Creator Chris Carter discusses The X-Files with the AV Club:
But I never thought of it as a science-fiction show to begin with, even though it was labeled as science fiction, because I wanted it to be in the realm of speculative science, the kind of what-if, taking hard science and applying an unexplained quality.
And I can’t help but think, isn’t that science fiction, or at least one definition of it?
But I understand what he’s talking about. The “it’s not really science fiction” argument does tend to get old — really? spaceships, aliens, time travel…and it’s not science fiction? — but the genre label does still scare some people away. (Or scares away studios who think people will be scared away.) On the one hand, playing into those fears doesn’t do the genre any favors; it just adds another excuse for people to dismiss it, to go on fearing it. But on the other hand, you do want to rope in new viewers. And if the way to do that is to say, “this program is a little different than your preconceived notions of science fiction” — even if those notions barely scratch the surface of what science fiction actually is — well okay then.
I also like Carter’s response to whether or not there’s any hopefulness beneath the show’s paranoia and fear:
Yeah, I think the whole concept of “trust no one,” if that was a mantra of The X-Files, is basically a desperate cry for someone to trust. And I think the show has been exceedingly hopeful, and the idea that it’s not is, I think, not looking deep into what the heart of the show is.