An episode of The Classified Materials that was too popular for television
Pa Chris Snellgrove
| Published
It is almost impossible to overstate the sex appeal of this Secret materials were way back in the ’90s… in addition to the sizzling on-screen chemistry between luscious leads David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, the two starred in several sexy photo shoots, including the infamous Rolling Stone cover where they snuggle up in bed. Honestly, after this issue’s photo shoot served as a sexual awakening for an entire generation, we didn’t think this show even knew the meaning of the word “too hot.” However, as it turned out, one episode was too hot for TV: “Gender Bender,” a Season 1 episode whose concept and story kept changing due to concerns that the network would reject it.
Paul Bender
For writers in Secret materialsthe first season was about testing the boundaries, figuring out what works best for the show’s story and its characters, and what they can get past the network censors. In Gender Bender, writers Larry and Paul Barber started with a simple and provocative question: How do you make sex as scary as creepy aliens or creepy government spooks? The answer was essentially a mandate from above, with co-executive producer Glenn Morgan later saying that the creative staff had demanded “an episode with more sexual edge”.
How The X-Files The producers and writers soon realized that this was easier said than done, and Morgan admitted that “It was hard to find a story that portrayed sex as scary.” The episode “Gender Bender” was the answer to that question… sort of. The writers came up with an idea aliens who could change gender, but the episode underwent many revisions due to concerns about how the Fox network would react to certain story beats and general concerns about how audiences would react to an episode that questioned existing ideas about gender and sex, especially in the 90s.
Missing parts
Even all these years later, The X-Files the writers and producers didn’t fully reveal what they had to change for “Gender Bender.” But one thing we do know is that they originally designed a creepy moment for the episode’s teaser in which the character’s crotch began to rot. It overemphasized the whole angle of sexual horror, and co-executive producer R. U. Goodwin later offered a simple explanation for why they cut the moment entirely: “If I was watching this episode with my kid, I would cut it out.”
While the gender-changing elements remain thanks to some of the shape-shifting villains, it The X-Files the episode may have lost its original focus on sex and sexuality. As Glenn Morgan put it, the concept of the final episode of the broadcast was an answer to a completely different question: “what if there are Amish-like people who are from another planet?” That answer wasn’t very appealing, and “Gender Bender” is pretty (ahem) lackluster, but it did have the upside of introducing Nicholas Lee, who would later return as fan-favorite recurring villain Alex Krycek.
How The X-Files fans, we can’t look you in the eye and say ‘Gender Bender’ is a good episode, but its development story is still fascinating. It’s interesting to know that the episode started out with the intention of focusing on grisly sexuality, but concerns from network censors and audience backlash prevented the show from devolving into full-body horror. David Cronenberg style. Without those limitations, it’s entirely possible we’d get a gore where the melting crotch is probably the least weird thing in the entire episode.
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