The X-Files Fanbook Project Lara, Germany Hi. My name is Lara. I am from Germany and this is my X Files story: I am 25 years old and started watching X Files sporadically when it started in Germany in 1994. I was just 9 years old and was not allowed to watch it all the time, but rather the episodes that my brother videotaped. It took some time before I got addicted, I think it was around mid season three. That was when I started to look forward to the day of the week when new episodes would air, I think most of the seasons were aired on Mondays. So I videotaped every single episode and re-watched it until the next episode finally aired a week later. Sometimes I met with a friend of mine who was also a fan, but not as much as I was. In fact, I never personally knew a fan as addicted as I was myself. I started collecting articles and pictures and everything there was to collect for years. I also read and wrote lots of fan fiction, which improved my English a bit I think. When season 8 aired, I have to admit that I did not like the plot anymore. I didn't like Scully being so weak and crying all the time. That was the main thing that bothered me I think. I didn't like Doggett. I didn't like the abduction and Scully's pregnancy. It just didn't feel like the show that I fell in love with anymore. I kept watching until the very end, but not with as much enthusiasm.. At the beginning of this year, being 24, I found my way back to the X Files. I never had internet before, so this option was never available for me and I felt like I had to catch up on a lot, especially watching these wonderful videos on Youtube and reading forums and stuff like that. I really fell for it once again. I bought the DVD boxes that I didn't have and watched every episode from the first to the last in English, in the right order for the first time. It was so much better than the translation, even though I have to admit that they did a great job with those in Germany. But still, nothing can keep up with hearing the original voices. It took me about 2 months to watch everything. So what made me love the series so much for 16 years now (the biggest part of my life, oh my gosh!) is definitely the teasing love story between Mulder and Scully. I mean the rest was incredible, too, but what made me really fall for it was this unique love story. I think it resembles what many of us want - true and unconditional love. I loved the teasing. It frustrated me sometimes, but I always wanted to see what the next episode would bring. Still I remember that Chris Carter once cited a fan saying that he or she would "trash his/her TV in case Mulder and Scully would start making out like teenagers", well something like that. And that is what I felt like, too. I never really wanted them to be a couple. I didn't want them to get romantic before the very end of the show. Well, like I said, I liked all the other aspects of the show, the general topic, the variation between mythology and monster of the week shows, the well defined characters and stories----. And that we as an audience had to think and interpret a bit ourselves. Most of the TV shows are so dumb and the viewer is taken for a fool. X Files was intelligent and made us think. The whole alien plot is something that I'm personally interested in, too. I wrote 2 essays at school about Roswell and implants. It was a funny time researching and my teachers loved it. As for my favorite episodes...it's difficult. It depends on the mood I'm in, but I think the season I watched most often is season five with "Bad Blood" and I loved "Redux." But I should not start enumerating, it would be a looong list ;). In my opinion one needs to have seen all of the episodes to really comprehend the show. It's another difference to many other shows. I have an all time favorite citation: Scully: Have you ever entertained the idea of trying to find life on this planet? Mulder: I have seen the life on this planet Scully and that is exactly why I'm looking elsewhere. It is amazing how the show is still kept alive after all this time. X-philes are definitely something special. Lara