The Return of The X-Files

FOX has confirmed a 6-episode return of The X-Files. I know because every newsfeed and my entire Facebook stream is filled with it.

I was a religious X-Files fan up until around 1999 or 2000. Somewhere in moving to Boston and becoming a grad student, and in David Duchovny leaving and Jason Patric stepping in, I lost the thread and didn't feel driven to pick it back up at any point.

But prior to all that, whoa boy, big fan. My best friend Tara and I would write "Memos to the Crew" back and forth—joke letters in which I pretended to be Chris Carter and she would be the crew, writing to complain about David and Gillian's antic behavior. I've still got them all somewhere . . . We also had an ongoing joke that Chris Carter and I were psychically linked because every time I suggested something might happen on the show, it did.

My final project at UT was an X-Files spec script. I remember working that summer on the Hope Floats set, and there was a FOX directory of course, and I called Chris Carter's office once but hung up when his assistant answer. (I assume it was his assistant.) Too shy for this biz, I suppose.

But anyway. I keep seeing the news of an X-Files return ("limited-run series"), and how they're touting the fact Duchovny and Anderson will be back, too. And I have to wonder: How much of them "being back" is part of a setup to pass the baton to other, younger agents? How much of it is designed to hopefully set up a new series?

I could be wrong, of course. But it seems like the logical move. Carry forward the old fans, bring in new ones.

Let's see if that old psychic link holds up.