Happy new year! Perhaps the last year without an X-Files reboot? We continue our catch-up of 30th anniversary interviews with an audio commentary of “5X04: Detour” with writer Frank Spotnitz thanks to The X-Cast: An X-Files Podcast! Summary below:
With TXF, the writers-producers explicitly tried to make something that would last the pass of time [30 years later, congratulations!]; they had in mind Jaws (leave it to the imagination to fill the blanks); they were conscious to write strong women characters (like when Scully had to protect an impaired Mulder); the smart MSR was at the heart of the show
Shooting in the woods was a cost-saving measure, but weather made it costly (because of the rain, they had to build the camp fire scene in a set); How The Ghosts Stole Christmas was also a cost-saving ep but set building made it very expensive; Dod Kalm was successful in saving money
Behind the names: Marty and Michael were FS’s business partners; Louis was a cousin of FS; Michelle Fazekas was a 1013 assistant; West Virginia setting is where FS’s mother is from; Jeff Glaser was a Fox executive that gave them notes (“it’s only scary as it is believable”)
Leon County: a clue to Ponce de Leon
FS had done a lot of mytharc at that point, he wanted to do a stand-alone
Inspiration: things that scared FS when he was a kid, like a dog barking at something unknown at night; was fascinated with tree rings
Introductiory scenes: invest the viewer in secondary characters before something bad happens; also, FS had just become a parent a few years before
FBI team-building comedy scene was Carter’s idea
Brett Dowler had done a lot of 2nd unit directing, this was his first ep as director
Leonard Betts: Spotnitz-Gilligan-Shiban were in competitiong with Morgan-Wong on which ep would make it to Superbowl
FS was present in Vancouver for prepping and just the first day of shooting, then back to LA for scripts and post for other eps
1930s The Invisible Man on the TV: it was all about whether they could afford licensing costs
Ground the episodes in reality: Scully is like the smartest member of the audience, if you can erode her skepticism then the script works
During s2 they had to go to the library for research, by s5 they had internet
Civilization is encroahing on nature, that’s why creatures react
Mark Snow wrote so much music, more than the average TV show; editing was done without music, then they’d go to Mark’s home in Santa Monica to hear it with music
Beyond s6 they were wondering what can they say that is new? s8-9 had a different storytelling format, leaning more into The Twilight Zone influences
Director of photography Joel Ransom used a lot of steadicam; even in interiors scenes the light is not flat, half their faces are in shadow
FS developed a show with Adam Rapp (brother of actor Anthony Rapp) but that didn’t get made
Creature stealing stones: inspired by Planet of the Apes (humans steal clothes), one of FS’s favourites
They typically had 8 days main unit, at least 2 days 2nd unit (which here did things like POV shots of the forest); the record was Jose Chung’s, 20 days (!)
Every 12 pages of script there had to be a cliffhanger for the act break, that forced good discipline for script writing; FS still does it even if there’s no need for commercials breaks
Mulder’s line “I don’t wanna restle” was improvised; there was very little ad-libbing, actors were used to follow the script closely, a lot of pressure to make the air date; today, there are daily phone calls, actors feel more empowered and change lines, the culture of movie-making has moved to TV, sometimes it is for the better
Running out of bullets: FS compares it to Hitchcock’s “Notorious”, where Cary Grant and Claude Rains run out of champagne
Mulder’s disappearance: they trimmed individual frames to make it seem sudden
The monster was a mix of practical and early CG effects
FS wanted M&S alone scene like in Quagmire; they rarely did character continuity, like Scully reflecting on her cancer
Originally Scully was to sing Hank Williams’ “I’m so lonesome I could cry” but GA said she can’t sing, the only thing she can sing was “Jeremiah…”
They were stuck during script writing on how to get them out of that hole; the solution was team building
The timing was down to the second for the ad breaks, they were shaving frames off shots (!); editing was done in a trailer at the end of the Fox lot
FS thought DD mispronounced “conquistadors” but he was right
They were careful with whose POV they were showing, that final shot with the monster was not Scully’s
Ending: there’s still something left, in typical TXF fashion
An audio commentary of “1X23: The Erlenmeyer Flask” with Chris Carter, coming from The X-Cast: An X-Files Podcast recorded for the 30th anniversary of The X-Files! In a rare treat, The Creator talks about one of the most important episodes of the series and is, well, depending on what you compare it to, tight-lipped or talkative! Highlights below!
opening sequence: shot in North Vancouver docks, used several times, have now been torn down [as I can sadly confirm]
last episode of the season and he was really tired, wrote this in his room at the Sutton Place Hotel in Vancouver [still exists!], put Stone’s “JFK” on and became the background while writing (could have influenced the idea to kill Deep Throat, “sometimes you have to kill your darlings”)
he sat a long while with the people that did the opening credits to fine-tune them
many name references: Roy Lacerio: CC played softball with; Danny Valladeo: was pitcher in CC’s high school baseball team [ha! so it’s confirmed he’s supposed to be named Valladeo!]; Berube: named after a fan who wrote a letter to CC about what she liked and didn’t like about the show; Ardis: name of street in Bellflower where his oldest friend grew up in; William Secare, Fort Marlene: surely there’s a story there but he doesn’t remember
they might have known that there was going to be s2 by this point, they were told they would have a short vacation
episode inspired by conversations with virologist Anne Simon about DNA and nucleotides, became science advisor to the show [see analysis of her book on the science of TXF], Carpenter was her married name; and with Bob Hardy (?), South California doctor who was working on the Human Genome Project
many takes to have monkey try to bite Scully
all scripted, no ad libs, fast production, no room to improvise
if you want to give someone a “tutorial” on what the mythology is about, you show them Pilot, Deep Throat, The Erlenmeyer Flask
he can remember the name of the actor of Crew Cut Man, Lindsey Ginter!
they managed to put so much in a single episode because they plotted out so intricately and elaborately
originally 7 days of shooting, then 8, then additionally 5-8 days of 2nd unit working concurrently, sometimes 3rd unit
detective scenes come from his love of “Sherlock Holmes”
excellent directing from RW Goodwin, director of photography John Bartley set the dark visual tone of the show
can remember every frame of “All The President’s Men” [I can believe that!]
actually shot at a real Pandora Street in Vancouver
he has Zeus Storage sign and alien fetus in his office
Spielberg had called “Close Encounters” speculative fiction; CC gave in to the characterization “science fiction” eventually [I guess CC’s strong dislike of the term science fiction came from its pulpy connotation while he was growing up in the 60s-70s?]
CC had in mind a high-tech facility, Alex Gansa suggested the look of a dark musty rusty warehouse
from the get go TXF was not just going to be an alien show, although the mythology was going to be about that
importance of science, developed a network of people they could call to get things right
was the last episode of the season so he got to be on set for the whole shooting
he wanted to direct an episode as soon as possible, but producing was very time consuming, so it ended up happening in s2
Deep Throat, Syndicate and everything else derived from the idea of the character of CSM
after shooting this, GA went on vacation and got married
GA was not an experienced driver, had difficulty with shooting
alien fetus design: props and art department took an idea and always made it better
he didn’t have Red Museum episode in mind yet, but it was derived from Deep Throat’s line
Deep Throat shooting scene: it was nearing dawn, cameras set up so that it would look night
removing Scully’s boyfriend [Ethan] made Scully’s relationship with Mulder so much more tense
Listen to these two podcasts featuring Julie Ng, an alumnus of Glen Morgan’s and the producer of all the behind the scenes content for the two revival seasons — lots of great little info on the making of the fan-favourite and light-hearted “This”. Confirmation that plenty of dirty and kinky lines were ad-libs on the spot by the two lead actors, which reinforces the impression that in this episode we are seeing more Duchovny & Anderson rather than Mulder & Scully per se. I didn’t know the Ramones’ “California Sun” was a cover — another R&B classic stolen by a rock band!
