I just spent the day on the set of Evolution and I want to say, for the record, that David Duchovny is as gorgeous in person as he is on TV/in the movies! Yummy!

The show is up for Drama Series of the Year and Gillian Anderson is nominated in the Drama Series Actress category at the third annual TV Guide Awards. The show will be taped on Feb. 21st, with a broadcast on FOX on March 7th.

Academy Award nominees will be announced on Feb. 13th.

Screen Actors Guild award nominations are announced on Jan. 30th.


01/21/01
This is from The Haven

This year, The X-Files returns to its roots, though, with darker stories, and fresh characters through which the writers get to explore themes from years past anew. "It�s really what we said our intention was from the beginning, which was to get back to the heart of what made the show successful in the first place," explains executive producer Frank Spotnitz, who himself wrote this season�s spooky Via Negativa, and is penning an upcoming episode as well. "It just didn�t feel appropriate given the new character or the absence of Mulder to do anything but these scary, dark stories. We also felt we had something interesting to play with these scary, dark stories again, because we had a new character. We�d done it so many times with Mulder and Scully that it didn�t feel interesting to us. But it felt interesting again with Doggett, because it was a new set of eyes on these things, and he had something different to say than any character we�d had on the X-Files before."
To read the rest of this interview go here.


The rest of the news dated 01/21/01 is from Scifi Weekly.com
01/21/01

Duchovny (Fox Mulder) would likely not appear in the next season and is only appearing in half of this season's episodes. Duchovny returns to the show on Feb. 25.


01/21/01

"I'm really interested in their promotion and support of The Lone Gunmen," Carter told the newspaper. "I want to make sure that they are supporting us completely and not just partially."

Carter added, "They said they would promote through the first eight episodes [of Harsh Realm]. Well, it didn't go eight episodes. For me, that was a dishonesty." Fox canceled Harsh Realm after just three episodes.


01/21/01
Letter to the the editor

Why can't people just let Chris Carter either close up all the loose ends or carry on with the character of Agent Doggett? I mean, Duchovny's not going to linger too far because he knows where his fans and money net are. If there is another movie, he's already signed for it. Besides, I'm looking forward to a Mulder/Dogget team up. Let Duchovny do his thing and his fans can enjoy his other projects, but don't feed his ego. After all, isn't that how The X-Files got into this situation in the first place? There will never be enough money or perks for this guy. I mean he's cute, but not that cute!

Sarah Wallace
[email protected]


01/21/01
Letter to the editor

We, the viewers, regardless of the letters we write or money we donate, cannot convince an actor to live his life the way we want them to and continue to play a part that they feel they want to move away from.

Besides, is this really about the show? Would the Preserve the Partnership campaign be satisfied if the Mulder character was re-cast? I don't think so. This has nothing to do with the show itself and more to do with the David Duchovny fans who miss seeing his face on their TV every week.

If you are truly a fan of The X-Files, take a look at the positive aspects of the departure of Duchovny--Robert Patrick is a wonderful actor and is doing a fabulous job as Agent Doggett. He has added a fresh perspective to the show. Scully is now able to have some further character development by having to admit to herself that she is now a believer. The character of Skinner has begun to grow and has taken on a more prominent role, as has his relationship with Scully.

Since I have already made the Mulder/Scully fans mad, I might as well go ahead and say that I hope we find out the baby she is carrying is not Mulder's. They have had a wonderful, close friendship over the course of this series and I think having a baby together would ruin that. Don't you think that family responsibility, child support and diapers just might taint their relationship a little? I say let her be a single mother and if Duchovny chooses to return to the show, Mulder could still be a very important person in the child's life without being the biological father.

To sum up, drop the campaign, let the actors make their career decisions, and accept the changes that are occurring with an open mind. Enjoy the show while it is here, it's not going to be around forever you know.

Kelli Doyle
[email protected]


01/21/01
Letter to the editor

I find this fascinating aspect of anime in no way deters my enjoyment of it, nor does all anime uniformly express all these themes. In fact Princess Mononoke (being safely in the distant past) was so good in part because the story did a good job of showing human aggression and that the price of an empire may be the lives of innocents and ultimately your humanity. Should a film of the depth and honesty of Mononoke ever be made about the WWII era, then I think this would be a reflection of a fundamental shift in Japanese society. ...

Frank Wegesend
[email protected]


01/18/01
This is from The Haven

All indications point to the affirmative.

Speaking to critics last week in Pasadena, Calif., Chris Carter, executive producer and creator, recited what has become his annual stance on the matter: He will continue cranking out X-Files episodes as long as he thinks he can keep them interesting and Fox still wants them.

Well, in view of how well the program still does in terms of ratings on Sunday nights - even with its biggest star, David Duchovny, appearing in only a limited number of the shows - Fox still wants it.

Carter also indicating that he is still having fun writing for The X-Files.

Another sign that the show is likely to continue: Its stars, Gillian Anderson and Robert Patrick, are under contract with the show through the 2001-02 season.

Meanwhile, Carter's X-Files spinoff, The Lone Gunmen, is to begin on Fox in March.


01/18/01
This is from The New York Daily News.

How quickly they forget.

For all those seasons David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were paired on the Fox series "The X-Files," their dynamic was as intense and loyal as it was understated and constant.

Now, with Fox Mulder AWOL and Robert Patrick's John Doggett teamed up with Dana Scully, the series has developed symptoms that seem straight from an X-files case.

Sudden amnesia, for one. Personality shifts and possible possession, for a couple of others.

Basically, what has happened to "The X-Files" this season (Sunday nights at 9), after a strong two-part opener introducing Mulder's disappearance and Doggett's assignment to the X-files division of the FBI, is that "The X-Files" has derailed from, and betrayed, its longrunning characters and story line.

Sunday's episode, in which Scully and Doggett chased after a dead Gulf War veteran who had been revived as a "living metal" vengeance-seeking man-machine hybrid, was a sadly vivid example of how much "The X-Files" has lost its way.

Scully, the former skeptic, has taken on the role of Mulder � in the sense that her words would sound at home coming out of his mouth.

Doggett, meanwhile, is playing his variation of Jack Webb's Joe Friday the way Anderson used to play Scully. Only this time, the "Just the facts, ma'am" approach works literally as well as figuratively.

"You know I hate to ruin your beautiful theory with ugly facts," Doggett told Scully in Sunday's episode, when she was hypothesizing a paranormal explanation for the evidence at hand.

"It could not have been a man," Doggett told her.

"Certainly no ordinary man," she added, sounding like good old "Spooky" Mulder.

In previous years, Scully's religious faith had been tested and rekindled, and her last adventures with Mulder (in the "X-Files" movie and afterward) made her more receptive to his obsessive theories. This about-face, though, is too complete, just as Doggett's stubborn disbelief is too familiar � and too lazy.

Even worse is the show's virtual amnesia regarding Mulder's abduction, whether by aliens or sinister earthbound villains. Wiping Mulder off the slate is one thing; relegating him to deep background is another.

"The X-Files" has been a show about obsession, about a persistent belief and dogged perseverence against all odds and apparent reason. At the beginning, when Scully was a stickler for facts and forensic evidence, Mulder was open to alternative explanations. Years later, even when Scully and Mulder were pulled from the X-files detail, Mulder found ways to investigate the bizarre and unusual.

So how, with Mulder's unexplained disappearance, can Scully fall back into a case-by-case routine? How can she do anything but defy orders, bend rules, look under rocks, look to the skies? How can she just let her partner lapse into dim memory?

The same thing happened, and rang just as false, when David Caruso left "NYPD Blue." His John Kelly had so much history with Dennis Franz' Andy Sipowicz that when Kelly was booted out of the department, it seemed unlike Sipowicz to drop him so quickly and completely.

With "The X-Files," it's even worse, because Mulder is coming back. Duchovny will appear in many of the remaining episodes this year, so there was every reason to keep Scully's intensity in high gear. Instead, she and Doggett now trade cell-phone calls as blithely as she and Mulder did. In essence, she has Mulder's attitude; Doggett has Mulder's number.

Yet "The X-Files," so far this season, is dialing a big zero.
(Note from Rachael: I think this was a very bad article, don't pay attention to it)


01/16/01

Call the forecast partly sunny.

``It's the same as it's always been,'' creator Chris Carter told TV critics over the weekend. ``If we can find a reason to keep doing the show creatively, we'll keep doing it.''

Later, he said there are ``great plans'' for a ninth season, ``but we're not quite there yet.''

It's been a transitional year for the Fox series. Actor Robert Patrick joined the cast and gave the show some new creative juice, Carter said. David Duchovny has become a part-timer; he'll return for several episodes starting Feb. 25.

Carter also is working on ``The Lone Gunmen,'' a comedy spinoff of ``The X-Files'' that's expected to get a tryout from Fox in March.


The next news pieces that are dated 01/16/01 are from Scifi Weekly.com
01/16/01

"I think it's been a fantastic season so far," Anderson told the site. "I think that the writers have come up with some really wonderful episodes. We've had some good, scary shows."

About her new co-star, Anderson added, "I think that Robert Patrick [Agent John Doggett] is doing a fantastic job. David hasn't been around very much at all. We only worked together for two days so far this whole season. He is coming around for six more episodes at the end of the season, apparently, but we don't start filming those until sometime in February. So I haven't had much of an experience with him this year. But on the whole, it's been a good year."


01/16/01

"The show is a business, so we wanted to use a businesslike approach in our campaign," spokeswoman Amanda Mason said in a statement. "However, we also wanted to make sure that a real-world cause was benefiting from our actions." The campaign will run through Jan. 15. To date, the campaign said that fans have pledged more than $3,000.

The X-Files has taken a new direction this season, downplaying Mulder's role to accommodate the wishes of actor David Duchovny, who wanted to appear in only half of the season's episodes so that he could act in movies. A new character, Agent John Doggett, played by Robert Patrick, has been teamed up with Scully (Gillian Anderson) in the rest of the season's episodes.


01/16/01

Gish's character will team up with Agent John Doggett, played by Robert Patrick, with whom she has a personal history. Gish's first episode will air Feb. 25, when she joins the hunt for the missing Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), who returns to the series.

If the show returns for a ninth season, Gish will become a regular, but she will not replace anybody, X-Files creator Chris Carter told the Reporter. "It seems to me that we have benefited from the addition of Robert Patrick to the cast, and we're hoping that we can expand the cast even further and as successfully with Annabeth," he said. Patrick and co-star Gillian Anderson (Dana Scully) are contracted for the ninth season of the show. Carter is in preliminary talks about coming back next season, while Duchovny's X-Files future is not clear, the trade paper reported.


01/13/01
I was sent this in an e-mail
According to the New York Post, while participating in a press conference for the Television Critics Association press tour event, Chris Carter spoke of a potential second X-FILES feature film."I can foresee trying to write a movie in the next year, year and a half, maybe two years," he said, "but it all depends on...what's going on with the TV series. But our plans have always been to put David and Gillian in those movies."


01/11/01
This is from the Official Site

"Medusa" (8X13) - airing Feb. 11th
Written by Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Richard Compton
Scully and Doggett race to investigate a string of bizarre deaths in the tunnels of the Boston subway system linked to a mysterious killer.

untitled (8X08) - airing Feb. 18th
Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Kim Manners
Scully and Doggett are called in to investigate reports of alien impregnations on human subjects. As their discoveries become even more disturbing, Scully is forced to question whether she should reveal the secret of her pregnancy to Doggett. Clues to the identity of who - or what - is the father of Scully's baby may be revealed.

"This is Not Happening" (8X14) - airing Feb. 25th
Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Kim Manners
The search for Mulder intensifies in the first of a three-episode story arc. As Scully and Doggett's difference of opinions heighten over the Mulder case, Doggett enlists Special Agent Monica Reyes for another take on the situation. In the climactic episode ending, Scully has a shocking encounter with Mulder.


01/11/01
This is from The Haven.

15. The House of Mirth
There's nothing genteel about Terence Davies's powerful and painful adaption of Edith Wharton's most savage nove. It charts the fall of Lily Bart (a haunting Gillian Anderson), undone by the malice of high society and her own conflicted desires. The movie rarely raises its voice, but you can hear it scream.


01/09/01 This is from the IMDB.

"She is quite unlike any of the other agents," Chris Carter said. "She has been neither a firm believer nor a major skeptic."

Annabeth has appeared in the feature films Double Jeopardy, Beautiful Girls, Nixon and Mystic Pizza.


01/07/01

FOX Entertainment President Gail Berman will be recognized by Electronic Media in its "Twelve to Watch" feature on Jan. 22nd, 2001. In the photo accompanying the piece, she will be in Mulder's office.


01/07/01
This is from Horror Online.com

"I think it�s been a fantastic season so far," Gillian Anderson says, referring to the eighth season of The X-Files, which has found Dana Scully dodging a man-bat in "Patience" and tied down to a bed, with a giant slug inserted into her back, in "Roadrunners," among other typical X-Files-ian indignities. "I think that the writers have come up with some really wonderful episodes. We�ve had some good, scary shows. I think that Robert Patrick is doing a fantastic job. David (Duchovny) hasn�t been around very much at all. We only worked together for two days so far this whole season. He is coming around for six more episodes at the end of the season, apparently, but we don�t start filming those until sometime in February. So I haven�t had much of an experience with him this year. But on the whole, it�s been a good year." To read the rest of the article go here.


01/07/01
Someone sent this to me. I have no idea where it came from

As a result, though The X-Files is still fundamentally about telling scary stories, now it's also about so much more. As if restructuring the series to focus on Scully (Gillian Anderson), her temporary partner, Agent Doggett (Robert Patrick), and their search for Mulder wasn't a dramatic enough shift, at the end of season seven Scully revealed that she was pregnant. That's a lot to absorb-- for both audiences and the show's creators alike. Executive producer Frank Spotnitz shares his thoughts on The X-Files' season so far.

The decision to bring The X-Files back for another year was a last-minute one. How did that affect how you approached the episodes for this season?

Spotnitz: After we found out we were going to be back for another year, the first thing we thought about was, since we don't have Mulder, who is going to be added to the mix that's going to shake things up? Honestly, we had to feel our way forward through all of the stories. The X-Files is still The X-Files--it's always been a plot-driven show--so finding the stories and the investigations has not been any harder than it ever was. I'm not saying it's easy, but it hasn't gotten more difficult. What has gotten difficult, and interestingly so, is how these two people go about solving these cases.
To read the rest of the interview go here.


01/03/01

The winner will get a walk-on role and a day on the set of Ivan Reitman's new film. The SF comedy, starring David Duchovny, is currently in production in California and Arizona, slated for a summer 2001 release.


01/03/01
This is not from Scifi Weekly.
Here are the results to the UK Official Magizine poll:
Best overall ep: Beyond The Sea
Best stand alone ep: Hollywood AD
Best mythology ep: Redux II
Best season: Three
Best villain: Krycek
Best monster/mutant: Eddie Van Blundht
Best teaser: all things
Best death scene: CSM in "Requiem"
Best dead character: Pendrell
Best overall character: Scully


01/03/01
This is from the December 15th Entertainment Weekly, yeah, I know its old

Even more astonishing: Gillian Anderson, aprung from her X-Files armor of dark suits and even darker broody stares, gives a career-igniting performance as proud, kind, foolish, tragic Lily Barn, whose need to marry rich thwarts her opportunity to marry happy.

Indeed, Anderson's acute understanding of Lily's self-destructive mixture of passion and naivete, her terrible refusal to take her own desires seriously - to watch her delicate voluptuousness as she accepts a cigarette, the way she tilts her heart-shaped face - sets the tone for startingly good performances all around. Laura Linney, currently also triumphing in You Can count on Me, delivers a chilling turn as Lily's manipulative, competitive, treacherous "friend" Bertha Dorset, who, in her bitter jealousy, can't stand to see Lily eke a moment's reward. But Linney and the superb Terry Kinney as Bertha's ineffectual husband, George, blend seamlessly with a motley cast that also includes Anthony LaPaglia as crass, rich Sim Rosedale, Elizabeth McGovern as Lily's true friend Carry (a made-for-the-movies composite character in Davies' screenplay), and Jodhi may as dangerous mouse of a girl. And as Lawrence Selden, the man exciting enough for Lily to love but not rich enough for her to wed, Eric Stoltz's usually halfmast energy rises, fired by Anderson's contained heat.

The British-born Davies (The Neon Bible), a filmmaker of rapturous imagery, is partial to moments of beauty oout of Sargent painting. He's also a music lover who relishes his woons: Why else include that most ravishing of trios from Mozart's opera Cosi fan tutte? But, in his surest demonstration of artistry, the director also knows how to sustain stillness. The moments of silence as Lily stands in upholstered rooms, taking stock of her lifelong exhaustion, are as powerful as the showiest scares of sound knitted by less confident directors who don't trust moviegoers with profound literary solutude for even an instant. A -LS


to the archive page or
to the main X-Files page