Dear Mr. Spotnitz,

The mythology episodes are what pulled me into The X-Files beginning with “Anasazi,” which piqued my interest back in May 1995, after being not fully engaged with the bits and pieces of what I had seen of the show until that point. (A funny side-note: When I first began seeing ads for The X-Files on a Canadian TV station, the Canadian voice-over was cheesy and I wondered if it implied “X-rated” or something. In my first attempt to check out the show, I came upon the most sexually charged (and uncharacteristic!) scene in the show’s history in the teaser for “3.” My prudish self was immediately turned off, assumed the worst about this “X” labeled show, and I didn’t watch it until months later when a high school acquaintance persuaded me to give it another chance that Friday; it turned out to be “Darkness Falls,” which I thought was okay.)

The mythology (in which I’m glad you and Mr. Carter don’t include “Christmas Carol”/”Emily”, given the mythology DVD selections) remained my favorite part of the show until it concluded with “Two Fathers”/”One Son” and “Sein Und Zeit”/”Closure.”  Afterward, I must admit to finding only “Within”/”Without”, “This is Not Happening”/”DeadAlive” and “Essence” (I loved Mulder and Doggett playing detective in this one!) of any interest; the others felt like they were rehashing character arcs from old episodes, creating formula out of what was once fresh, and relying too much on chase scenes and explosions.

Did the mythology episodes until Season 6 or 7 take more time to write than stand alones? They showed a tremendous amount of engaging and complicated plotting that I couldn’t really comprehend until I’d watched my VHS recordings again. For what it’s worth, I followed every step of it all and didn’t at all find it confusing by the time you wrote “Two Fathers”/”One Son” to explode it all; on the contrary, when “Patient X” aired, it all started to make sense; I was so excited, watching it that Sunday March 1st 1998, I think, while my parents probably were as confused as usual.

If there is to be a 3rd film (and there’s no way Fox is gonna pass up on cashing in on the most influential TV franchise since the ’90s), I’d much rather it completely avoid the stuff brought up since Season 7. I wish to forget the super soldiers; what I feel was the overly self-conscious Christian symbolism of Scully’s miraculous child-birth (although The X-Files has always commented on faith quite well before); as well as the dull Toothpick Man (who paled in comparison to the Grey-Haired Man). I also would be happy to never see Gibson Praise or hear any reference to Diana Fowley again.

I’d love to have a series of mythology films; colonization may begin in 2012, but, as human history has shown, this takes decades to complete! It would be great to perhaps reveal some past actions by Krycek (I remember you wanted to do an episode focused on his past), CSM, X, and the Well-Manicured Man; bringing them back as ghosts feels unfulfilling. I’d also love to see the bounty hunter and the return of the Samantha clones and the alien-human hybrids (which seem the only way to stop the Greys).

However, the trick is to make these characters have the depth they had in the series and not mere visual reference points for the fans with little to say to avoid confusing the mainstream audience — which is what ruined Fight the Future for me and marked the mythology’s decline. This requires completely reinvigorating the themes of the franchise. A little politics about colonization and occupation, given human history and — more recently, NATO country presences in Afghanistan and the US in Iraq — might not be a bad thing. However, I’d be wary of talking about the dangers of government (which the show correctly did) in a way that would lend to the arguments of those rightists accusing a President who won’t even fight for a public option for health care of being a socialist totalitarian. Certainly the program has shown a keen ability to chart morally grey areas, as it did specifically with “Two Fathers”/”One Son,” which had the most sympathetic, realistic and satisfying portrayal of CSM in the entire series, compared to the pure evil alluded to in the finale.

You should also continue to invigorate the dynamics of Mulder and Scully’s relationship, which was the latest film’s greatest accomplishment. If Reyes must return, capturing some of the magic Mulder tutoring her in “Empedocles” wouldn’t be so bad, either. I just wouldn’t try to have Skinner compromised again. I also wouldn’t have any celebrities in the secondary character roles. The psychic priest from the last season of “Head of the Class” was great, but there was something jarring about seeing Amanda Peet, which reminded me of Carter’s assertion on the short commentary on “Duane Barry” about how seeing famous faces takes you out of the believability one is trying to create. The series departed from this in Season 6, but SNL alums Victoria Jackson and the great Nora Dunn were well-used.

I also wonder if trying to keep things so secret by using red paper and not allowing the actors to take their scripts home might be hurting some of the performances of the secondary characters. I love being surprised so I stay away from spoilers. Trust real fans to do the same. Don’t let the spoiler hounds hurt what the film could be, if actors need more time to fully digest their performances away from the set.

I hope you don’t mind all this criticism, but it’s out of love for the still amazing work you and Mr. Carter did in those mythology episodes from Seasons 2 through 5. There’s a lot of talk about how this show or that show does what The X-Files did, only supposedly better — and maybe it’s nostalgia talking on my part — but no one does alien conspiracies and frightening tension through understatement and subtlety and even pure romance with beautiful dialogue like the best of what the series did. You can do it again!

Iqbal

Cornwall, Ontario

Canada