The X-Files has gotten pretty meta at times. For some reason it went all self-reflexive and post-modern in the seventh season with two episodes: X-Cops was a fictional crossover with reality show cops, as a camera crew followed Mulder and Scully over the course of an investigation, and had that fun reggae theme song we all know the words to. Then there was Hollywood AD, when an enterprising film producer buys the rights to make a movie based on the extraterrestrial escapades of our favourite FBI partners. Vince Gilligan was angling for such an episode way earlier than that, however, pitching an Unsolved Mysteries show all the way back in the fifth season. Unsolved Mysteries was an enjoyable bit of hokum that used to air on NBC back in the day, hosted by Hollywood actor Robert Stack, talking through ridiculous tales of the supernatural, weird coincidences and UFOs, accompanied by reenactments with an even lower budget than, well, an episode of the X-Files. Gilligan's plan was to frame an entire story as an Unsolved Mysteries episode, hosted by Stack, with Mulder and Scully played by stand-in actors wearing bad wigs. Unfortunately it never got off the ground, and it was switched in for the vampire story Bad Blood - when we could've had, like, sci-fi Crimewatch X-Files.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
