TV WI: The X-Files continues.

Reggie Bartlett · Apr 29, 2014

I was able to finish the X-Files, Millennium and the Lone Gunmen over the course of 14 months. Even the later seasons weren't that horrible, 9th was iffy, but it had some truly heart wrenching episodes.

WI: Somehow, 9/11 is either prevented, or, Carter and Ten-Thirteen productions is successfully able to revitalize the show on a Doggett/Reyes formula? Does the series continue in a post-9/11 environment? How do alternate story-arcs look?

OldNavy1988 · Apr 29, 2014

I think the X Files could still be relevant with or without 9/11, and maybe lose a little bit of creative steam as Bush 43's administration is ending and Obama takes office.

Reggie Bartlett · Apr 29, 2014

OldNavy1988 said:
I think the X Files could still be relevant with or without 9/11, and maybe lose a little bit of creative steam as Bush 43's administration is ending and Obama takes office.

Part of the reason the show lost steam is because Dukovny left. Doggett and Reyes are awesome characters, but they'd have one hell of a baton to take from Mulder and Scully.

OldNavy1988 · Apr 29, 2014

OldNavy1988 said:
I think the X Files could still be relevant with or without 9/11, and maybe lose a little bit of creative steam as Bush 43's administration is ending and Obama takes office.

Reggie Bartlett said:
Part of the reason the show lost steam is because Dukovny left. Doggett and Reyes are awesome characters, but they'd have one hell of a baton to take from Mulder and Scully.

How big would Mulder and Scully's shoes be for Doggett and Reyes to fill?

Reggie Bartlett · Apr 29, 2014

OldNavy1988 said:
How big would Mulder and Scully's shoes be for Doggett and Reyes to fill?

Mulder and Scully had a long standing sexual tension that FINALLY came to fruition in he 8th season.

From late season 8 onwards, you do sense it between a divorced Doggett and single Reyes. Perhaps they could pick up on that.

9/11 I think, killed it.

You see, just about a year before the attacks, there were episodes of the X-Files, and it's spinoff, the Lone Gunmen regarding government false flag operations (one of which was a terrorist attack on the Twin Towers!).

Dilvish · Apr 29, 2014

Reggie Bartlett said:
Part of the reason the show lost steam is because Dukovny left. Doggett and Reyes are awesome characters, but they'd have one hell of a baton to take from Mulder and Scully.

I think Doggett and Reyes were good characters. Perhaps there would have been more success with the characters if they were spun off from the X-Files?

Nae'Blis · Apr 29, 2014

I think Fox wax willing to give the show at least one more season, the problem was that they figured some major changes were needed to keep the show competitive and Carter was of the view that they were not doing a bad job. I think the real issue is just that Carter was getting burned out, someone else (perhaps Gilligan) would need to take over more responsibility.

Torqumada · Apr 29, 2014

Reggie Bartlett said:
Mulder and Scully had a long standing sexual tension that FINALLY came to fruition in he 8th season.

From late season 8 onwards, you do sense it between a divorced Doggett and single Reyes. Perhaps they could pick up on that.

9/11 I think, killed it.

You see, just about a year before the attacks, there were episodes of the X-Files, and it's spinoff, the Lone Gunmen regarding government false flag operations (one of which was a terrorist attack on the Twin Towers!).

It was an irony that there were "hints" of government over reach in the 90's (Black helicopters! FEMA camps! Men in Black! The UN is coming!) that made it conspiracy theory on national TV during the 90's, but in the aughts, when the government was really over reaching or attempting to over reach on things like phone records, library books, financial records etc (things that could lend themselves to real life conspiracy theories), that it wasn't seen on fictional shows on national TV.

Torqumada

Queeney · Apr 29, 2014

In my opinion, Doggett and Reyes were the ones who destroyed X-Files. Once they came to the show, the mystery element that made the show so great largely disappeared, and elements such as action and the unnecessarily large focus on 'emotions' became more prominent.

Reggie Bartlett · Apr 29, 2014

Torqumada said:
It was an irony that there were "hints" of government over reach in the 90's (Black helicopters! FEMA camps! Men in Black! The UN is coming!) that made it conspiracy theory on national TV during the 90's, but in the aughts, when the government was really over reaching or attempting to over reach on things like phone records, library books, financial records etc (things that could lend themselves to real life conspiracy theories), that it wasn't seen on fictional shows on national TV.

Torqumada

Kinda odd how the X-Files predicted some things that would happen over the next 15 years.

Orville_third · Apr 30, 2014

Sadly, you'd have to butterfly the move to LA to help a lot.

Reggie Bartlett · Apr 30, 2014

Orville_third said:
Sadly, you'd have to butterfly the move to LA to help a lot.

Seeing as how the feature film "Fight the Future" pretty much required that move, I don't see that happening...

Nae'Blis · Apr 30, 2014

Reggie Bartlett said:
Seeing as how the feature film "Fight the Future" pretty much required that move, I don't see that happening...

Why would that move have been required by the film? I don't see why the TV show could not have continued there, but it is my understanding the stars really wanted to make the move (and anyway it did allow them a broader talent pool as well as new areas to film in).

I think shifting to a film franchise, with an earlier Long Gunman spinoff plus a Dogget/Reyes (or whatever characters they come up with) spinoff of X-Files: Dark Forces or whatever that stayed more true to the original but was still trying to be its own thing.

Reggie Bartlett · Apr 30, 2014

jamhaw said:
Why would that move have been required by the film? I don't see why the TV show could not have continued there, but it is my understanding the stars really wanted to make the move (and anyway it did allow them a broader talent pool as well as new areas to film in).

I think shifting to a film franchise, with an earlier Long Gunman spinoff plus a Dogget/Reyes (or whatever characters they come up with) spinoff of X-Files: Dark Forces or whatever that stayed more true to the original but was still trying to be its own thing.

Continuing with a successor series with Doggett/Reyes, after wrapping up Mulder/Scully's storyline would be interesting.

Doggett the skeptic, Reyes the believer, are the Lone Gunmen still dead? And the Super Soldiers run around in the Second Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina!

Nae'Blis · Apr 30, 2014

Well in this scenario wherein the Lone Gunmen had their own spinoff earlier I think it is plausible that the show could be more successful so they might never die off at all. I'm not sure the Mulder/Scully story would be wrapped either, rather it would be told in films (probably mostly big budget myth arc films, perhaps with some occasional small motw I want to Believe style films). Doubtless they would still show up on the shows occasionally (Mulder had a cameo in the last episode of Long Gunmen) but not that frequently, these would be their own independent spin offs operating within the broader franchise.

Reggie Bartlett · May 1, 2014

jamhaw said:
Well in this scenario wherein the Lone Gunmen had their own spinoff earlier I think it is plausible that the show could be more successful so they might never die off at all. I'm not sure the Mulder/Scully story would be wrapped either, rather it would be told in films (probably mostly big budget myth arc films, perhaps with some occasional small motw I want to Believe style films). Doubtless they would still show up on the shows occasionally (Mulder had a cameo in the last episode of Long Gunmen) but not that frequently, these would be their own independent spin offs operating within the broader franchise.

How does this end for characters like Frank Black?

Reggie Bartlett · May 1, 2014

Because, I think if anything was to continue the way it would in the best case scenario.

Seasons 6-7 would continue as per OTL, 8 would be a bit different with more Mulder, the Lone Gunmen spinoff gets a second season with more Morris Fletcher to go with season 9/10 and then we transition to a new series that focused on Doggett/Reyes into the 00's.

Nae'Blis · May 1, 2014

Reggie Bartlett said:
How does this end for characters like Frank Black?

Hard to say, I'm not sure Millenium would be saved by this fiddling around frankly. I suppose it would depend on when the spinoffs are produced, Lone Gunmen's earlier existence would not effect things.

You could perhaps end up with a better wrap up for the character in the X:files spinoff. I felt the later seasons were moving in a more Millenium style direction and I think that with Millenium canceled the spinoff might move in more of a season 2 / good parts of season 3 Millenium direction, possibly even making Black a recurring character. I think the desire to wrap up his storyline would be enough to get an episode made if an X-files type show existed, (Lone Gunmen excepted, that would turn out terrible) and with a show only somewhat connected to the original, X:Files Darks Forces or whatever might be more open to bringing in things from Millenium as sort of an extended universe thing. The focus would be on doing their own thing, but Mulder and Scully would probably show up in at least a couple episodes a season, and doubtless Krycheck and the CSM would have the occasional small role although they would probably be mostly focused on the movies.

Nae'Blis · May 1, 2014

Come to think of it would anyone happen to know why the initial plan to shift to a film franchise was abandoned? Was it just that Fight the Future underperformed at the Box Office?

Reggie Bartlett · May 2, 2014

jamhaw said:
Come to think of it would anyone happen to know why the initial plan to shift to a film franchise was abandoned? Was it just that Fight the Future underperformed at the Box Office?

It was I Want to Believe that killed it.