The X-Files - Fanlore

The X-Files

You may be looking for The X-Files (zine).

Name: The X-Files
Abbreviation(s): XF, TXF
Creator: Chris Carter
Date(s): 1993-2002 (TV series); 1998, 2008 (theatrical films)
Medium: Television series, Movie series, Video Games
Country of Origin: US
External Links: IMDB

TV.com

Gossamer Project
Subpages for The X-Files:

Alex Krycek · Dana Scully · Doggett/Reyes · Fanzines · Fox Mulder · Krycek/Marita · Monica Reyes · Mulder/Krycek · Mulder/Scully · Mulder/Skinner · Scully/Krycek · Walter Skinner


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The X-Files is an American science fiction/fantasy television series that ran from September 10, 1993 to May 19, 2002. There have been two accompanying major film releases: The X-Files: Fight the Future in 1998, and The X-Files: I Want To Believe in 2008.

The premise of the series and films is the investigation of paranormal cases (x-files) conducted by FBI special agents Fox Mulder, an Oxford-educated psychologist, and Dana Scully, a medical doctor. While Mulder is willing to give credence to supernatural or fantastic explanations for the cases that he and Scully investigate, Scully is skeptical and will first look to science for answers. They report directly to Assistant Director Walter Skinner, whose patience is constantly taxed by Mulder's flippant insubordination.

Over the course of nine seasons, The X-Files developed a famously complex mythology arc, or "mytharc," involving a government conspiracy to conceal the existence and activities of extraterrestrial beings. The Syndicate behind this conspiracy was associated with many shady characters, including Alex Krycek, Marita Covarrubias, and operatives who were never given proper names and simply referred to by epithets such as Cigarette Smoking Man (CSM), and Well-Manicured Man (WMM).

X-Files Fandom

Fan activity surrounding The X-Files started on usenet and dates back to December 1993, with the creation of alt.tv.x-files.[1] ATXF's fic-friendly counterpart, alt.tv.x-files.creative, was founded in May 1994.[2]

Contents

Several more usenet groups and multiple private and public mailing lists developed from The X-Files' central fandom on alt.tv.x-files and alt.tv.x-files.creative.

Yes Virginia was one such group, later credited for developing a high critical standard of editing, or beta. See Machete Beta.

Other mailing lists include EMXC, XAPEN, PhoeniXFic, XFF, FicTalk, X-Files Creative, Scullyfic, and WhyIncision.

One recommendation site, created in the mid-nineties, is IOHO. Another was Sparky's Doghouse. Chronicle X was also a popular website, now defunct, that offered a small archive of favorite stories as well as links to authors' pages and specialty archives. The site was well known for its twice monthly interviews with fanfic writers.

X-Files had a huge number of specialized fic archives, each catering to a different target audience. It wasn't unusual to have MSR archives that dealt specifically with stories where Mulder and Scully were forced to share a bed, or stories where they took baths together. Free sites like Tripod and GeoCities made it easy to throw together such specialized archives. Consequently, most of these sites were lost when the hosts went under or were bought out.

The fandom had several fan-run awards, including the Spookys, Morleys, Starbucks and Whammys, that honored excellence in fanfic.

Starting in 1994, the x-files Usenet group (alt.tv.x-files) began compiling list of fannish acronyms used in X-Files fandom. Ex: E.B.E. = Extraterrestrial Biological Entity and ISS == Infamous Speedo Scene--referring to a scene in where Mulder emerges from the pool wearing a very skimpy pair of Speedos. [3]

Cease & Desist

X-Files was a fandom that stood at the threshold of fandom's migration to the Internet and experienced maybe the first salvo in the "World Wide Web War Against Fandom". In the early-1990s few fans had the resources to host and design their own websites so fandom was concentrated to a few main archives and fan websites. [4] By the mid-1990s, as technology and Internet access improved, more fan sites began appearing [5] leading 20th Century Fox to launch a legal campaign against the use of images and sound files from its two more popular TV shows: The Simpsons and the X-Files.

"Strange things are happening in cyberspace. Visitors to The Simpsons Files , which once housed a pretty cool stash of sound files such as Homer's "mmmm . . . forbidden donut," have recently been greeted by a downright forbidding cease and desist order. Issued in accordance with the very X-Files­sounding "Imperial Department W Provisions," it reads like something Darth Vader would write if he had gone to Yale Law School. But it's no joke. On April 9 [1997], X-Files fan Eric Wacker received a similar letter via certified mail from the same law firm of Baker & Hostetler, legal representatives for Fox, which owns both shows. Informing Wacker that their "Internet monitoring program" had discovered his website used material from The X-Files, the letter waved a finger of admonition: "We must respectfully ask that you remove all audio clips and video clips relating to The X-Files from your website as soon as possible. If you do not remove these properties, we may be forced to take legal action to have them removed." [6]

Perhaps because of the new participatory power of the Internet, X-Files fandom did not take the assault lying down. They quickly organized themselves into a viral pro-fandom campaign called "Free Speech Is Out There: Protecting X-Phile WebSites." [7] When Lucasfilm began targeting Star Wars fan websites that same year, fandom realized that this was this was not an isolated act by a single studio.

Even industry magazines took notice. E-Online reported:

"But for Web fans, resistance hasn't been futile. When Lucasfilm made a threatening phone call to a popular Star Wars site last April, it was confronted with a rebel assault of calls, faxes, and E-mails, which eventually persuaded the company to back down. Likewise, X-Philes have been repelling Fox's crackdown on X-Files websites with a Free Speech Is Out There protest.
The irony is that most of the infringement rises from a devotion the corporations normally welcome. Jeanette Foshee says she was simply trying to share her fandom of The Simpsons when she [drew] 400 icons depicting the show's cast and distributed them gratis on the Web. When Fox discovered the cut-and-pastables, it demanded that Foshee provide a detailed list of anyone who'd ever downloaded the icons." [8] & [9]

Other fandoms and TV shows were pulled into the battle, with 20th Century Fox shifting its focus to its then ratings impaired TV show Millenium and with Viacom targeting Star Trek websites. [10] & [11]

In the "War Against Fandom", one commentator astutely noted:

"The problem is that the nature of fandom has changed fundamentally in the past 30 years, while perception of the role of fan culture in marketing campaigns has not. No longer content to be passive consumers, fans - especially those on the Net - now expect to be listened to by those who create the culture they enjoy. They demand to be in the loop.
Both the fans and the media companies want to cheat a little. The media companies want to parade their Web savvy in the marketplace and they want to funnel all the Net traffic into a few commercial sites. The fans want to have freedom of speech and assembly in sites of their own choosing and to have fewer constraints on the use of copyrighted materials than in any other medium." [12]

By 1997, the phrase "Foxed" had become a techno verb "used to describe a Web site threatened with legal action for copyright infringement." [13]

Conflicts

The addition of new characters to the show often disrupted fandom and sparked flamewars as fans took sides. Season five's The End marked the introduction of Agent Diana Fowley as an ex-coworker -- and just plain ex -- of Mulder's. Many Mulder/Scully shippers saw her as a threat and responded accordingly. But that small upset was nothing compared to the backlash that took place when Agent John Doggett and Agent Monica Reyes joined Scully in the x-files office in the eighth season. Many fans were upset over this development, but some took it to extremes. Laurie Haynes, owner of the X-Files Creative mailing list and its archive Xemplary, went so far as to refuse to archive fics with Doggett in them and viciously bashed Doggett in public forums.[14] This brought up a lot of questions about creative expression and censorship. At the time, XFC was one of the largest mailing lists in fandom and fans resented being told they had to ignore a significant part of canon in order to be able to post there.

Fans in Canon

In the second season episode Little Green Men, the plane manifest that Scully is scanning while searching for Mulder lists several online X-Files fans as passengers, including Cliff Chen and Pat Gonzales.[15]

In May 2001, in the episode Alone, Agent Leyla Harrison was introduced as a tribute to Leyla Harrison, a popular fanfic writer who had passed away in February 2001. In 2002, Agent Harrison returned in the ninth season episode Scary Monsters.

Starting in the ninth season, the show got a new opening credit sequence during which a document headed "FBI Contacts, Witnesses and Contributors" could be seen. Every episode had a slightly different list of names, many of which belonged to online fans, including FrogDoggie, Deslea, sistaspooky, and PaigeCald.[16]

Ships and Slash

Popular ships and slash pairings include (in order of date when they first flowered): Mulder/Scully, Mulder/Krycek, Mulder/Skinner, Skinner/Krycek, Scully/Skinner, Scully/Krycek, and Scully/Reyes.

It must be noted that early X-Files fandom did not embrace RPF or "actorfic" as it was known then. Even now with the increasing popularity of popslash and bandom, X-Files fandom has been resistant to change and RPF is still considered taboo in many X-Files communities.

Popular Tropes in Fanworks

  • Fuck or Die/Aliens Made Them Do It: Characters are forced to engage in sexual intercourse, usually by aliens, madmen, or members of the conspiracy. This would often occur in captivity, sometimes with the help of chemical stimulants.
  • One motel room: Oh no, there's only one room left! Characters have to share a motel room, and often a bed. This actually happened to Mulder and Scully in the sixth season episode The Rain King when Mulder's motel room was destroyed by a flying cow. He moved his stuff into Scully's room, but the show didn't bother to explain the sleeping arrangements. Fans happily filled the gap with dozens of missing scene fics.[17]
  • Undercover: Characters go undercover, often posing as a couple, in order to investigate crime or paranormal activity. This was a popular cliche long before season six's Arcadia saw Mulder and Scully moving into a gated community as husband and wife, wearing a pink polo shirt and a twin set, respectively. These fics could be light-hearted and romantic, or dark and angsty. In Parrotfish's award-winning Caught in the Act III: Sub Rosa, Mulder and Scully go undercover to infiltrate a white supremacist militia group and find themselves in over their heads.[18]
  • Quarantine: Exposed to alien spores or unknown toxins? Time to be locked up in quarantine together. This got an early start on the show. In the first season, Mulder and Scully are exposed to a nasty insect in Darkness Falls and after being rescued are confined to a secure quarantine facility in order to regain their strength. This bit of canon influenced a lot of fanfic, encouraging fans to write their own quarantine fics and post-eps for episodes like Ice, Field Trip, Firewalker, and of course Darkness Falls itself.[19]
  • Bodyswap: Characters swap bodies. This, too, happened on the show, in the season six two-parter Dreamland, but in that episode Mulder swapped bodies with Morris Fletcher, who was not a series regular. Fans are more likely to write stories where the main characters swap bodies.
  • Eggbeater: From a notorious challenge, "exactly 500 words and an eggbeater."

Fanfic Archives

Besides the major archive project Gossamer X-Files fandom boasted a wide variety of specialty archives at the height of its popularity.[20] Archives existed for characters, pairings, genres (both XF-specific such as Muldertorture or Profiler!Mulder as well as panfandom ones such as AUs), kinks, ratings and formats. Many have since vanished, but others are still online.

The specialty archives included:

Notable Fanfic

Vids

LJ Communities

Discussion:

Recs & Ficfinding:

Fanfic, all kinds:

Slash:

MSR:

Art & Multimedia:

External Links

Notes

  1. ↑ alt.tv.x-files on Google Groups
  2. ↑ alt.tv.x-files.creative on Google Groups.
  3. ↑ Speedos - Acronyms explained - alt.tv.x-files on Google Groups
  4. ↑ "The X-Files, X-Philes and X-philia: Internet fandom as a site of convergence" by Amanda Howell (2000)
  5. ↑ By 1997, there were 900 unoffical X-Files websites
  6. ↑ "The Web Wars" by Jeff Yario (1997)
  7. ↑ "Free Speech Is Out There: Protecting X-Phile WebSites"
  8. ↑ "The Empire Strikes Back: Things Get Sticky For Fan Sites On The World Wide Web," E-Online (1997)
  9. ↑ 20th Century Fox's Official Letter to Jeanette Foshee
  10. ↑ "Fox Fights Millenium Fansites," E-Online (1996)
  11. ↑ "Fox Slams Bootleg Millennium Sites," HotWired (1997)
  12. ↑ "The War Against Fandom," by Steven Silberman (1997)
  13. ↑ Blue's News, November 26, 1997
  14. ↑ xfc: Change in Xemplary policy, Mar 6 2001.
  15. ↑ X-Files In-Jokes: Season Two
  16. ↑ Fan Names in the S9 Credits
  17. ↑ Sharing a Hotel Room
  18. ↑ Going Undercover
  19. ↑ Quarantined Together
  20. ↑ Lists of specialized archives: [1],[2],[3]
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