X-Files Frequently Asked Questions - Part 5 Taken from the Internet Originated by Special Agent In Charge: Special Agent Pat Gonzales gonza006@maroon.tc.umn.edu (Internet) or LauraHolt@aol.com (America Online) @~Continued from Issue 50 /Deep Background-Fox Mulder/ Agent Fox William Mulder, an Oxford-trained psychologist with a photographic memory, is one of the FBI Violent Crimes division's best agents, although he is in disfavor with not only his superiors but also his colleagues because of his interest in the Bureau's X files. He stumbled upon these files, dealing with unexplained phenomena, during his first three years with the Bureau, as a crack analyst in the Bureau's behavioral sciences department. [Chris Carter, _Starlog #201_, April 1994] His fascination with the paranormal stems from a childhood incident -- his sister Samantha disappeared from their home in Chilmark, Mass. (pop. 650) when he was 12 and she was 8. Mulder claims she was abducted by aliens; during regressions he recalled hearing his sister's cries for help, and a bright light which kept him paralyzed and told him that his sister would be all right. [Conduit]. This memory differs from a dream Mulder experienced one night [Little Green Men]. Mulder has come in contact with an alien hybrid who claimed to be Samantha and an alien bounty hunter who told him that his sister was alive. He has vowed to continue his search for her [Colony/End Game]. Mulder's early meteoric rise at the Bureau enabled him to make high-placed friends in Congress -- one of them being SETI proponent and influential senator Richard Matheson [Little Green Men]. These contacts had kept him from retribution from higher-ups, although they assigned him a partner, with the tacit idea of discrediting what he does so that he can be dismissed. However, Mulder picked up a somewhat vacillating ally in a mysterious covert individual known as Deep Throat. [Deep Throat, Fallen Angel, Eve, Young at Heart, E.B.E., Erlenmeyer Flask]. Deep Throat was killed by an equally mysterious covert opponent (Crew Cut Man) during an attempt to rescue Mulder. Mulder confirmed his burial at Arlington "through eight-power binoculars from a thousand yards away." [Little Green Men]. But he has acquired a second "deep information" associate, someone who is referred to as X. [Sleepless]. This mysterious man has been less helpful to Mulder than his dead colleague. Mulder has also been told by an unknown individual that he has "a friend in the FBI" [The Host]. This friend has now been identified to be Assistant Director Skinner [Paper Clip]. At the end of Season 1, the X Files division was shut down and Mulder was reassigned to wiretap surveillance [Little Green Men, The Host]. He also reluctantly acquired a new partner, Special Agent Alex Krycek [Sleepless, Duane Barry, Ascension], a younger agent who purported to be a believer, not only in Mulder's ideas but in Mulder himself. Mulder's days in this mind-numbing duty were numbered, however. Assistant Director Skinner obliquely acknowledged that the X Files department served a valuable purpose in dealing successfully with the Bureau's oddball cases [The Host] and was bringing to light information that other covert parties would prefer to keep buried [Ascension]. Following the disappearance of Mulder's former partner Dana Scully, Skinner officially reopened the X Files [Ascension]. At the end of Season 2, Mulder came into possession of a Defense Department classified, Navajo-coded electronic document that purported to be the records of events surrounding a covert government operation from 50 years ago. Opponents tried to discredit him by adulterating his drinking water with a substance making him progressively violent. His father, who was somehow connected to the operation, was murdered, with Mulder as the prime suspect. Going into hiding with Scully, Mulder ended up in New Mexico investigating evidence that proved the validity of the secret document. He was found out by Cigarette Smoking Man, who attempted to kill him. [Anasazi] (The disk of information is now in CSM's hands [Apocrypha].) Mulder recovered through the intervention of the Navajo and returned to the East Coast to peruse his dead father's effects, finding a mysterious 1970s photo of an interesting group of men. [The Blessing Way]. Returning to D.C. he met up with Scully and received help from the Lone Gunmen and one of the photographed men to discover the secret location of the files concerning the covert operation: medical records and tissue samples from children vaccinated in the 50s and 60s, including Scully's. On the run from their opponents, they received help from Skinner, who negotiated a truce with Cigarette Smoking Man for the agents' reinstatement and relative safety. [Paper Clip] Mulder is known around the Bureau by the nickname of "Spooky" [Pilot, Young at Heart] both because of his uncanny ability to process information and leap ahead to logical conclusions, and because of his interest in paranormal phenomena. "He is considered a loose cannon, a person who is maybe wasting time and money, and also his expertise, on an area the Bureau thinks has very little value." [Carter, Starlog]. Due to an incident on one of his first Bureau assignments (a fellow agent was killed) [Young at Heart], he eschews following investigations "by the book," opting instead for his own instincts and methods. He keeps notes for his field reports in a handwritten journal [Born Again]. His favorite alias is George Hale [Little Green Men; Sleepless}. We believe Mulder doesn't "have a life," as we have seen little of his off-duty activities. However, some of this may stem from a relationship he had at Oxford ten years ago with a woman who is now with Scotland Yard (Phoebe Green [Fire]). He apparently was in love with her but she not with him. With the dissolution of the X Files division, however, Mulder may have been trying to revive his social life; an answering machine message berated him for missing a lunch date [Little Green Men]. Mulder's birthdate is Oct. 13, 1961 [Paper Clip]. His parents appear to have been separated. His father, Bill, worked in an unknown capacity for the State Department, and was murdered by Krycek before telling Mulder about secrets in his past. [Anasazi] Mulder's mother confirmed that Samantha had been kidnapped to insure her father's silence about his covert activities. [Paper Clip] He has a fear of fire [Fire], which may have been conquered during his rescue of the children of British MP Sir Malcolm Marsden (who also happened to be Phoebe's latest fling). He is also a fan of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). [Space] He has a habit of eating shelled sunflower seeds (a habit he shares with his father [Aubrey]), and making droll comments which X-Philes have come to note as "Mulderisms." Mulder enjoys wearing moderately wild ties to work, and seems to be a New York Knicks fan [Beyond the Sea, Little Green Men] as well as a Washington Redskins fan [Irresistible]. He appears to have a fondness for classic rock [minor references, Beyond the Sea, Gender Bender] and classic science fiction movies [Tooms, Erlenmeyer Flask], and iced tea seems to be his non-alcoholic beverage of choice [Tooms]. He also keeps himself physically fit by running [Pilot, Deep Throat, Humbug] and swimming [Duane Barry]. There are suggestions that Mulder has an interest in pornography -- in "Jersey Devil," we see Mulder looking at the centerfold of some "men's magazine" talking about how the woman claims she was abducted by aliens; in another episode Scully remarks that she hadn't seen Mulder that excited since she caught him going through the Adult Video News; a third episode mentions a subscription to Celebrity Skin, he appears to be viewing a porno video in a fourth [3], and he makes comments about a video he purchased (not a porno video) in a fifth [Nisei]. As a psychologist, he favors using hypnotic regression as a psychological healing tool, and hates the unnecessary use of medication [Born Again]. /Deep Background - Dana Scully/ Dana Katherine Scully is a medical doctor with an undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Maryland [Jersey Devil]. She was recruited for the FBI right out of medical school, and had been teaching at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. She was assigned by Section Chief Scott Blevins to be Mulder's partner in order to keep an eye on him and determine whether he is perhaps too obsessed with the X files. Scully is skeptical of anything paranormal, believing that everything has a logical, scientifically-quantified explanation. Though in most of the cases she and Mulder have been on she has not witnessed any overt paranormal activities, she has had brushes with unexplainable phenomena that may have her start questioning her beliefs [Beyond the Sea; Lazarus; Born Again; Erlenmeyer Flask; Fresh Bones; Colony; End Game; The Calusari]. However, she is determined to uncover the science behind the phenomena [End Game]. At the end of Season 1, the X Files division was shut down and Scully was reassigned, returning to the FBI academy at Quantico, Va. to instruct new agents on the basics of forensic medicine [Little Green Men]. However, Mulder called upon her expertise in violent crime cases to which he had been assigned [The Host, Blood]. Scully was abducted by escaped mental patient Duane Barry and disappeared [Ascension]. After a three-month absence, she showed up at a Georgetown hospital in a coma [One Breath]. She revived and recovered, and is back as Mulder's partner. The missing memories during her disappearance may be surfacing, however, and a piece of metal resembling a computer chip found in her shoulder may also provide a clue. [Irresistible, The Blessing Way]. At the end of Season 2, Scully went into hiding with Mulder, missing a scheduled meeting with Skinner and putting her career in jeopardy [Anasazi]. Upon her return to D.C., she was suspended and asked to turn in her badge and gun, and she sought solace with her mother and sister. At Mulder's father's funeral, she was warned that her life was in danger. Scully suspected Skinner, but found that instead he was on their side. In a case of mistaken identity, her sister Melissa was fatally shot in Scully's apartment by Krycek. Scully and Mulder have since been reinstated. In Season 3, Scully has discovered another group of potential abductees, all MUFON members, who recall seeing her during her abduction [Nisei]. She was directed to a dilapidated compound in West Virginia, which looked familiar to her [731]. Scully, born Feb. 23, 1964, [Lazarus, One Breath] is a middle child; she has one older and one younger brother [Born Again], and an older sister, Melissa, now deceased [One Breath, Paper Clip]. Her father died early in 1994; they were apparently close at one time (she called him Ahab; he called her Starbuck), but her family disapproved of her joining the Bureau [Beyond the Sea]. She had a year-long relationship with an instructor at the Academy, Jack Willis, with whom she shared the same birthdate. [Lazarus]. She is just as much a workaholic as Mulder, and is currently not seeing anyone [Jersey Devil]. Scully drinks her coffee with cream, no sugar [E.B.E.]. She was raised as a Catholic [Miracle Man, Revelations]. She usually wears a necklace bearing a small cross, which was left behind in the car in which she was abducted [Ascension] and was returned to her by Mulder [One Breath]. /FBI Superiors/ [Season 1] Section Chief Scott Blevins (Charles Cioffi) is with the Violent Crimes Section of the Bureau. [Pilot] Blevins assigned Scully to be Mulder's partner, and her field reports were sent to his office. [early episodes] [Season 1] Section Chief Joseph McGrath (Frederick Coffin) is with the Office of Professional Responsibility [Fallen Angel] and seemed determined to have Mulder fired and the X Files shut down. [Seasons 1, 2 and 3] Assistant Director Walter S. Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) is Mulder's and Scully's superior. He warned both Scully and Mulder that their unorthodox methods of investigation may have dire consequences [Tooms], and followed through by shutting down the X Files division at an order from "the highest levels of government." [Erlenmeyer Flask]. He has since had second thoughts and reopened the X Files [Ascension]. He has also overtly showed his support for Mulder [One Breath; End Game], openly confronting Cigarette Smoking Man [The Blessing Way; Paper Clip], and is trying (in vain) to keep Mulder from going over the edge [F.Emasculata; Soft Light; Anasazi]. /Recurring Characters/ [Season 1] "Deep Throat" (Jerry Hardin) is a mysterious individual believed to be some sort of higher-up government official. Mulder contacted him via a blue light shining from his apartment window; DT called Mulder and signalled him with a series of clicks [E.B.E.]. The method of choosing a meeting place was not determined. He appears to have been exterminated in the episode "The Erlenmeyer Flask." [Season 1, 2, and 3] "Cigarette Smoking Man" (William B. Davis) is another mysterious individual who, like Deep Throat, appears to be a higher-up government official with some power, though not the person calling the shots -- he seems to be answering to Well Manicured Man. [The Blessing Way, Paper Clip]. Assistant Director Skinner seemed to be deferring to his opinion early in our notice of him [Tooms] but Skinner ordered him out of his office during a discussion with Mulder after the agent had abandoned his assignment to investigate possible alien contact in Puerto Rico [Little Green Men]. CSM appeared to be back in control [F. Emasculata, Anasazi], but ended up making a deal with Skinner in order to keep the information from a confidential document from becoming public [Paper Clip]. He now has the disk [Apocrypha]. He also possesses secret files of Japanese war experiments [731]. CSM has also kept a silent watch on the proceedings in Blevins's and Skinner's offices and buried vital evidence in a secret Pentagon storage room [Pilot, Erlenmeyer Flask]. He also used Special Agent Alex Krycek to keep an eye on Mulder and any of Mulder's investigations [Sleepless, Duane Barry, Ascension, Paper Clip]. Mulder pulled a gun on him and threatened him with death in his studio apartment (at 900 W. Georgia St.) [One Breath]. He seems to be an acquaintance of Mulder's father Bill [Anasazi, Piper Maru]. [Season 1, 2, and 3] "Lone Gunmen" Byers (Bruce Harwood), Langly (Dean Haglund), and Frohike (Tom Braidwood) are three of Mulder's sources who work at "The Lone Gunman," a publication dealing with perceived government conspiracies. Frohike has a crush on Scully [E.B.E., Little Green Men, One Breath; Fearful Symmetry; The Blessing Way], and seemed to have a role in Mulder and Scully's assignment to a manhunt for escaped convicts [F. Emasculata]. A fourth Lone Gunman, computer hacker The Thinker (Bernie Coulson), put Mulder and Scully in grave danger by obtaining a copy of a classified government document [Anasazi], and turned up dead because of his actions [Paper Clip]. [Season 1, 2, and 3] Margaret Scully (Sheila Larken) is Dana Scully's mother [Beyond the Sea, Ascension, One Breath; The Blessing Way; Paper Clip]. She has had certain unexplained perceptions about her daughter [Ascension], leading to indications that Scully herself may be extra-normally perceptive [Aubrey]. [Season 2, 3] Special Agent Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) moved into the role of Mulder's partner with the unexplained murders of former Vietnam veterans [Sleepless]. We discovered, however, that Krycek had a hidden agenda, as a lackey for Cigarette Smoking Man: keep an eye on Mulder and keep him from finding out information that would bring certain covert activities to light [Sleepless, Ascension]. With the disappearance of Dana Scully and the reopening of the X Files, Krycek himself disappeared [Ascension]. He has reappeared to murder Mulder's father, [Anasazi] attempt to kill Mulder himself, [Anasazi] and, in a case of mistaken identity, fatally wound Scully's sister Melissa [The Blessing Way/Paper Clip] but was able to make his escape after an attempt by other lackeys of Cigarette Smoking Man to eliminate him. [Paper Clip] Krycek is now trapped in a missile silo in North Dakota [Apocrypha]. [Season 2] "X" (Steven Williams), an acquaintance of Deep Throat, is even more mysterious than his predecessor. X's information is even more reluctantly shared. Mulder is able to contact X by taping an X to his front window and shining a light through it [One Breath; Colony; End Game]. X seems to be involved with a different covert group than Cigarette Smoking Man's; he kidnapped a scientist with vitally powerful information concerning an illicit experiment. [Soft Light.] [Season 2 and 3] Melissa Scully (Melinda McGraw), Scully's older sister, stood by Scully while she was comatose following her return from being abducted [One Breath]. Melissa was fatally shot by Krycek when she arrived at Scully's apartment [The Blessing Way] and died a few days later. [Paper Clip] The investigation into her murder has been dropped. [Season 3] Well-Manicured Man (John Neville) is the head of a powerful consortium to whom Cigarette Smoking Man answers. Although he appeared to Mulder and Scully to be an ally, he is most likely working at cross purposes to theirs. [Seasons 2 and 3] Mrs. Mulder (Rebecca Toolan), Mulder's mother, has admitted to some knowledge of her divorced -- now deceased -- husband's activities with the State Department. She lives on Martha's Vineyard. @~More next issue - o -