Via Negativa (The X-Files) - Production

Production

Frank Spotnitz, the writer of the episode, was inspired to write the episode after a rafting trip. During the trip, Spotnitz met a "friend of a friend," who constantly mentioned an "image that freaked him out." The man explained that the image was a tube of toothpaste that, when opened, would have "blood come out." The mental image intrigued Spotnitz, who later postulated, "How could you create a story where blood comes out of a tube of toothpaste?" Due to the strangeness of the idea, Spotnitz was unable to think of any real-world scenarios having likeness to the image, so he began to look into "dreams and nightmares." He eventually came up with the idea of a cult trying to reach a higher plane of existence, but instead stumbling into a "lower place, a darker plane." Spotnitz later explained: "What if the higher plane is a darker plane, what if we think we're reaching up but we're reaching down." Complimentarily, the episode's title, "Via Negativa," means "Negative Way" in Latin. This type of theology, more commonly referred to as apophatic theology, attempts to describe God by expanding upon what God is not.

That was the one where Doggett's mind was possessed by the leader of a religious group that was invading people's psyches . He started to get into my head. That was a great experience as an actor. It was challenging and a lot of fun. So far as specific character moments, I think he gained Scully's trust and respect. He came through in the sense that he found Mulder.

“ ” Robert Patrick talking about his character, in this episode.

Gillian Anderson's character Dana Scully would not be available, since the writing staff had decided before the episode was written that she would spend most of her time in the hospital. As the writing staff had a hard time coming up with a story, Spotnitz saw this as an opportunity to further evolve Doggett, the new character introduced at the beginning of the eighth season. In order to fill Anderson's void, two recurring groups of characters were brought in: Walter Skinner and The Lone Gunmen. Spotnitz noted that, "we were eager to get Skinner out from behind the desk, and we were always looking for opportunities to get him out of that office and get him into the field." Mitch Pileggi, who portrayed Walter Skinner, was pleased with the final product. He later complimented the work of Robert Patrick, who played Doggett, saying, "It was a big hole when Mulder was gone, but I though that Robert came in and did a wonderful job. He brought a really good energy to the set, and it was a lot of fun getting to know and work with him." In addition, Spotnitz was also eager to use The Lone Gunmen in the episode, since this the episode would mark their first scene together with Doggett. Robert Patrick called the episode his "favorite episode," because the writers saw a chance to really create a "vulnerable" moment for the his character, John Doggett.

The character of Andre Bormanis was named after one of Spotnitz's childhood friends, who went on to become one of the science consultants for both Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In preparing the character's death scene the director, Tony Wharmby spent a whole day shooting inserts of rats. In total, the film crew used 500 rats. Initially, Wharmby had an issue getting the rats in the middle of the room being shot. In order to fix this, animal trainers continuously released more rats until the middle part of the room was finally covered. The crew later spent many hours "painting out rat droppings in that shot."