Legacy of The X-Files

James Fenwick is a senior lecturer in the Department of Media Arts and Communication at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He is the author of Stanley Kubrick Produces (2020), editor of Understanding Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey: Representation and Interpretation (2018), and co-editor of Shadow Cinema: The Historical and Production Contexts of Unmade Films (2020). Diane A. Rodgers is Senior Lecturer in the Creative Industries Institute at Sheffield Hallam University, UK, and co-founder of the Centre for Contemporary Legend. Her PhD examines the communication of folklore in media and she is the author of chapters on television in Folk Horror Revival: Urban Wyrd (2019) and Nation and Fascination (2021).

Fenwick and Rodgers’ The Legacy of the X-Files offers an insightful, thought-provoking, and revitalising analysis of this landmark series, inviting students, scholars, and fans to look at the show with fresh eyes. This rich selection of essays, published to mark the show’s 30th anniversary, positions the series within its historical zeitgeist while significantly showcasing how and why this iconic franchise continues to speak to contemporary political, technological, and social issues. The truth, it seems, is still out there. The Legacy of the X-Files is a vital contribution to TV studies and a must read for the X-Files fan.

• List of ContributorsIntroduction: A Critical Reflection on Thirty Years of The X-FilesJames Fenwick and Diane Rodgers (Sheffield Hallam University, UK)Part I: Cultural Legacies: Landscape, Environment, and Technology1. Space and Location in The X-FilesMatt Melia (Kingston University, UK)2. ‘Mulder, it’s me’: Intimacy, Invasion and Mobile PhonesVictoria Scrimer (University of Mary Washington, USA) and Nicholas Stanton (University of Denver, USA)3. Artificial Intelligence, Surveillance and the (Post)human in The X-FilesAlex Goody and Antonia Mackay (Oxford Brookes University, UK)4. Agentic Oil and Petrocultures: Black Oil in The X-FilesChantelle Mitchell and Jaxon Waterhouse (independent scholars, Australia)5. Believe the Lie: Digital Visual Effects in The X-FilesTom Livingstone (University of the West of England, UK)Part II: Contemporary Legend: Conspiracy, Belief, Politics6. ‘I want to believe’: How UFOs Conquered The X-FilesDavid Clarke (Sheffield Hallam University, UK)7. (Cult)ural Tensions: New Religious Movements and The X-FilesRacheal Harris (Deakin University, Australia)8. The End of History? Contesting the Legacy of the 1960s and 1970s in The X-FilesGregory Frame (University of Nottingham, UK)9. ‘You believe what you want to believe—that's what everybody does now’: The X-Files, Fake News and the Rise of QAnonBethan Jones (University of York, UK)Part III: The X-Philes: Fandom and Paratextual Narratives10. The Aliens are not What They Seem: The X-Files and the legacy of Twin PeaksBriac Picart Hellec (Le Havre Normandy University, France)11. A Very Sci-fi Christmas: An Examination of the Christmas Episodes of The X-Files and MillenniumWill Lorenzo (independent scholar, USA)12. The Truth is…Inside the Panels!: Comic Adaptations of The X-FilesIris Haist (Erich Ohser University, Germany)13. “X Files till I DIE”: Fan Memory from the X-PhilesJanelle Vermaak Griessel and Natalie Le Clue (Nelson Mandela University, South Africa)14. Reading into the Romance: Gender, Genre, and the Rabid Shippers of The X-Files FandomMarissa Spada (University of Michigan, USA)15. The X-Files and Video Games: At the Threshold of Virtual RealityIvan Girina and Andra Ivanescu (Brunel University, UK)Part IV: Intersectional Legacies: Identity and Representation16. Racialized Disability as Narrative Prosthesis in The X-FilesLzz Johnk and Gabrielle Miller (Oregon State University, USA)17. ‘I’m a Medical Doctor, and a Scientist’: Powerful Women, Angry Men, and Representational Violence in The X-FilesErin Siodmak (Tulane University, USA)18. Invasion of Body Snatchers: Queer Theory, Cultural Capital and Desirability of Fox Mulder’s BodyKlára Feikusová (Palacký University (Czech Republic)19. A Collection of Human Curiosities: Disability in The X-FilesAndrew Sydlik (independent scholar, USA)20. The Scully Effect: The X-Files and Women in STEMJolene Mendel (American Public University, USA)Appendix 1: List of Series, Episodes and Films in Chronological OrderAppendix 2: The X-Files Main and Recurring CastIndex