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A step closer to the truth

Rebirth of ‘The X-Files’ reunites Mulder and Scully, once again

Reuters January 20, 2016

Cast members Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny pose at a premiere for The X-Files at California Science Center in Los Angeles, California. PHOTO: REUTERS

LOS ANGELES: For nine years on Fox’s hit sci-fi show The X-Files, FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully searched for an alien truth that was seemingly hidden in the skies. But as they return to screens this week, the truth might be much closer to home.

Starting January 24, six new episodes will reunite Mulder, played by David Duchovny, and Scully, portrayed by Gillian Anderson. The pair spent nine seasons investigating cases involving government cover-ups, unidentified flying objects and ‘monsters’ stemming from folklore.

From 1993 to 2002 the series followed Mulder, a dogged believer in extra-terrestrial existence and unexplained phenomena, and Scully (Gillian Anderson), a skeptic with a degree in medicine, who tried to debunk her partner’s theories.

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As the pair reunite, the years have taken a toll. Scully is a surgeon, while a depressed Mulder has isolated himself from the world. They are not in a relationship, and neither one is in the FBI any more.

The world, meanwhile, has only served up more unexplained phenomena, said series creator Chris Carter. “Conspiracy has gone mainstream,” Carter said. “We’ve got a government who admits to spying on us, so we are in a brave new world of sorts.”

In the new series, an Internet-based conspiracy theorist piques Mulder and Scully’s interest with a young woman who says she has been abducted numerous times. The culprits might not be little green aliens, but rather, a human conspiracy.

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“It actually tests Scully’s faith in science being able to explain everything as it always has,” Carter said. “It lights a fire under Mulder. I think that it not only reignites the series, but the quest of the two characters.”

Carter said The X-Files could continue as a limited series, pending ratings and Duchovny and Anderson’s respective schedules as both have had success post X-Files.

The X-Files finale in 2002 coincided with a shift in people’s perceptions of the US government in a post-9/11 world, Carter said.

“The idea that the government was conspiring against us was contradictory to what people wanted to believe, which is that the government could protect us,” Carter said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2016.

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