The X-Files created our modern television landscape. Think about it: dense story arcs woven into meta-arcs, gory forensic police procedural elements, a paranormal undercurrent with “monster of the week” baddies, British Columbia standing in for the US. Series creator Chris Carter has been the marquee name ever since it debuted in 1993 and skyrocketed from a cult hit into a genuine hit. But many of the writers on the show went on to develop or produce their own highly influential series. Chances are that if you watch TV, you’ve seen their work.
Now Carter is returning to his roots with the new X-Files miniseries, premiering January 24 on Fox, to see if the truth is still out there. “I pick up the newspaper every day and see something that could be an X-Files story,” Carter says. “It is almost literally in my blood.”
Several of Carter’s protégés have also signed on again. “For this miniseries, I tried to put the band back together,” he says. WIRED took a look at the impact of several of the show’s original writers.
Vince Gilligan
They included “Drive” (Season 6, Episode 2). “The antagonist was Bryan Cranston, and this was a year and a half before Malcolm in the Middle went on the air,” Gilligan says. “I thought, ‘This guy Cranston is so good, I have to file him away in my brain so I can work with him again.’ We wouldn’t have Walter White if not for The X-Files.”
Future shows: Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Battle Creek
What he learned from X-Files: How to make a mini feature film every week. “Chris would ask what the visual elements of our stories were: What are we looking at, and what is the image you’ll take away and never forget? He’d say, ‘This is a visual medium, this is a cinematic medium, and we want episodes to look like miniature movies.’ I took that to heart.”
Working on the X-Files revival? No
James Wong & Glen Morgan
They included “Beyond the Sea” (Season 1, Episode 13). “We were monitoring Internet newsgroups and realized people were mad that Scully was a disbeliever every week,” Wong says. “In this episode, Scully’s the believer and Mulder’s the skeptic.”
Future shows: American Horror Story, Scream Queens, Intruders, Bionic Woman
What they learned from X-Files: Cheerful music playing during murder scenes makes everything far more unsettling. “Johnny Mathis’ ‘Wonderful Wonderful’ was my mom’s favorite. So she was so mad at me,” Morgan says. “We used that kind of music again in the miniseries. It gives me the creeps!”
Working on the X-Files revival? Yes
Howard Gordon & Alex Gansa
They cowrote "Conduit" (Season 1, Episode 4). “Our episodes were more character-based, and our characters wore their emotions on their sleeves,” Gordon says.
Future shows: Homeland, 24
What they learned from X-Files: “I learned suspense on X-Files and leveraged that on 24,” Gordon says. “In some X-Files episodes, we stayed on moments until you were squirming. It was not a passive show—the audience felt like they had been on a roller coaster.”
Working on the X-Files revival? No
Darin Morgan
They included “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” (Season 3, Episode 4). “Darin wrote four of the most beloved X-Files episodes ever: the comedy episodes,” Carter says.
Future shows: Fringe, Intruders
What he learned from X-Files: Black humor and quirky characters
Working on the X-Files revival? Yes
David Amann
They included “Rush” (Season 5, Episode 7). “That was the first episode where I began to really understand the X-Files style of storytelling.”
Future shows: Castle, Crossing Jordan, Without a Trace
What he learned from X-Files: How to unfold the plot of a procedural: “One of the hardest things to write was when Scully and Mulder show up at the scene after the teaser, and we have to try to land 20 different ideas—whether they traveled there together, who brought them, what is Mulder’s theory, what is Scully’s theory, what has happened since the teaser. The scenes looked smooth and effortless but were fiendishly difficult.”
Working on the X-Files revival? No
John Shiban
They included “The Pine Bluff Variant” (Season 5, Episode 18), Shiban’s twist on The X-Files’ monster-of-the-week episodes, in which Mulder goes undercover.
Future shows: Hell on Wheels, Da Vinci’s Demons, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural
What he learned from X-Files: Devising plots about humans getting entangled with supernatural subject matter
Working on the X-Files revival? No
Jeffrey Bell
They included “The Goldberg Variation” (Season 7, Episode 6), in which Mulder and Scully investigate a man who appears to be supernaturally lucky.
Future shows: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Alias, Angel
What he learned from X-Files: Characters with superhuman traits and shows about spies and the government
Working on the X-Files revival? No
Jeff Vlaming
They included “2Shy” (season 3, episode 6). In the most ’90s plotline ever, a mutant killer seduces lonely women in chat rooms.
Future shows: Hannibal, Teen Wolf
What he learned from X-Files: Silence of the Lambs character Clarice Starling inspired Scully on The X-Files. Vlaming brought things full circle by helping turn the Hannibal horror novel franchise into a procedural TV series.
Working on the X-Files revival? No
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALAMY (AMERICAN HORROR STORY, BREAKING BAD, WITHOUT A TRACE, HOMELAND), SMALLZ AND RASKIND/FOX (FRINGE), GREG WILLIAMS/FOX (24), ABC/RICHARD CARTWRIGHT (CASTLE)
