By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
It’s almost impossible to overstate the sex appeal that The X Files in the 90s… in addition to the steamy on-screen chemistry between attractive leads David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, these two appeared in several sexy photo shoots, including the infamous Rolling Stone cover where they snuggled up in their bed. Honestly, after the photoshoot for this issue served as a sexual awakening for an entire generation, we didn’t think this show even knew the meaning of “too hot.” It turns out, however, that one episode was almost too hot for TV: “Gender Bender,” a Season 1 episode whose concept and story kept changing due to fears that the network would reject it.
Gender bender
For writers of The X Filesthe first season was about testing the boundaries, figuring out what worked best for the show’s story and its characters, as well as what they could get around the network censors. In “Gender Bender,” writers Larry and Paul Barber began with a simple, provocative question: How do you make sex as scary as scary aliens or chain-smoking governments? Answering that question was essentially a mandate from the top, with co-executive producer Glen Morgan later stating that the creative team demanded “an episode with a sexier edge.”
Like the X-Files The producers and writers quickly realized that this was easier said than done, and Morgan admitted that “it was difficult to find a story that showed sex as scary.” The episode “Gender Bender” was the answer to that question…sort of. The writers had the idea of aliens which could change gender, but the episode underwent numerous revisions due to concerns about how the Fox network would respond to certain story beats and general concerns about how audiences would feel about it. of an episode challenging pre-existing ideas about gender and sex, particularly in the ’90s.
The missing pieces
Even all these years later, the X-Files the writers and producers haven’t fully revealed what they needed to change for “Gender Bender.” One thing we do know, though, is that they initially developed a creepy moment for the episode’s teaser in which a character’s crotch began to rot. It put a little too much emphasis on the sexual horror aspect, and co-executive producer RW Goodwin later offered a simple explanation for why they cut that moment completely: “if I watched this episode with my child, I would turn it off. .”
Even though the genre elements remained thanks to some shapeshifting villains, this X-Files the episode arguably lost its initial focus on sex and sexuality. As Glen Morgan said, the concept for the final broadcast episode was the answer to a very different type of question: “What if there were people like the Amish who came from another planet?” » This answer wasn’t very engaging and “Gender Bender” is rather (ahem) limp, but it had the benefit of introducing audiences to Nicholas Lea, who would later return as fan-favorite recurring villain Alex Krycek .
As X-Files fans, we can’t look you in the eye and say that “Gender Bender” is a good episode, but the story of its development is still fascinating. It’s interesting to know that the episode began with the intention of focusing on scary sexuality, but concerns about network censors and audience pushback kept the series from descending into full-on horror. David Cronenberg style. Without these constraints, it’s possible we would have had an avant-garde episode in which a melting crotch is probably the least weird thing in the entire episode.
