The 1998 X-Files Expo: No One Can Ever Blackmail Me with these Pictures if I Choose to Post Them Myself!

My dear friends, the time has come to fully reveal the extreme level of nerdiness that I have achieved in my lifetime. Those of you who have been following my writing for the past few years are already aware that I am quite the strange individual. But now, as the saying goes, I'm going to take it "to eleven."

Ten years ago, a series of conventions for über-nerds were held around the country. They brought together a group of people known as "X-Philes," whose common thread was that they had spent the better part of the past five years of their lives (at that point) obsessed with two fictional FBI agents known as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, the main characters on one of the best TV series of all-time, The X-Files.

It should come as no surprise that I was one of those people, and that I went to not one, but two of the X-Files Expos held a decade ago. In Chicago I went with my friend BP, fellow Internet geek and conspiracy theorist. He brought a yo-yo to the event, held at Navy Pier, and was the subject of intense jealousy when none other than Assistant Director Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) asked him for it during his speech in front of the huge crowd.

In Detroit, the convention was held at Cobo Hall, and I went with my friends JH and the infamous Nerdy P. The highlight of that one was most definitely a talk by Cigarette-Smoking Man, a.k.a. Cancer Man, played by William B. Davis. The newspaper at which I worked during college, The Michigan Daily, actually still has an article up about the Detroit X-Files Expo.

Besides hearing some of the smaller players on the show speak (others I saw included "X" and a few of the Lone Gunmen), we got to look at tons of props that had been used throughout the years, choose from more merchandise than you could ever dream of (I got the "I Want to Believe" poster, naturally), and watch a sneak preview of the upcoming movie, The X-Files: Fight the Future.

In addition, we got to take some crazy pictures with sets they had worked up for the event. The first two below were scanned from the physical photographs I've been saving since 1998, but the third picture, which is probably the funniest, was given to me on an old-school floppy disk and was never high-quality in the first place. So I apologize for its graininess, but hopefully you will still get the idea. All three of the pictures below can be enlarged when clicked upon so that you can see the details a bit better.

So without further ado, here we are with the car used in the first X-Files movie, fearing the approach of the alien mothership!



Below, I am taking over Mulder's office (notice how they even got all the pencils in the ceiling!).




And finally, I was stuffed into the trunk of a car by none other than the Men in Black! I totally missed my calling as an actress, don't you agree?




Ah, such great memories. I can't wait to be reunited with all my fellow X-Philes this Friday for The X-Files: I Want to Believe. It's been six long years since the series ended, and even I had to read back through a synopsis of all nine seasons to prepare for the movie.

I am SO ready to see Mulder's smirk again, it's not even funny. My enjoyment of the film will be directly proportional to how much screen-time Mulder has. And yes, I will be bringing my Mulder action figure to the theater with me. Pics on Monday!

- e