Thursday, March 6, 1997
TELEVISION:
Chris Carter answers questions about plots, beliefs, new showBy
Aimee Phan
Daily Bruin Contributor
Government conspiracies. Paranormal activity. Alien
abductions.
These words have become the catch phrases of the runaway Fox
television hit "The X-Files," which has evolved from a cult
favorite to a mainstream phenomenon.
So when it was announced that creator and executive-producer of
"The X-Files" Chris Carter was going to answer questions from UCLA
students on Wednesday, a long line of excited "X-Philes" were
happily waiting outside the Ackerman Grand Ballroom to meet the man
responsible for creating their favorite show.
Raised in Bellflower, California, Carter received a journalism
degree from Long Beach State University and then worked at
"Surfing" magazine.
While Carter did enjoy writing about his childhood passion of
surfing, he was not exactly at the top of the totem pole. "I was
the associate editor. What that meant was I got to work with the
stuff nobody else wanted to work with."
But now, Carter is at the top of his game. After encouragement
from his wife Dori, Carter wrote a screenplay which was soon picked
up by Disney. Before he knew it, he was writing and developing
screenplays. His biggest accomplishment soon came with a show that
has gained a legion of fans around the world.
"The X-Files" debuted in 1992 starring David Duchovny and
Gillian Anderson as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, two FBI agents who
investigate unusual cases, ranging from strange, unexplainable
deaths to the possibility of extraterrestrials.
Wearing a casual khaki shirt and jeans, Carter seemed right at
home on the stage as he answered questions from the audience about
"The X-Files" and his newest show, "Millennium."
Before the question-and-answer session, Carter treated students
to a sneak preview of an upcoming episode, screening an excerpt of
an airplane abduction scene that featured incredible special
effects.
With such questions as "When will Mulder and Scully get
together?" to "Will you ever have any surfing scenes on the show?"
to a woman psychic offering Carter her services as his personal
go-fer, the entertaining hour offered a lot of insight into the
fascinating shows.
Describing himself as a skeptic, Carter cites "The X-Files"
slogan "I Want to Believe" as a good description of himself. He
relates to Duchovny’s character on the show as similar to himself,
"someone who is looking for something to believe in."
Carter also discussed his most recent series, "Millennium,"
which he had created in addition to "The X-Files."
As if juggling two television shows wasn’t enough, Carter also
has plans for a big-screen version of "The X-Files," which he hopes
will be filmed this summer and set for release in the summer of
1998. The movie will follow Mulder and Scully on more adventures
into the paranormal.
When asked what his inspiration for creating these two unique
shows was, Carter simply answered, "I just set out to scare
people."
GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
"X-Files" and "Millennium" creator Chris Carter sits in a
question and answer session with students in Ackerman Grand
Ballroom.