List of The X-Files characters

The first seven seasons of The X-Files star Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully, a medical doctor and hard-line scientist assigned to work alongside Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), an esteemed FBI profiler who left his coveted position to head up a unit that investigates the paranormal and the unexplained.

Scully, now a reluctant believer, is partnered with Special Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick), a former NYPD detective and a strict skeptic who is still grief-stricken over the death of his son, Luke.

[5] In keeping with the show's history of ambiguity, Fowley's motivations were never explained, although many viewers assumed her to be deeply associated with the Syndicate conspirators and working against Mulder in his pursuit of the truth within the X-files.

Initially lying about her identity to him, she revealed herself to be a scientist working for the Army Advanced Weapons facility and appealed to him for help in stopping one of her developments—a gas causing fear and paranoia—from being used by the military on innocent civilians.

Modeski had awakened a desire in all three of them to uncover the truth, which subsequently led to the formation and publication of a newsletter entitled The Lone Gunmen, providing information on government cover-ups and conspiracy theories.

[22] Byers appears to have some working knowledge of medicine, genetics, and chemistry; he is able to interpret DNA strands, instantly informing Mulder that Scully's blood had been tampered with in "One Breath".

[25] In 1989 at a consumer electronics show in Baltimore, where his company had a trade stand, he met John Fitzgerald Byers and Richard Langly and they subsequently formed a group publishing The Lone Gunmen newsletter.

Whilst this attraction seemed rather lustful at first, he has shown genuine affection for Scully (and Fox Mulder) on numerous occasions, being the first person to bring her flowers after she returned from her abduction in the episode "One Breath".

[27] In 1989 he met Melvin Frohike and John Fitzgerald Byers at a consumer electronics show in Baltimore, and they subsequently formed a group publishing The Lone Gunman newsletter.

When auditioning for the role, Holden was not allowed access to an episode script, instead simply being told that her character worked for the United Nations and had an air of "intelligent seriousness".

[56] Krycek also assaults Assistant Director Walter Skinner and acquires a secret tape from him which reveals a US government coverup regarding alien visits to Earth.

He attempted to blackmail Skinner by infecting him with lethal nanotechnology,[59] but ended up being thrown into a Tunisian prison when the Cigarette Smoking Man discovered that Krycek had stolen an alien artifact from him.

[15] In "Nothing Important Happened Today II", he is decapitated by fellow Super Soldier, Shannon McMahon, but owing to his hybrid abilities, manages to then impale her with his arm, and they both fall into a water reservoir, presumably both now dead.

Eventually, Mulder breaks out with the help of Alvin Kersh, and with Dana Scully, headed to New Mexico for a final confrontation with the Cigarette Smoking Man, whom he discovered was still alive.

In Spender's first appearance, he oversaw Dana Scully's debriefing and disposed of her evidence in the show's pilot episode, and eventually developed into the series' primary antagonist.

MTV's Tami Katzoff has called him a "legendary TV character", noting his "moral ambivalence about the work of his shadow organization" and his ability to show "empathy for Mulder and Scully".

[70] The San Francisco Chronicle's Bob Graham has praised Neville's portrayal of the character in the feature film, calling his expository monologue "a Wagnerian demonstration of the art of declamation".

The season 6 episode "One Son" features a scene where Scully recounts the activities of Diana Fowley in the early 1990s, in which she monitored MUFON groups in Europe and took weekly trips to Tunisia, the implication being that she was reporting to Strughold during her time on this assignment.

[90] After Mulder was discovered alive, he testified before the committee naming Blevins as the FBI mole responsible for giving Special Agent Scully cancer and working with the government conspiracy.

His contributions to X-Files investigations include aura photography[92] and sonic analysis,[93] however he also delved into languages[94] and mysticism[95] (in the episode "Badlaa", in which he is introduced to John Doggett as an old friend of Fox Mulder's).

[98] His brother, also called Arthur Dales (M. Emmet Walsh, and also played by Lehne in flashbacks), was a police officer in Roswell, New Mexico, where he met in 1947 Josh Exley, a baseball player who was actually a disguised alien.

[99] Max Fenig, portrayed by Scott Bellis, was a member of NICAP who met Fox Mulder in a military detention, after being captured while investigating a possible UFO crash site.

Before dying, Hosteen's spirit appeared to Scully several times in her apartment, imploring her to find and save her missing partner before Syndicate scientists could remove and study the immunity he had to the alien virus inside him and use it in their plans for surviving Colonization.

Kritschgau's son died as a result of Gulf War Syndrome, which he fell party to because of his work at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and connections to a pharmaceutical company called Roush.

First seen as the apparently comatose son of a detective from the town Bellefleur, Oregon, Billy was later revealed to be unwittingly assisting in the abductions and deaths of several of his former high school classmates whilst controlled by another presence.

He interrogated the would-be assassin in prison, who said the boy was a "missing link", and Mulder jumped to the conclusion that Gibson had alien genetic structure and was proof of ancient astronauts.

After Mulder and Scully leave to make their final escape, Agents Doggett and Monica Reyes vowed that they would try to keep him safe – a promise that Gibson took with a grain of salt, knowing the capabilities of his past captors.

She was the ex-wife of The Smoking Man and mother of Special Agent Jeffrey Spender, as well as "Patient X", the primary test subject in the project to develop an alien-human hybrid.

[116] A rebel group of aliens who mutilated themselves to avoid infection by the black oil were attempting to destroy the work the Syndicate had done, finally summoning both Scully and Cassandra to the same site in Pennsylvania.

Tooms is an immortal genetic mutant who subsists entirely off of human livers and able to elongate and contort his body to inhuman degrees, hibernating for 30 years between his feeding periods.