The Carter Conundrum
The Man, The Files, and an attempt to find The Real Truth.
      by pisher

"CC-1013 Countermeasures my ass."

(scene: 11:21 PM. A decaying, rat-infested loft, overlooking the offices of The 11th Hour. A suntanned man with gray/blonde hair and a strange little smile enters the room and positions himself at the window. He activates a listening device, and puffs on an herbal cigarette. We hear voices from the office below.)

Sarah: So pisher, what about this story you promised us?

pisher: The biggest story ever, Sarah -- about the most dangerously overhyped Writer/Producer on Earth!

Linda: Surferman?

Sarah: pisher, you were supposed to give us an X-Files retrospective, in light of the show possibly coming to an end this season.

pisher: I'll get to that. In good time. But first you must activate a CC-1013 Countermeasure Filter!

Linda: Oh c'mon, this is mindless paranoia! Well -- I guess that is appropriate, come to think of it.

pisher: I will not continue until the CC-1013 is in operation!

Sarah: (sighs) Okay, I think I have one here someplace. (sound of someone shifting through a very messy desk, and then a click) Okay, it's on. (True to its name, the mechanical plot device proves completely ineffectual and we continue to hear them speaking)

pisher: The story begins in the early 80's. It all started with Mark Ruble -- (cue the flashback music please--)

Carter perfects his public image: Bastard son of Batman and Hugh Hefner.

Chris Carter is The X-Files. Everyone says so, from the network executives who sign his paychecks to the co-stars of his one and only hit show, to the fans who have made it a hit. They all say it.

And so do I. In spite of my speculations published here some time ago, regarding Carter's possible pilfering from Nigel Kneale's Quatermass series, in spite of my avowed preference for the work of Glen Morgan and James Wong on The X-Files and Millennium, so do I. Chris Carter is The X-Files. And vice-versa. The show that defined genre TV for the 90's could not have happened without him. And he couldn't have happened without it either. The destinies of the man and the show are hopelessly entangled. One will never be mentioned without the other. At this point, one cannot live without the other. And that is the tragedy -- and the comedy -- I am going to recount for you now.

The vast preponderance of my plot material comes from public sources (I will identify unsubstantiated rumors as they occur). The Official Guides to the show that have been published. The internet fan sites, both for the show and the man himself. And the seemingly unending press interviews Carter has done over the past seven years. He has done hundreds of interviews, far more than any other television producer, alive or dead -- including those with far more substantial track records.

Using press search engines like Lexis-Nexis, as well as archives maintained by ardent Carter-fans seeking to preserve every last drop of wisdom from the Master's lips, I have pieced together a story. I have also learned a lot from people who are (unlike me) in the entertainment business or who write about it. My Quatermass articles got me some interesting feedback.

But what follows is my version of the story. There are other possible interpretations. There always are. There always will be. I will at least try to be different from what has come before. And to be fair, disgruntled former Carter-phile that I am. But I have nothing to gain from flattery, and nothing to fear from the Truth, assuming I can figure out what exactly that is. No promises there. It's no mean trick to learn the truth about Chris Carter and the origins of The X-Files. I'm not the first to say so either.

A Lexis-Nexis newspaper search (which only covers a sampling of existing newspapers) under the terms "Chris Carter" and "X-Files" currently yields 728 entries (more by the time you read this), many of them just brief mentions, but many others lengthy musings on the X-Files phenomenon or interviews with its not terribly publicity shy creator. For comparison, "Stephen Bochco" yields 73 entries. Carter has the highest media profile of any television producer that ever shot a pilot episode, in spite of having only one real hit, which was never a #1 show at any time in its existence. And in spite of never winning one Emmy for his own writing or directing; which is hardly an infallible sign of excellence, but certainly is a mark of professional respect in the "biz".

Carter directs his Nazi hordes.

While TV producers are never averse to plugging their shows, it is unusual -- to say the very least -- for them to become celebrities in their own right. Almost unheard of, in fact. Rod Serling and Gene Roddenberry are among the few exceptions -- and neither of them ever had as high a "Q" factor as Carter, though Serling will always be more powerfully imprinted in our consciousness through his voice and presence, and Roddenberry spawned a franchise that has stood the test of time -- and many changes of personnel, both fictional and behind the scenes. Gene Roddenberry's greatest legacy, as it turned out, was a franchise that could function perfectly well without him.

Comparisons aside, Chris Carter is a professional anomaly in this extraordinary public garrulity of his, as he is in many other things. From this, I draw two conclusions -- that he liked to talk about himself and his shows (he makes little distinction between the two), and that people were interested in what he had to say. This perhaps had less to do with his eventual success than with the sheer Cinderella improbability of the story, and the attractive and enigmatic image he put forth of himself. His public persona is at least as impressive a creation as Fox Mulder's or Dana Scully's. I mean that as a compliment.

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