The sci-fi drama The X-Files ran for an initial nine seasons on FOX, premiering in the mid-1990s and continuing into the early years of the twenty-first century. On its most basic level, the series follows FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully as they investigate unexplained mysteries that have ties to the supernatural. The X-Files likewise contains a government conspiracy not only regarding the existence of aliens but their plans to occupy planet Earth and subjugate the human race.
More significantly, The X-Files is an example of a television series tapping into the national zeitgeist of the times and evolving into a phenomenon beyond mere entertainment. During the 1990s, the belief that unknown elements of the United States government operated in secret gained widespread acceptance amongst the populace. In 1991, for instance, director Oliver Stone released his three-hour epic JFK, which argued that a vast and extensive conspiracy existed in regard to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Shortly afterwards, technological advances – including the rise of the World Wide Web – united people across the country and around the globe in ways that had never previously existed, allowing for the sharing of information not only within the mainstream but on the fringes as well. The end of the Cold War also upset the norm and introduced a “Brave New World” in its wake. Instead of optimism in the future, these events led to the uncertainty and spiritual emptiness that often arises when the “end of history” gives way to a new era.
A popular poster hanging on the wall of Fox Mulder’s office contains the caption “I Want to Believe,” and millions of Americans soon began to feel the same way about The X-Files. The suggestion that the U.S. government was keeping the existence of aliens a secret was readily accepted by those who already believed in a conspiracy surrounding the JFK assassination, while investigations into the supernatural coincided with an evolving fascination with New Age spiritualism that was growing throughout the country.
The X-Files was also one of the first television shows to take full advantage of the World Wide Web by interacting with fans and building a large network of message boards, chat rooms, and fansites. The X-Files may not have dictated the times, but the sci-fi drama certainly had its finger on the pulse of the 1990s as it skirted the fine line between the conventional and cutting edge.
At the center of The X-Files is Fox Mulder, an Oxford educated FBI agent with above average intelligence and promising future as a psychological profiler. Early in his career, however, Mulder discovered an obscure section of the FBI called the X-Files that dealt with unexplained mysteries that bordered on the supernatural. Mulder himself had a brush with the paranormal in his youth when he witnessed the alien abduction of his younger sister. The sibling was never found, and the event continued to haunt Mulder well into his adult years.
Although Mulder’s investigations into the X-Files sabotaged his FBI career, it did not outright end it. Maybe it was because of unknown friends in high places who wanted to see him succeed, or maybe it was his ability to achieve results even if they were not in a traditional method, but Mulder was assigned a new partner instead of simply being relieved of his duties.
A medical doctor with a solid grasp of various scientific fields, it was the expected task of Dana Scully to not only assist Fox Mulder in his investigations but debunk his supernatural theories with factual evidence based on the physical world. With both believer and skeptic working side-by-side, The X-Files was able to incorporate the various disparaging elements of the country into its singular mystery-of-the-week narratives.
In many ways, The X-Files also served as a new counterculture just as the Baby Boomers were reaching middle age and a member of that generation – Bill Clinton – was taking the reins of president. Mulder and Scully were the keepers of the flame not in terms of universal peace and love, however, but in regard to governmental distrust.
The Syndicate of The X-Files, the secret organization that pulled the strings of the nation for their own agenda, consisted of older white males and were akin to the hated Establishment of the sixties generation. The chief villain of The X-Files, meanwhile – the cold-blooded Cigarette Smoking Man – was later revealed as not only the second gunman in the JFK assassination and the man who fired the rifle that killed Martin Luther King Jr., but that reason why the Buffalo Bills lost four straight Super Bowls during the early 1990s.
While the main antagonists of The X-Files fueled the belief in government conspiracies, the supernatural elements of the series reflected the spiritual void that had slowly engulfed the country at the end of the 1960s. As traditional religious observance began to falter, a need for spirituality grew in its place, and many Americans turned to New Age and the esoteric for answers.
This spiritual transformation was most personified by Fox Mulder. The story of The X-Files, after all, is ultimately the search by one man for answers – in Mulder’s case, answers relating to the disappearance of his sister from decades earlier. Traditional beliefs didn’t offer the necessary closure, so Mulder turned to the supernatural. With keen observation and an innate ability to think outside the box, he saw things that other people failed to acknowledge, either because of ignorance or an inability to believe in something other than the physical world of their senses.
Although Dana Scully had originally been tasked with debunking the theories of Fox Mulder, her own analysis of their investigations often added insight and cohesiveness to Mulder’s conclusions. No matter the situation, Scully was ready with a scientific explanation that countered Mulder’s supernatural beliefs.
In the end, both FBI agents appeared to be correct even if their fundamental philosophies were at odds. Fox Mulder, for instance, did not believe that the supernatural operated outside the norm of the physical world but was instead an extension of scientific doctrines. The pronouncements of Dana Scully, meanwhile, were solidly grounded but open-ended enough to fit in with the conclusions of Mulder.
In the world of The X-Files, science and the supernatural co-existed, just as the spiritual Fox Mulder and the deeply religious Dana Scully complimented each other on both personal and professional levels.
Over the course of its initial nine seasons, The X-Files entertained millions of viewers with the modern day myths of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully while likewise supplying the narrative background for both the nation and the times. Mulder and Scully’s investigations into the unknown mirrored the journey of fellow “believers” who were searching for meaning in a world that was continually changing at an unprecedented pace, a universe where answers appeared equally unknown.
Although Fox Mulder inevitably found the answers to the questions that had haunted him since childhood, it was his partnership with the skeptic Dana Scully that ultimately brought fulfillment to his life. It makes no difference whether one believes in traditional religion or esoteric spiritualism, it’s the connections made in the physical world that ultimately matter.
Some stories transcend their origins, and so it holds true for The X-Files. The world may have continued to change after the series left the airwaves, but the truth is still out there for a new generation seeking their own answers in an equally troubling time – all one has to do is believe.
Anthony Letizia