A second "X-Files" movie?

Prof. Bainbridge muses about "X-Files" creator Chris Carter's ruminations of a possible second movie.  Prof. Bainbridge wonders how you could possibly have a "stand-alone" second movie, instead of one that advances the "mythology" (i.e., the continuing government/alien conspiracy storyline).

I was a big fan of "The X-Files" at its height (seasons 2-4), and watched regularly until the last season, when it wasn't a big deal if I missed an episode.  The mythology didn't really start until the end of the first season, and kicked into high gear in season 2 with the introduction of the shape-shifting alien bounty hunter played by Brian Thompson (in "Colony" and "End Game") and smarmy Alex Krycek (played by Nicholas Lea).  The season 2 cliffhanger "Anasazi" ended with Mulder trapped in a buried boxcar in the New Mexico desert, a boxcar filled with corpses of what appeared to be aliens, and with Cancer Man having ordered the military to drop a bomb into the boxcar.  Season 3 added the outstanding "train" episodes that provided a possible non-alien explanation for the boxcar corpses -- they're lepers!

The problem with the mythology arc is that Carter was able to sustain the ambiguity for only so long.  After a while, it became clear that (a) there really were aliens among us, even if Scully refused to acknowledge the fact; and (b) Carter was making everything up as he went along.  The internal inconsistencies in the storyline became overbearing.  By the time of the movie, the idea that the true aliens are an oil that turns humans into incubators for lizard like creatures was too silly to take seriously.

Plus, as far as I can tell, the mythology was sort of wrapped up in the last episode.  Cancer Man foretells an alien invasion in 2012.  I really wouldn't want to see a second movie consisting of Mulder, Scully, and Doggett fighting off the aliens.  Besides, what do they need to invade for when the oil from the movie is already here?!?

Better to make a standalone movie, one where it's some kind of spooky mystery not connection to the sagging government/alien conspiracy.  I'm thinking something like the first season episode "Ice," which was a rocking re-telling of "The Thing" with worms that crawled inside you and stimulated your adrenaline gland (with unfortunate and violent side effects), or the second season episode "The Host," about Flukeman.

Comments

[tom]

I watched the show only periodically so the Myth episodes didn't grab me because they never made much sense to someone who only dropped in once in awhile, especially when they got so confusing they didn't make sense to regular viewers. I did like some of the stand alone Monster episodes, though. The two that come to mind are the one with the incestuous descendents of Confederates in Gettysburg who keep their mutilated mother under a bed, which I thought was creepily magnificent; and the one where Peter Boyle played a man who could see how other people died. A desperately sad episode that kicks you in the gut. Boyle deserved the Emmy he won for that.

[Al Nye]

I've been saying for years that I'd love to see a stand alone Seinfeld movie. But please, not a foolish one like the last episode. This would be a regular movie about the things that were important to the Seinfeld characters -- nothing!

Anyone else out there like to see one?

Al Nye

[Kathy]

Oh, please, please--just one more X-Files movie is all that I ask! I know the t.v. series got campy toward the end, but you gotta love those guys! And David D. and Gillian A. MUST be in it. Perhaps Gillian could be persuaded to put back on a few pounds so that she'll still be recognizable as Scully. And just one more request: can we have the Lone Gunmen, also? One of my favorite (fluffy) episodes was a Halloween, black and white thing where Mulder and Scully danced at the end. Let Chris Carter do his thing!

[Rhys]

I loved the x files but i think it lost the plot towards the end. Mulder made the show, sometimes I just wished someone would shoot Scully but she was good to watch. A second movie would be great, maybe a mix between the genre episodes with a conspiracy mixed in. Maybe the ghosts in a government installation. Come on Chris, 2 more movies at least.