Production
Chris Carter, when talking about "Redux" and "Redux II", noted that he "wanted to tie up a lot of loose ends from the past season, and play the idea that the conspiracy is a hoax and that it had been done to hide various terrestrial and temporal misdeeds". Despite being the season premiere, "Redux" was the second episode produced of the season due to David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson being needed for filming on The X-Files movie. In "Redux II", the role of "Quiet Willy" was originally intended for the character the "Gray-Haired Man", but was re-written for a new character when actor Morris Panych was unavailable. The role went to Willy Ross, whose real name is Steve Allen. The tagline for "Redux" is changed to "All Lies Lead to the Truth". Director R. W. Goodwin has said that the crew filming "Redux" were so impressed by actor John Finn's monologue detailing the supposed military hoax that he received a round of applause after finishing his takes. The script for this speech was particularly long, with Goodwin comparing it to "the Yellow Pages".
"Redux II" had four different storylines: Mulder's quest, the medical treatment, Scully's religious faith, and The Smoking Man's cure for Dana Scully's cancer. Although it was normal for the writers to add one or two different storylines for the different episodes, to create different interpretations, but Carter felt it took "the idea of the show" and spun it "in the most interesting way". The episode also started what would become Fox Mulder's loss of belief in extraterrestrials until the episode, "The Red and the Black". While the writers kept "playing" with the idea of Mulder's loss of faith, fans and viewers could not grow to accept his loss of faith, which left The Smoking Man victorious.
"Redux II" was highly praised by Carter, saying that "I think that Redux II is one of the best episodes we've ever done". Frank Spotnitz said "Redux II is one of my favorite episodes. I think the story has a crystal purity and clarity, and it just comes to a perfect point for me". Anderson said "I thought it was a terrific episode, especially the scenes in the hearing room, and the whole progression of Scully praying. How it was written and shot and how it was edited. Fabulous".
Read more about this topic: Redux (The X-Files)
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“I really know nothing more criminal, more mean, and more ridiculous than lying. It is the production either of malice, cowardice, or vanity; and generally misses of its aim in every one of these views; for lies are always detected, sooner or later.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“To expect to increase prices and then to maintain them at a higher level by means of a plan which must of necessity increase production while decreasing consumption is to fly in the face of an economic law as well established as any law of nature.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“An art whose limits depend on a moving image, mass audience, and industrial production is bound to differ from an art whose limits depend on language, a limited audience, and individual creation. In short, the filmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from the novel on which it is based.”
—George Bluestone, U.S. educator, critic. “The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film,” Novels Into Film, Johns Hopkins Press (1957)