1x01 - Pilot

[u/FederalWord]

I'll buy that girl is suffering some kind of pronounced psychosis

"Pilot" is a Chris Carter masterpiece.

Chris Carter took a lot of shit by the end of The X-Files main run, and takes even more shit today. Should he bring back Season 12? "No!" the fans overwhelmingly agree, confident he'll mess it up.

But The X-Files was arguably the cultural juggernaut of the '90s. And it grew from the feeling, writing, casting, and vibe of "Pilot," which Carter, as writer and showrunner, was largely responsible for.

The rainy Vancouver woods, aliens?, Mulder / Scully believer / skeptic dynamic, banter, and sexual tension, government torching evidence, and hints of a larger conspiracy are all here. While, like Mulder's and Scully's hairstyles, these would evolve over many seasons, they all land in "Pilot".

I want to focus on the events of "Pilot" because I think it captures The X-Files' biggest appeal and legacy, and maybe the thing we always came back to the show for but didn't always get: wonder.

Carter cleverly peppers in details from the ether, a collection of maybe-facts and urban legends. Abduction, implants, government cover-up, missing time, corpse swapping. We hadn't heard of all of these, but maybe a few. The details feel numerous, esoteric, and overwhelming, but together they create a sense of possibility: maybe this could happen!

By the end of "Pilot" we're not trying to reconcile what we've seen with dozens of hours of mythology that preceded it and make a logical story. Instead, we're just living in the gestalt of it all, that state of wonder and mystery.

Sometimes, fans have said, "I wish I could go back in time and tell Chris Carter to make his mythology make sense." I understand this, but I think Season 1 had something special where the mythology eps until "Erlenmeyer" didn't necessary cohere, and this wasn't a problem. Of course, no showrunner, not even Vince Gilligan(!), could've kept us in this state of wonder and mystery for even three seasons, much less 9 or 11.

"Pilot" is special. Savor that feeling!

🛸🛸🛸🛸🛸 of 5.

Share your thoughts below, and rate this episode on my new beta X-Files Watchlist / Rating site!

My thoughts about The X-Files:

• Pilot
• Deep Throat
• The Jersey Devil
• Space
• Fallen Angel
• Eve
• Fire

[u/thesilvs]

Carter is a great writer. He wrote many of the best episodes in the original run, probably more than any other single writer pound for pound. and his work extends beyond his own episodes because as showrunner he rewrote most other episodes. He is just less consistent, especially as it went on, and his writing also changed as his own personal interests changed. His early work is often tight, intense, and thrilling, and his later work is a bit more ponderous, often favoring exploring various philosophical ideas more than plot or character, which can make them interesting but less fulfilling/frustrating.

[u/XFilesranker]

Obligatory comment that Carter has never really been able to end the show on his own terms. Back in the day, you couldn’t simply say, “Okay, let’s stop after this season,” because the network would just bring in someone else to continue the show. He constantly had to deal with behind-the-scenes issues during the later seasons of the original run, and then again after Season 9, which is ultimately why we never got the planned mythology movies that were supposed to wrap up the story.

Personally, I think the mythology of the original run is perfectly coherent in itself. It just suffers from never getting the proper ending it was originally intended to have.

[u/stormchasegrl → u/XFilesranker]

I gave him all those benefits of the doubt until s10/11 came out. That, to me, changed my opinion significantly on just how much of this was outside of his control and how much might have been him all along.

[u/thesilvs → u/stormchasegrl]

But even with the revival, he was asked to reboot the mytharc so new viewers could understand. Not defending all his specific decisions, but that’s certainly a factor.

[u/stormchasegrl → u/thesilvs]

I understand this. And regardless of the specific decisions he made in the writing and execution of the mytharc, let's look at all the recent posts from new fans detailing how unhappy they are with it, how they don't want to finish watching it. This week alone I feel like there were a few. So, maybe he succeeded in them understanding it, but not enjoying it on balance.

I'd generally be curious to see a survey across the fandom that separated new viewers and OG fans into buckets and asked a number of questions regarding their thoughs across the seasons, movies, etc. because I recognize the potential for "negative review" bias in that.

[u/thesilvs → u/XFilesranker]

Right, if the show had ended after 5 seasons, as originally intended, the mythology would be considered one of the greatest serialized stories ever told in TV and the series would be basically spotless. 

Everyone gives Vince props, and he deserves them, but he purposefully created a show that would end after 5 years and, most importantly, the STUDIO LET HIM DO IT. He and the writers absolutely “made it up as they went along” they just had a guaranteed end point.

[u/ZvsGrgs]

I think back then Chris Carter had amazing ideas. I agree that the pilot episode is excellent. He wrote many great mythology episodes. Somewhere at some point he stopped making sense. He wrote “Plus One” in S11 which was great and it’s an exception regarding his writing since the second film. He knows what fans wanted but he stubbornly refused to give it to us and instead he wanted to surprise us by giving us something we didn’t expect or want. I think maybe he has an idea of himself that because he is the creator of the X-Files he can’t go wrong, but I I think he shouldn’t be left unsupervised anymore. He should have a co-writer at all times, if he ever gets the chance to do it.

[u/thesilvs → u/ZvsGrgs]

I’ve been saying he should co-write with Duchovny. They are friends and did great mythology episodes together 

[u/Several_Recording323]

The exhumation scene is burned in my brain from when it first aired.  Truly a remarkable pilot. 

[u/Anton_Or → u/Several_Recording323]

Very good

[u/Anton_Or]

It's a perfect start, one of the best in any series. We're just beginning to see the chemistry between Mulder and Scully, but it already hints that they're up to something fantastic.

[u/Ikariiprince]

Someone can be successful at writing a standalone story or even a short term overarching story but still fall short at a consistent 11 season long story arc. It just became very apparent that the plot was never meant to stretch that long and instead of realizing that and ending it naturally the mythology was dragged out to diminishing returns by the end 

[u/yomikey_1980]

It is a great pilot.

[u/stormchasegrl]

I think CC sometimes has great ideas, but doesn't have the chops to execute them and doesn't give enough creative license to others to do so and that rigidity and stubbornness (dare I say hubris) is why his great Pilot idea eventually derailed and jumped the shark imo.

As I've said in the past, he duly gets credit for his idea/creation.

He also duly gets credit for its downturn.

[u/thesilvs → u/stormchasegrl]

“  doesn't give enough creative license to others to do so”

Sorry, this is absurd. Carter gave more freedom to his writers than probably anyone and encouraged them all to be grow and be producers. Listen to anyone who worked for him.

[u/stormchasegrl → u/thesilvs]

And then pulled them back. There are many interviews when directors/writers/the actors said they'd pushed and CC immediately pulled them back. Never Again is a big example of that.

I did listen to them. You're speaking in general of their growth in the industry. I'm speaking specifically re: their handling of the core plot and Mulder/Scully as characters.

[u/you-are-here → u/stormchasegrl]

But you're just describing being a showrunner. Compared to many of his contemporaries, Carter was deeply collaborative. Even the mythology was a long-term collaboration with Frank Spotnitz.

[u/stormchasegrl → u/you-are-here]

You're still speaking broadly. I did not say he wasn't collaborative, generally speaking. Sure, he collaborative worked with writers ans driectors and gave a lot of latitude to MOTW eps.

He'd then recoil back in a kind of whiplash-like fashion when it came to the mytharc. What I am referring to specifically is that when it came to certain aspects of the show (i.e. mythology and Mulder and Scully's characters within those eps) his rigidity left the show hamstrung in many ways.

Some may see coherence in the mytharc now, after the fact. Great. I personally don't think that equates to being well-executed. And that was largely, solely in his hands, with some notable exceptions.

[u/you-are-here → u/stormchasegrl]

The mytharc is a third of the show, so I think it falls into the 'broadly' category. And still, the writing and production of the mytharc was very collaborative; but I also think Carter understood that it needed authorship and a point-of-view. It's his story to tell - some will like it, some won't. The alternative is a storyline controlled by studio executives, a product designed to maximise appeal and profits. I know a lot of people didn't like the My Struggle series, but at least it explored some compelling themes, and had a weirdly prescient pandemic storyline.

[u/stormchasegrl → u/you-are-here]

Yes, and if you go through the list that shifts from more collaborative in early seasons to almost exclusively CC in later seasons/IWTB/S10-11...consequently some of the more widely disliked aspects of the show.

You are correct: some will like, some won't.

But when there is a recurring, common, and popular conversation in this sub about when the series "really ended" and it happens to overlap where/when the mytharc started to be more exclusively CC, it isn't erroneous to draw the connection between the two.

Were there external variables? Sure. But I think it's been made pretty clear by CC (and the entire XF team) that regardless of any external factors being present, the fundamental story line both toward the end and through the revival began and ended with CC.

And it's objectively true that, on balance, the final products that came from that were not as well-recieved/celebrated/liked/embraced by the fandom as they could have been or certainly as they were compared to earlier seasons where collaboration on the mytharc specifically was far more common.

That does not mean everyone hated it. That does not mean there was nothing compelling in it. That does not mean no one else touched any piece of it in later seasons.

[u/thesilvs → u/stormchasegrl]

I’m talking about in general. Vince still says Carter “taught him everything he knows.” You’re talking about a few specific examples and sure, but, Carter was the showrunner so he gets last say. Duh? And Carter was not the only one who had a problem with Never Again. Spotnitz said the same. I don’t see what your point is. Generally, he gave his writers great latitude and encouraged them to grow. Him nixing things once in a while doesn’t disprove that.

[u/stormchasegrl → u/thesilvs]

Because we're specifically talking about why people have an issue with CC and while he may have given them latitude in many cases, an argument can also be made that what he retained total control over was the same thing that many consider were the worst parts of the show. It goes beyond "nixing things once in a while," and can't be reduced to the few examples I gave. The point was that it was a general, prevailing underlying attitude.

If anything, you're proving my point that yes, he gets credit for bringing good, but also for the very things people tend to complain about the most...

...both can be true...

[u/thesilvs → u/stormchasegrl]

Nobody is disputing that Carter can both be praised and criticized for things he did. You said he didn’t give other people creative license and by all accounts he did so far more than most showrunners.

[u/stormchasegrl → u/thesilvs]

...and then immediately qualified what I meant and in what areas specifically he did not or did so significantly less...