The X Files: Pilot (1993)

Country of Origin: USA
Date of Original Broadcast: 10 September 1993
Episode Running Times: 50m
Length:
Format: 35mm
Colour Format: colour
Sound: stereo

DIRECTION

Directed by: Robert Mandel

CREW

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Twentieth Century Television
Copyright: © 1993 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Production Code: #1X79
Executive Producer: Chris Carter
Supervising Producer: Daniel Sackheim
Production Manager: Lisa Richardson
Production Coordinator: Gretchen Goode

SCRIPT
Written by: Chris Carter

DIRECTION
First Assistant Director: Anthony Atkins
Second Assistant Director: Craig Matheson
Script Director: Portia Jacox

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Thomas Del Ruth
Chief Lighting Technician: Dave Anderson
Key Grip: Rick Allen
Processing by: Gastown Film Labs
Telecine by: Gastown Post and Transfer

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Stephen Mark
Assistant Editor: J.J. Rogers
Electronic Assembly by: Encore Video

MUSIC
Music by: Mark Snow
Music Editor: Jeff Charbonneau

SOUND
Sound Mixer: Michael Williamson
Supervising Sound Editors: David Rawlinson, David Elliot
Post-Production Sound by: West Prods Inc

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Costume Designer (LA): Deborah Everton
Costume Designer (Vancouver): Sheila Bingham
Make-up: Fern Levin
Hair Stylist: Malcolm Marsden

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Rory Cutler

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects Producer: Mat Beck

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Michael Nemirsky
Art Director: Sheila Haley
Set Director: Shirley Inget
Property Master: Kent Johnson

OTHER CREW
Production Services by: Pacific Motion Pictures Corporation

LOCATIONS
Filmed on location in British Columbia, Canada
Location Manager: Louisa Grodnitzer

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This production has not been approved, endorsed or authorised by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

STUNTS
Stunt Coordinator: Ken Kirzinger

CASTING
Casting by: Randy Stone
Vancouver Casting by: Sid Kozak

CAST

Starring
David Duchovny (Fox Mulder)
Gillian Anderson (Dana Scully)

Guest Starring
Charles Cioffi (Chief Blevins)
Cliff DeYoung (Dr Jay Nemman)
Sarah Koskoff (Theresa Nemman)
Leon Russom (Detective Miles)

Co-Starring
Zachary Ansley (Billy Miles)
Stephen E. Miller (Coroner Truitt)
Malcolm Stewart (Dr Glass)
Alexandra Berlin (orderly)
Jim Jansen (Dr Heitz Werber)

Featuring
Ken Camroux (third man)
Doug Abrams (patrolman #1)
William B. Davis (smoking man)
Katya Gardener (Peggy O'Dell)
Ric Reid (assistant coroner)
Lesley Ewen (receptionist)
J.B. Bivens (truck driver)

PLOT SUMMARY

Sceptical FBI agent Dana Scully is given a new assignment, put to work with Special Agent Fox 'Spooky' Mulder who obsessively runs the Bureau's obscure X Files project from his basement office. Her first assignment takes her to Bellefleur in northwest Oregon where a teenage girl has been found dead in the woods, her nose bleeding and two strange marks on her lower back. Mulder has on file a number of similar bodies, all bearing the same inexplicable wounds and believes that aliens have been using local boy Billy as an unwitting agent to abduct teenagers for use in only vaguely understood experiments.

CAPSULE REVIEW

Moody, witty and often quite unsettling, Pilot was a worthy curtain raiser, though its arboreal setting and tale of teens in peril did give rise to the perhaps inevitable Twin Peaks (1990 - 1991) comparisons. Despite some unlikely dialogue, more than compensated for by likeable and warm performances from the two leads, Pilot set the tone perfectly for the subsequent series. The settings and the lack of any real explanation for what's actually going on conspire to make this one of the darkest and most affecting of Season One episodes. (Full Review)

AVAILABILITY

Germany
DVD Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Japan
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (PCBP-00065)

UK
Television Distributors: BBC1; BBC2; Sky One
Video Distributor: Fox Home Video
Laserdisc Distributor: Encore
DVD Distributor: Fox Home Video

USA
Television Distributors: Fox
Video Distributor: Fox Home Video
Laserdisc Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

TIMELINE

1993
September
10: USA - television broadcast (on The Fox Network); Canada - television broadcast (on The Fox Network and Global)

1994
February
10: Australia - television Broadcast (on Ten)

1994
January
26: UK - television broadcast (on Sky One)

September
19: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

REFERENCES

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

KEYWORDS

alien abductions, fbi, forests, teenagers

Last Updated: 13 November, 2008