Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files Subject: Chris Carter talks (spoilers) From: ajcpbk@aol.com (Ajcpbk) Date: 3 Jan 1996 10:12:58 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Lines: 117 Sender: root@newsbf02.news.aol.com Message-ID: <4ce6dq$q32@newsbf02.news.aol.com> Reply-To: ajcpbk@aol.com (Ajcpbk) NNTP-Posting-Host: newsbf02.mail.aol.com Fellow X-Philes: My name is Phil Kloer and I'm the television critic for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a fan of the show. I recently posted a request to this newsgroup requesting questions for Chris Carter, and received several good e-mail suggestions. I interviewed Carter by phone from his office in Vancouver on Dec. 11 as the show was closing for holiday break, and used many of the questions I was e-mailed. I also asked him about several topics that have been speculated on in the newsgroup for some time. He is notorious about not wanting to divulge details of upcoming episodes, so I didn't even bother to ask. But I did ask - and got answers - about several topics that have been hotly discussed here recently. As promised, I am posting a transcript of my interview with Carter. Due to AOL problems it had to be posted in three takes. WARNING: Some may consider some of what follows to be so-called "spoilers." Carter answers some questions that have been kicking around for awhile among fans. If you prefer to speculate and theorize about topics such as Scully's sexuality or whether or not she is really Samantha Mulder, you'd better stop here and go on to another post. Kloer: How closely do you personally pay attention to what fans say or suggest on the Internet? Carter: I pay a lot of attention. This year, which has been a very hectic year just getting the work done, I've had less time to go online. I depend on my assistant to download stuff. It's been an interesting year for online people. There's a proprietary tone in the air. They feel it's their show, not mine. Kloer: There's been a debate as to whether you were incorporating in-jokes or ideas based on fan postings on the Internet. Have you done that? Carter: (He chuckles.) We have done that. There was a lot of talk about how Mulder was always losing his gun. So in the episode "Nisei," Mulder lost his gun again, but was carrying a second gun in his ankle holster, as FBI agents do. He said, "I got tired of losing my gun." So that was a response to people saying Mulder kept losing his gun too easily. At conventions, I get questions like, "Why doesn't Scully drive more?" My response, jokingly, is cause she's a woman. I'm actually going to respond to that. In episode 13 coming up I address that little point as well. Kloer: There has been a lot of talk about an X-Files feature film. Is that going to happen? Carter: It will happen. The plan is to shoot it a year from this coming spring and early summer. I don't know when it would be put in theaters. Kloer: Are you writing a script now? Carter: I'm writing down ideas currently. Kloer: Would it be shot in Vancouver? Carter: Chances are it wouldn't be. I think the feature has to give you things you can't get on a TV series. We'd want to go on location. Kloer: Your production company is called Ten Thirteen. Supposedly you called it that because Oct. 13 is your birthday. Carter: That's right. Kloer: Then it's just a coincidence that Ten Thirteen is a perfect anagram for the Internet? Carter: It's coincidence. It's interesting, because here's this show that kind of grew up with the Internet. Well, actually the Internet is 10 or 20 years old. At least it grew up with the online services. Kloer: Someone asked if in the opening credits, when you see a man's distorted face, is that you? Carter: It's not. It was my idea, but it was an assistant to the people who were doing the main titles. Sometimes it feels like my face after a hard episode. Kloer: Is there any sort of "Strange Luck"-"X-Files" crossover in the works? Carter: No, it hasn't been discussed. Why? Kloer: Because at the end of a recent "Strange Luck," Chance Harper's brother said if anything happens to me, there's only one person you can trust, an FBI agent named Mulder. Carter: Oh yeah. They called and asked if they could do that. I just played basketball with D.B. Sweeney the other day. Everybody's up here. We're on the same lot. Kloer: Executive producers frequently create hit shows, then turn them over to other people and move on to other projects. How long do you see yourself maintaining this current level of involvement in the series? Carter: For the life of the series. Kloer: But are you under pressure from Fox to create another show? Carter: I am under pressure from Fox. Contractually, I'm obligated to do that. I'm working on something else for the fall of '96. It's in development. Kloer: So tell me all about it. Carter: It's really in the conceptual stages right now. Kloer: There's a lot of back and forth among fans over whether "X-Files" has gone too mainstream, lost some of its edge, once it started becoming successful. Do you understand the fans' concerns, and is it something you think about? Carter: There's a sense that something has been found, poured over and looked at, and what was opened was a wonderful present, but now it has become everybody's present. The mainstream numbers that we get now, we've gained a certain popularity, and some of the people who found it early feel they're having to share it. I honestly think it's a lot of people listening to themselves talk. If anything, I think the show has gotten darker. It's still as subversive as it once was. I still think it's a cult show. Kloer: As you know, there has been a lot of speculation that Scully is Samantha. Carter: (He chuckles): People with too much time on their hands. Kloer: Can you tell fans that is definitely not the case? Carter: That is not the case. Kloer: There's also been speculation that Scully is a lesbian and that's why there have been only fleeting mentions of past romance for her. Is Scully gay? Carter: That is not the case either. I hate to answer anything definitively. But Scully is heterosexual. Kloer: While romance is not what drives the show, some fans are very interested: Will we ever see her involved with someone? Carter: Stay tuned. Kloer: At one point in the Clyde Bruckman episode, he tells Scully she won't die. Are we ever going to learn what that's supposed to mean? Carter: Ummmmm. (Long pause) I think that was peculiar to that episode. People should not take it perfectly literally. Kloer: Is there some sort of unifying theory behind all of the UFOs, aliens, government coverup, Cancerman, Mr. X, etc.? Carter: Roughly I have an idea about where we're going. I try not to be too rigid about what the idea is. I don't want to take the straight path to that point. I know the direction I'm headed, but I don't necessarily know what path I'm taking to get there. I like it that way. Kloer: But at the end of the series' run, will we finally learn how it all fit together? Carter: I think so.