The seventh season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing on the Fox network in the United States on November 7, 1999, concluded on May 21, 2000, and consists of twenty-two episodes. This season marks the end of various story lines; during this season, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) learned the true fate of his sister, Samantha.
Before the broadcasting for the season began, Duchovny sued Fox and eventually announced his decision to leave the show. As a result, the season would be the last to feature Duchovny in a full-time capacity until the show's tenth season (which aired in 2016), although he would return in seasons 8 and 9 as an intermittent main character. Due to this eventual character change, this season would be the last to feature the original opening sequence for the series, as the intro was updated for the eighth season in an attempt to renew and revive the series.
The seventh-season premiere "The Sixth Extinction", debuted with a Nielsen rating of 10.6 and was viewed by 17.82 million viewers, marking a noticeable drop in viewership since the sixth season. The series fell from number 12 to number 29 for the 1999–2000 television year. Critically, the show's seventh season received mixed to positive reviews; many reviewers felt that the show still produced good episodes, but that it was the weakest of the Duchovny and Anderson seasons of the show.
Plot overview
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After the events of the season six finale, Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) and Michael Kritschgau (John Finn) are desperately attempting to find the truth behind the so-called alien object. Meanwhile, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is still imprisoned by his own frenetic brain activity. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Skinner are unaware of FBI Special Agent Diana Fowley's (Mimi Rogers) duplicity—she is working for Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis). Scully then travels to Africa to unravel the secrets of the alien artifacts, finding something that looks like a spaceship buried under the shoreline off the Côte d'Ivoire coast. The object may prove that life originated elsewhere, and all religion is based on the Navajo contact with alien life. Unsuccessful, Scully returns from Africa to revisit Mulder in Washington, D.C., but instead she finds out that he has disappeared. She contacts Kritschgau and Skinner to find her partner. Cigarette Smoking Man has taken Mulder to a place where all his problems seem to have disappeared. Fowley helps Scully locate Mulder, which leads to her death at the hands of Cigarette Smoking Man.
While investigating a bizarre disappearance of a young girl from her home, Mulder becomes obsessed with the number of children who have vanished in similar circumstances. Scully fears that he is emotionally involved due to his sister's disappearance. At the same time it is revealed to him that his mother, Teena Mulder (Rebecca Toolan), committed suicide. He then tries to prove that his mother did not take her own life, but is ultimately forced to accept that his mother's death was by her own hand. He is led by a man whose son disappeared years earlier to another truth—that his sister may be among the souls taken by "walk-ins", saving the souls of children doomed to live unhappy lives. Together they locate evidence that proves that Samantha was abducted by Cigarette Smoking Man and was forced to live in a now-abandoned US Army base. It is later revealed that Samantha had become a "walk-in" spirit.
Mulder and Scully investigate a case which leads them back to Oregon, the site of their first case together. With a series of Alien abductions taking place, Mulder and Scully are contacted by Billy Miles (Zachary Ansley). Scully falls ill during the investigation and returns to Washington, D.C. Cigarette Smoking Man contacts Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden) and Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea), in an attempt to revive the government conspiracy. With Covarrubias unwilling to assist, and Krycek seeking revenge, they contact Mulder after he visits an alien crash site. Skinner and Mulder return to Oregon, while Scully is hospitalized in Washington, D.C. Mulder becomes trapped by an alien device, and is abducted by an Alien Bounty Hunter (Brian Thompson) together with Miles and several others. Skinner returns to Washington, D.C., where Scully informs him that she is pregnant, though she does not tell him that Mulder is the father.
Production
Background
After five seasons in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, production of The X-Files moved to Los Angeles. The X-Files sixth season was the first season of the show to be filmed in the new location. The move was instigated by Duchovny in order to facilitate his work in films as well as to give him a chance to be nearer to his wife, Téa Leoni. Series creator Chris Carter opposed the move, but Fox network officials eventually made the decision to film in California. Many fans accused the show of "Hollywood-izing" by adding notable guests stars as well as making the plots simpler and more enjoyable for mass audiences. Furthermore, the move to Los Angeles also meant a drastic increase in production costs.
Development
Originally, the mythology for season seven was supposed to continue from and show the ramifications of the "Two Fathers"/"One Son" story arc. Frank Spotnitz, in an interview, explained that the mythology episodes for season seven would feature "characters you saw in 'One Son' coming back" and explore "what happens now that the conspiracy has been destroyed, what are the politics of the new landscape that exists. […] There are aliens from outer space, two different races that are warring with each other." However, these ideas never came to pass, and the season finale, "Requiem", segued directly into the eighth season premiere "Within". Duchovny later revealed that, had the show ended, the final three episodes would have been devoted to the myth-arc.
While filming was underway for the seventh season, many members of the crew felt that the show had entered into its final season. Executive producer Frank Spotnitz later explained, "There was a pretty strong sentiment inside and outside the show that it was time to call it a day." Because the show's producers felt that the show was nearing its end, many story arcs were ended in the season. The fourth episode, "Millennium" was written as a way to bring closure to the recently cancelled Carter-created series of the same name. The episode features Lance Henriksen reprising his role as Frank for the last time. The eleventh episode, "Closure", features Mulder discovering what happened to his sister. The idea to close the story arc received mixed reactions from various production and crew members. However, many of the show's producers realized that the time had come to answer one of the show's biggest questions. Paul Rabwin noted that, "It's been seven years. I don't think any of us are going to miss Samantha Mulder. That device and motivation were very strong in the early years of the show. But as the years have gone by, the speculation kind of melted away." As the season progressed, however, the idea of producing another season emerged. Paul Rabwin explained that, "we found ourselves starting to get energized again. [...] As we got toward the end of the season, everyone was kind of hopeful."
The season also saw several of the show's cast write their own episodes. Series co-star Gillian Anderson directed and wrote her first episode of the series, "all things". Anderson originally approached Carter about writing and directing an episode of the series during the sixth season. Anderson crafted a script that would see Scully pursuing a "deeply personal X-File, one which in [she] is taken down a spiritual path when logic fails her". The script went through many revisions. Because Cigarette Smoking Man was able to manipulate Scully, Carter later referred to the "En Ami" as "the creepiest episode of the year."
Lawsuit
Before the season aired, David Duchovny filed a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox. Duchovny claimed that Fox had undersold the rights to its own affiliates, thereby costing him huge sums of money. Originally, in the contract, Duchovny was eligible for an estimated five percent, but, according to him, he "had seen only a fraction" of the money. Eventually, the lawsuit was settled, and Duchovny was awarded a settlement of about $20 million.
Crew
Series creator Chris Carter also served as executive producer and showrunner and wrote six episodes. Spotnitz continued as executive producer and wrote five episodes. Vince Gilligan continued as co-executive producer and wrote six episodes. John Shiban was promoted to supervising producer and wrote two episodes. David Amann was promoted to co-producer and wrote two episodes. Jeffrey Bell was promoted to story editor and wrote two episodes. Cyberpunk novelists William Gibson and Tom Maddox returned to write their second of two episodes for the series. Cast member Duchovny wrote two episodes in the season, while other cast members Anderson and Davis also wrote an episode each. New writers in the seventh season included Steven Maeda and Greg Walker, who wrote one episode; and Chip Johannessen who wrote a single freelance episode. Other producers included Paul Rabwin, Harry V. Bring and Bernadette Caulfield, and Michelle MacLaren who joined as co-executive producer. Other directors for the season included Thomas J. Wright who directed three episodes, with Robert Lieberman, Cliff Bole, and Paul Shapiro each directing one. |episodes=