'X-Files' creator talks up new show

NEW YORK — On this rare escape from writing and producing "The X-Files,'' Chris Carter might have preferred hitting the beach with his surfboard — his other passion. Instead, here he was in a cold, rainy city on the opposite coast, seated in a dark, deserted hotel bar.

Scouting "X-Files'' locations?

No, Carter had bolted for Manhattan to talk up his new series, "The Lone Gunmen.'' Something different for him, he says. An action comedy. Laughs. Fun. Plus heart.

"Gunmen'' — which Fox premiered last week and airs this Sunday and next (March 18), as well as Fridays, at 9 p.m. EST — is a spinoff. It puts center stage the trio of beyond-the-fringe crusaders who lately served as "X-Files'' comic relief.

Played by Bruce Harwood, Tom Braidwood and Dean Haglund, these ill-assorted activists are on their own now, publishing a muckraking newspaper and plunging into quixotic exposes.

Like "X-Files,'' the new series has a sci-fi bent and a paranoid tone. But while one is marked by darkness and opacity, the other dares to lighten up.

In "Gunmen,'' says Carter, "we set aside the sadness.''

It differs from "X-Files'' in another way: privatizing the enemy. "Gunmen'' looks not to the skies or even the Pentagon for intrigue, but, instead, the Dow Jones industrials and Nasdaq.

"Creating a government conspiracy that keeps the truth away from the people was great for 'The X-Files,' but this show isn't like that at all,'' explains Carter. "If it deals with conspiracies, they're at the corporate level.''

The Gunmen uncover a computer chip that spies on its users and a water-fueled car kept off the market because it would wreck the petroleum industry. Clearly, corporate bogymen can be as shadowy and sinister as any paranormal foe.

"MORE sinister,'' cracks Carter, taking a sip of Perrier.

"Corporate America is in fact a de facto government,'' he says, turning serious, "and I think there's gonna be a backlash against that sort of consolidation of power. Who's going to have a reaction? The youth of America? I think that would be the natural place.''

And, like the young-skewing "X-Files,'' now in its eighth season, "The Lone Gunmen'' may find a particularly receptive audience on campuses.

"I hope so, anyway,'' says Carter.

At 43, the Los Angeles native retains the blond beach boy looks that seem to certify him as a lifelong wave-shredder. But are surf-bum looks misleading for someone who, before "Gunmen,'' masterminded dusky, brooding shows like ``Harsh Realm,'' "Millennium'' and, of course, "X-Files''?

"I've got real darkness inside of me,'' says Carter in his soft-spoken manner. "But the stories I tell are about constantly keeping the darkness at bay, of embracing the light.''

Granted, Mulder and Scully, the intrepid truth-chasing FBI agents of "X-Files,'' embrace the light — or try their darndest against towering odds.

"Life is full of tremendous sadness,'' says Carter. "They're trying to find meaning in the sad reality.''

And do it in the constant company of fear, a response that Carter can tap in his viewers as if he carried a dowsing rod.

"Maybe I'm a chicken at heart and that's the reason I'm sensitive to fear,'' he says. "But we all have the same kind of fears: of violent death, of humiliation, of loss of our loved ones, of being out of control, of finding there is no meaning to life.''

And what about the fear of failure, especially at the birth of a cherished new project that comes on the heels of two flops ("Harsh Realm'' and "Millennium'')?

"So much of it is left to fate,'' Carter sighs. "If you start thinking too much about success, if that starts being your goal, then you've jumped over the important part to the fearful part. You've missed the point.

"I couldn't hope to find this kind of success again,'' he says, speaking of "The X-Files'' and its impact. "But if I do, it'll be a result of making the same good choices, doing the same hard work and having the same strokes of luck.''

And what of "X-Files'' returning for its ninth year?

"I want to come back,'' he says, "if there's a way, a reason, to tell good stories. That's really the central factor.''

If so, come fall, it might be accompanied by "The Lone Gunmen'' on the Fox schedule.

"We're all hoping for the best,'' says Carter, who, mindful of the crushing workload two series represent, adds, "and dreading it all the same.''

Of course, what happens across the broad TV landscape depends on actors and writers who, within weeks, may go on strike. That also fills Carter with dread. He prays there's no work stoppage.

On the other hand, he says: "The misconception is that I'm a workaholic, that I'm a tense, driven person. I swear, if the strike happened today, I would click my heels and run and play.''

The truth is out there: "I'm a really good goof-off.''

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