In its first season, THE X-FILES established itself as a cult hit. In its second season, its ratings grew faster than any other series on television and it won the Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Television Drama. During its third season, it was the No. 3 ranked drama on television (A18-49) and moved to No. 2 in its fourth, in addition to picking up another Golden Globe Award for Best Drama. Now the phenomenon enters its fifth season with 12 Emmy nominations (including Best Drama, Best Actor and Best Actress) and production of the first feature film complete.

The show chronicles the work of two FBI agents who investigate the bureau's "X-Files," unsolved cases which involve paranormal or unexplained phenomena. Agent Mulder (David Duchovny) believes "the truth is out there," and works with his scientifically trained partner, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), to find it. Scully, a medical doctor, was initially assigned to work with Mulder to debunk his outlandish theories. But as their partnership has progressed, even Scully has had a hard time explaining some of the bizarre happenings they have encountered in their investigations. Working above them is Assistant Director Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), who walks a line between loyalty to Mulder and Scully's work and accountability to the larger forces in the government who seek to control it.

The two were at first an unlikely pair. Mulder is a former FBI fast-tracker whose preoccupation with things paranormal stalled his meteoric rise through the agency. Scully, on the other hand, as a medical doctor, trained to draw conclusions based on fact. Still, as their professional relationship progresses, even the skeptical doctor has had more than one experience that defies scientific explanation.

As the pair works to solve these unexplained cases, Mulder's strong belief in the forces of the unknown continues to challenge Scully's rational mind. Their relationship grows more complex with each case and slowly emerges as a heady mix of professional competitiveness, witty repartee and a personal intimacy due to the intensity of their job and the close proximity in which they work.

Among the cases the pair has investigated are a violent, unseen force surrounding a young girl that kills those who threaten her; a series of bizarre deaths thought to be the work of a genetically-mutated serial killer who emerges every 30 years from hibernation to eat five human livers; the mysterious demise of a research team drilling for prehistoric ice core samples at an Arctic research facility; and an unorthodox government research project in which human subjects are injected with alien DNA.

The show returns this season to continue chronicling the lives of the two disparate FBI agents. "The truth is out there," declares the show's main title, and this season, Agents Mulder and Scully will again work to uncover that which is true.

THE X-FILES has long been one of the most talked-about television series on the Internet. Now the show has its own official site on the World Wide Web, located at http://www.foxworld.com. The show's fans, who call themselves "X-philes," can log onto the site to keep current with each new episode.

Chris Carter is the creator and executive producer of THE X-FILES, which is produced by Twentieth Television in association with Fox Broadcasting Company. Robert Goodwin also serves as an executive producer; J.P. Finn, Kim Manners, Vince Gilligan and Paul Rabwin, producers and Lori Jo Nemhauser and John Shiban, co-producers.