X Marks The Spot

Fox Series Right On Target With Tales Of Weirdness And The Supernatural

February 24, 1994|By Mike Duffy, Knight-Ridder/Tribune.

They're out there in cyberspace, talking back to Chris Carter.

That's how the creator of "The X-Files," the year's cool fount of weird science, knows that his show has developed a crazily devoted band of admirers. He's heard from them via Prodigy and Internet.

"I'm amazed by the electronic bulletin board mail each week," Carter said recently. "And I find it fascinating because it's an immediate feedback from the fans of the show.

"They see the smallest things. I think there's already a hard-core audience out there who is cataloging `X-Files' trivia in ways I never imagined."

Like the obsessed Trekkers who blossomed in the wake of "Star Trek," Fox's carnvival of the paranormal has that same sort of burgeoning cult phenom following.

"I'm calling them `File-o-philes,' " Carter joked.

But you don't have to be a sci-fi fanatic to get caught up in "The X-Files," which airs at 8 p.m. Fridays on Fox-Ch. 32.

Though it started slow, this offbeat drama series has gotten into a spooky groove as it follows the supernatural misadventures of odd-couple FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). One critic recently designated "The X-Files" as "the most confidently eccentric series currently on television."

"The X-Files," which is especially reminiscent of that quirky '70s journey into the unknown, "Kolchak: The Night Stalker," has been living up to its mystifying weekly mantra: "The truth is out there."

Things just keep getting curiouser and curioser for Mulder and Scully.

Delving into a stuffed repository of unsolved cases-aha, the X-File!-our intrepid FBI agents have investigated UFO encounters and assorted other bizarre incidents:

- A series of mysterious deaths, believed to be caused by a serial killer who hibernates and then emerges every 30 years to chow down on human livers.

- The violent, invisible force that surrounds a young girl and kills those who threaten her.

- And my personal favorite, a case in which researchers drilling for prehistoric core samples in the Arctic had their bodies and bloodstreams mysteriously invaded by vicious alien worms. Yow.

Last week's episode, "EBE," was another freaky tale of intergalactic hoodoo. Mulder and Scully discovered that the government shot down a UFO in Iraq and was hiding evidence of its occupant. What's an EBE?

It stands for "extra biological entity." Ooooo, scary.

So how much of "The X-Files" is scientific fact and how much is fiction? Mostly the latter, though Carter said "EBE," for example, was inspired by journals and newsletters obtained from various UFO networks and organizations.

Of course, the essential allure of this show is wrapped up in its chiller dynamic. The scary suspense is created by a less-is-more philosophy.

The idea, Carter said, is to show "a minimal number of (special) effects." Instead of graphic violence and fright night folderol, the focus is on strong storytelling.

"We choose to imply a lot," Carter said. "And I think that is what has helped keep the show sort of creepy and mysterious. And we don't go over the top in terms of gore."

Beyond the atypical subtlety and restraint-something you don't exactly expect from Fox-the real appeal of "The X-Files" has to do with the terrific, cockeyed relationship between Duchovny and Anderson's darkly comic alter egos, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

"I didn't want this to be another `Moonlighting,' " Carter said. "I didn't want the relationship to come before the cases."

Instead, the characters' appealing on-screen chemistry grows out of their clashing reactions to an otherwordly work life. Mulder's a true believer in the unsettling forces of the unknown, while Scully is the constant skeptic. She clings to logic and rational explanations for all the weirdness they face each week.

So will Mulder and Scully ever fall for each other in a logical, supernatural fashion? Don't hold your breath.

"I think the best kind of sexual tension is when you put a smart man and a smart woman in a room," Carter said. "You've got immediate sexual tension, no matter if it's romantic. There's a tension there. And I think that's what we have with Mulder and Scully.

"I think there's a mutual respect, a mutual passion to solve these cases. And I think that people have responded to that."

Certainly, Fox has responded. It's already renewed "The X-Files" for fall, even though the series is hurt by its Friday night time period and finishes in the lower reaches of the Nielsen ratings: No. 74 last week.

But the weekly meeting of the File-o-philes, averaging 12 to 13 million viewers, has the advertising community's seal of approval. That means young, urban, educated, reasonably affluent viewers ages 18 to 34 are tuning in.

And Chris Carter is paying attention. He's reading his E-mail.

He knows fans of "The X-Files" love the spooky thrills and chills, mixed with the snappy co-star repartee of Duchovny and Anderson, two of the coolest workmates on TV. The File-o-philes are very clear about the Mulder-Scully message they're sending out: Don't go catatonic, keep it platonic.

"I had somebody write in and say if Mulder and Scully ever kissed, they'd throw their television set out the window," Carter recalled. "So I'm going to try to keep that person's television set in their room."