X-FILES 30 years on

WE LOOK BACK AT THE PHENOMENON OF ONE OF THE MOST TALKED ABOUT TV SHOWS

On September 10, 1993, a new series premiered on Fox in the US, later airing on Channel 10 in Australia. The network hadn’t been looking to get into the science fiction genre, but the pitch from creator Chris Carter had been so compelling that Fox greenlit the series about a neglected FBI department that investigated seemingly unsolvable cases – ones that usually involved unexplained phenomena and paranormal activity.

In the pilot episode, Special Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), a medical doctor, is assigned to the X-Files unit to work alongside Special Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), who had single-handedly been running the department from his basement office.

It would later be revealed that Scully was sent to debunk his theories about the existence of alien life on Earth and a conspiracy within the government to keep that information hidden. But while her scientific approach did balance Mulder’s more out-there beliefs, over time Scully came around to his way of thinking. “When I first read the pilot script, I couldn’t put it down,” Anderson told Entertainment Tonight at the time.

Last year, Duchovny told Vanity Fair, “I didn’t want to get wrapped up in a television show. I thought, ‘OK, I’m going to go movie to movie and see what happens.’ And then that script came my way and it was really well-written and I thought it was very interesting.”

THE CAST

Neither Duchovny nor Anderson were well-known when they landed the parts of Mulder and Scully. But it was their tension – science versus faith at first; a romantic dynamic later on – that really drove the show and, as a result, they quickly became stars.