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From bringing back original show writers Darin Morgan, Glen Morgan and James Wong to featuring characters and actors from the original show, creator Chris Carter has done a lot to ensure the new season of the The X-Files (1993 – 2002, 2016 - ) reflects the original series. There are, however, a number of differences between the original The X-Files and Season 10, most of which can be found in the new season’s first episode, “My Struggle.”

Customarily, The X-Files episodes have had a cold open which reveals the nature of the case at hand: a business man is murdered by someone who squeezes through a narrow air vent; a woman and child flee a supermarket when everyone else begins clawing at their own eyes; a man with writer’s block pulls his heart from his chest. The first and last episodes of Season 10 do not. Instead, they begin with a monologue from Mulder and Scully, respectively, explaining the X-Files and their involvement with the paranormal, played over a series of photographs from the original series.

What’s more, with Mulder’s having moved from apartment 42 to a small, secluded farmhouse, the X-Files office abandoned (and the files themselves mysteriously missing), and the lack of an actual case to solve in the first episode, “My Struggle” is missing much of the foundation of the original series.

I Want to Believe … that Mulder’s files are in storage somewhere.

There are also subtle differences in the characterization of Mulder and Scully in Season 10. Mulder is now sunflower seed-less (except for a handful seen briefly on his desk in the season finale), not wearing the black-banded watches he usually wears (such as his Omega which featured so prominently in Season 6, Episode 14, “Monday”), and his vast collection of pornography never makes an appearance. At the beginning of the season Scully is no longer working for the F.B.I. and is now instead an assistant to surgeons (which, frankly, feels a little like a demotion). But because over a decade has passed between the plots of the original series and Season 10, the differences are easily dismissed as changes in tastes and life choices. And these changes are clearly minor compared to the difference in attitude Mulder has adopted towards the X-Files themselves.

“Scully, listen to me. I’ve been misled – we’ve been misled….What if everything we’ve been lead to believe in is a lie? What if there is no alien conspiracy?”

Since the pilot episode, Mulder has believed not only in aliens, mythology, and the unexplainable but also in the existence of a government cover-up to hide these paranormal phenomena from its citizens because of a pact with aliens. Despite the challenges Mulder faces, he holds onto his beliefs throughout the original series. But in “My Struggle,” Mulder is easily convinced by Sveta (who merely says, “But you always wondered if they weren’t lying to you, too”) that the government conspiracy he has been trying to expose is not actually covering up their alliance with extraterrestrials who plan to colonize the earth, but is instead covering up that a group of government officials is using alien technology in a plot to take over the United States.

Some may argue that the biggest difference between the original series and Season 10 is this change of the alien conspiracy theory. However, the idea that false memories of alien abductions are being used to cover up government use of alien technology is not a new idea. In “Deep Throat” (Season 1, Episode 2), Air Force test pilots show psychological and physiological issues after flying experimental aircrafts which Mulder believes are based on alien technology; by the end of the episode the pilots appear to have been brainwashed so that they have no recollection of their experiences as test pilots.

“At the base I’ve seen people go into an ordinary room with an ordinary bunch of doctors and come out absolutely positive they were probed by aliens.”

In “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” (Season 3, Episode 20), two air force pilots flying a military vehicle designed from U.F.O. technology abduct two teenagers, who are then brainwashed into believing they were abducted by aliens. Because these seeds are sown so early in the original series, it seems unsatisfying to consider the twist in the conspiracy theory a major difference between the original series and Season 10.

Besides, much more worrisome than Mulder’s sudden change in conspiracy theories is that, in Season 10, Mulder seems uninterested in the paranormal occurrences with which he had been obsessed for a decade. He is dismissive of the case in “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (Season 10, Episode 3), initially writing off the deaths as an animal attack rather than an act of the paranormal, while Scully uncharacteristically tries to convince him there is a creature on the loose. Thankfully, by the end of the episode Mulder changes his tune, telling Guy Mann that he wants to believe.

“Scully, I gave up profiling before I gave up monsters.”

The notable differences between the original series and Season 10’s first episode may be due to an attempt to reach the varied audience of old X-Philes (the original series’ fans) and new viewers alike. But even the original series pilot jumps right into the action: the audience is shown the cold open of a young woman running from someone in the woods at night, followed by the discovery of her body the next morning; then Scully is assigned to the X-Files, Mulder briefs his new partner on the case in his darkened basement office, and they are off to solve the case 8 minutes into the episode. Moreover, their individual backgrounds (Scully’s education, her college thesis, and her reason for joining the F.B.I.; Mulder’s education, his background at the F.B.I., and his reasons for being interested in the paranormal) are revealed naturally through the course of the episode.

The majority of original The X-Files episodes follow this “show-don’t-tell” adage taught in writing classes around the world, so “My Struggle” stands out for its choice to open with Mulder’s explanation of his association with the paranormal and the conversations between Tad O’Malley, Sveta, Mulder, and Scully as they discuss what they believe (or, in Scully’s case, do not believe) to be a conspiracy of men against humanity. The episodes in the original series are much more likely to follow Mulder and Scully running through the woods after something unexplained than to spend time listening to the characters chew over the events of the day the way “My Struggle” does. It isn’t until the final episode of Season 10, “My Struggle II,” that the audience is shown rather than told about this plot.

While these differences divide the first nine seasons from Season 10, there are also many similarities carried over from the original series. This makes Season 10 an interesting combination of familiar themes and the unexpected, and a stimulating watch for new and old fans alike.