Why Stephen King Called His X-Files Episode A ‘Very Odd Experience’

Growing up in the 1990s, I had two obsessions: Stephen King and “The X-Files.” So when it was revealed that King, the master of horror himself, was going to pen an episode of the cult hit series, I was over the moon. Then I watched the episode. Sadly, King’s “X-Files” ep, titled “Chinga,” was not great. For one thing, it split-up Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson), which never goes well — the show needs these two working side-by-side, feeding off each other. If you don’t believe me, just think about how the show went downhill after Duchovny left for a period, and how worse it got when Anderson started appearing in less episodes as well. For another thing, the story, about a haunted doll that forces people to harm themselves, fails to illicit much emotion. “The X-Files” could be a genuinely scary show, but “Chinga” is almost entirely scare-free, despite having King involved.

In “Chinga,” Scully is on vacation in King’s home state of Maine. While there, she stumbles upon a crime scene at a local supermarket where almost everyone in the store hurt themselves in some graphic, violent way. The only two people unharmed are Melissa Turner (Susannah Hoffman) and her daughter, Polly (Jenny-Lynn Hutcheson). Polly has a creepy little doll named Chinga that she totes around everywhere, and wouldn’t ya know it, the doll — which was pulled out of the sea by a fisherman and given to Polly as a gift — has eeeevil powers. Or something like that. 

It was a disappointing episode, especially to a King fan like me. And as it turns out, King’s script was heavily rewritten — which King ultimately found to be “a strange experience.”

King was a fan of “The X-Files” and expressed interest in writing an episode. When “X-Files” creator Chris Carter found out about this, he decided to take King up on the offer … for a different show. Carter approached King about writing an episode for the dark, brooding, excellent series “Millennium,” which starred Lance Henriksen as criminal profiler Frank Black (side-note: “Millennium” is one of those shows that isn’t available to stream anywhere, and that’s a damn shame; someone should do something about that). King apparently was more interested in “The X-Files,” and so he was finally hired to pen an episode. 

However, King’s script ended up undergoing serious rewrites by Carter. “[T]hat was kind of a strange experience because I was re-written so heavily by Chris Carter that it was really very odd, a very odd experience,” King told Lilja’s Library, adding: “…I got re-written pretty exhaustively.” Carter did so much re-writing on the script that he was credited along with King. And I can’t help but wondering how much different, and possibly better, King’s original script would’ve been. Carter deserves credit for creating “The X-Files,” but as a fan of the series I have to say I’ve always found him to be one of the show’s weaker writers. Would the episode be better if it was the work of King and King alone? We’ll never know for sure, but I sure wish things had turned out differently.