Over its nine original seasons, The X-Files centered around everything extraterrestrial. Whether they were incorporeal Martians (“Space”), erotic shapeshifting aliens (“Gender Bender”), or the possible alien Lord Kinbote (“Jose Chung’s From Outer Space”), the famed series’ central narrative always pointed to beings from the stars. The keystone of that alien exploration is its focus on the Greys, those infamous big-eyed grey aliens that fill so many real-life alien encounter reports. In fact, the entire original series run of The X-Files built up one singular overarching threat: the Greys’ takeover of Earth (alongside the government conspiracy in cahoots with it).
In the process, audiences learn of extraterrestrial viruses (“The Erlenmeyer Flask”), alien bounty hunters (“Colony”), faceless alien rebels (“Patient X”), and the role of extraterrestrial pathogens in alien reproduction (The X-Files: Fight The Future), all aimed at that singular apocalyptic event. Always teased and often postponed, the invasion had at least once been affected by external circumstances. In “Two Fathers,” the infamous Cigarette Smoking Man monologues:
