baileythedog

Yeah, I hear you. I'm frankly puzzled by this. At first I was cheered by the fact that there were new writers at all. (On top of Morgans & Wong who I am very glad to see return since I think their outings were solid in S10.) But looking up the newbies and, beyond having been writers' assistants back in the day, (which I have no quarrel with--everyone starts somewhere), none of them have any substantial writing credits SINCE then. And the only thing that Brad Follmer has is a terrible S9 character named after him. So....I dunno. I agree that some fresh blood was needed to mix it up but I'm truly annoyed that it isn't that "fresh" at all. And there are PLENTY of excellent women writers for TV out there. Grab any of the spectacular women that were writing for "House" or "Mad Men" to name a few from shows that I truly adored and that featured complex plotting and/or intricate character detail.

X-Files in the media, albeit not in the best light possible. Commentary how, in 2017, there can not be a single female writer hired in the writers' room. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/06/28/the-x-files-writers-room-reportedly-has-hired-only-men-how-does-this-still-happen/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.376a50880697#comments

I'm relying on others. IMDb is no more. I don't and won't visit The Haven. Not even sure who on earth to follow on Twitter to get spoilers from. So unless 1.) I decide to take a production job up in Vancouver or 2.) it dribbles out into the mainstream press, I think I'm unlikely to ever hear anything. Which, arguably, is a good thing? But, to your point, I don't know that we would get many spoilers based on just the scripts. Probably won't hear anything until various smaller roles get cast, etc, and shooting starts.

I don't know if this is really spoilers or just plain "media" but it looks like Glen Morgan will write at least two episodes in the upcoming re-revival and Darin Morgan will write one. I suspect Darin will have already gotten started on his given how long it takes him to crank out a script. http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/the-x-files/265324/x-files-season-11-glen-and-darin-morgan-to-pen-new-episodes

I suppose what would really suck--and possibly delay XF production--is if the WGA can't work out a deal this week and the writers go on strike again. (That, of course, presumes that all episodes are not written yet. Perhaps that is incorrect and TXF, magically, gets to take advantage of a writers' strike TWICE; once in 2007 and again in 2017.) http://deadline.com/2017/04/writers-guild-strike-authorization-vote-approved-wga-hollywood-1202076382/

Yes to Spotnitz and yes to women writers. It's long past time. And frankly, I'd like to see another DD script if he's got one in him. I really like how he writes Mulder and Scully and I suspect he's got about the most intellectually invested in this right about now. The last series Spotnitz was tied up with "Man in the High Castle"--now, not so much. It looks like he's got some EP credits for two series in 2017, but hard to know his ultimate attachment to them. I hope he's free for XF work. I suspect VG is out.

I don't need CC to write zero, exactly, but I do hope for more writers than we saw in S10. I really, really liked "Founder's Mutation" and thought "Home Again" would have been far better if it weren't so jammed with disparate storylines. I'd be all for having a new writer that isn't currently associated with TXF join in as well. (Fortunately, I also doubt that CC can write 10 eps by himself, even if he were that vain-glorious.)

Oh hellz yeah! Fox ordered 10 more episodes of The X-Files! Production is this summer, going to hit 2017-2018 season. http://ew.com/tv/2017/04/20/x-files-fox-season-11/

So it's not quite the revival we were thinking of, but it looks like the creative team is going to take on the Joe Harris X-Files stories in audiobook format. So I'm interested that it covers the years between 2008 and last years' revival. And I guess now that Podcasts are the rage, an audiobook is next best thing? Still, I hope this is a stopgap project while Fox figures out if they're able to do another event series. http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/04/11/audible_announces_a_new_x_files_audiobook_starring_david_duchovny_and_gillian.html

Just as a heads up, "The X-Files" (Along with Angel, Buffy, Firefly) is leaving Netflix on April 1st. That sucks. Netflix had the beautiful HD version of the show. I know that it is also on Amazon Prime, but not sure if they are HD there?

New interview with David where he implies that more episodes are on the way:

I can quibble with the pacing of the S10 series but IMO the characters were spot on. It's the one thing that I think CC absolutely nailed with the return series. I recognized older, wearier, heartbroken Mulder and Scully immediately and understood precisely why they might not have made it as a romantic couple--or were at least on a break--but were still the most important people in each other's lives.

Having re-watched the season again at some point after the original series, William's paternity was far less ambiguous than what I had previously remembered. There are plenty of obvious clues both in the text and the subtext that speak to this. The very first cold open to the season is Scully's nightmare of Mulder being tied to something that looks like an umbilical cord. Beyond that, Essence / Existence was thrillingly paced and wrapped up the X-Files story and certainly Mulder and Scully's story well. Even though at the time the 8th season was pretty much an unexpected gift of a season, it should have ended there. And without all that contract drama, it would have for both DD and GA. The 9th season only served to undue much of the goodwill that S8 earned.

Possibly, but I don't think the elevator conversation could have taken TOO much long before the IVF actually began. I don't think Scully waited too long to get that Ova rushed to her doctor and then that Dr. Parenti basically told her that the needed to get started pretty quickly. Anyway, I think it's another timeline that the writers weren't too careful with, along with Scully's 13 month pregnancy. Obviously because they were writing it in S8 and trying to retrofit entirely new concepts into the show. I mean, really, the fact that we see absolutely zero hint of an emotional fallout due to the fact that M&S actively tried to have a baby and failed at it is pretty inexcusable. And certainly because the whole IVF is just a red herring anyway.

I don't think they do take place all at the same time, but I also don't think they can be as spread out so much that it covers a span of years and I think the show wanted us to think that Scully's "last chance" could have plausibly fit into her present pregnancy timeline. Then again, I don't think we ever know how many ova were saved / recovered and so I guess she could have gone through that cycle of failure more than once. (Although don't they pretty much stop you from trying more than three times to implant? Never mind it being ungodly expensive after awhile.)

I thought this was a much stronger, funnier show than many gave it credit for. Yes, it had some weak spots and yes, the pilot was actually terrible compared to the rest of the show. Critics rightfully flamed it based on that pilot alone, but this episode with Groban and Paisley was fantastic. (As was Groban's other, earlier appearance in "Sydney.") For producing such consistently lame music, he's actually very funny.

Uh, yeah, I guess I should have put a title on that one....heh.

Probably because it's Memorial Day, but for some reason this episode popped into my mind today. It isn't my favorite episode of all time, but I like it quite a bit and it is certainly unique in The X-Files canon. A lot of people seem to really hate this episode and I confess, I don't fully understand why. (Full disclosure: I don't have a problem with the acting by anyone in any scene.) This is an episode definitely influenced by events in the 90s that maybe aren't so apparent today. Topically, it's a throw back to some of the stories that had resurfaced about the Civil War thanks in part to the runaway success of the Ken Burns "Civil War" series on PBS. (For those that are younger, Burns' "The Civil War" was really the first project that put him on the map and although his style of using photographs and music and voiceover with talking head interviews was the first of its kind in documentary form, he very much popularized it. For awhile, Apple's iMovie had a feature called "The Burns Effect" to use when you wanted a photo to move in slow motion during video editing.) The names "Sullivan" and "Sarah" for Mulder and Melissa's past lives came straight from the Rhode Island lawyer / politician / officer Sullivan Ballou whose wonderful letter to his wife Sarah right before the Battle of Bull Run was recreated in Burns' film. Ballou was mortally wounded in that battle but suggested that he might someday see his wife again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0C-euAyCTU&feature=youtu.be Also, we haven't had a good religious cult mass death experience lately but the 90s were rife with them. The compound at Waco obviously influenced this episode and the following year the Hale-Bopp group also managed to mass exterminate themselves. The Jonestown massacre of the late 70s obviously popularized the idea of "drinking the koolaid." We live now in an age of terrorism where the religious extremists are pushing violence and death to unaffiliated populations rather than just doing themselves in. I really like how The X-Files tried to bridge all these ideas together and depict it not only from a law enforcement perspective but from someone who is willing to believe in past lives and encapsulate the spirit of the Ballou battlefield letter. In my mind, this episode would be the flip side to what "Babylon" was trying to convey in S10.

I'm all for keeping it civil, but I truly don't understand what people mean by it needs to be more modern for 2016 audiences and I'm not sure anyone has really explained that. So I would be interested for that explanation so I can understand where people are coming from.

The more I hear terms like "greatest hits" and "not telling a story" versus showcasing styles, I can't help but think what people are looking for is a serialized storyline. To me, there were recognizable themes present throughout each episode even if the plots were different. I also disagree entirely with the idea that M&S were separated for 1/3 of the series. (Has someone actually done the math on that?) They were together in most of "My Struggle", for virtually every scene in "Founder's Mutation", for all but the cemetery discussion in "M&S Meet the Weremonster", and for the vast majority of the non-monster scenes in "Home Again." Their togetherness bookends "Babylon." I'll agree that they should have had far more screen time together in "My Struggle II." But that didn't constitute 1/3 of the season by any stretch.

Okay, fair enough. I've seen you write "they haven't adapted to a 2016 audience" more than once and I confess I have no idea what you mean by that. I watched TV then and I watch TV now. I like "The X-Files" to look and feel like "The X-Files" and I like "Mad Men" or "Fargo" or "Bojack Horseman" to look and feel like their own shows, too. Aside from the fact that I know "TXF" really wanted 8-9 episodes and only could get 6 which lent a rushed aspect to some of the episodes, the show I liked in the 90s was absolutely recognizable and enjoyable in 2016.

I think episodes were rushed, certainly, but the show is never just one theme or another and there are always MOTW mixed in with mythology mixed in with humor episodes. According to the rules of everything is serialized in 2016, we can really only have one long story that picks up precisely where the previous episode left off which excludes many facets of what the show actually was. IMO that's why movies don't really serve the show well because a movie has to be committed solely to one genre or tone whereas the value of the show was that it revealed the characters and the overall storyline through many shifts in tone and genres. That's the brand of the show and shouldn't change just because it's 2016.

Agreed. I've never understood the backlash against "Closure." I've loved it since it aired. It was an elegant answer that instantly rendered everything before it true but also did not subject Samantha to a lifetime of suffering. And the fact that she'd be dead longer than Mulder had been looking was poetic in its sadness. The beautiful cinematography and the shot where Mulder sees Samantha just running straight toward him makes me gasp every time.

I don't want that at all. The X-Files is its own brand and viewers recognize it. What would be the point of changing it's pace or styling?

Fox recently announced that they won't be able to produce any more episodes for the upcoming TV season but all parties are still interested and they are hopeful for an agreement for the 2017-2018 season. The actors' scheduling is the sticking point.