Pilot (The X-Files)

Plot

In the Oregon town of Bellefleur, teenager Karen Swenson flees through a forest at night, falls, and is enveloped in light with a dark figure. Her body is later found with two small marks on her lower back. In Washington, D.C., FBI Special Agent Dana Scully is reassigned by Division Chief Scott Blevins to work with Special Agent Fox Mulder on the X-Files, a section covering unexplained phenomena. Blevins expects Scully to discredit Mulder, whom superiors regard as a gadfly.

Mulder shows Scully evidence from the Swenson case, noting she was the fourth member of her high school class to die mysteriously. He points to an unknown organic compound in the tissue around the marks and similarities to deaths elsewhere, attributing them to extraterrestrial activity. Scully is skeptical. During a flight over Bellefleur, the plane encounters unexplained turbulence.

Driving through the woods, the agents' car radio malfunctions; Mulder spray-paints an "X" on the road. He arranges exhumation of the third victim, Ray Soames, over the medical examiner's objections. The coffin contains a desiccated, malformed body that Scully concludes is not Soames but possibly an orangutan; she finds a grey metallic implant in its nasal cavity. At a psychiatric hospital, they meet comatose Billy Miles and wheelchair-using Peggy O'Dell, former classmates.

O'Dell suffers a nosebleed and has marks like Swenson's. Mulder believes Miles, O'Dell, and the victims are alien abductees.

Production

Chris Carter conceived the episode with the aim to "scare people's pants off," drawing influence from the 1970s series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. This inspired the premise of two agents investigating paranormal events. For the characters of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, Carter played against stereotypes by making the male a believer and the female a skeptic, a role traditionally male on television. Carter found Anderson a "terrific actress" who read the part with the seriousness and intensity the character required.

David Duchovny, cast as Mulder, was an "early favorite" with Fox. William B. Davis, appearing as the Smoking Man, originally auditioned for a larger part with three lines but instead got the role with no lines. Principal photography took place over fourteen days in March 1993 with a US$2 million budget, filming in and around Vancouver, British Columbia. The series would remain in the Vancouver area for five years before moving to Los Angeles from the sixth season at Duchovny's request.

Broadcast and reception

"Pilot" premiered on Fox on September 10, 1993, earning a Nielsen household rating of 7.9 with a 15 share, meaning 7.9 percent of television-equipped households and 15 percent of households watching television tuned in. It was viewed by 7.4 million households and 12.0 million viewers. The episode was well-received by future series crew members. Producer and writer Glen Morgan praised its merging of "Silence of the Lambs and Close Encounters of the Third Kind," calling it the only truly scary series on television at the time.

Writer Howard Gordon noted the pilot successfully set the show's tone and introduced the premise and cast within forty-eight minutes, achieving a "tremendous synthesis of all the parts." Chris Carter recalled that a test screening for Rupert Murdoch and other Fox executives met with "spontaneous applause." Variety criticized the episode for "using reworked concepts" but praised the production and potential, stating that Duchovny's portrayal of a serious scientist with humor and Anderson's wavering doubter made a solid team.

Variety also commended Robert Mandel's direction and Chris Carter's script, concluding the series kicked off with drive and imagination. Entertainment Weekly noted Scully was set up as a scoffing skeptic but progressed toward belief over the first season, calling the show "the most paranoid, subversive show on TV" after four episodes. Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club rated the episode an A−, praising its template for future episodes and the chemistry between Duchovny and Anderson from the outset.