CLASSIC TV THE X-FILES

Loving the alien drama…

‘I think it might be… dead’

1993-2018 AVAILABLE ON DVD, BD, DIGITAL, DISNEY+

When The X-Files debuted on the Fox network in September 1993, there was nothing else quite like it on the air. Today, streaming services are full of dramas that embrace the supernatural. But three decades ago, a primetime series following two FBI agents as they investigate cases involving paranormal phenomena was a leap into the unknown for the upstart broadcaster.

The show ran for nine seasons in its original incarnation - and then there were two movies and the recent two-season revival, plus countless books, comics and video games. All of which goes to show that Fox was right to place its faith in creator Chris Carter’s vision. By its second year on air, The X-Files had become more than a mere TV drama: it was part of the zeitgeist, kickstarting a newfound fascination with ghost hunting and alien abductions. Moreover, the show’s shadowy government conspiracies struck a chord with a society that was becoming increasingly distrustful of authority.

As well as the impact it had on the cultural landscape, The X-Files also played with TV conventions. In an era where televised drama predominantly arrived in two distinct flavours - episodic or serialised Carter’s show combined the two, pacing out its alien conspiracy with individual ‘monster-of-the-week’ episodes, freeing its talented stable of writers to experiment with format and tone. What other series could find room for an intimate study of grief, a black-and-white Frankenstein pastiche, a self-referential send-up and a spin on Cops-style reality TV, and still feel like a cohesive whole?

But what ultimately tied it all together were the show’s protagonists: David Duchovny’s Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson’s Dana Scully. Not only did the characters avoid traditional gender stereotypes of the era (him the believer motivated by trauma, her the sceptic driven by science), but over time they would become one of television’s all-time great partnerships.

While polar opposites in their mindsets, it was those differences in Mulder and Scully’s personalities that drew them together, steadily knitting into an unbreakable friendship that could weather even the toughest storms (or alien abductions).

Although The X-Files would ultimately be undone by the diminishing returns of its increasingly convoluted ‘mytharc’ and the loss of the two leads during the later seasons of its original run, at its best - typically in those standalone episodes - it remains as wonderfully watchable today as it ever was. Truth!