The X-Files (pilot episode)

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"Pilot"
The X-Files episode
Dana Scully and Fox Mulder
Production
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 1 and 2
Writer	Chris Carter
Director	Robert Mandel
Production no.	01-101
Length	43 min.
Original airdate(s)	September 10, 1993
Guest stars
Charles Cioffi as Division Chief Scott Blevins Cliff DeYoung as Dr. Jay Nemman Sarah Koskoff as Theresa Nemman Leon Russom as Detective Miles Zachary Ansley as Billy Miles Stephen E. Miller as Coroner John Truitt Jim Jansen as Dr. Heitz Werber Malcolm Stewart as Dr. Glass Alexandra Stewart as The Orderly Ken Camroux as Third Man in Blevin's Office Doug Abrams as Patrolman # 1 Katya Gardener as Peggy O'Dell J.B. Bivens as Truck Driver William B. Davis as Cigarette Smoking Man Ric Reid as Assistant Coroner Lesley Ewen as Receptionist
Chronology
← Preceded by	Followed by →
—	"Deep Throat"
List of season 1 episodes List of The X-Files episodes

The pilot episode of the science fiction television series The X-Files premiered on the FOX network on September 10, 1993. It was written by series creator Chris Carter, and directed by Robert Mandel. The X-Files’ television pilot introduced the characters of Dana Scully, Fox Mulder and Cigarette Smoking Man. It dealt with themes of alien abduction, a subject which was a recurrent theme in the ongoing series. The episodes received a strong Nielsen household rating compared to other season one episodes. The episode got strong reviews from major media publishers worldwide.

In addition to setting the tone for the show, the episode sets up several character and story arcs. "Pilot" marks the first appearance of the Cigarette Smoking Man, who will go on to become the series' signature villain; although he has no lines his ominous background presence is established. Several other characters who will later return, including Chief Scott Blevins, Theresa Nemman, Detective Miles, Billy Miles, and Dr. Heitz Werber also appear for the first time. The events of the episode are revisited in the seventh-season finale, "Requiem", while the episode's conclusion is referenced in the first-season finale, "The Erlenmeyer Flask".

[edit] Plot

Special agent Dana Scully is assigned to work with special agent Fox Mulder on the X-Files in an attempt to debunk his left-field work. Their first case has them traveling to fictional Bellefleur and Raymon County, Oregon to investigate a series of deaths within a single high-school class, which later appear to be alien abductions. A near comatose man, Billy Miles, is taking his classmates, including Theresa Nemman, into the woods, where they disappear into a bright light. In the end, Billy wakes up from his "waking coma". Under hypnosis, he explains that aliens abducted him and his classmates when they were in the woods celebrating their graduation. The aliens tracked the students through small metal devices planted up their noses, one of which Mulder and Scully recovered. In an effort to hide the incident, the motel that Mulder is staying at is burned to the ground, destroying all of his photographs and research. While reporting to her superiors, however, Scully shows them the metal device, which she kept with her and tells them that it was never seen before. Her superiors take it and promise to look into it; however, the episode ends with a mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man placing the device in a box inside a warehouse within the Pentagon, with other devices of the same kind.^[1][2]

[edit] Production

[edit] Writing and conception

This episode's original script describes the transition between the two scenes in the "teaser" as, "The clear white light begins to fade… the scene re-appearing like a developing Polaroid." In the series Millennium, later created by Chris Carter, the Acts in most episodes would also begin with a clear white light that would fade to reveal a still image of action that would resume after the light had faded. Polaroids were also integral to parts of that series' plot. Carter had to pitch the idea for this pilot episode, and the series, twice before 20th Century Fox allowed him to produce the pilot. Director David Nutter realized the pilot was something that was very special and had a lot of quality after he first read the episode's script and started talking to people about it.

The episode starts with the notice, "The following story is inspired by actual documented accounts." As revealed in an early revision of the script, the inspirational accounts were originally to have been described as "true eyewitness accounts". Although The X-Files are not directly based on true stories, elements of the episodes have been taken from true-life accounts. The notice preceding this episode is there simply for effect.

In at least one early script draft, a Special Agent named Lake Drazen is present at the meeting near the start of the episode, having chosen Dana Scully for an assignment to evaluate the validity of Fox Mulder's work on the X-Files. Drazen's final scene on the episode suggests that he became the Cigarette Smoking Man.^[3] In the first draft of the script, Mulder insists that Scully drives. In the scene where their car loses power as the agents drive from the forest, the "time loss" is originally only three minutes. When the car starts up again, Mulder "leaps up like a guy in a Toyota commercial". Also in the first draft of the script, Dr. Neuman (the county coroner, later to become Dr. Nemman) had performed an abortion on Peggy O'Dell (the girl in the wheelchair) the same summer that the teenagers had graduated from high school. Peggy said the father was Billy Miles (the boy in the hospital). According to Dr. Neuman's daughter (just prior to the famous nosebleed), "Billy disappeared right before graduation and he didn't come back until almost the end of the summer. Peggy said he got her pregnant, but no one believed her because he wasn't even there... No one was supposed to know. She had an abortion but there was no baby. There was something else. He said it's because Peggy had the marks".

The original script gives more insight into Scully's visit to Blevins' office. The scene that introduces Scully in the script is set just before her visit and takes place at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, where she teaches a small group of trainees about the physiology of homicide, specifically electrocution and death by cattle prod. Her attention is distracted by an agent who enters the room and hands her a note that reads, "Your attendance is required in Washington at 1600 hrs. sharp". Scully checks her digital watch, which reads 1:03. The majority, at the least, of this scene was actually filmed but the scene was omitted from the final version of the episode. The next scene is that in which Scully reports to the receptionist at FBI headquarters; the script includes Scully showing her badge to the receptionist and dialogue for the role of the receptionist as she tells Scully. Third floor, violent crime division." In the final version of the episode, Scully's badge does not appear in any of the scenes and the receptionist does not speak.

[edit] Filming and effects

The location of the "Knoll Graveyard" in the episode was filmed in Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver, Canada. The road leading to the park was also used for the scene where Mulder and Scully find that Peggy O’Dell has died. Other places in the pilot filmed in Vancouver was the Oregon Memorial Psychiatric Hospital filmed in Riverview Hospital, Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) lobby and Dana Scully's laboratory scenes was filmed in Hydro Headquarters in Vancouver and the exterior of Scully's apartment was filmed in 610 Jervis Street in Vancouver. The locations for the FBI Boardroom and the Pentagon Warehouse was a site in Burnaby at a complex called The Knowledge Network. Fox Mulder’s office and the FBI hallway were interior locations that were found in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) office in Vancouver. Eventually, the bullpen and Mulder’s office would be built on a stage at North Shore Studios. The forest location was found in North Vancouver at Seymour Demonstration Forest. The episode was filmed in fourteen days during March, 1993.

The visual effects shots of the leaf and wind vortex were partially filmed at the location and completed using CGI leaves added in. Theresa Nemman's nose bleed was created with a disguised tube and then shot in profile.

[edit] Reception

The episode was generally well-received by fans^[4] and critics alike. Variety criticized the episode for "using reworked concepts", but praised the production and noted its potential.^[5] Of the acting, the magazine stated, "Duchovny's delineation of a serious scientist with a sense of humor should win him partisans, and Anderson's wavering doubter connects well. They're a solid team...". Variety also praised the writing and direction: "Mandel's cool direction of Carter's ingenious script and the artful presentation itself give TVsci-fi a boost." The magazine concluded, "Carter's dialogue is fresh without being self-conscious, and the characters are involving. Series kicks off with drive and imagination, both innovative in recent TV."

Entertainment Weekly noted that Scully "was set up as a scoffing skeptic" in the pilot but progressed toward belief throughout the season.^[6] After the airing of just four episodes, the magazine called The X-Files "the most paranoid, subversive show on TV",^[6] noting the "marvelous tension between Anderson – who is dubious about these events – and Duchovny, who has the haunted, imploring look of a true believer".^[6]

The pilot was nominated for an ASC award.^[7]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• "Pilot" article at The X-Files wiki
• "Pilot" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Pilot" at TV.com