The new episodes were set 14 years after the series ended — mirroring
the real world since the Fox series went off the air in 2002.
But
a lot has changed since then. How should Agents Mulder and Scully
adjust to a brave new world of smartphones, streaming video and social
media? Series creator Chris Carter, who was in Washington last month as
part of the Smithsonian's "The Future is Here" festival, took some time
to chat about how changing technology has affected the "X-Files"
franchise — on screen and off.
"There was always emphasis on Mulder and Scully and
their cellphones. Those were the lifelines between Mulder and Scully,
but they were bricks in their hands. They weren’t even texting when we
went off the air in 2002."
"One major thing is the fact that almost
everything to do with Mulder’s pursuit and his quest of government
conspiracy — that all the attendant material is available with a
keystroke — means that Mulder can sit at home in his underwear
continuing his work. And we're more cognizant of hacking. There's a
scene where Mulder is speaking to Scully, for example, and we see him
re-affix a little piece of tape over the camera on his laptop."
"When we went off the air in 2002, it was in a political environment
where we had basically placed all our faith in the government. We
weren’t interested in government conspiracies. Working 15 years later,
that trend has reversed itself. It was ripe for telling these stories
that were indicative of a whole new climate. We live in a "Citizenfour"
world now. And the government has admitted spying on us. Really, the
amazing thing to me is no one seems to put up much protest about that."
Details on this interview: The Washington Post