Do the X-Files exist?

THE truth was out there but uncovering it was difficult. Ten years after The X-Files were opened for the first time, Mulder and Scully have handed in their badges and have nothing to do but polish the 15 Emmy awards and five Golden Globes that the series collected during the nine seasons it aired.

The only mystery for David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, who inhabited the characters of the paranormal-investigating pair, is where the next acting job is coming from.

Gone are the days we worried what happened to Mulder's sister, what the US government was trying to hide, were there really aliens amongst us -and why the pair made guest appearances on The Simpsons.

The answer to the question in all our minds: 'Do the X-Files exist?' is about to be answered. They do, on DVD. To mark the tenth anniversary of the series debuting on TV screens, all nine seasons are being re-opened, re-packaged and re-priced for home viewing.

For Chris Carter, who created the show while working for a surfing magazine, the end of The X-Files was obviously a big deal. He found it hard to make the announcement that the ninth season would be the last, although the decision to quit while the series was ahead was made easier because it was up against stiff competition on the US networks.

"Our numbers were down. We'd always had the good fortune of always being the winner for eight seasons," he recalls. "Then, while they were respectable ratings, we were sort of neck and neck with the competition. We'd been heavily counter-programmed - Saving Private Ryan was our first Sunday, our next Sunday was Britney Spears on HBO. Britney Spears is that perfect show, kids watch it and parents watch it, for different reasons, of course."

He didn't want the media to start taking potshots at the show, saying it wasn't as good as it used to be, because of the falling ratings. He thought that would be unfair because he believed the series was still doing good work. "It's not like the audience showed up and decided they didn't like the show. They just didn't come, for whatever reason. I don't know, it's a mysterious X factor.

"I just decided it was time to go, to go out strong, and to look forward to the future, which is hopefully doing some X-Files movies. I wanted to reward people for watching the show for nine years and to go out strong, to give them something and hopefully have people say, 'Wow, we didn't realise how good the show was and now we're sorry to see it go'."

The X-Files was the number one sci-fi show of the 1990s, achieving cult status around the world. It gave the Fox network a big global hit, with Sky One screening episodes over here ahead of the BBC. A feature film, starring Duchovny and Anderson, in 1998, was a success too.

Undoubtedly, the show had an impact around the world, although Carter reckons he hasn't thought about that much. Apart from Japan and New Zealand, he didn't have the chance to travel abroad to experience first-hand the international success of The X-Files.

"As far as what it's done on television, when I watch shows now, particularly ones that are FBI shows, CIA shows, espionage shows, even CSI, I see our attention to detail, our lighting, our production design. All the things that go into making these little movies that we made each week I think have affected the standard of good television," he says.

Then there's The X-Files and the Internet, where it's been picked up by the younger generation. "It's weird because sometimes I think we are the first show to really have an intimate relationship with its audience through the Internet.," says Carter.

"The X-Files was the first big hit show to do that. That was extremely helpful to me, and to us, because we got immediate feedback."

Perhaps one reason the series continued so strong for so long was Carter's hands-on involvement as a writer and executive producer. He and another executive producer, Frank Spotnitz, wrote almost every single episode between them.

He wrote or re-wrote 14 of the 21 episodes in the final season. "What I had is this fantastic production crew and these great producers who've taken up a lot of the slack, or I should say have taken over a lot of the responsibilities that I used to have. It's allowed me to have a much more manageable approach to my work," he says.

Bringing David Duchonovy back for the final series was a key decision as he wanted to end "in a sort of symmetrical way, where we began in a way". The actor also got to direct an episode. He'd been asked to write and direct, which he wanted to do, but time was against him. "He couldn't write, so I said, 'Let me write something for you'. I presented it to him and he agreed to direct it," explains Carter.

Now The X-Files are waiting to be re-opened on the big screen. Carter always intended to continue the Mulder and Scully saga on the big screen. The truth out there may yet be revealed.

The first three re-packaged seasons of The X-Files (15) are available to buy on DVD from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, £39.99 each. The other six seasons will be released in two further stages at later dates.

Published: 09/10/2004