History Series / TheXFiles

* HeldGaze: Mulder and Scully are big on doing this.
* HollywoodSpelling: Constantly.

* SpiritualSuccessor
** To ''Series/KolchakTheNightStalker''. Several ''X-Files'' episodes are directly inspired by ''Kolchak'' episodes.
** It also has much in common with ''The Omega Factor'', a 1979 [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Scotland]] drama about a psychic newspaperman and a physicist (''Series/DoctorWho'''s Creator/LouiseJameson) working for a government ParanormalInvestigation department. Said department is also infiltrated by a vast conspiracy organization with designs on world domination, through very different methods.
** Has its own in ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'', ''Series/{{Lost}}'', ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' and several other ParanormalInvestigation programs. ''Fringe'' in particular so closely resembled ''X-Files'' that it was criticized by fans as being a ripoff of the original.
** It also influenced the mood and writing of less obviously related shows like ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' (which Joss Whedon described as ''Series/MySoCalledLife'' meets ''The X-Files''), ''Series/{{Alias}}'', ''Series/{{Bones}}'' and ''Series/EleventhHour''.

* LetXBeTheUnknown: Subverted, because "X" does not stand for the unknown, as one would assume. Back when the department was first formed, they needed a way to consolidate the supernatural case files in one place, and "X" was the letter in the filing cabinet that had the emptiest space.

* HeroesWantRedheads: Mulder.

* PowerOfTrust: "Trust no one" is a major {{catch phrase}} in the show, but it's subtly ironic -- one of the show's main themes is the importance, in a world of lies and conspiracies, of having someone you can trust absolutely. Mulder and Scully spend so much time saying things like "You're the only one I trust," it became a common fandom joke that they were just using "trust" as a code word for "love".

As a long-running show with a passionate fanbase, the series has attracted many recap, review and parodies from the internet: [[https://www.avclub.com/c/tv-review/the-x-files The AV Club]] had one, primarily by Emily [=VanDerWerff=] and Zack Handlen, a former Mary Sue writer has been [[http://iwanttoreview.blogspot.com/ working on a review blog]] of the entire series for 5 years, there's a [[https://twitter.com/TheX_Cast podcast recapping the whole series]] and a webcomic [[Webcomic/MonsterOfTheWeek recapping all the episodes]] has been started by [[Webcomic/{{Narbonic}} Shaenon K. Garrity]]. If a recap podcast with a more twisted and deconstructive, yet still affectionate take on the show is what you're looking for, then there is ''Podcast/FoxMulderIsAManiac''.

''The X-Files'' is an American supernatural mystery-drama series created by Creator/ChrisCarter, which originally aired for nine seasons (1993–2002) on Creator/{{Fox}}, crossed into two theatrical feature films (''[[Film/TheXFilesFightTheFuture Fight the Future]]'', which was TheMovie, in 1998 and ''[[Film/TheXFilesIWantToBelieve I Want to Believe]]'' in 2008), and saw a limited revival in the form of a six-episode 10th season in 2016 and ten-episode 11th season in 2018, both also on Fox.

Dr. Dana Scully (Creator/GillianAnderson), a physician and [[FBIAgent special agent with the FBI]], is assigned the job of keeping tabs on fellow agent Fox Mulder (Creator/DavidDuchovny), an [[BunnyEarsLawyer odd but skilled detective]] whose [[OccultDetective deep obsession with the paranormal]] is of grave concern to his superiors. Working out of an office in the [[ReassignedToAntarctica Hoover Building's basement]], Mulder specializes in the Bureau's "X-Files": a collection of cold cases deemed unsolvable due to macabre or taboo elements. While Mulder is quick to attribute these to the supernatural and extraterrestrial, Scully is a skeptic who attempts to debunk his theories through scientific reasoning. Together they investigate all manner of strange and unusual cases, which over time hint at a massive [[GovernmentConspiracy government conspiracy]] linked to [[RoswellThatEndsWell a series of alien abductions going as far back as the 1940s.]]

The show's writers, who included Carter and future ''Series/BreakingBad'' showrunner Creator/VinceGilligan, were celebrated for their innovative blend of cop-show conventions, ''{{Series/Moonlighting}}'' style romance, new age mysticism, urban legends, government conspiracies, action, wryly sardonic humor, and genuinely scary moments. The show's high production values and sharp writing helped it to reach beyond the niche ''Series/TwinPeaks'' crowd to make it one of the most popular and acclaimed shows on television and a bona fide international cultural phenomenon. It was also one of the earliest series to be released in box sets (albeit on VHS, with inflated price tags) containing behind-the-scenes goodies. These sets became a common sight in supermarkets and rental stores, which fueled viewership even more.

Although it genuinely was good in its own right, the series arrived at the right time for that to happen; mainstream interest in ufology and related topics peaked in around 1998. These days, however, E.T. doesn't get quite as much airtime as he used to [[Creator/TheHistoryChannel outside of fringe circles]], and as a result, ''The X-Files'' as a series is a lot less culturally relevant now than it was during production.

* DeusAngstMachina: The main characters get a disproportionate number of metaphorical {{Groin Kick}}s just within the few years in which the show takes place. [[spoiler:Mulder has both parents die and is constantly tormented by people who appear to be his sister but aren't, but Scully takes the cake having one parent and her sister die (the sister being at least partly her fault) and the entire abduction plotline.]]

As a long-running show with a passionate fanbase, the series has attracted many recap, review and parodies from the internet: [[https://www.avclub.com/c/tv-review/the-x-files The AV Club]] had one, primarily by Emily [=VanDerWerff=] and Zack Handlen, a former Mary Sue writer has been [[http://iwanttoreview.blogspot.com/ working on a review blog]] of the entire series for 5 years, there's a [[https://twitter.com/TheX_Cast podcast recapping the whole series]] and a webcomic [[Webcomic/MonsterOfTheWeek recapping all the episodes]] has been started by [[Webcomic/{{Narbonic}} Shaenon K. Garrity]].

%%* BlessedWithSuck: Tends to be the case whenever the MonsterOfTheWeek is human. %%(Not enough context; it doesn't really explain how the trope applies.)%%

* DistressedDamsel / DistressedDude: One of the first shows to have both male and female leads carry the DistressBall more or less equally.

** Mulder and Scully to each other. Mulder says he even made his parents call him Mulder, but it doesn't seem to have stuck. Mulder occasionally called Scully "Dana" [[YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious at emotional moments]] in the first few seasons, then mostly gave it up, as if the last names had become more intimate by that point. Scully never even tried to call him Fox after the first time.

* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: In the very first episode, Mulder said that nothing else mattered to him except finding out the truth about the conspiracy and what happened to his sister. Early seasons of the show got a lot of mileage out of making him choose between pursuing his quest and saving Scully. Around the beginning of season 5, though, it pretty much ceased to even be an issue -- he decided Scully was priority #1 and never looked back. (She saves his butt just as often, of course.) However in Biogenrsis , S6E22. Mulder wants to find his sister again!

* BlessedWithSuck / CursedWithAwesome: Tends to be the case whenever the MonsterOfTheWeek is human.

* BondVillainStupidity: The Conspiracy has the opportunity to kill Mulder, but never does.
** Creator/HarlanEllison was complaining about this as early as the first season leading to a scene where the Cigarette-Smoking Man explains that killing Mulder would "turn one man's religion into a crusade." (Which still comes across as sort of a HandWave, as they've killed plenty of dogged investigators before Mulder and TheConspiracy has remained intact.)
** In CSM's last appearance he claims [[spoiler:he protected Mulder from assassination [[EvilIsPetty so that he would learn The Truth that the alien invasion was coming, and there was nothing he could do to prevent it]].]]
* BookSmart: Both Mulder and Scully are book smart and educated, though Mulder knows more about UFO lore while Scully is educated in the hard sciences.

* ChestBurster
* ChildByRape:

* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' come between Mulder and Scully. No, really. It's a ''bad'' idea. That goes for both of them, by the way.

* AssholeVictim: Warden Brodeur and Fournier in "The List".

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:Well, the good guys don't, anyway. Sure, CSM and Rohrer are both dead and Mulder has escaped. However, many of the conspirators are still alive, our heroes have been forced into a life on the run, they have just discovered the date of a planned alien invasion and are no closer to stopping the alien takeover than they were at the beginning of the pilot.]]
** In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS03E05TheList The List]]" Neech Manley manages to reincarnate and kill all five men on his hit list, and accidentally gets a hated fellow inmate and his wife’s lover killed too.

* BigBadEnsemble: TheSyndicate, a shadowy group of powerful individuals led by [[spoiler:Conrad Strughold and the First Elder]] with the Cigarette Smoking Man as TheDragon and the [[spoiler:alien colonists]] as the [[spoiler:GreaterScopeVillain]], with later seasons [[TheReveal revealing]] that its more of a [[TheBigBadShuffle big bad shuffle]] between its various myriad forces & factions; each with [[GambitPileup vastly differing goals and agendas]].

* AnchoredShip: For the first five seasons.
* AlternateContinuity: The IDW comic to the 2016 miniseries.

** At the end of the first movie, Scully talks about the vaccine that saved her, saying that it could cure people of the alien virus. It could also seriously mess up with the upcoming alien invasion. Sigh, the agents decided to pursue other things.
*** This comes back in the Season 10 revival, when Scully realizes [[spoiler: the alien DNA introduced into her system through the vaccine might in-turn create a vaccine that can save Mulder and the rest of humanity that are beginning to succumb to a planned global epidemic.]]

* AliensAreBastards: [[spoiler: The Greys fit this to a t. They didn't use to be like this and were once very peaceful beings, but the Black Oil corrupted and twisted them like it does all other life.]]
** [[spoiler: The Greys may just be part of the Black Oil’s life cycle, rather than being infected and controlled by it. In the season 6 opener, we see a feral alien that hatched out a Black Oil-infected lab tech molt its skin to become a classic Grey.]]
* AlienAutopsy:
** We see a doctor take away a murdered alien body from [[spoiler: the site of the Rosewell crash]] in the Season 10 revival. The tech obtained from his dissection of the alien, later on, has far-ranging consequences.

* AllTheoriesAreTrue