The X-Files was one of the ‘must watch’, seminal programs in the nineteen nineties. The show was created by Chris Carter, who had already carved out a successful career as both a writer and producer. Drawing on many of his personal favourite genre elements Carter drew these strands together to create an anthology show which would encompass anything from drama to science fiction, from horror to the fantastical, all hung on the relationship of two FBI investigators and an over arc involving aliens.

The X-Files FAQ: All That’s Left to Know about Global Conspiracy, Aliens, Lazarus Species, and the Monster of the Week (2016. 368 pages) is a primer for the show, written by John Kenneth Muir, with a forward by Chris Carter.

Not including the bibliography and index, the book is broken up into thirty-one chapters. There are the usual ones covering the characters and where they stood in the show as well as pointers to where the mytharc episodes involving Mulder's sister and the possibility of aliens can be found. It’s a massive spoiler if you haven’t already seen the show.

You don’t get every story in each season picked over in detail, there are other books for that, but you do get the best stories highlighted. Obviously, outside of the continuing mytharc, the others picked are going to be subjective, so you may not agree with all of the choices.

There is little within the show, whether it be the themes, or the real cases that some of the stories have been based on, that is not covered. Although Muir says that this is just a primer for the show, it remains a well written and researched text.

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Charles Packer