Comic Con: The Truth Is Out There at THE X-FILES 20th Anniversary Panel

My first reaction when I found out about the TV Guide panel for The X-Files 20th Reunion at SDCC was to  get really geeked and promise myself that I’d get in to Ballroom 20 for the panel. My second thought was “20 years?! How the heck did that happen?”

Before knowing that the show was approaching its 20th anniversary and would be at SDCC, I had recently started watching the series again from the beginning. While some things definitely show its age – like the computers, phones and Scully’s horrible pantsuits – I was pleasantly surprised to see how much of it withstood the test of time, particularly all of Mulder’s snarky quips.

As a huge X-phile, it was a lot of fun to revisit the show at SDCC. The panel was moderated by Mike Schneider and included Chris Carter, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, and a number of the writers – Vince Gilligan, Howard Gordon, Darin “Flukeman” Morgan, David Amann, Jim Wong, Glen Morgan, and John Shiban.

We were treated to the now-iconic opening sequence, and after that, the Truth, or some reasonable facsimile of it, was in Ballroom 20.

The moderator got it started out by asking what happened with the alien takeover scheduled for December, 22, 2012. According to Carter, they came, but are procrastinating the whole takeover-thingy.

Next, we heard about the original [failed] pitch to FOX, followed by the second, which included visual aids “stuff”, which was apparently more successful.

Duchovny and Anderson were asked for one thing that they’ve realized about the characters after 20 years. Anderson is quick to tell us that she  [Scully?] didn’t realize that Mulder was so cool until several years later. Otherwise, she would have “gone there sooner”, followed by giggling and the question “Do I have to behave?” There was discussion about how they eventually did get together, but Duchovny questioned whether they ever actually did get together. Anderson told us that a sex scene was filmed, but never aired and giggling/goofiness ensued.

Back to seriousness and Gilligan and Gordon talked about the team, and how great they were to work with and how much they learned. Gilligan said that Breaking Bad would not have been possible if not for what he learned on The X-Files.

The possibility of a 3rd movie was discussed and both Anderson and Duchovny would be on board. Carter thinks that the themes of The X-Files, particularly the government conspiracy stuff, would really resonate in today’s political culture, more so than 10 years ago.

The group reminisced a bit and we learned that Shiban’s son played Scully’s baby and he’s all grown up now (young teenager). When he was called onto stage, Anderson announced “Yep, that’s our son!”. He actually kind of looks like her, which is the funny thing. Someone asked where Scully and Mulder’s actual son, William, is and Anderson immediately announced “rehab”.

Additional interesting bits:

There’s a new comic book series coming out – it’s basically The X-Files Season 10 in print form.

The writers all loved The Lone Gunmen, so when their spin-off show was cancelled after just 13 episodes, they killed them off for closure. The man who played Frohike,  Tom Braidwood, was actually an assistant director on the show and was cast because he “looked freaky”.

The episode Home was based on a documentary called Brother’s Keeper, and a story that one of the writers thinks he remembers from a Charlie Chaplin memoir. (Home is the really freaky one with the inbred mutants who kept their mother under the bed and bludgeoned people to death to the music “Wonderful, Wonderful” . It only aired once and then was deemed too controversial and doesn’t show up in reruns.)

Favorite Mulder/Scully moments:
Duchovny – their dance in Post Modern Prometheus
Anderson – the so-called “Conversation on the Rock” – she doesn’t really remember it, but everyone tells her how much they loved it. She said she made t-shirts to sell that said COTR, but I’m wasn’t sure whether she was joking or not.

Favorite guest stars/characters: Brian Cranston (Breaking Bad), Toombs, Peter Boyle as Clyde Bruckman, Krycek, and Cigarette Smoking Man

They left plenty of time for audience questions in the panel. We learned that if Mulder and Scully went on a real date they would 1) have sex (Anderson) and 2) then maybe dinner? (Duchovny) When asked about the scene they wanted to shoot that never happened, Anderson asked if there were kids in the audience.

Guest star that got away? Gilligan wanted Drew Barrymore to play a character that could wish people around like in the Twilight Zone, but had to give up after the restraining order.

Impact of Scully as strong female character on genre? Scully was Carter’s fantasy woman. Fans often tell Anderson that Scully inspired them to get jobs in science – the “Scully effect”.  Scully inspired one audience member to get a PhD in physics. Duchovny added that men tell him that they got into Scully because of Mulder (?).

Scully’s spirituality? Carter wanted to add another dimension to her character, soften the science side, and create inner conflict for her between her science side and her belief in a higher power that she couldn’t prove.

Duchovny wouldn’t want to work with Anderson again in roles other than Scully and Mulder – he’s afraid to tarnish what they’ve done.

X-files Movie 3 – Could happen, audience excitement for this reunion panel was encouraging to Carter, Anderson and Duchovny would happily do it

As the panel was wrapping up, Anderson offered to sell the life-size standup of Scully and Mulder that was on the stage to the highest bidder for charity. Duchovny: “This is how we get the movie made”. Anderson: “This is our Kickstarter!”. When asked if it was signed, she said yes, she’d “write something very special” on it, in a very suggestive way.

And with that, we said goodbye for now to our favorite G-men, with hopes of a third movie in our minds.