The X-Files is returning to television, with FOX ordering up a fresh batch of six episodes from series creator Chris Carter that will reunite Mulder and Scully in their quest to uncover the creepy truth behind various paranormal and extra-terrestrial phenomena. It’s been 13 years since the show left television and 21 years since it debuted in 1993.
To put how long ago that is into perspective, here’s the grandpappy of cyberpunk William Gibson relating a anecdote about writing for the show on Twitter:
I remember pitching Chris Carter on an episode about "a haunted website". He felt that not enough people knew what a "website" was.
— William Gibson (@GreatDismal) March 25, 2015
I decided he was probably right, and, at the time, he may well have been.
— William Gibson (@GreatDismal) March 25, 2015
To wrap your head around how basic the understanding of the internet was at the time, Sandra Bullock’s entertainingly clueless movie The Net came out in 1995, while You’ve Got Mail, the romantic comedy based around the ultra-popular AOL email client, was released in 1998. Websites looked like this:
Or this:
The horror! Who needs a website to be haunted when you can just remind people what surfing Geocities was like. Although an episode where the little stick figure with a construction pick climbed out of your CRT monitor and murdered you would be kinda cool.
The picture moves! Kill it with fire!
