Achievements, XF-Style



I think that the biggest achievement we Philes
should be proud of is having created such a
worldwide phenomenon. The X-Files has changed
the face of TV shows forever, creating a milestone
by which television will be measured for years
to come - in terms of quality, atmosphere,
character development and, of course, sexual
tension between characters.  But we've also
opened the public's eyes to conspiracies, to
the paranormal, to the fact that you don't
have to be a bit weird to be into science
fiction (although sometimes it helps!). As
has been noted even by characters within the
show, the public are more ready than ever to
believe that we are not alone, and this is
definately in part due to The X-Files helping
prevent the paranormal from being taboo.

We've also helped change the way law
enforcement is depicted on screen. In many,
many shows, the cops, the secret service, the
FBI have been shown as hard, cold uncaring
types. Suddenly, you say 'FBI' to someone
and they think of a scientifically-minded
redhead and a slightly mad, intense sex
symbol. The FBI are suddenly *popular* with
the public (don't deny that if you encountered
someone in the street wearing an FBI windbreaker,
you wouldn't cheer them on).

But look within. Without us, the show would
not have continued on for as long as it did,
and perhaps The X-Files wouldn't have managed
to achieve those things I've just described.
And look within out own community. We've hit
back against censorship from the FOX network,
who tried to take our sites down because we
were using their characters without their
permission. All we were doing is a bit of
free advertising, but they wouldn't let us.
So we fought back, set up support groups,
even organised a one-day blackout. Now tell
me, when was the last time you heard about
a site being shut down by FOX? I rest my case.

In the UK, fans have had to be vocal to keep
The X-Files on our screen. When the BBC kept
dropping it out of the schedule for weeks and
months at a time, we complained en masse. We
wrote letters, we sent emails, we set up
mailing lists and telephoned up the BBC every
day to complain. And eventually... eventually
we won! We got the show back! They still
don't show us much respect, but they're
better now than they have been in the past.

But in my opinion, the thing we should be
the most proud of is that we're still here.
We've gone through 9  - practically 10 - years
of this show, which is a long time in terms
of most of us - the majority of fans I 
know have , like myself, grown from children
to teenagers to adults with this show, and
it will have a lasting impact on the rest
of our lives. In those 10 years we've
survived some bad ratings and some fantastic
ones, some wonderful praise and some terrible
criticism, court cases, excitement of a
movie, fear that season 5 was the last, fear
that season 7 was the last, and the past
two years, which have been very, very
hard for me at least - as I know they have
been for many people. But we held on and 
come out on the other side stronger, better
people, ready to live the rest of our lives
with The X-Files, instead of having abandoned
it long ago. We should be proud of each
other, because what we've done for each
other is the biggest achievement a worldwide
group of people could ever hope to make.