Editing The X-Files (section)

=== Fandom ===

As ''The X-Files'' saw its viewership expand from a "small, but devoted" group of fans to a worldwide mass cult audience,<ref name="Xerox Files" /><ref>{{cite news |author=Gumbel andrew |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mystery-over-bigscreen-return-of-the-xfiles-801781.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080331202906/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mystery-over-bigscreen-return-of-the-xfiles-801781.html |archive-date=March 31, 2008 |title=Mystery Over Big-Screen Return of 'The X-Files' |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |date=March 28, 2008 |access-date=August 17, 2009 |location=London}}</ref> [[Digital data|digital]] [[telecommunications]] were becoming mainstream. According to ''The New York Times'', "this may have been the first show to find its audience growth tied to the growth of the Internet".<ref name="NYT#Two">{{cite news |author=Millman, Joyce |title=The Nearly Ex Files |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 19, 2005 |url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/10/1034061299444.html}}</ref> Fans of the show became commonly known as "X-Philes", a term coined from the Greek root "[[-phil-]]" meaning love or obsession.<ref name="NYT#Two"/> X-Philes reviewed episodes on unofficial [[websites]], formed communities with other fans through [[Usenet]] [[newsgroup]]s and [[listserv]]s,<ref name="metroactive">{{cite news |author=Davis, Rachel Leibrock |title=The X-Phile Facts |work=[[Metro Silicon Valley|Metroactive]] |date=July 25–31, 1996 |url= http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/07.25.96/xfiles-9630.html | access-date=July 27, 2009}}</ref> and wrote their own [[fan fiction]].<ref name="study"/>

''The X-Files'' also "caught on with viewers who wouldn't ordinarily consider themselves sci-fi fans".<ref name="Xerox Files"/> While Carter argued that the show was plot-driven, many fans saw it as character-driven.<ref name="study"/> Duchovny and Anderson were characterized as "Internet [[sex symbol]]s".<ref name="NYT#Two"/> As the show grew in popularity, subgroups of fans developed, such as "[[shipping (fandom)|shippers]]", hoping for a romantic or sexual partnership between Mulder and Scully, or those who already perceived one between the lines.<ref name="study"/> The usage of the term "ship" in its relationship sense appears to have been originated by Internet fans of ''The X-Files''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-the-x-files-helped-shape-modern-fandom-including-shipping|title=How The X-Files helped shape modern fandom — including shipping|date=March 20, 2018|website=[[SYFY]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306231135/https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-the-x-files-helped-shape-modern-fandom-including-shipping|archive-date=March 6, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{OED|ship, n.3}}</ref><ref>{{OED|shipper, n.2}}</ref><ref>{{OED|shipping, n.2}}</ref><ref>{{OED|ship, v.2}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Morton|first=Ella|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/126715/x-files-i-want-believe-posters-origin-story|title=The X-Files "I Want to Believe" Poster's Origin Story|magazine=[[The New Republic]]|date=December 29, 2015|access-date=May 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521112011/https://newrepublic.com/article/126715/x-files-i-want-believe-posters-origin-story|archive-date=May 21, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Zimmer|first=Ben|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-the-x-files-returns-so-do-shippers-1454098144|title=As the 'X-Files' Returns, So Do 'Shippers'|website=[[Wall Street Journal]]|date=January 29, 2016|access-date=May 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903065708/https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-the-x-files-returns-so-do-shippers-1454098144|archive-date=September 3, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

Other groups arose to pay tribute to the stars<ref name="metroactive"/> or their characters,<ref name="st">Sarah R. Wakefield. {{"'}}[http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01956050109601018 Your Sister in St. Scully': An Electronic Community of Female Fans of The X-Files—Critical Essay]". ''[[Journal of Popular Film and Television]]'', Fall 2001.</ref> while others joined the subculture of "[[slash fiction|slash]]" fiction.<ref name="study"/> In the summer of 1996, a journalist wrote, "There are entire forums online devoted to the 'M/S' [Mulder and Scully] relationship."<ref name="metroactive"/> In addition to "MOTW", Internet fans invented acronyms such as "UST", meaning "unresolved sexual tension", and "COTR", standing for "conversation on the rock"—referencing a popular scene in the third-season episode "[[Quagmire (The X-Files)|Quagmire]]"—to aid in their discussions of the agents' relationship, which was itself identified as the "MSR".{{sfn|Lavery|1995|pp=36{{en dash}}51}}

The producers did not endorse some fans' readings, according to a study on the subject: <blockquote>Not content to allow Shippers to perceive what they wish, Carter has consistently reassured NoRomos [those against the idea of a Mulder/Scully romance] that theirs is the preferred reading. This allows him the plausible deniability to credit the show's success to his original plan even though many watched in anticipation of a romance, thanks, in part, to his strategic [[polysemy]]. He can deny that these fans had reason to do so, however, since he has repeatedly stated that a romance was not and would never be.</blockquote> The Scully-obsessed writer in Carter's 1999 episode "Milagro" was read by some as his [[alter ego]], realizing that by this point "she has fallen for Mulder despite his authorial intent".<ref name="study">{{cite news |author=Scodari, Christine |author2=Felder, Jenna L. |title=Creating a Pocket Universe: 'Shippers', Fan Fiction and The X-Files Online |work=Communication Studies |year=2000}}</ref> The writers sometimes paid tribute to the more visible fans by naming minor characters after them. For example, Leyla Harrison, played by Jolie Jenkins and introduced in the eighth-season episode "[[Alone (The X-Files)|Alone]]", was created and named in memory of an Internet fan and prolific writer of fan fiction of the same name, who died of cancer on February 10, 2001.<ref name="TheTruthBehindSeasonEight"/>