Production
Writer Darin Morgan had pieces of the script for a long time, drawing inspiration from research he had done on hypnosis and a book on government coverups and UFOs that theorized that UFOs are a phenomenon that manipulate space and time, but are not piloted by aliens. Morgan had the idea for the teaser in mind before becoming a staff member on the show. The narrative style was influenced by a casting session Morgan witnessed where an actor auditioning sounded like Truman Capote. From this he came up with the idea to have a writer covering the case. Capote died in 1984, and second choice Rip Taylor was unavailable, so the role of Jose Chung ended up going to Charles Nelson Reilly. Jesse Ventura was cast as one of the men in black, while the other, which Morgan had originally wanted Johnny Cash for, went to Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek. The role of Lord Kinbote went to stuntman Tony Morelli.
The episode contained a number of references and in-jokes. Klass County was named after UFO author Philip Klass, whose line about the planet Venus being mistaken for UFOs was used by one of the men in black in the episode. The pilots dressed up as aliens were named after UFO authors Robert Schaffer and Jacques Vallee. MP Hynek was named after UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek. The character of Roky Crikenson is named after musician Roky Erickson, who claims to be an alien abductee. Chung gives Mulder the pseudonym Reynard, after the legendary fox. The alien autopsy video: "Dead Alien! Truth or Humbug?" referenced Morgan's first episode for the series, "Humbug". The video was a parody of the real life Alien Autopsy video aired by Fox. Detective Manners was named after director Kim Manners; the character's tendency to swear a lot was also influenced by his real life counterpart. Lt. Shaeffer molding his mashed potatoes into a mountain is a reference to the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The cover to Jose Chung's book was a reference to the cover of the book Communion by Whitley Strieber. Lord Kinbote was an homage to Ray Harryhausen, a director noted for his work in stop-motion model animation, with the footage of the character shot at high speed then slowed down and edited in post production to create a stop-motion effect.
This episode would be the last that Darin Morgan wrote for the series. The writer claimed that he could not keep up with the frantic pace of the show. Morgan would later write the similarly themed "Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense" for the TV series Millennium.
Read more about this topic: Jose Chung's From Outer Space
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—George Bluestone, U.S. educator, critic. “The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film,” Novels Into Film, Johns Hopkins Press (1957)