I can't tell you how many Friday and Sunday nights, my friends and I would hunker down to watch the poli-sci-fi series, "The X Files". We wouldn't even think about hitting parties, bars, or playing gigs, not until it was over. We were gripped. Spin-offs, like the short-lived "Millennium" and "The Lone Gunmen"? Oh yeah, we watched those too. We weren't considered "shippers", fans of the X Files obsessed with Mulder and Scully's seemingly unrequited romance and if we were, we wouldn't admit it. We did however, love the chemistry between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. We watched them grow as actors, and it made the series come alive. By the X Files ninth season however, the series had taken it's toll; Mulder was all but gone; the Lone Gunmen were dead, killed off in an episode appropriately titled, "Jump the Shark"; Scully lost her alien baby!?, and new agents Doggett and Reyes, (the stars of Terminator 2 and Mystic Pizza respectively), had even taken over the opening credits. The series saw a successful big screen adaptation, and Mulder returned for the 2-part series finale, a finale that left more questions and answers. Now, some six years later, Mulder and Scully return in another big-screen adaptation, "I Want to Believe".

"The X-Files: I Want to Believe", is the new, 2008 science fiction film, directed by X Files creator Chris Carter, and written by Carter and longtime X Files writer Frank Spotnitz. It's their second feature film based on Carter's X Files TV series, following the 1998 film, "X Files: Fight the Future". The stars of the TV series, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, again reprise their respective roles as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

The film was first anticipated in November 2001 to follow the conclusion of the ninth season of the TV series, but it remained in development hell for six years before entering production in December 2007 in Vancouver. Many of those involved in the film, including Carter, Duchovny and 20th Century Fox, have spoken of its story as one that would stand apart from the alien abduction conspiracy story of the television series.

Six years later, we find that Mulder is still obsessed with everything "X- classifiable", and in the years since his absence, comes an opportunity in the form of Agent Dakota Whitney (played by Amanda Peet), who seeks his expertise. Apparently, the FBI has a case on their hands, and a psychic, convicted pedophile of a Catholic Father named Joseph Crissman, (played by Billy Connolly), volunteers some key information to help with case. The FBI isn't sure if Father Crissman is a liar, or even worse; connected to the crime. Scully's classic mix of religion and her usual cynicism is back, not unlike the series, and is disgusted by the sheer presence of this religious felon, setting the stage for some good ol' Mulder-Scully confrontations.

Critics have praised both Duchovny and Anderson's recent individual works; Anderson's films like "Bleak House" and "House of Mirth", have even led her to currently hosting PBS's "Masterpiece Theatre". Duchovny continues to work in films like the "The TV Set" and "Californication" on HBO. Reunited in this new X Files film, their chemistry still works, as does composer Marks Snow, whose theme music is just as "creepy" and "stellar" as ever. He's even managed to keep himself busy scoring other films and the eerie music of the hugely popular TV show, "Smallville".

"I Want to Believe" is not going to win over many new converts to the X Files, and although much of the alien conspiracy sub-plot and sci-fi are not as prevalent, this film, like the earlier one does make an effort to tell the story of Mulder and Scully on it's own terms. It may not make it. With a summer full of "Iron Mans" and "The Dark Knights" to contend with, this X Files film won't be breaking any opening weekend records. For the "X-philes" faithful however, the "shippers" and the conspiracy theorists, that won't matter. All that matters is seeing Fox and Dana together again against all odds, taking us back to those halcyon days of "Duane Barry", "Clyde Bruckman", Langley, Frohike, and Byers aka, the "Lone Gunmen", "X", "Jose Chung", Assistant Director Skinner, the evil Krycek, "DeepThroat", Mulder's "trips" with the Navajo, the dreaded "black oil", the "Alien Bounty Hunter" and of course, the pernicious "Cigarette Smoking Man"...

Yeah, I Want to Believe.

E. "Doc" Smith is a musician and recording engineer who has worked with the likes of Brian Eno, Madonna, Warren Zevon, Mickey Hart, Jimmy Cliff, and John Mayall among others. He is also the inventor of the musical instrument, the Drummstick. He can be reached at http://myspace.com/edoctorsmith