The popularity of science fiction television shows continues to rise, but one program has towered above the rest. KU students gather around the tube every Sunday evening,hoping to discover the meaning behind the
Story by Ann Marchand
he truth is out there.
he truth is out there.
At least, that's what devoted followers of the Fox Network's show *The X-Files* want to believe.
The series, now in its fourth season, consistently has received critical acclaim and exponentially has increased the number of its fans across the globe.
The show follows two young FBI agents, Fox Mulder, played by David Duchovny, and Dana Scully, played by Gillian Anderson, as they try to solve the Bureau's unsolved cases, many of which involve extrasensory or paranormal occurrences. These cases are the X-Files.
The two characters have formed what initially appeared to be an unlikely partnership.
Mulder is a believer in just about everything, from government conspiracies to extraterrestrial life on Earth. His quest for the truth stems largely from his childhood memories of his younger sister, Samantha, who disappeared when she was eight years old. Mulder is convinced that she is alive, and he hopes that one day his search for answers in the X-Files will lead him to the truth about what really happened to her — whether she was kidnapped by the government or abducted by aliens.
The other part of the tandem is Scully, a former instructor at the FBI academy in Quantico, Va. Trained as a forensic pathologist, Scully is the skeptic. She is inclined only to believe what science can explain. Even her own disappearance, which is construed by the show's creators as an abduction of some sort, is so incongruous with her scientific foundations that she does not allow herself to remember the details of what really happened to her.
The pair is supervised by FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner, played by Mitch Pileggi. Skinner is an ex-Marine who likes to sit squarely on the fence separating his two prolific agents from the forces of evil in the government.
He sometimes sides with the agents but sometimes sacrifices their quest for the powers above him which lurk in the shadows. The latter was the case at the end of the first season, in the episode "The Erlenmeyer Flask," when Mulder and Scully got too close to the truth about government genetics research, and Skinner shut down the X-Files.
The command to disband the small investigative unit presumably came from the Cigarette-Smoking Man, played by William B. Davis. Also referred to as
"Cancer Man" (a moniker the tobacco companies must be proud of), he lurks in the shadows and often masterminds all of the conspiratorial projects of the shadow government.
The Cigarette-Smoking Man, appropriately, always has a lit cigarette in hand, even inside government buildings where smoking is against the law. But Davis does not actually inhale the specially-made herbal cigarettes.
The conspiratorial and paranormal themes have attracted viewers throughout Lawrence.
"I started watching it off and on a couple of years ago, and I try to watch it more regularly now," said James Pastine, Kansas City, Mo., senior. "It's different. It's not just a regular sitcom."
Wilson's sentiment's about the show's viability were echoed by Duchovny when the show started. The actor has stated publicly that although he enjoyed his character and has enjoyed acting in the show, he was not convinced that the Fox Network would continue to broadcast a show with such unlikely subject material.
"There was nothing else like it," he said. "The paranormal stuff is kind of interesting. But I didn't think it would last at first."
Marty Wilson, a bartender at The Red Lyon, 944 Massachusetts St., agreed.
But Fox picked up the show for several more seasons, and that has pleased Wilson. Every Sunday night, Wilson turns the four televisions in the bar to Fox, and cranks up the Dolby Surround Sound for anyone who wants to gather with friends and watch the show. He also brings in his own tapes of previous episodes and treats the patrons to a second episode when the show is finished.
Typically about 75-100 people gather at the bar to watch the show at 8 p.m. Sundays.
"It's funny — it doesn't matter if the show is a repeat or not, the place is still packed," he said. "You have to be here by 8 if you want to get a seat."
But Wilson also said newcomers were always welcome.
Kristen Villone, Hermosa Beach, Calif., graduate student, frequents the Red Lyon on Sunday nights. She said she only had been watching the show since Christmas, but the crowd at the bar was open to people who asked questions and tried to better understand it.
"We had one girl who had never watched it before, and she started asking people questions. And now she's down here every week," he said.
"I wanted to get into it, but when I watch it at home, I don't understand it," she said. "So here, people can help me out."
Others prefer to watch it in the comfort of their own homes.
Lea Havis, Overland Park sophomore, has about half of the episodes on tape. She said that she also had about 40 X-
Files Internet sites bookmarked on her computer.
Havis has many different reasons for watching the show.
"I think it's the best show on television," she said. "It's got great writers, great special effects, great actors ... It's something to look forward to at the end of every week."
She also said that the character she liked the best was Mulder, because he was open-minded.
"He's so open to extreme possibilities, and he never gives up," she said. "He's on this quest to find the truth, and he just refuses to be deterred from it."
Lawrence residents Christine Foster and Patric Whitcomb enjoy the show as well, especially since its air time moved from Friday night to Sunday night.
But many X-Philes believe that Mulder and Scully eventually will consummate their obvious deep affection for each other.
"I wonder a lot if it's just a soap opera without the sex," said Foster.
"Eventually, it'll probably happen," said Annette Gausz, Orlando, Fla., senior.
Havis, however, thought that diverting viewers' attentions from the case files with a romance would be bad for the show.
"I think that there is a lot of respect and affection and love between Mulder and Scully, but I would never want actually to see it consummated on the show because I think it would ruin it," she said.
On the Internet, Gausz and Havis would be termed, respectively, as "shippers" and "USTers." "Shippers" is short for "relationshippers," or people who think that the two agents should be romantically involved. "USTers" are those who think that the unresolved sexual tension between Mulder and Scully work best within the context of the show.
But regardless of their romantic involvement, the tandem will continue its search for the truth, bringing down evil conspirators and paranormally-influenced maniacs.
And do the show's fans actually believe it has a grain of truth?
"It can be realistic," said Stephanie Konecek, West Palm Beach, Fla., graduate student.
And for those who doubt, keep watching. You never know what you might find.
After all, the truth is out there.
A: 1121 and 1013. 1013 refers to the birthday of the show's creator, Chris Carter. His production company is Ten Thirteen. Fox, Mulder's birthday is Oct. 13.
1121refers to Carter's wife's birthday, Nov. 21.
Q: How many times has Agent Dana Scully made a personal appearance in the *The X-Files*?
A: Twice, in "Ascension" and Never Again."
A: "Humbug," in which members of the Jim Rose Circus performed a variety of human feats, including pounding nails into their skulls and eating live fish.
A: Seven do:
Q: Which episodes do you end with the tagline "The Truth is Out There?"
731 ("A apology is Policy")
Anasasi ("Ei Aanajoo 'Ahoe' out,"
Navajo for "The Truth is Out"
Thera)
Ascension ("Deny Everything")
Herrenvolk ("Everything Dies")
Teliko ("Deceive, Inveigle, Obfuscate")
Terma (E "Pur Si Muove," Italian for "And Yet It Moves")
The Erlenmeyer Flask (“Trust No One”)
LEAD STORIES
Former Gotti crime-family hitman Sammy "The Bull" Gravano cooperated on author Peter Maas' Gravano biography, Underboss, to be published in April. Despite the fact that Gravan's testimony helped send Gotti to prison-for life without parole and 36 others to the slammer, and despite the fact that he admits to making 19 hits for the Gotti family, Gravano reportedly quit the Witness Protection Program and said he would take his chances on the street. Though he had plastic surgery after he went underground, he agreed to show off his new face in the book, perhaps, said Maas, because the recently divorced Gravano would like to hear from any interested ladies.
Unclear on the Concept: The Multnomah county, Ore., school system was scheduled to begin in March test marketing the idea of paying parents
of chronic truants to help their kids get to school ($3 if they stay the whole day, $1 for a half day). In February, the University of Maryland's Student Honor Council, crusading against academic dishonesty, offered local-merchant discount cards to students who pledged in writing not to cheat. (Said a critic, "By the time you get to bribing, you're already pretty far gone.")
Despite a lengthy development period and a year on the market, the Reebok shoe company realized in February that its new line of Incubus athletic shoes for women was named for a mythological demon who raped slumbering females. Walgreen's drug-stores distributed discount coupon books nationwide in February to honor Black History Week. Among the product specials was skin-bleaching creams directed to the African-American market.
FAMILY VALUES
In Woodbridge, Va., in January, a 35-year-old woman was charged with sexual abuse of her 9-year-old son. According to police, she also arranged at least one sex instruction session between herself, the son, her daughter, 15, and her boyfriend, 34. According to the boyfriend, she was motivated by wanting to spare her kids from having to learn about sex on the street. A year ago, she became a grandmother as a result of the boyfriend-daughter liaison.
Raymond Taylor was sentenced to 40 years in prison in El Paso, Texas, in March after his conviction for attempted murder of his ex-wife. According to trial testimony, Taylor ordered his two kids, ages 10 and 12, to set his ex-wife's house on fire and instructed them on how to do it and how to disable the home's smoke
detectors.
IRONIES
In October, Richard Clear Jr., 32, was arrested in Tampa, Fla., for shooting
Parenting License Resvocations: According to police in Cairo, Egypt, Ibrahim Mohei Eddin, 40, pushed his 7-year-old son under a moving train and left him for dead at the behest of his 23-year-old second wife. The boy survived but lost both legs. And in January, in Williamsport, Pa., David Crist, 38, was convicted of pushing his deaf 9-year-old daughter into an oncoming truck in order, said prosecutors, to collect on an insurance policy. He also is charged with trying to electrocute another daughter in 1990 and with hiring a hit man to kill his brother in 1982, all allegedly for insurance money. Both children survived, but the brother didn't.
his gun toward a neighbor who had complained about Clear's barking dog. Clear runs a martial arts studio and advertises his experience in "Stress Management."
In October, The Des Moines Register reported that Daniel Long, 35, was fired from his job as a greeter at a local Wal-Mart. According to records in the state unemployment appeals agency, Long called one customer a "snb." told another she had to be "smarter than the cart" to get two carts unstuck, and called another a "fat elephant."
- In November, retired Manhatten, Kan., police department custodian Jay Pfaff, 73, was fired from his job as a school crossing guard because, said a police representative, "a number of parents complained that they were uncomfortable because he was too nice to their children.