The Vancouver Sun chatted with Carter via phone about his forthcoming
VIFF Industry appearance, the return of The X-Files to B.C., and how
truly Canadian the hit sci-fi series really is.
In addition to returning stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson,
Carter says fans can expect Mitch Pileggi to return as Walter Skinner
and William B. Davis as “The Smoking Man,” even though that character
had been killed off.
"As we say in The X-Files, even though you’re dead you’re never really
dead," says Carter, adding
there’s "a big chance" the Lone Gunmen will
also return.
Q: Let’s talk about the six new episodes. There’s a lot of chatter
online, rumours, things that are being confirmed on Twitter. The rumour
mill is much different than in the late ’90s when people had to go on
message boards and connect online with loud, noisy modems. We’re all
connected at lightning speed. But to confirm things that are really
happening: Mitch Pileggi who plays Walter Skinner confirmed on Twitter
he’s returning. The Cigarette Smoking Man is saying he might be there,
he might not be there. What can you confirm?
A: I’ll confirm
they’re both coming back. I won’t say how they’re coming back. As people
who know the show know, the Cigarette Smoking Man was incinerated in
the series finale (two-parter The Truth, in 2002), so how he comes back
is going to be handled — I’ll call it — “in a particular X-Files way.”
Q: Why the decision to make it six episodes? As a storyteller, is six episodes better than 24 or 25 to tell a certain story arc?
A:
For me, it’s a dream come true. Television has changed. You see cable
shows that are now eight and 13 episodes. That’s what I would call a
very “human” approach to a business that can just overtax crews,
writers, producers and directors by trying to do 22-25 episodes a year.
When we were trying to do 22-25 episodes a year, I worked 11 and a half
months a year intensively. And those two weeks off, if you weren’t
thinking about what you were gonna do in the next 11 and a half months,
you were already behind. It could not be a more intense and difficult
workload.
Q: Will the new X-Files episodes be one hour long, or are you considering making longer episodes?
A: They’ll be one hour in that they’ll be on one hour of Fox television. The running time is roughly 43 minutes.
Q: The year 2012 as the end, the alien invasion, the romantic
relationship between Mulder and Scully — will we revisit them or will
this be a new beginning?
A: We will revisit everything that’s
important to what’s come before. The show will be honest to itself and
its storylines, its characters, its relationships, and its situations.
Q:
Which other writers do you have involved? Is Frank (Spotnitz, who
worked on eight of nine X-Files seasons, directing two episodes and
co-writing more than 40) involved?
A: Frank is actually doing his
own project for Amazon, so he’s busy. But I got some of the original
writers from the show: Glen Morgan and James Wong, who did some of the
best X-Files episodes ever, and Darin Morgan, who’s done four of the
most beloved X-Files ever.
