By Mark Nollinger

For at least a little while this chilly spring evening, it begins to seem like old times on the set of Fox's The X-Files. Gillian Anderson, aka Agent Dana Scully, is waiting next to a black sedan parked on the shoulder of a coastal road. Jeff Gulka, the young actor who plays the odd little psychic Gibson Praise, stands by her side. Nearby, a huge light sits atop a giant crane, bathing the scene in a vaguely surreal glow.

As the cameras roll, a dark sports-utility vehicle pulls up and delivers a sight some X-philes thought they'd never see again: David Duchovny, who left the show last year to pursue a movie career, back in the role of Agent Fox Mulder. Reunited with Scully after being missing in action all this season, he puts a hand on her shoulder, then glances back at the vehicle that brought him. "Cut," yells longtime X-Files director Kim Manners. "Going again." Cast and crew move back to their first positions and get set for another take.

Time is running out for the groundbreaking sci-fi drama. After nine seasons of chasing aliens, exposing shadowy government conspiracies and stalking the supernatural, The X-Files is finally giving up the ghost (not to mention the odd telepath, mutant and large, sewer-dwelling parasite). The reason? That most implacable TV phenomenon of all: declining ratings. Determined to go out with a bang — and perhaps provide some momentum for a second X-Files movie — executive producer Chris Carter and Co. have crafted an ambitious two-hour, series-ending finale aimed at wrapping up the show's so-called mythology, which has been both intriguing and perplexing X-Files fans with its twists and turns since the very beginning, back in 1993.

"I wouldn't presume to answer all the questions," says Carter, 45. "But we want to make everything make sense." The finale finds Mulder emerging from wherever he's been hiding, only to be put on trial for murder before a secret military court. In order to save himself, he has to justify the existence of the X-Files and tie together the various elements of the alien conspiracy — a task that will involve more familiar faces returning.

"We bring back a lot of characters that you've seen over the years," Carter says, declining to reveal exactly which ones. "We've chosen an interesting, dramatic way to take you back through the show while it's going forward, too." Can it possibly be enough to satisfy the show's die-hard fans? "X-Files fans are dissatisfied by nature," Carter says. "You just have to feel that you've done the best job you can of coming full circle to where you began."

Getting everyone together for The X-Files swan song is undoubtedly bittersweet, but there's little sense of melancholy on the set tonight. While Manners works out the next shot, Robert Patrick (Agent John Doggett) grabs Annabeth Gish (Agent Monica Reyes) and gives her a twirl. During rehearsals, Duchovny exchanges low-fives with Anderson, pounds his chest while greeting Patrick and jokes with Manners that they have to hurry because 15-year-old Gulka's got a big date.

"I'm feeding off the energy of my being here," says Duchovny, 41, who also directed and co-wrote a recent episode about Scully's baby. "It's great, hanging out with your friends and playing a character you like to play." Also, he adds, "It's a monster of an episode. With 23 shooting days, it's just like a movie — you can't see the end of it. I think as we get three or four days away [from the end], it's going to get weird."

Anderson, 33, feels similar vibes. "It hasn't hit me," she says. "There are just too many things going on right now to be waylaid by emotion."

A cult show that blossomed into a mainstream hit in its third year, making pop icons of Mulder and Scully in the process, The X-Files opened to smaller numbers this season, the first full season without Duchovny. With the show averaging less than half the 20 million weekly viewers it attracted at its peak, and with Anderson planning to leave at the end of the season, Carter decided to act. "The show was still really good," he says, "but I didn't want to hold on past a point where the story became about its diminished ratings. I felt it was time to close up shop."

Both Patrick and Gish, who joined the cast with the idea of taking the show in a new direction, were disappointed but not surprised. "I was hoping that the show would go longer," says Patrick, 43, who signed on in Season 8. "But when I started, I wasn't sure it was going to go one year. So the fact that it went two is a victory." Adds Gish, 31: "I was sad for the loss of the opportunity to continue to explore Reyes, because I was just starting to hit my stride with her. But [The X-Files] is a train I jumped on that was already traveling fast and far. I got a great view and a great ride."

"If you ask me, we should have ended it two years ago," Anderson says. "They couldn't have found two better actors [Patrick and Gish] to take over, but the show was about Mulder and Scully. I think it was a difficult transition for the audience to make." That's why she was so pleased that Duchovny was returning for the finale. "I was very excited to see him and to have the Mulder-Scully experience again," Anderson says. "It's something indescribable that can't be duplicated, and that's a wonderful thing the two of us have together."

Duchovny's take on the end of The X-Files? "I feel like I've split up from The X-Files more times than Liz Taylor [has divorced]," Duchovny cracks. "What remains is really just a sense of satisfaction for what the show has been and for the people I've been able to work with — Gillian especially. Obviously the popularity of the show will wane, but I think the quality will always be apparent. When it worked, it had good storytelling, directing and acting. That it then became a phenomenon just is a matter of timing. I think it deserved it. I think we can all take satisfaction from that."

Carter agrees. "I think it raised the bar in terms of the suspense genre because we had the time and money to do so many things. We put everything on the screen, and so I think [The X-Files] legacy will be that it maintained a high standard of quality, imaginativeness and production."

Article courtesy of TV Guide.