Forum:The X-Files

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Thinking of creating a page on The X-Files. It's a TV show that I'm really conflicted about — on one hand, it's a classic science fiction program that had some great characters and writing (at least until the last couple of seasons) and a huge impact on sci-fi television, but on the other hand, it likely created a lot of conspiracy theorists (especially ufologists) among those who grew up in the '90s, and a case could be made that it was promoting such material. The latter, I think, makes it a good fit for the site's mission, much like the various pages we have on shows like Ancient Aliens.

I've currently got a just-about-complete workspace version of the article here. I talk about how Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan both disliked the show, while at the same time, one of its own stars was a member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry in real life, and dismissed any notion that it was promoting woo. I also talk about the Lone Gunmen spinoff and how its pilot episode became unbelievable fodder for 9/11 Truthers. Anything else you think I should add on it? KevinR1990 (talk) 01:54, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

I wouldn't say it was promoting such material (it is, after all, science fiction), but you could certainly go into details and draw lines between the show and the conspiracy theorists who bought into it as fact. John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt (talk) 08:46, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
I think I could talk about that when I discuss what William B. Davis thought of the show. Overall, I describe it as something of a mixed bag on that front — on one hand, it was very much part of the conspiracy-theory zeitgeist of its time, but on the other, like you said, it's a fictional program that, outside its own universe, isn't trying to actually say that aliens are abducting people and cutting deals with shadowy conspiracies. KevinR1990 (talk) 15:13, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
I think that an X-Files article could be useful and on-mission by pointing out where the series help codify and/or popularise particular versions of UFOlogy, such as grey aliens (as opposed to the "little green men" of yesteryear or Spielberg's E.T.) or a specific take on alien abduction or cattle mutilation lore and how X-Files tied it all into a greater story-arch of conspiracy and secret government stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if a comparison of pre- and post-X-Files UFOlogy yielded clear signs that the series' take on these issues became "UFOlogy orthodoxy". Btw, Dark Skies[wp] seems to be from a pretty similar mold, but not as influential as X-Files (though Dark Skies tied aliens more directly to the Kennedy assassination, than I think was the case in X-Files. DS also put a special emphasis on Majestic 12). ScepticWombat (talk) 16:02, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
Go for it (if you'll pardon the eighties-ism). We have a Star Trek article, and TXF is as missional as that for the reasons cited above. Dark Skies is more problematic, though. While obviously tying itself to the conspiracy mast, it never took off in the same way the TXF did; it's a footnote, really. BicyclewheelModerator 18:57, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
Yeah, I wasn't appealing for a Dark Skies article. It was more something that sprung to mind in the context of popular culture influence on conspiracy theories (and vice versa). I don't know how widespread the Majestic 12 and Kennedy assassination stuff is among UFOlogists anyway or whether Dark Skies made a difference (I doubt it). ScepticWombat (talk) 19:34, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

[edit] 95% of UFOlogy is regurgitated pop culture

Alien abduction reports have increased substantially in the face of any popular movies that feature abduction scenes, and the experiences of the abductees tends to mirror the events in the movies. Close encounters of the third kind was particularly influential.

Singling out X-Files because The X-Files was based on the same conspiracies it fictionalized is kinda silly. Sleep paralysis used to be attributed to completely different myths a century ago. People have always been crazy. ikanreed You probably didn't deserve that 19:03, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Sure, it was based on them, but it also popularised them from the province of a tiny number of cranks to almost a mass movement, with newspaper articles and TV programmes about conspiracies and aliens. Also, saying "let's not write about people being wrong" would end RationalWiki, wouldn't it? BicyclewheelModerator 19:17, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
I think that the point of having an X-Files article is actually strengthened by highlighting such examples as the changing pop cultural attribution of sleep paralysis. It shows how a work of fiction can if not create then at least spread and popularise particular myths and conspiracy theories and do so inadvertently (I doubt the X-Files meant for or expected this to be taken seriously). It illustrates a kind of interdependent relationship between pop culture and conspiracy theory. ScepticWombat (talk) 19:34, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
That's pretty much my view right there. The X-Files certainly didn't invent the conspiracy theories it mined for story material — without them, there wouldn't have been a show. And like ikanreed said, the vast majority of ufology is, itself, taken from pop culture depictions of aliens, going back all the way back to how Betty and Barney Hill's "gray aliens" looked suspiciously like the alien from a then-recent episode of The Outer Limits. Nor do I even think that it was intended to popularize or otherwise promote those theories. Most likely, someone looked at that material and thought a cool, scary story could be made out of it. What it did do, however, was act as a "gateway drug" for a lot of credulous people who might not have heard of a lot of that stuff before the show premiered. To this day, it's pretty much the granddaddy of any TV show that's even remotely about aliens, conspiracies, or both (and which isn't set in the future), and if you look at, say, David Icke's stuff about shape-shifting aliens ruling the world (which he didn't really codify until 1999), some of its "mytharc" did in fact trickle back into the conspiracy subculture. KevinR1990 (talk) 00:32, 18 March 2015 (UTC)
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