Production
The scenes set at the software company Eurisko were filmed in Burnaby's Metrotower complex, a building used by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The location was barely big enough for the actors to perform in after the crew had finished setting up the necessary equipment. The scene with Dana Scully shooting the fan in the air shaft was a last minute change to the script, replacing an elevator shaft sequence that was deemed too expensive. The episode's title is taken from the title of the book The Ghost in the Machine by Arthur Koestler. The Central Operating System and its actions in the episode are an homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL 9000, who—due to conflicted programming—also became confused and killed people. The X-Files team would once again face a malevolent AI in the William Gibson-penned fifth season episode "Kill Switch".
Writers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa have admitted they were "not computer literate", and felt this was a detriment to their writing. Gordon was disappointed in the episode, stating that it "still qualifies as one of my biggest disappointments", ranking it as the worst episode of the first season. Glen Morgan felt that "parts of the episode worked. What maybe fell a little flat is that we were a little too afraid of doing HAL and, in a sense, I think that's what the building needed; to have a scary personality." James Wong had mixed feelings, saying that the episode "had some neat stuff at the end...although I think the ending was a little unsatisfying to me visually, as well as in terms of how Mulder comes to dismember the machine. Overall a fun episode." Chris Carter was more supportive of the episode, stating that the script addressed the question of what made up an X-File, and that it doesn't always have to be paranormal. He also felt positively about the episode's action scenes.
Read more about this topic: Ghost In The Machine (The X-Files)
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