THE X-FILES News Update: MARCH 2017

March didn’t bring any further solid news on the prospects for Season 11, I’m afraid, but there were a few other things worth noting.

Picture Book Announced

We don’t have a huge amount of information on this yet, but August will see the publication of The X-Files: Earth Children Are Weird, written by Kim Smith. If you’ve ever wanted to read about Mulder & Scully going camping together when they were children, then this could be the book for you! Those of us on the X-Cast team who are parents look forward to buying this for our children (OK, for ourselves) – you can read more about the book here.

X-Files: Origins To Return

Last summer’s X-Files: Origins comics, which concerned separate events in the life of young Mulder & Scully, were a real treat. It was nice to hear, then, that the series will return in June, with the same creative team at the helm. Click the link for more details.

Comics Reviews

Three new comics were released in March, and our own Tony Black reviewed them all for Flickering Myth. Click the links to find out what he thought about the second Deviations tale, the concluding part of the Contrarians storyline and the first issue concerning an event in Walter Skinner’s past.

Chris Carter’s House Up For Grabs

Fancy bidding for Chris Carter’s house? Of course you do! Well, his Malibu estate is on the market, and Variety has more information – looks nice, but it’ll cost you…

The X-Cast's New Home

As you may have noticed, we've moved from our previous address at Black Hole Media. You can find all of our old podcasts here now. Going forward, all new blog posts, including predictions for #TheXFilesEpisodeTournament, will be featured here exclusively. Visit our homepage to see exactly what else we've come up with.

That’s all for this month, I’ll be back next month with another news update. Until then, trust no one!

THE X-CAST #83 - Roundtable 2: Tournament Wildcard

THE X-CAST continues with guest host Carl Sweeney introducing the second Roundtable episode, featuring fans and guests of the podcast.

Joined by previous guest Sarah Blair, Carl invites for the first time Sam Turton, Andrew Blaker and Russell Hugo, as they discuss The X-Files Episode Tournament underway on Twitter, and put forward their arguments for four episodes, as voted by you, which will go head to head.

Sarah discusses S7's Je Souhaite, Sam talks S3's Quagmire, Andrew takes S5's Detour and Russell discusses S5's The Red and the Black.

Only one can qualify for Round 2. Which will be victorious? That's up to you. Vote in our poll which you can find on Twitter @ #TheXFilesEpisodeTournament

Listen/Download here:



Next time on The X-Cast... Tony is joined once again by Darren Mooney of The Irish M0vie Blog to discuss Season 2 Episode 16, 'Colony'...

INTRODUCTIONS: A Short History of My X-Fandom (Carl Sweeney)

I saw an interview with Chris Carter once where he said, talking about Kolchak the Night Stalker, that he could have watched that show every day of the week. Well, for a few years I felt exactly the same way about Carter’s The X-Files.

I was a little young to be watching, truthfully. My first experience of the show was an abandoned attempt at watching ‘Shapes’. My 8-year-old self was terrified, though looking back I’m not sure why. I saw a couple of episodes over the next year or so, but it was mid-Season 3 when I got fully on board.

I think The X-Files appealed to me for a number of reasons. I loved the interplay between the main characters. I really liked the way the show could switch genres from week-to-week. Even at a young age, I could tell that the best episodes were extremely well-written. It was also clear from occasionally looking at internet message boards at the time that the fanbase was very smart and literate.

For a few years, I became a little obsessed with The X-Files. Recording each new episode onto VHS. Buying all the books and magazines I could get my hands on. Talking about the series with anyone who showed even the slightest interest. At one time I was even keeping a scrapbook of sorts (long since discarded, sadly).

Nothing lasts forever, of course. My interest began to wane during Season 7 (though I like Season 8 a lot more than many people do). I kept watching until the end, although I wasn’t that upset when Season 9 proved to be the end of the road. My life moved on. I went to university, met my partner, had a child. I saw I Want To Believe on opening day, but it didn’t do much for me. I didn’t spend much time thinking about The X-Files, honestly.

I was pleased when the revival was announced. I decided to rewatch the original series for the first time in a few years. I was slightly worried that it wouldn’t be quite as good as I remembered. It wasn’t. It was better.

The X-Files will always be my favourite show, without doubt. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity on this site to write about some of the things that I love most about it. It’s still the one show I could watch every day of the week.

Carl will be a regular contributor to the blog. 

His favourite episode is ‘Home’, his favourite season is Season 3, and his favourite character is, of course, Fox Mulder.