‘The X-Files’ returns, but, in many ways, the series never really left us

After a 14-year absence from TV — and almost eight years since the last theatrical sequel’s release — “The X-Files” is back.

In an era of remakes, reboots and reactivations, it’s unsurprising that Fox executives wanted to revive the series.

But it’s the new flexibility networks allow that got stars Gillian Anderson (“The Fall,” “Hannibal”) and David Duchovny (“Aquarius”) on board. Six episodes — not the typical 13 or 22 — was a short enough shoot that the players could fit “X-Files” into their schedules.

“It took a good decade for me to suddenly start thinking of it as the gift that it was,” Anderson said, “and to properly appreciate the opportunity that I had and how fortunate I was to play such a great, iconic character in a show that was iconic in and of itself.”

In the series, Duchovny plays Fox Mulder, an FBI agent who believes in aliens and government collusion. He is paired with skeptical scientist Dana Scully (Anderson). Both are assigned to the X-Files, investigations into the paranormal and unexplainable.

The series popularized a mix of monster-of-the-week episodes and mythology episodes that delved into government conspiracies, alien abductions, super soldiers and more out-there topics.

While the ’90s “X-Files” was inspired by events of the 1970s, creator Chris Carter said the new “X-Files” takes its cues from a post- 9/11 America.

“The ’90s were great. It was still, for me, a residual paranoia that came out of my young adulthood, out of Watergate and such,” Carter said in an interview during the recent Television Critics Association winter press tour.

“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.”

Lure of “bread crumbs”

“The X-Files” debuted in 1993 in a lackluster Friday night time slot. The show was an afterthought on Fox’s fall schedule.

Carter took inspiration from past TV series such as “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “The Outer Limits,” “Night Gallery” and especially the 1974-75 series “Kolchak: The Night Stalker,” about a newspaper reporter who investigates the supernatural. (“Kolchak” starred Darren McGavin, who later appeared as a guest star on “The X-Files.”)

“Another big cultural influence is the Watergate hearings that a young Chris Carter watched,” said John Kenneth Muir, author of “The X-Files FAQ” ($24.99, Applause Theatre & Cinema Books). “That was formative to his thoughts about government and the role of government in the United States.”

“Silence of the Lambs,” with the presence of a deep, well-rounded female FBI investigator, was another forerunner to “The X-Files,” as was the conspiracy theory at the heart of Oliver Stone’s 1991 movie “JFK.”

“There’s a beautiful scene (in ‘JFK’) where Donald Sutherland is an informant and he walks the Kevin Costner character through and lays out bread crumbs for him,” Muir said. “And if you look at ‘The X-Files,’ it runs through the series that there’s always an informant — whether it’s Deep Throat, X or Marita Covarrubias — who’s in the know, laying out bread crumbs for the myth-arc government conspiracy, the alien conspiracy.”

After “X-Files” became a hit, TV did what TV often does and aped it repeatedly. Muir points to UPN’s “Nowhere Man” (1995) and “The Burning Zone” (1996), NBC’s “Dark Skies” (1996) and ABC’s “Strange World” (1999), “Prey” (1998) and even a remake of “Night Stalker” (2005) as a few of the failed attempts to capitalize on the success of the supernatural aspects of “X-Files.”

The show’s conspiracy theory element proved more transferable, making it into plenty of series that avoided aliens altogether, including “24,” “Revenge,” “Burn Notice,” “Damages” and “Prison Break.”

Mulder and Scully eventually became a romantic couple and had a son, whom they had to put up for adoption for the sake of his safety. In later seasons the pair played a smaller role in the series as the actors’ interest drifted and new characters were added to take the lead.

Duchovny, who appeared in fewer episodes of the original series than Anderson, also called the series a “gift” and said it helped him develop as an actor. “It acted as a spur to me to go out and actually do more work, to keep expanding myself as an artist.”

Familiar faces return

As the new series begins, Scully and Mulder are not a couple. She’s working at a Washington, D.C., hospital; he’s still looking at newspaper clips about unusual, X-Files-like cases.

They are pulled back into working for the FBI after a conspiracy theorist (guest star Joel McHale) introduces them to a woman who may or may not have had multiple pregnancies terminated when aliens abducted her fetuses.

It’s a pretty talky first hour, with loads of speechifying. Carter, who wrote and directed the premiere, uses the characters to deliver exposition that reminds returning viewers and newcomers of what came before and to catch viewers up on where the Mulder-Scully relationship stands.

“X-Files” fans will be glad to be back in the show’s world with its central characters, but the conspiracy plot is fairly convoluted and uses misdirection to ping-pong from one type of conspiracy to another in a way that’s somewhat unsatisfying.

The premiere ends with a declaration by a Mulder-Scully nemesis that the FBI has reopened the X-Files division.

But it’s still jarring at the start of Episode 2, airing in the show’s regular 7 p.m. Monday time slot, to see Mulder back in a suit and on the job investigating a case. The show just skips over the pair’s actual rehiring, though a later scene shows their FBI boss, Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), welcoming them back.

While Sunday’s premiere is heavy on conspiracy mythology, Episode 2 is more a case-of-the-week episode that also plays on the Mulder-Scully relationship as they each think about their son and what life might be like if William had grown up with them.

“William is such a fan favorite, it’s (an element) that’s so important to the characters and part of their emotional lives together and apart,” Carter said. “You can’t overlook it or ignore it.”

Episode 3, written and directed by veteran “X-Files” scribe Darin Morgan, is lighter and more comedic, in the style of series classics “Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’ ” and “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose.”

Scully even harks back to something she was told in “Clyde Bruckman” in the new episode, titled “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster.” (Die-hard fans may appreciate tombstones in a graveyard scene dedicated to late “X-Files” producers/directors Kim Manners and Jack Hardy.)

Lighter episodes were always part of the mix, but they didn’t occur that often — maybe once or twice a season — which makes the placement of “Meet the Were-Monster” feel like whiplash, especially for casual fans who mostly remember the series for its darker elements.

“In a short season, like a six-episode season, it might feel like more of an extreme,” Duchovny acknowledged.

Viewers expecting a mythology-heavy miniseries may be disappointed. The first and sixth episodes are heavy on mythology, but the myth arc is only sprinkled into the episodes in-between.

“It works more as a relationship arc than as a myth arc,” Carter said.

Several seemingly deceased characters show up, including the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) and the Lone Gunmen.

Carter said he’s game to make more “X-Files” should this short season prove successful.

“We’re in a very strange time right now, seeing a rollback of our rights and liberties we willingly gave up after 9/11 that are subject to abuse now and the government admitted they were spying on us,” he said. “I’ve cherry-picked through some of the things that are frightening to me (for these “X-Files” episodes). And even if one of them comes true, it will be a bad thing for America and beyond. So this is a really interesting time to be shining lights into the darkness.”

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 3:00 AM with the headline "‘The X-Files’ returns, but, in many ways, the series never really left us."