TV That Molded a Geek: The X-Files
This month’s Movie That Molded a Geek is not a movie at all (well, eventually it was, but we’re not going to cover those today), but rather a TV show. When thinking back over what shaped me as a geek, one TV show rises above all others, and was perhaps more influential than any movie: The X-Files.
The year was 1993. I was a ten-year-old, starting the fifth grade. While I had grown up watching Star Wars and my parents were avid readers of speculative fiction, I hadn’t really hopped on the boat myself yet; my main hobby was reading, and there weren’t many sf novels aimed at kids, especially girls. It never occurred to me to give the genre a shot. In TV, I had seen Alien Nation, Star Trek: TNG, and most recently, Sightings, an awful Unsolved Mysteries-type show that covered everything from Nostradamus to MIBs. That show had me fascinated and terrified.
My mother snared me one Friday afternoon after school. “I think we should watch this show that starts tonight,” she said casually. “It looks good.”
Since that was the year I lived in a neighborhood with other kids, kids who climbed trees and played outside, I had no idea what show she was talking about. Still, that evening we settled down to watch the pilot.
Oh. My. God. There was an alien body in that first episode. Mulder was into conspiracies (some of which I knew about, thanks to Sightings) and Scully was a kick-ass doctor/FBI agent. By the end of the first episode, I was hooked, hooked like I’d never been before.
Really, X-Files was the first time I was involved in a fandom, as much as a ten-year-old with no Internet could be. I scoured TV Guide and the local newspaper, collecting clippings about the show. That first year, for Christmas, my mother gave me an X-Files t-shirt, with a design I’ve never seen since (sort of a lime and purple shadow standing in a doorway, very abstract). She’s still proud of that find; she tells me, Do you know how difficult it was to find that, two months after the show had started?
The next year, I had started sixth grade and middle school, and I invited several girls over for a sleepover… to watch the season premiere of the show. Funnily enough, there was a power-out in the neighborhood that started just minutes before the show started. It came back on just minutes before it ended. We spent the hour running wild around the darkened neighborhood rather than watching the show, which, in retrospect, was better for my social life. Still, to this day I’ve never managed to catch the second-season premiere.
Had I been just a few years older, or maybe had the Internet, I know I would have been even more involved with the show. As it was, my intense interest lasted through most of middle school, when it slowly waned as my social life grew (and, really, as the show got worse, imo). Even today, I have more affection for this show than any other. It’s carried into my adult life: I was always more interested in monster-of-the-week episodes than the mytharcs, and today my preferences are evident when I watch current shows like Doctor Who. I was thrilled about the recent X-Files movie, and even though the movie itself proved to be somewhat of a disappointment, I know I’d be back in line for another one.
I really can’t understate the effect that the Scully character had on me. I don’t normally give much conscious thought to women’s study topics, but honestly, having strong, interesting role models, both in life and pop culture, are so much more meaningful when you feel you can relate. I might not have had an interest in medicine, but I was at an age where I was feeling self-conscious about my intelligence, even dumbing down my vocabulary. Scully’s confidence and cool intellect were gratefully appreciated. I didn’t know I was missing a Scully until I had one. There’s still a part of me that wants to be Scully when I grow up.
It’s been awhile since I’ve watched The X-Files, and I’m not sure how it holds up, almost 20 years later (though talking about it is making me want to go back and find out). If you haven’t seen it before, it might seem commonplace in a TV world that’s now full of detective teams and supernatural events. Still, I like to think that this one still has something special. I know that, more than possibly any other movie or TV show combined, it’s molded me into the geek I am today.
J is the Assistant Dream Girl. When she's not writing, helping her wonderful geeky clients find love, or playing the French horn, she's usually glued to a video game controller. (Email j, or follow @jdreamgeek on Twitter.)
I have seen every single episode of X-Files, thanks to an old boyfriend who had them all on DVD. He was such a fanboy that he got an alien tattooed on the back of his shoulder with the words “I want to believe.”
I still get chills when I hear the opening music. I loved it so much… I remember having several different X-Files themes on my computer.
I just recently saw the second X-Files movie and was shocked to learn that there had been a 10 year gap between movies. It certainly hadn’t seemed like that long.
If you liked (or rather still like) the X-Files, it might be worth checking out the series Millennium. It was created by the same guy that created X-Files.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_(TV_series)
@Mike – Well, I watched Millennium when it first aired, and it never really hooked me, but maybe I was too young to really appreciate it. One show I always did want to catch, and never did, was the Lone Gunmen show. Loved those guys. Come to think of it, aside from the conspiracy theories, those sorts of guys have been friends for most of my life.
I remember when X-Files first started as well. I was starting 10th grade and hadn’t seen many movies. It was very unique with its production, so at the time, it seemed like a movie on TV to me. Plus all the conspiracies, crazy monsters, great villains with secretive names (Smoking Man, Well Manicured Man), no idea who to trust (the tagline of the show was “Trust No One”!), and the super-hot Scully (she helped develop my love for red heads), it was wonderingly addicting.
Since it was the budding days of the internet, and there was no Google (NO GOOGLE?!?!), I can’t remember how I found it, but I did somehow find a fan group called the X-Philes. It really was just a mailing list, but it was still a fan group to talk about the show and be all geeky. It was wonderful.
I am still disappointed with the way the show went. It really should have ended 2 seasons before it actually stopped, and I never was a “shipper” (someone that wanted Scully and Mulder to get together).
I did like the Lone Gunman spin off and was sad that was canceled.
Great article! I think you should go back and watch it all over again. I did in preparation for IWTB in 2008 and I have to say that being older and wiser, I fell even more in love with it. (I even hooked my then 18 year old roommate, who had never seen the show before. So, yes, for all you newbies out there, I think you will find yourself digging this show.)
The X Files is a huge part of who I am today and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I even have the X Files X tattooed on my body. Along with the theme words from the last movie, “Don’t Give Up”. I am a proud Phile Nerd and it’s always nice to find out there are still “more” of us out there.
Thank you for this article. I remember discovering The X-Files when I was still very young. It brought out a lot of the geek hiding in me and also helped mold me into who I am today. I even seriously thought about following Scully’s career path. Now I’m in the medical field although not a medical doctor or a forensic pathologist. I still watch an episode on dvd every now and then when there’s nothing good on the tv (and really there isn’t anything as good as The X-Files on tv now) or just want to relax. I’m still hoping for more movies too.
For me, to this day The X-Files still holds up as one of the best TV shows ever created. I personally think it is the best that there has ever been for television. Sure, some of the earlier episodes seem somewhat dated, but the stories hold up very well and the characters are still just as charming today as they were back then.
I was a mythology episode fan growing up with the show. But I loved the Monster-of-the-Week episodes as well. I really hope they get to make that third film that ties up all the loose ends of the mythology.
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I just wanted to say that I have that same ugly green/purple T-Shirt that you mentioned! It’s incredibly rare!
And yes, you should watch the show again. It’s still just as much fun to watch the episodes again, as it was in the 90’s the first time.
How does it hold up today?
As someone who never watched it during its original run (it started as I was spending most of my life poking holes in the north Atlantic) I bought seasons 1 & 2 last year. I enjoyed them enough to buy season three when I found it under $30. I like it more often than not. Being old enough to remember a primary inspiration, Kolchak, I had a reason to like it. Being male I needed a Scully too although for different reasons.
So I think it holds up. Not as well as ST:TOS but more, much more than ST:TNG.
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