Production hurdles don’t stop X-philes from keeping on dreaming. Here is #thexfiles Virtual Season 12, kicking off with mythology from where My Struggle IV left us, and linking back all the way to season 8 stuff that actually happened!
Wanted to share this for this week’s #TBT – caricatures drawn by Jeff Vlaming of The X-Files writing staff circa 1995.
Left to right: Vince Gilligan, Kim Newton, John Shiban, me and Darin Morgan (in Flukeman guise).
Feb 01, 2019 14:49
During his stay as a staff writer in #TheXFiles season 3 in 1995, Jeff Vlaming filled an entire wall of his office with one alien drawing per episode! Can you identify them all? (last 2 of s3 missing) From his blog: https://vlam-ink.blogspot.com/2011/09/x-files-meets-banksy.html following up on yesterday’s doodle posted by @[324099084726810:274:Frank Spotnitz]
Feb 07, 2019 15:46
So the FOX CEOs who liked Carter and were responsible for getting #thexfiles revival off the ground did not survive the merger with Disney. New CEO Charlie Collier excludes no possibility in the endless stream of reboots and revivals of our time, when asked about X-Files or 24: “One at a time we’ll talk to the creators and see if they have a vision that we can share with the studios. If we do and we can make the economics work, we’d look at them all.” #TCA2019
#TheXFiles was ground-breaking also because it brought cinematic sensibilities to the small screen. A shot of the show made it in this reel for the 100th Anniversary of the American Society of Cinematographers!
Just found out that xfphotos.fredfarm.com is down! It might not mean much in a time of HD captures from the BluRays, but for a very long time this was one of the main screen capture sources for #TheXFiles, ever since the DVDs were a new thing!… (and original ratio 4/3 please, not 16/9!)
It’s official! #Disney owns #FOX and #TheXFiles and #Scully can be a #DisneyPrincess
Mar 22, 2019 7:40
As we reach the one-year anniversary of the end of the “My Struggle” saga and the end of #TheXFiles revival, we present this in-depth criticism of what went wrong with the revival, by our friend Demijan. An unfiltered and unrelentling analysis of a great many aspects of the revival, in particular the mythology, this essay is something that could have only been produced by a big fan of the show, and it is only so negative as the revival is different from what came before.
This page has reached 1000 likes! – I must find a way to celebrate the upcoming 1013 likes… any ideas?
I’ve found my new favourite #TheXFiles tumblr: xfileswithoutpeople! Get your atmospheric cinematography groove on!
For those of you intending to follow #TheXCastLive, which starts tomorrow 9am BST talking #TheXFiles for 24 hours for charity, here is the link to the listening feed: http://mixlr.com/the-x-cast/
Sep 04, 2018 19:53
An excellent resource: a 47 page document listing challenging words and idioms used in #TheXFiles along with their definitions for non-native speakers of English, in chronological order. Found on reddit – credits to Nodir Ataev!
For instance, from “Miracle Man”:
Smorgasbord: a range of open sandwiches and delicacies served as hors d’oeuvres or a buffet – a wide range of something; a variety: the album is a smorgasbord of different musical styles
#TheXFiles25th anniversary: Vancouver in 1993 vs 2018, a photo-journalism article comparing 40+ filming locations then and now, and a guide on where to find them! #TheXFiles25 #TheXFiles
Happy #1013, happy birthday Mr. Carter! Here is a great panel interview (IBG – used to be pay exclusive) with great Anderson-Duchovny interaction, from the remote year 2011 – before the revivals and when people were still asking for a third film! And already Carter didn’t remember some details like what would have been the alternative ending for season 7. Carter says there’s one thing he would change but doesn’t say what: did he change that in #TheXFiles revival? What was it? Friendly aliens twist? M&S breakup? CSM alive? William not Mulder’s?
22 years ago today, Chris Carter created a series and a character that would forever change my life. Frank Black and Millennium were a gift to me as a person and an actor.
All around the world, even to this day, fans still remember and love this series. I want to thank Chris, the entire cast and crew and especially the fans for their support of Millennium.
Oct 30, 2018 1:21
Spooky Empire…
Nov 08, 2018 20:10
Welcome to members #900 and beyond! Keep on philin’! #TheXFiles
Nov 10, 2018 10:23
California fires have claimed much of Paramount Ranch, aka Democratic Hot Springs, where William was born in the season 8 finale!… #TheXFiles
RIP Jordan Lee Williams, aka Agent Craig Willmore, protagonist of #TheXFiles game of 1998 on CD and PS1… Still waiting for the sequel to that awesome game…
Anybody up for bidding some serious money to own the Alien Bounty Hunter’s bee-covered suit, or the pod from Fight the Future, or some icky cancerous body parts from Leonard Betts? #TheXFiles You can also bid on some #TwinPeaks items!
2018 was an important year. It is very likely we saw the very last of #TheXFiles, with a season 11 that had some genuinely good moments, and others…less so. The fandom blossomed in another gasp of activity before dissolving yet again. Also, I made a twenty-year-old dream a reality when I got to visit filming locations in Vancouver! Eat The Corn has followed all these events — and still has a few articles in store for 2019, but little beyond that. Endings indeed.
This is an image from what very well may be the last making of (Implanted Memories: 25 Years of The X-Files), on top of an end scene that best fits a finale in these two nostalgia-heavy revival seasons (The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat): an homage to The X-Files’ predecessor The Twilight Zone, and a self-conscious admission that times have changed since the series was in tune with its time. Goodbye and thank you!
RIP Art Bell, landmark paranormal/conspiracy-themed radio show host of “@[105212777348:274:Coast to Coast AM]” that ran over 1988-2007. Remember when Frank Black himself was invited on Art Bell’s show with a cameo by Bell himself in the #Millennium season 3 episode “Collateral Damage”? A few months later in 1999 Chris Carter was invited as well. #ArtBell #TheXFiles
“Arguably, dark, conspiracy-ridden dramas fulfil an important function. They’re a safe space for our wildest speculations, a decompression chamber for our paranoia. The X-Files is an interesting example. If any show epitomised an era during which political scientist Francis Fukuyama was able to posit “the end of history” without being laughed out of academia, it’s Mulder and Scully’s wild goose chase. The 90s now look like a mere pause for breath before the real business of humanity (wars, vicious ideological clashes, terrorism, you know the drill) got underway again. Imagine, in 2018, having enough available mental bandwidth to obsess about the possible existence of aliens? Such decadence.” #TheXFiles #Homeland #DeepState #HouseOfCards
“Von T”, the last of Von Braun’s rocket team, brought to the USA after World War II with Operation Paperclip, has died. He had been working for or helping #NASA continuously since the 1950s.
As Mulder and Byers said in 3X02: Paper Clip: “Our deal with the devil. The U.S. government provided safe haven for certain Nazi war criminals in exchange for their scientific knowledge. […] Wernher von Braun, designer of the V-2 rockets that leveled London, may be the most notorious, but Victor Klemper certainly takes the prize for the most… evil Nazi to escape the Nuremburg trials. […] Together with Von Braun, Klemper helped us win the space race. Using his scientific data on the effects of high-altitude flying, we were able to put astronauts on the moon before the Soviets.” #TheXFiles
On the 20th anniversary of the release of #TheXFiles “Fight the Future” that he co-wrote! I hope somebody asks him what he thought of the revival seasons.
Today, #TheXFiles Movie a.k.a. “Fight the Future” turns 20! Already! Return to the nineties with this music video for Filter’s “One”, featuring the Cigarette-Smoking Man and Agent Doggett’s brother! This song was part of the film’s Album CD, a rather unlikely collection of songs that accompanied the film’s release.
Some nice articles for #TheXFiles: Fight the Future’s 20th anniversary! Much of this is pulled off the “Making Of” book. Reading that makes you realize what an amazing gamble that movie was, how everything happened on the nick of time and how often things could have collapsed — making a big-budget movie that inserts itself in a complex mythology pre-planned one and a half seasons in advance — and how well it turned out! Proof that TenThirteen could work well under pressure!
One of those amazing bonuses in the apex of #TheXFiles craze: at the end of the FTF album, Chris Carter, sounding like a secret informant reading a classified document, reveals everything about the mythology! (That is, the mythology up until that point…) #XFFTF20 Recording, analysis and commentary here:
Now it’s official- see you on Thursday, July 19th at 1pm – #SDCC #TheXFiles 👽http://sched.co/FQmu
Jul 16, 2018 11:11
New Chris Carter interview: definitely interested to do season 12 but “it’s up in the air, in terms of Gillian’s interest in doing the show […] For me, #TheXFiles is Mulder and Scully, so even though we did the show without David, without Mulder, for a time, I always felt like her science was the centre of the show. In the end, it is a science show, and it makes it all-important.” Any new projects for you on the horizon? “No, nothing right now.”
NEW EPISODE!
Darren Mooney hosts a special interview with comic writing legend Stefan Petrucha about his time writing #TheXFiles Topps comics run in the 1990’s.
Another anniversary: today marks 10 years since #TheXFiles #IWantToBelieve was released! A movie with big flaws in many levels but also with a lot of low-key qualities more typical of Chris Carter’s #Millennium. Certainly more alike to the show than much of the revival! So many years later, it is still odd to be thinking of this movie in the middle of the summer… #IWTB #XFIWTB10
But here is some great @[114444205294473:274:Mark Snow] music:
Jul 27, 2018 14:32
#TheXFiles “Case Files” comics continue! — however editor D.J.Tipton confirms that they will stop after their 4th issue, due next month. “Actually, no plans for future comics at this time. Hopefully, there will be renewed interest with the TPB or after allowing it to rest for a spell.” Sales have been declining for a while. Revival fatigue, merchandising over-saturation?
In stores tomorrow, The X-Files Case Files: Hoot Goes There? #1 (of 2) by Joe Lansdale, Keith Lansdale, Silvia Califano, Valentina Pinto and covers by Catherine Nodet, J.J. Lendl Art Studio and Charles Paul Wilson III. This will probably be our last X-Files miniseries for a while, so enjoy while you can!
Jul 31, 2018 14:12
(Real-life #TheXFiles) Secrets from the 1930s-1940s are still being uncovered today! At the request of a researcher, “This is the first time that an official document showing the real names of almost all members of Unit 731 has been disclosed” — along with Shiro Ishii, who was granted immunity in the USA (inspiration for Shiro Zama/Ishimaru in the Nisei/731 episodes).
#TheXFiles S12? “It’s my job to figure out how we go forward without her in an interesting way […] but I haven’t had time to think about that yet.”
On S11: “There was a former CIA chief who said there are three things that have the greatest possibility of ending mankind and the world as we know it. And that’s nuclear holocaust, global warming and a biological contagion or bioweapon. I think you saw all those things in the show this year.”
Referenced by Mulder in #TheXFiles “Little Green Men”, the Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977, over forty years later, are *still* communicating with NASA! A wonder of technology!
Case File X314159. Forwarded from FBI Section Chief Bowman, elements of the investigation examined by Special Agents Garrett Dale and Casey Winter. Findings relate to happenings in Lexington, KY. Reports on the death of Dr. Hidetaka Mori, who conducted research financed by the Department of Homeland Security. But about what? A funding request for a significant amount of tax-payers’ money refers to “Substance X derivatives”, even “shapeshifting abilities” (this is where they lost me…what is this, the ridiculous Fringe division?). Yet that budget line in NSF documents is labelled as “agricultural infrastructure”. There’s something fishy here, and I don’t just mean the smell coming off that not-so-hermetically-sealed evidence bag… #DeepState
Mar 02, 2018 20:05
For those States-side: #TheXFiles X-Fest opens with a #DeepState event
#TheXFiles #Rm9: entertaining and enjoyable to watch, some interesting shots of weirdness and cinematography. Lack of dialogue a bowl of fresh air! But little content apart from the scares. Technology-focused episodes don’t tend to age well despite other qualities; with its interesting ideas treated with little inspiration, at least Rm9sbG93ZXJz will be remembered for its pure entertainment value.
Thank you @[206594356443493:274:The X-Files\: Deep State] for this great case file! The level of care and attention to detail is amazing and a good indication as to the love they have put in producing the #DeepState game! I wish them success in their ongoing updates – the 6th investigation of their season 1 just got released!
Mar 08, 2018 12:08
The “This Man” website acknowledges that #TheXFiles is referencing it this season! Another fourth wall broken!
Benjamin Van Allen / Holly Dale’s “Familiar” does not tackle a big current societal concern, it does not cover completely original ground for #TheXFiles, but it works — finally, for this revival! Excellent directing and use of that trademark Vancouver atmosphere, strong guests acting. Includes some musings about continuity and mythology.
Happy Pi Day at the @[852939188082255:274:Ovaltine Cafe]… “Wait, what?”
Mar 17, 2018 21:06
#TheXFiles Nielsen/Wong “Nothing Lasts Forever” review: the Gore-Files and some surprisingly satisfying Mulder-Scully scenes + looking back at the season 11 stand-alones! “It is interesting that only one of the old gang, Wong, and two new writers, Van Allen and Nielsen, are the ones that seem to understand what works in The X-Files and give episodes that feel satisfying as “scary stories” and as emotional stories. It has been an uneven run of episodes, which shows that The X-Files still has life in it left when it is handled well, but that it should really think about the stories it wants to tell in an environment where so many quality shows out there make viewers less forgiving of missteps.”
#TheXFiles finale D-1!!! We look back at the show’s previous finales that could have been series finales… First: season 1 The Erlenmeyer Flask! Deep Throat killed, XF closed.
Mar 20, 2018 19:37
#TheXFiles finales: Season 5 The End : CSM back from the dead, XF closed! Although a bit of a cheat, they knew they were coming back for season 6 at the time.
#TheXFiles finales: Season 8 Existence: Scully and Mulder’s son is born!
Mar 20, 2018 19:57
#TheXFiles finales: Season 9 The Truth: CSM dies, Mulder and Scully find each other!
Mar 20, 2018 20:02
#TheXFiles finales: I Want To Believe bonus: Scully/Anderson and Mulder/Duchovny wave us goodbye!
Mar 20, 2018 20:05
#TheXFiles finales: My Struggle II: the world ends! (because season 11 could never have happened!)
Mar 21, 2018 14:52
#TheXFiles finale D-DAY! The media and Carter are already on the post-finale world, already thinking that this franchise still has more life in it and, more specifically, has life in it without Anderson/Scully. If there is more, I would rather prefer a more in-depth overhaul and lose both M&S.
“Does Carter have an idea of who could replace Anderson? “I don’t, but I’ve been working on this for a year. I’m tired and I don’t want to think about it right now,” Carter said with a laugh.”
#XFMyStruggle4 was more closure than I expected – Chris Carter clearly wants to do away with all the mythology baggage and start anew. With the mess he has made I don’t blame him. 1993-2000 #TheXFiles is still my personal canon. Short review coming soon.
Meet Jackson “William” Van de Kamp! #TheXFiles Ghouli might be problematic in the way it is part of a larger continuity, but as an episode it is very effective. Analysis of a flawed character, breakdown of a simlified mythology for the revival age, and general review of an episode that albeit good, if this really is the final season, does frustratingly little to advance the story! https://www.eatthecorn.com/2018/02/03/11×05-ghouli/
Meet Jackson “William” Van de Kamp! #TheXFiles Ghouli might be problematic in the way it is part of a larger continuity, but as an episode it is very effective. Analysis of a flawed character, breakdown of a simlified mythology for the revival age, and general review of an episode that albeit good, if this really is the final season, does frustratingly little to advance the story!
Titles & air dates of the remaining episodes of #TheXFiles:
11X06 “Kitten”: February 7
11X07 “Rm9sbG93ZXJz”: February 28 [“Followers” in Base64]
11X08 “Nothing Lasts Forever”: March 7
11X09 “Familiar”: March 14
11X10 “My Struggle IV”: March 21
Feb 10, 2018 13:50
#TheXFiles Gabe Rotter’s first script does the job, but it is highly derivative of Blood and Sleepless and a repeat of every single previous Skinner-focused episode, along with that frustrating stand-alone/mythology divide. Competent directing, but overall a lack of energy. Also, I do have issues with chemtrails!
An in-depth look at ghouli.net, which might or might not be #TheXFiles canon, and what it tells us about Jackson/William’s life:
Age 6, 2007: the tarantula incident, which results in him being experimented on, developing mental powers and telekinesis; a traumatic experience; his memory is either erased or he suppresses the memory because of the trauma, possibly both
Age 7, 2008: developing a capability for remote viewing, first connection with “mother”/Scully
Closer to 2017/2018: starts seeing This Man in dreams, feels that he can connect with others via dreams
Has seizures with visions he cannot control, which result in him frequently visiting a hospital
More and more specific dreams of the world ending, of a man-made viral disaster and aliens arriving; he connects with Scully by unwillingly sending her his visions, and senses that she is his biological mother (possibly this unlocks his childhood memories that he had compartmentalized or had had erased)
Hospital doctors confirm there is something biologically peculiar about him (blood chimera: two genes expressed in a single body, hinting that William has more than two biological parents)
William is contacted by a resistance group that could be constituted by a generation of children of William’s age that has some of the same mental powers as him, pointing him to Project Crossroads and to him learning about his nature
William creates Ghouli as a way to deal with his confusion, mixing in it his self-hate, his alien nature and his arachnophobia since his childhood trauma; he creates ghouli.net
William has a morbid attractiveness to death and the apocalypse; he realizes he is both a weapon and a cure to whatever inevitable future is coming.
Armed with that knowledge, after the events of the episode Ghouli, he takes off to travel the country in search of more information about himself, those who created him and those that send him messages or visions.
In essence, ghouli.net does what the series should be doing more of instead of focusing too narrowly on the old show formula: character development. William combines a story of a troubled teen with superpowers and a concentrated version of the seasons 1-6 mythology — the Black Oil/Spartan virus apocalypse-by-design along with Gibson/Cassandra/William, the perfect alien/human hybrid that would bring protection to the chosen few of the Syndicate/elites.
Great news! Coming by the end of 2018 or early 2019: Volume 4 of @[114444205294473:274:Mark Snow]’s music for #TheXFiles by @[56031953754:274:La-La Land Records]! Hopefully this and many other cues from our compilation of requests will be in there:
#46DaysOfMythX D-2 and Happy New Year! 10X1: My Struggle
The big return is actually a well-executed episode of 21st century television, in terms of flow and pacing. However, it accumulates error after error of continuity and odd decisions that I really struggle to enjoy much of it. The viewer shouldn’t be left to wonder that much if what is shown is to be taken at face value as #TheXFiles’ worldview and what is set up to be subverted for later developments (Mulder & Tad’s conspiracy rants, the Old informant, the lack of explanation of the CSM’s return, what happened with the 2012 colonization date)… At least the motivations of Mulder & Scully to return to the FBI should be provided (e.g. obviously the search for William, as in the comics that preceded the live revival)!
The last one! A “part 2” that has hardly any relation to part 1. Feature film ambitions with cutting-edge science hampered by a far, far too breakneck speed tempo and some bad dialogue. This could have been a “XF3” resolution to the colonization storyline — but on closer scrutiny it looks like it is incompatible with earlier seasons mythology. Will #TheXFiles season 11 be able to salvage something from Carter’s bold bet on ending with such a cliffhanger?
#TheXCastPodwatch: a great achievement in #TheXFiles fandom, a herculean effort! Congratulations to @[582102203:2048:AJ] & @[511473157:2048:Carl] & team!
#TheXCastPodwatch Ep 107! The last Podwatch! We reflect on the Podwatch journey and talk Season 11! #TheXFiles
Thanks to you all for coming with us for the ride!
Jan 03, 2018 23:50
#46DaysOfMythX D-Day! A look back at two years of developments that brought us from #TheXFiles season 10 to season 11, and whether this will be the or another end!…
No #TheXFiles panel at this year’s TCA. However, straight from FOX’s CEO:
If Gillian Anderson won’t return to X-Files and Chris Carter won’t do the show without Gillian…“if those are the circumstances, there won’t be any more X-Files,” says Dana Walden. #TCA18
#TheXFiles 11X01: My Struggle III review. Brace yourselves, this is a long one!
All in all, a definitive improvement on the confused My Struggle I and II: we are moving towards a definitive direction and characters have agency. The episode manages to raise many plot points and possibilities in a short amount of time, needless to say this review would have been shorter had possible interpretations/plot holes not been so many, which is good in some way. A strong premiere in certain plot points it raises, a sincere attempt at making the mythology coherent again that stumbles in several points (which some would dismiss as details), a horrible premiere in terms of filmic narration, and an open question as to what extent just scattered scenes in the stand-alones and one single episode in the finale can be sufficient time to make these plot points justice.
“This” is more like it! Glen Morgan writes and directs an episode that is light on plot but strong on Mulder-Scully interactions, making full use of that infamous chemistry that gained such a longevity to this show!
“So given this trope of forced impregnation and childbearing in the era of #metoo, even in the context of science fiction and dystopian narratives, what constitutes an empathetic and ethically told rape story? The answer cannot be that rape and assault are forbidden subjects for writers and creators. These things exist in the world and are a tragic part of many (women’s, men’s) lives. Well-told stories should deal with them. Similarly, the answer cannot be that men are forbidden from writing about women’s experiences any more than women should be forbidden from writing about men’s.
Much of the outrage over #TheXFiles’ plot point crystallized around the fact that this revelation was clearly intended to more to shock and horrify than anything else. And even if the unreliable narration of CSM turns out wrong, as fans hope and pray, there will be the inexcusable fact that the show raised the specter of assault and rape in such a way that obscures the psychological and emotional ramifications of such deeds for a cheap twist. Because Scully remains in the dark, there is no possibility for wrestling with the implications of her assault”
Carter back to writing a fresh #TheXFiles stand-alone! I liked the “bread and butter” investigation — but I really, really didn’t like the Mulder-Scully bed scenes, and it’s not because I’m not a shipper (at this point these categories don’t make sense). Here is why.
Keeping tabs on #TheXFiles science! No hard results yet but Chinese scientists are one step ahead compared to US/European scientists:
“China is taking the lead in the global race to perfect gene therapies. Scientists have genetically engineered the cells of at least 86 cancer and HIV patients in the country using Crispr-Cas9 technology since 2015. Although no formal scientific papers have been written about these experiments, doctors told journalists at the WSJ that some patients have improved. There have also been at least 15 deaths, although only about half of them were reportedly related to the gene therapy itself. These therapies, which involved taking the immune cells from hospital patients, editing the cells, and transfusing them back into the body, are the first to use Crispr-Cas9 in living humans.”
The mystery of what @[8473603278:274:IDW Publishing] was going to do with #TheXFiles comics after their monthly series wrapped up last August has been solved: from April, “Case Files” is coming, with a format well-adapted to the comics world, but without @[506008038:2048:Joe Harris]’s on-going storyline format.
“The Case Files banner will be made up of numerous micro-series featuring X-Files stories taking place across the show’s timeline. Unlike their previous ongoing X-Files series, Case Files will not have a dedicated creative team, but will instead feature stories and artwork from a number of different writers and artists.”
A dive into the past of the internet all the way to the present #TheXFiles fandom, by @[383602778393543:274:Den of Geek US] & XF Lexicon – including an EatTheCorn mention!
“The world’s gone mad!” Darin Morgan strikes a sensible chord and goes much further than just the obvious @[153080620724:274:Donald J. Trump] post-truth mess. An episode that manages to make its own existence and that of the revival irrelevant with “It’s time to face the facts, guys. This is the end of #TheXFiles”! We go meta on the nostalgia in our review.
Sometimes, it’s the bright lights that start as tiny specs in the distance. I try to evade them, because they frighten me the most. But they rush me and overtake me. They hover above as one, like the lights of a spaceship, and then they swirl and embrace me and take me to darkness. Weightless, it feels like the void of death — non-existence. Fear overtakes. I seize again.
When I seize, I transmit. I don’t know why or how. I don’t always know the message. But I know it’s important. And it’s important that she be the receiver. But transmission means pain for both.
Do we bare the same scars? Slashed forehead and chin. Broken wrist and arm. Two or three concussions. I’ve fallen when there’s been no one to catch me. Does she have someone to hold her hand, to break her fall? I hope she’s safe and cared for. She shouldn’t suffer more pain than I’ve endured myself. I want her to hear me, but I don’t want her to hurt, not because of my uncontrollable screaming skull.
