated behind the scenes.
Although thinly fictionalized, the X-files... in the
minds of the faithful... fairly accurately chronicled a
so-called shadow government, that came to be known as:
the
Deep State. To many... brought on by
mounting suspicions and real world
revelations of covert governmental electronic
surveillance... it was becoming increasingly clear that our
government may not have our best interests at heart. If
domestic spying and secret government sanctioned "black-ops" existed, why
not other facets of the X-files storyline?
Beyond Deep State
shenanigans, the X-files' paranormal milieu was
presented in a sophisticated, realistic manner.
Production values were high, the show's writing staff
was exceptional and the acting, driven by the palpable
chemistry between actors
David Duchovny and
Gillian Anderson,
was superb. Each week's episode was presented with just
enough realism to be plausible, if not
believable. As the show progressed, certain patterns
emerged. Repeating themes, such as "monster of the week"
episodes, were interwoven with an overarching storyline
that came to be known as the X-files mythology, or
Mytharc.
The X-files mytharc
developed around a robust, existing
conspiracy culture
belief in UFO's,
extra-terrestrial contact, alien
abduction and the Deep State's concerted efforts to
suppress the truth of these extraordinary events from
the general public. Again, the mytharc was depicted in
such a realistic manner, that it helped
believers conceptualize what an actual encounter could potentially look/feel like.
Reaching back to 1947 and the "Roswell
Incident" ...the X-files mytharc wove a tale of, not
only the existence of extra-terrestrials, but of
reverse-engineered alien artifacts and a vast conspiracy
involving alien intelligences and world governments.
Before delving into
the mytharc, here is a quick (likely unnecessary) plot
outline...
The X-files follows
the quest of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder, a believer
in supernatural phenomena, and Dana Scully, his
skeptical partner who was originally assigned to "keep
tabs" on Mulder and report back to HQ. The show
follows the exploits of Mulder & Scully as they
investigate
events built around a government conspiracy to hide the
truth about alien existence and an emerging doomsday plan.
...Over the course of the initial 9 seasons,
a very elaborate storyline developed. Interspersed with
stand-alone episodes, comic relief episodes, and the
afore-mentioned monster of the week episodes, the
X-files mytharc storyline became highly anticipated
viewing, that fueled the imaginations (and suspicions)
of fans who
wanted to believe. With each season, anticipation
grew. For your
convenience, the specific mytharc episode titles are listed below...
Season 1: ep #1:
Pilot, #2: Deep Throat, #10: Fallen Angel, #17: E.B.E.
and #24: The Erlenmeyer Flask.
Season 2: ep #1:
Little Green Men, #5: Duane Barry, #6: Ascension, #8:
One Breath, #10: Red Museum, #16: Colony, #17: End
Game and #25: Anasazi.
Season 3: ep #1: The
Blessing Way, #2: Paper Clip, #9: Nisei, #10: 731, #15: Piper Maru, #16: Apocrypha and #24: Talitha Cumi.
Season 4: ep
#1: Herrenvolk,
#7: Musings Of A Cigarette Smoking Man, #8: Tunguska,
#9: Terma,
#14: Memento Mori, #17: Tempus Fugit, #18: Max, #21: Zero Sum,
#23: Demons and
#24: Gethsemane.
Season 5: ep
#1: Redux, #2: Redux
II, #6: Christmas Carol, #7: Emily, #13: Patient X, #14: The Red and the
Black, #15: Travelers and #20: The End.
Note: The
feature-length film: The X-Files: Fight the Future, was
released n between season 5 and 6.
Season 6: ep
#1: The
Beginning, #9: S.R. 819, #11: Two Fathers, #12: One Son and
#22: Biogenesis.
Season 7: ep
#1: The Sixth
Extinction, #2: The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati, #10: Sein und
Zeit, #11: Closure, #15: En Ami and #22: Requiem.
Season 8: ep
#1: Within,
#2: Without, #11: The Gift, #13: Per Manum, #14: This Is Not Happening,
#15: Deadalive, #16: Three Words, #18: Vienen, #20: Essence and
#21: Existence.
Season 9: ep
#1: Nothing
Important Happened Today, #2: Nothing Important Happened
Today II, #6: Trust No 1, #9: Provenance, #10: Providence,
#16: William
and #20: The Truth.
Note:
An extensive, annotated list of all
X-files episodes may be found here, courtesy of
wikipedia.
An esteemed kindred spirit and scholar of
the X-files mythology, author of "Our
Gods Wear Spandex" and curator of
The Secret Sun weblog... Christopher Knowles, has
spent much time and thought in chronicling the esoteric
underpinnings of the X-files. His extensive work on the
subject demonstrates the deep cultural impact of this
show and it's contribution to contemporary cultural High
Weirdness. The curious are encouraged to check out his
work. A good place to begin, is with
The Secret Sun Guide to the X-Files Mythology (Part
1).
In his work, Knowles points out the
prophetic nature of the X-files mythology
as an Exegesis... it's ancient origins... and how it
has increasingly influenced the world view of the
X-files' viewing public. Pre-9/11 viewers were
presented, in the comfort of their own homes, with a
glimpse of a darker version of our existing reality.
Weekly episodes offered a prophetic preview into the
Brave Noö World that was to come. With each
successive season, the darker view would begin to
replace the (previously) existing one. This realization of Prophecy,
consciously began for Chris Carter while the series was
still in development.
Carter’s
research, prior to the series launch, revealed a
disturbing shift in the zeitgeist. A
Roper Organization survey stated that
3% of
the U.S. population believed they had been abducted by
aliens. It has been reported that when Carter was directing the “Duane Barry”
episode, a temp crew member revealed his
brother-in-law believed he had been abducted. Carter’s
production ethic was that the show
had to be “scientifically plausible.” This meant that a
lot of the research was pulled from
real UFOlogy
archives. Here the line between fact and fiction
began to blur.
In those early years, Carter, et al and
Ten-Thirteen productions were inspired. As their
fan-base grew, the X-files viewership's numbers of
like-minded individuals, approached a "critical mass" of
High Weirdness. They became a vanguard of strangeness,
that began to impact... to infest... the general
population. But from whence did Ten-Thirteen's
inspiration truly come?
By the close of 2002, the show appeared
to have run it's course. Toward the end of the run,
Carter and
Ten-Thirteen Productions put out several spin-off
shows: Millennium,
Harsh Realm and the Lone Gunman. All were
entertaining, but none achieved the pop-cultural
relevance of the X-files. Meanwhile, the American
zeitgeist continued to get weirder. In 2008, Carter
returned to the big screen with his second feature film:
The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Although presented
as a "stand-alone" installment of the X-files franchise,
I Want to Believe received mixed reviews, with
many critics disappointed that it did not further the
extra-terrestrial mytharc,
Still, America got weirder. That year saw
world economies melt-down in what has since been called
the
Great Recession. As trillions of dollars evaporated,
the television watching citizenry became even more
cynical and suspicious of big government and shadowy
corporations. High Weirdness in
general and Ufology in particular expanded and evolved
within the viewing public's consciousness. It seemed as
if more and more of the X-files plotlines were coming
true. As the new millennium's first decade wore on,
rumors of a "X-files III"
feature film circulated. There were even
rumors of a revived series.
When the X-files made its
triumphant return to television in 2016, it honed in
on a new extra-terrestrial threat for our Brave Noö
World. As
they had successfully blurred the line between fiction and
reality when the pilot debuted, the
X-Files continued to evolve the show's vision. As they
had depicted disc shaped craft and/or
triangle-shaped craft of
apparent extra-terrestrial origin, now they expanded the
vision to include
ARV’s
(Alien Reproduction Vehicles) via reverse engineering. The series
continued to draw from
real world belief in the phenomenon... as well as the
mounting belief in global conspiracies.
Season 10: ep
#1: My Struggle, #6: My Struggle II.
Season 11: ep
#1: My Struggle III, #5: Ghouli, and #10: My Struggle
IV.
In season 10, the
X-files are once again reopened, with Scully and Mulder
being reinstated to the FBI to resume their
investigations. “Roswell was a
smokescreen.” suggested the
Deep Throat character in season one. It was a comment that would be mirrored by
the old man in the episode: “My Struggle I” from season
10. The X-Files played heavily upon a Roswell mythology
in the first episode of season 10. They showed the military retrieving wreckage
from an unidentified craft, and using intimidation,
misdirection, deniability... or direct threats... to hide
from the public, the
existence of extra-terrestrials or secret, reverse
engineered military technologies.
In yet another mytharc
narrative revamp, season 10 introduced a character named
Tad O'Malley. O'Malley (a thinly veiled allusion to the
now-infamous hawker of vitamins and curator of
InfoWars...
the alt-right conspiracy theorist:
Alex Jones) is
a right-wing online webcaster, who reveals to Mulder,
not only a reverse engineered craft, but that the alien
invasion and colonization were all an elaborate hoax to
distract. Season 10's mytharc becomes a "conspiracy of
men" who have used extraterrestrial technology on human
parties for decades. These events were subsequently made
to look like alien abductions.
Of note is episode # 5
Babylon wherein Carter tips his hat to the widely
assumed influence that
psychedelia has
played in the X-files franchise. Although the episode
received mixed reviews, the above mentioned Chris
Knowles made the following observation: "On paper,
Babylon is fascinating, a long-overdue acknowledgement
of the powerful influence of hallucinogens and ancient
Mystery cults on the show."
And so
season 11 hit the airwaves on January 3rd, 2018...
Eleven, of course being the synchronistic
cosmic trigger
number (11:11). Despite the season 10 finale's use of the cliché... "it
was all just a dream!" ...season 11 proved to
be entertaining
and it's mytharc covered some interesting, contemporary Ufology
ground. The neo-pop "Break-way
Civilization" trope was well covered, as the mytharc
continued to evolve. Although the cigarette smoking man
was back with a vengeance, the season's highlight came
from an unexpected source.
"The
Lost Art of Forehead Sweat" (ep #4) was a
classic comic relief episode. However, in the span of a
single episode, Carter, et al were able to showcase the
series' foundational influences, such as the Twilight
Zone, recap the entire 11 season run, utilizing an
alt/reality (or is it?) member of the x-files, "Reggie Murgatroid" and
squeeze in a culminating "close
encounter" between the X-files team and a pop-culture-alien, who informs them that the human
race is horrible (and some... I assume, are good people)
and that planet Earth has been quarantined via a cosmic
"Wall" (and Mexico is going to pay for it!)...
The season's (if not
the series') pivotal moment however, comes when Mulder meets a new
arch-villain, the nefarious
Dr. They. In this scene, the (real) real world's current state of
affairs is allegorically assessed by Carter, et al (Darren
Morgan wrote & Directed) via Dr. They's
commentary on our post-conspiracy age. This scene,
presented as comedy, clearly articulates Carter's
assessment of our contemporary fake-news,
post-truth, social-medized world. This scene,
poignant in it's immediacy, is offered up by
Ten-Thirteen Productions... as a gift... to all the
loyal fans of the X-files franchise.
At the end of the day,
the X-files did what all good science fiction should do.
It offered up a
cautionary tale of where we might be
heading in this
Brave Noö World of ours. In so doing, it identified and
articulated a growing climate of High Weirdness that was
incubating in the 1990's, and came to fruition in the
2000's. Initially an interesting little revamp of the
Twilight Zone concept in 20th century television,
the X-files went on to shape and define the "conspiracy
culture" of the 21st century.
Again, from Knowles:
"The X-Files did one thing really well. And that was
telling stories that made the paranormal seem normal by
taking the subject matter seriously and grafting
Carter's laconic sensibility onto episodic television,
produced with feature-film production values. The show
climbed to the top of the zeitgeist heap with a reliable
alchemical formula; the lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry
of its young leads, understated procedural drama, and
the iridescence of that Vancouver mist."
In it's vision, the X-files has been a
catalyst of strangeness in a modern world that is
increasingly demonstrating a culturally
viral proliferation of High Weirdness. Have we seen the last of the X-files?
Will Carter and Ten-Thirteen Productions rise to the
occasion, once again? In
the words of the diabolical Dr. They (the very
personification of: you know what they say),
who quoted a
recent President of the United States...
Nobody Knows,
For Sure...