A Frank Spotnitz interview, notes courtesy of EattheCorn.
February 7, 2024:
Diana Fowley: the writers wanted to play the ambiguity regarding Fowley’s allegiance, on who to trust, Mulder’s or Scully’s reading of Fowley? To the point where Mulder calls on Fowley’s bluff to see where her loyalties lie (end of One Son). But how the episode reads to the viewer is that she is an antagonist to M&S, not as ambiguous as intended. He would have liked to see more of Fowley. “That was explicitly one of the reasons why we wanted the Fowley character, it was a way to indirectly mine the sexual tension between M&S, by creating this new threat that you hadn’t really seen since s1, a rival for Scully”.
On Mulder’s wedding ring (Unusual Suspects, Travelers): definitely not in the writers’ intention, was a DD thing: “we didn’t have the visual effects capability to erase the ring.” All the fan theories about Fowley being the ex-wife are good, but they were “not in the text”.
You mentioned this work being one of your favorites, and I saw on your profile that you allowed fanart/transformative works based on your work. I wanted to make something based on your beautiful fic—and I have to admit there are so many beautiful moments I got a little carried away and couldn’t stop wanting to draw the whole work as like a graphic novel, but I settled for this line which is one of my favorites. (Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably!)
Everyone should check out this beautiful fic! Seriously, it’s a lovely exploration of MSR with rich prose—it’s so poetic and expertly crafted.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/15557
—
This was fun to paint—I haven’t broken out the watercolors in a bit, and it was so fun to be inspired by your incredible writing. Thank you @poangpals for hosting!!! ❤️ Hope you have a great rest of summer!
[[Also in case it wasn’t clear, these words are not mine and belong to the wonderful@leiascully !]]
"X-Files" actor David Duchovny took a deep dive into his Jewish heritage on an episode of PBS' "Finding Your Roots."
2/15/2023
The truth about David Duchovny’s very Yiddish background is out there.
On Tuesday, the X-Files actor sat down to learn more about his ancestry on the PBS program Finding Your Roots. While Duchovny’s Jewish history is no secret, the show took a deep dive into parts of his genealogy that were surprising even to the Californication star.
According to the show, Duchovny’s father has “Eastern European Jews on every branch of his family tree,” but the actor said his father had a strained relationship with Judaism and did not have a bar mitzvah. He described a childhood home that had a Christmas tree, although the family would celebrate both Christian and Jewish holidays — “whatever was the most fun.”
In a 2021 article for The Atlantic, Duchovny mistakenly wrote that his grandfather Moshe had written for the then-Yiddish language newspaper the Forward. Moshe, who was born in a part of what is now Ukraine and later became a journalist in New York, had in fact written for a different Yiddish outlet, Tog Morgn Zhurnal. He was prominent enough that the Forward printed an obituary after his death in 1960, when Duchovny was an infant.
On Finding Your Roots, Duchovny read a translation of the obituary. “Duchovny’s death has thrown the Yiddish writing profession into deep sadness,” he read. “He was greatly respected and beloved by his colleagues, writers and numerous personal comrades and friends.”
Duchovny grew somber as he reflected on the grandfather he had never known.
“You realize that these people who are just figures to you had full lives,” he said. “Just to think of him … I just thought he was a reporter of some kind. I knew he wrote in Yiddish, but I didn’t know how vibrant he was and how busy.”
In 2021, Duchovny spoke to the Forward as part of the 2021 gala, where he learned of his grandfather’s dabblings in writing fiction and plays, as well as his grandmother’s work as a travel agent.
“It’s overwhelming,” he said at the time. “Just to think of his vitality and his commitment and obviously his playfulness and his creativity.”
Going even further back, the show revealed relatives living in the Pale of Settlement, working as dairy farmers. That branch, which included Duchovny’s great-grandfather, later moved to Jaffa, Palestine, and then on to Egypt. Duchovny recently starred as Jonah Hill’s Jewish father in Netflix’s You People.
“It’s overwhelming, really,” David Duchovny said. “Just to think of his vitality, and his commitment, and obviously his playfulness, too."
Got a Funfetti Universe prompt via DM. This one is for you, astrophile!
Grayskull
William came hurtling through their bedroom door and threw himself onto the top of the covers, breathing hard, his eyes so wide Scully could see all of his sclera. It was early, the light behind the bedroom curtains thin and milky. Mulder had gotten up at 5:00, and she had just heard the shower shut off, could hear the squeaky slide of the squeegee across the glass shower door. It had taken a while, but she had trained him well.
“Is Daddy gone yet?” William panted, the last word of his query coming out on a pubertal crack.
He hadn’t called Mulder ‘Daddy’ since he was six.
Scully scooted herself up to sit against the headboard.
“What?” she asked, awake, but not as alert as she would be after her first cup of coffee.
“Dad,” William said again, his face pleading. “Has he left yet?“
“Have I what yet?” came Mulder’s voice from the en-suite doorway, tucking in the top of the towel he’d wrapped around his waist.
“Dad!” William said, rolling awkwardly off the bed and then throwing his substantial thirteen-year-old frame against his father’s still-damp chest.
Mulder wrapped his arms around the boy and threw Scully a questioning look. She gave him a mystified one back, shaking her head.
“Will?” Mulder said a moment later, trying to pull back from his son’s death grip to get a look at his face. “What’s going on, bud?”
“I had a,” the boy paused briefly to swallow, and finally lifted his eyes to look up at his father. “I had a dream,” he said. “That you got killed. On your trip.”
Sweet boy , thought Scully.
Mulder shot a look toward the packed suitcase that waited by the bedroom door. He had a flight out of Dulles in three hours.
“It’s okay,” Mulder said softly, rubbing the felty softness of his son’s back.
Scully gave him a ‘come here’ gesture, and Mulder started walking his son backwards toward his mother’s side of the bed.
“Why don’t we sit down,” he said. Scully shifted in the bed to make room for the two of them to sit. The bed dipped under their weight, and Mulder raked a handthrough his still-wet hair. Scully reached out and put her hand on William’s shoulder.
“It was just a dream, sweetie,” she said.
“It wasn’t, though,” William said, glancing at the suitcase.
“It wasn’t a dream?” Scully asked softly. She could feel the boy’s heart pounding against her hand.
“It was a dream,” William said. “But it wasn’t.”
He looked pleadingly at Scully, who was struggling to understand.
“What do you mean, Will?” Mulder asked.
William turned back to his father. He took a deep breath in.
“You can’t go on this trip, Dad. You’ll die.”
A coldness spread through Scully’s abdomen.
“You’re having a premonition?” Mulder asked gently, bending his head down to try to look at his son from his own eye level.
“Define ‘premonition,’” Will said.
“A strong feeling that something will happen,” Mulder said. “Especially something unpleasant.”
“It’s more than that,” said Will. “It’s more than a feeling.”
The sun was coming up, slowly brightening the room.
“Grayskull?” Mulder asked, their codeword for William’s powers. He’d come up with it at age seven, after watching an old He-Man cartoon. Elated by the idea of Prince Adam’s powerful alter-ego, he’d shouted “By the power of Grayskull!” and proceeded to lift the coffee table three feet off the ground with his mind. Scully, surprised and afraid and still managing to hold onto some semblance of parental authority, had bleated “No Grayskull in the house!” and a codeword was born.
“Grayskull,” William confirmed.
Mulder exchanged a look with Scully over their son’s head. “You’re sure?” he asked the boy.
William nodded pointedly.
In the kitchen, the coffee maker turned on and the sweet smell of roasted beans drifted into the bedroom. The three of them sat in silence for a moment before Mulder ran a hand thoughtfully over his chin.
“What will happen?” he asked. “If I go?”
William ran his palms over his knees a couple of times, staring down at the floor.
“The arrest goes bad,” he finally said. “The guy you’re going after, he has a gun. Hidden. Up by his neck. When he’s ordered to put his hands behind his head, you and the other agent–the one with curly hair and the gap between his teeth?”
Mulder’s Adam's apple bobbed. William had never met any member of the Violent Crimes task force that his father was currently assigned to.
“Jacoby,” Mulder said.
“Him,” William said sadly. “When you and him go forward to frisk and cuff him, he draws on you.”
Scully could feel the blood drain from her face. Her eyes bore holes in the side of Mulder’s head, but he was focused on his son.
“Don’t get on the plane, Dad.”
The boy had shown an aptitude for both telepathy and telekinesis–amongst other alarming capabilities, but this was something new.
“I’m going to call Skinner,” Mulder said. “Let’s…Let’s huddle up in the kitchen in a little bit. We’ll…figure this out.”
Scully finally caught Mulder’s eye and he nodded at her.
“Why don’t you go brush your teeth,” Scully said to her son as Mulder rose from the bed and grabbed the cell phone sitting on his bedside table. William watched as he closed himself into the bathroom.
“He can’t go, Mom,” the boy said, standing. The flannel pajama pants he was wearing were faded, and his ankles were slowly creeping farther and farther below the cuff. “You can’t let him.”
Scully pulled her lips in between her teeth and gave her son a small nod. He drifted out of the bedroom and down the hallway.
Following him a moment later, Scully rose and shut the bedroom door. After a few minutes, Mulder emerged from the bathroom with the cell phone in his hands.
“I told Skinner something came up and I couldn’t make the trip.”
He pulled the towel off of his waist and stepped into a dark pair of boxer briefs.
“Good,” Scully said. Mulder gave her a surprised look.
“What?” she said, hugging her arms to her body. “I know this is usually the part where I tell you that precognition violates the principle of antecedence, and that an effect cannot occur before its cause. But I’m relieved as hell that you’re not going.”
Mulder lowered himself to sit on the bed. “And here I had an argument all prepared.” He reached down and spun the platinum wedding band he wore around his finger a few times. “Precognitive phenomena,” he said, a little awe in his voice. “Christ.”
“What did Skinner say? Did you tell him it was Grayskull?”
“I did. And not much. He reminded me that it wasn’t his op and that I’d have to make my excuses to the Deputy Director, but that he’d smooth things over.”
“Josephson’s Method for verifying precognitive dreams necessitates a complete blackout. Your talking to Skinner may have negated our ability to collect scientific evidence. Procedurally, a dream or vision can only be identified as precognitive after the putative event has taken place.” She had, almost against her will, become something of a renowned expert in paraphsycology over the course of the last several years.
“Fuck the data collection,” Mulder said. “It’s not like we’d try to publish. Anyway, Jacoby’s got a new baby at home, I’m calling the SAC with a request to cancel the op.”
“Think you can convince him?”
“Her.”
“My question stands.”
Mulder rubbed a hand over his eyes tiredly. “She’s ambitious. My guess is no.”
He reached again for the phone.
“I’ll get our guy started on breakfast,” Scully said, sliding her feet into slippers and closing the door softly behind her.
When Mulder joined them later in the kitchen, Scully handed him a steaming mug and raised her eyebrows in question. Mulder shook his head.
From the small kitchen table came William’s voice.
“Call Jacoby. Tell him to be careful.”
***
Two evenings later, Skinner showed up at their door in his jacket and tie, overcoat billowing in the wind. Scully opened the door wide to admit him.
“I can’t stay,” he said, ducking under the lintel.
“Hey Uncle Walt,” called out Will, who was on the couch relacing a baseball mitt.
“Heads up, kid,” Skinner said and tossed a small box covered in gift wrap over the back of the couch. Scully thought it hovered in the air maybe a second too long before her son dropped the mitt to the couch and grabbed it.
“It’s not my birthday,” the boy said, looking up.
“It’s a thank you gift,” Skinner said gruffly.
William tore open the paper.
“Is this the new Assassin’s Creed?” he asked the older man, his tone one of exhilaration.
Skinner nodded.
“Can I?” William asked his mother, practically vibrating with excitement.
“Go ahead,” Scully said. Before she even finished talking, the boy was halfway up the stairs.
Mulder had made his way over to the entryway. “The Op?” he asked the second he heard William’s bedroom door close.
Skinner turned to him. “Went down.”
“And?”
“He was right,” Skinner nodded toward where William had disappeared up the steps. “Holschu had a gun. Newfangled holster at the base of his neck. It was a shitshow.”
“Anybody get hurt?”
“Holschu’s dead. Jacoby got hit.”
Mulder and Scully shared a look.
“How bad?”
“He took your warning seriously,” Skinner said, turning toward the door. “He’s going to be okay.”
Scully reached out and squeezed Mulder’s hand.
Skinner paused in the doorway. “Grayskull,” he said, and Mulder and Scully looked at him intently.
“You keep a tight lid on this one,” their former boss went on, his voice weary. “Rumors turn into whispers.” He smoothed his tie with his left hand. “And a lot of people are listening.”
At the request of @randomfoggytiger, I wanted to do my damnedest to make Scully's education and training timeline make even a little sense. I'm a physician (specifically a specialist in adult infectious diseases), and it's fairly clear to me that CC and Co probably didn't actually talk to any doctors about how medical training works. Love my girl - I'm a Scully Effect kid, I don't think I'd be a doctor at all if it weren't for the inspiration of Dana Scully. But her timeline is...iffy at best.
Disclaimer: My medical school and post-med school training occurred from 2009-2018, Scully's occurred in the 1980's-90's. From what I can tell, the durations of many residencies and fellowships don't seem to have changed much, but I can't say that for certainty for all programs at all institutions. I am also from the US, so I cannot speak to medical training in other countries.
Our girl was born in 1964, and so unless she skipped a grade (which some schools would do if students were classified as "gifted" or otherwise exceptional, she would have graduated from high school at age 18 in 1982 and went straight to college. Let's assume she didn't skip a grade, for the sake of argument.
You have to have a Bachelor's degree to apply to medical school. These degrees typically take 4 years, though if someone arrives at college with credits from dual-enrollment high school classes or AP exam credits OR if they take summer classes some people can complete them in 3 years. I don't know what the availability of dual enrollment or AP classes was like in the early 80's (and like CC, I'm too lazy to do the research to find out), so we can assume that Scully graduated from college in 1986.
Medical school is 4 years long - no shortening this at that point in time, and even now in almost all cases. So that puts medical school graduation in 1990 IF she's following a traditional timeline and went straight from college to medical school.
Now, if someone is going to go into practice they have to do a residency in at least one of a variety of specialties (Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, etc.) in order to be board certified and practice independently. There are very, very few job options in clinical medicine if you DON'T do a residency, so if you want to practice, you have to do it. Residencies can be anywhere from 3-5 years, depending on the specialty. You can also further subspecialize after a residency by doing one or more fellowships (typically 1-3 years depending on the fellowship) before sitting for your board certification exams and starting independent practice. For example - after medical school I did a 3-year residency in adult internal medicine, then a 2 year fellowship in adult infectious diseases to be eligible to sit for the boards and enter my specialty, so 5 years further training after medical school before I could get a job, get board certified, and practice.
Scully is a forensic pathologist. She would have had to do a 3 or 4 year pathology residency (both were options at the time) followed by a 1 year forensic pathology fellowship. You CANNOT perform autopsies right out of medical school, if you are going to be a forensic pathologist you HAVE to do this training. So, following a traditional timeline this puts her as having completed forensic pathology training in 1994 or 1995. Pilot starts March 7th, 1992, so this is loooooong after she's canonically already an FBI agent and teaching at the academy.
But our girl's a smart cookie, so let's take a little leeway with her timeline. Let's say she skipped a grade some time in K-12. This puts high school graduation in 1981. Let's say she ALSO graduates with a bunch of AP credit and does summer semesters and finishes her undergraduate degree in Physics in 3 years. This puts her as starting medical school in 1984, with graduation in 1988. She'd still need to do that pathology residency and forensic pathology fellowship - let's assume a 3 year residency, then 1 year fellowship, so she'd finish training in 1992.
Still doesn't fit.
Let's go totally off the rails here - we know Scully was recruited out of medical school to the FBI, so she didn't do a traditional residency at all - UNLESS the FBI has an internal forensic pathology residency. It would HAVE to be accelerated in some way - some programs combine residency and fellowship by giving less elective time and more focus to the fellowship content. It's not common but they exist. Let's say in theory the FBI has an accelerated forensic pathology residency that takes 3 years, in addition to the 20 weeks of the FBI academy training. This has her finishing residency AND FBI academy training some time in 1991.
This is the ONLY way she could have finished forensic pathology training AND the FBI academy with enough time to be a fully certified forensic pathologist and FBI agent with some time left to teach at the FBI academy before being assigned to the X-Files on March 7th, 1992.
I can suspend my disbelief enough to be on board with this. You'd have to be pretty damned special, which we know she is, to get recruited out of medical school by the FBI. Maybe they even developed the accelerated combined residency/fellowship just for her! She's Dana Katherine Motherf***ing Scully, people!
Now, IWTB is where things get REALLY unbelievable. (Disclaimer: I have not watched IWTB since seeing it in theaters in 2008. I'll get around to rewatching it someday soon. Probably with a bottle of wine. Not a glass. A bottle.)
Mulder and Scully go on the run in 2002. We don't know how long they were in the wind, but by 2008, she's been allowed to resume a career and is practicing at Our Lady of Sorrows. Clearly in pediatrics - but general pediatricians sure as hell don't do stem cell transplants, so she'd almost certainly have to be a pediatric oncologist. We aren't told what her specialty is specifically, but that's what she'd have to be to do a stem cell transplant.
(That scene in the OR isn't even what stem cell transplants LOOK LIKE but that's a rant for another day, back to my point.)
MEDICAL BOARDS DON'T JUST LET YOU CHANGE YOUR SPECIALTY FOR FUNSIES.
(Deep breaths. Serenity now. Ok, let's do this.)
Scully would have had to do an ENTIRELY NEW residency AND fellowship in order to practice as a pediatric oncologist. Pediatrics residency is 3 years long. Pediatric Hematology/Oncology fellowship is 3 years long. In order for this to be even remotely possible, she would have had to START residency in 2002 to finish fellowship by 2008 and start her job at Our Lady of Sorrows.
And she's a former FBI agent harboring a known felon, on the run from government officials and alien hybrids who want her and Mulder dead.
There is absolutely no way even the smallest, most hard-up pediatric residency program is going to accept her with that hanging over her head. I'm not going to get into all the details of how rigorous and stressful the post-medical school residency application and match process is, but even if she didn't apply until she KNEW it was safe to come out from underground, she'd still have to explain a multi-year gap in her resume/CV to the program directors. Multi-year gaps in career and training without a reasonable explanation like a medical issue, time off to care for an ailing family member, time off for research, time away in a different, legitimate career are NOT looked on kindly when applying for residency positions. She would have a HELL of a time getting into a totally different residency.
It could happen - if anyone could do it, she could. But there's absolutely no way there's enough time for her to complete that training by 2008.
"But sagan-starstuff, it's CC, it's X-Files, we know there was no show bible and no one but the fans gave a shit about continuity or things making sense, there's no logic just vibes"
I KNOW, OK. I KNOW. And I love this insane, beautiful masterpiece anyway. I love exploring the possibilities of how and when it all could have happened with my fellow insane Philes who work so hard to glean meaning and order from this perfect mess of a show.
But couldn't CC have talked to one (1) doctor about what medical training is like at some point between 1993 and 2018? Just one?
Anyway. Yeah. That's my meta. Scully's training timeline makes no goddamned sense. Compels me, though.
@randomfoggytiger, this is for you. Honorable mention to @precedex-files who I ranted about this with in messages a while back.
Like imagine going through IVF as a non-romantic couple. Two best friends. Incredibly close. Such an incredibly intimate process?
I actually think….It would have been easier if Scully had chosen to use an anonymous donor.
Imagine…the Injections. Hormones. How many times did they try?
Did it ever take and she miscarried?
And you’ve never kissed this person. You’ve wanted to. He’s wanted to. You *love* this person in every sense of the word… Enough to create a person together. And it never works out. The devastation. But you can never fully convey just exactly how *much* your heart is broken because? We can’t talk about that.
I love you enough to make a person together but I can’t tell you that I love enough to want a life together.
I love you and it scares me to the point that I’ll create life with you. And that would be permanent. That would last forever….but attempting a romantic partnership with you…that might end. Badly. So let’s create the permanent person instead of taking the risk of losing each other with nothing left to show for it but devastation.
I could stand the idea of losing the dream of having a child with your eyes but I cannot fathom the idea of losing you.
And maybe you’ll hold my hand as my body miscarries our child. But I’ll still have you…..but you can’t hold me after. Because we don’t touch like that. Even though we both want to.
What kind of intimacy is that?? What kind of fear is that? To want to comfort someone through that experience and not be able to fully.
IVF is *intimate* y’all. Maybe more so than sex. Coming from someone who’s been there. It is a roller coaster of hope and disappointment. Its physical. Incredibly physical. Vulnerable. Holy crap they did that. Did he give her injections? Navigate the ups and downs of her ridiculous nonsensical hormonal mood swings? Food cravings? Weight gain?
Theres a lot of plot points they skipped over that I can swallow reluctantly but this one…
A new companion to the William’s Twin and William’s Twin II challenges.
Your challenge is to write us a story in which Scully and/or Mulder search for William long after his adoption. It could be a story that mostly follows season 11 canon and takes place during/after Ghouli, or one that’s AU set between The Truth & season 10, or post series. And while it’s up to you if they find William eventually, they find someone else instead (or first): a boy or girl whose age and DNA indicate that he or she is William’s previously unknown twin.
How do Mulder and Scully feel about that? And maybe more importantly, how does William’s twin feel about it?
Please submit your story or the link to it to [email protected] or post here in on our submissions Tumblr - or send me a message with your fic on Tumblr to reblog.
yousharknotpass
gummygunk
