The “Scully Effect” And Other Things You Never Knew About The X-Files

Actual Scientists Helped Make The Show Believable

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The show’s producers made a consistent effort to keep scientists on hand to fact check their work. One notable scientist on the set was University of Maryland microbiologist Anne Simon who served as the creative consultant for all of the craziest ideas that came from Chris Carter. Simon wrote a memoir that said she was the real-life Scully who found the most realistic way a monster would look or an abduction would take place.

Having real science behind The X-Files was important for Carter because he didn’t consider the show “science fiction.” Carter was inspired by The Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and liked to refer to the show as “speculative science.”

The show loves to pick on the CIA, but in 2016 the CIA became X-Files fans too.