Space (The X-Files) - Production

Production

"Space" was conceived as a low-budget bottle episode, due to several earlier episodes having exceeded their budgets. Series creator Chris Carter was inspired to write the episode after reading about news of the "face on Mars"—an instance of pareidolia wherein a mound in the Cydonia region of Mars was taken to resemble a human face. Although the episode made use of a significant amount of inexpensive stock footage from NASA, the construction of the command center set was subject to cost overruns, eventually leading the episode to become the most expensive of the first season. Carter blames this on the infeasibility of showing the astronauts in the stricken shuttle, requiring additional exposition to explain their situation—something he found he could not manage "on an eight-day television budget". Carter also claims that the episode suffered from being filmed shortly after the pilot episode was broadcast, with the crew overwhelmed by the input, noting that "everything was happening at once".

Several scenes in the episode were filmed at a Canadian Airlines operations centre in Richmond, British Columbia. The crew were given permission by the airline to use their flight simulators, leading to the production being delayed whilst everyone had a turn simulating flights over Canada. The problematic command centre set was constructed and filmed at an amphitheatre in Vancouver, whose sloping surfaces helped to suggest computer terminals without needing much construction, although false computer monitors were added for shots when they would be in view.

Guest star Ed Lauter had previously worked with the episode's director, William A. Graham, on the film Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones. On his role in the episode, Lauter has stated "I don’t really have a lot to say about that, except I thought I did a nice job, and that it was nice working up there in Vancouver with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson".