Chris Carter's Millennium: Paint It Black
From Satan and serial killers to sorcery and Scientology - was this X-Files follow-up the darkest show ever to air on network television?
A version of this article appeared in SFX.
Chris Carter’s Millennium was different. Very different. And dark. incredibly dark. Given the programmes that have followed in its wake, you could be forgiven for thinking the series might now appear less formidable. But you’d be wrong - very wrong indeed.
Although it would never have existed without the success of Carter’s The X-Files, Millennium had little in common with its sister series. Cult actor par excellence Lance Henriksen starred as Frank Black, a former FBI agent capable of accessing the criminal mind. While he’s quick to deny he’s a psychic, Black’s abilities bring him to the attention of the Millennium Group, a band of former agents whose supernatural abilities make them the perfect people to investigate a certain class of crime. At least, that’s what Frank’s group liaison Peter Watts (Terry O’Quinn) leads him to believe…
As with so many SF series, a brief description doesn’t do Millennium justice. In particular, a précis can’t capture the mood of Carter’s creation. A lazy journalist might describe Millennium as a show that exists entirely in shadow. But while it’s set in the rain-swamped Pacific North West and countless episodes unfurl in the hours between dusk and dawn, it’s surprising how often the show is bleached by bright sunlight.
No, Millennium’s mood has less to do with its look than with the writing and direction. Which isn’t to suggest there’s no humour or joy in this universe. However, so well established is the show’s tone that, even in moments of victory, we’re very aware that unknowable forces are aligned against humanity in general and Frank Black in particular.
Another impressive aspect of Millennium was the manner in which is stripped its central character of cliché. In a lesser programme, Black might be a wild-eyed outsider, obliged to walk the earth alone. In the hands of Carter, however, the man with the killer instinct has a beautiful wife (Larry Sanders’ Megan Gallagher) and an adoring daughter (Brittany Tiplady). Franks also has in-laws and un-cooperative co-workers to contend with. And then there’s the matter of him being played by one of America’s most underrated actors.
“I’d loved Lance since The Right Stuff,” explains Carter who caused quite a storm when he cast Henriksen ahead of the studio’s choice, Academy Award-winner William Hurt. “I think it’s well known that I’d tried to cast Lance in The X-Files,” Carter continues, “but we could never get on the same page. I now know that, if you’re desperate to work with an actor, you just have to create a series specifically for them!”
While he couldn’t imagine Black being played by another actor, Carter was also keen to introduce the audience to a Henriksen they’d rarely seen before: “I can’t think of many actors who have a better smile than Lance Henriksen.”
In Millennium, our hero’s foes would range from flamboyant serial killers to bona fide disciples of Damien. In ‘The Mikado’, a standout episode from Season Two, Black takes on a murderer based on the infamous Zodiac Killer. Then there’s Polaroid Man whose stalking of the Black family plays out along similar lines to Dexter’s Ice Truck Killer storyline.
Unnerving as they might have been, these mortal enemies were nothing next to the supernatural entities that peppered the programme. Foremost amongst these was Lucy Butler, one of the best bad girls in the history of SF/fantasy television. Played by Sarah-Jane Redmond, Butler was so frightening, she even scared the bejesus out of serial killers. Able to change shape at will and bludgeon grown men to death, Ms Butler was also clairvoyant; a gift that allowed her to remain one move ahead of Frank. And then there were her torture methods, which were as unique as they were sinister. For example, no one could take against the easy listening instrumental ‘Love Is Blue’. But imagine being forced to listen to it on a 24-hour loop? Ah, Lucy Butler, next to you, Al Capone was but a kitten.
And the unspeakable evil didn’t end there. For Lucy Butler was but one manifestation of Legion, a demon first introduced to mankind through the pages of the New Testament. What’s more, given Legion’s chameleon qualities and ability to possess the weak-minded, the viewer was never quite sure whether Frank was dealing with mundane everyday evil or A-grade pandemonium. In another show, such confusion could have proved annoying, but in Millennium it simply maintained an air of never quite being on the right foot.
The most complex of heroes, the very worst of villains - all this plus a good dose of pre-millennial tension should have made Millennium the must-see science fiction drama of its day. And yet, while it was well received by critics and won its share of loyal fans, the show would live out its time on air in the shadow of Chris Carter’s earlier creation. More pertinently, with The X-Files still amongst Fox’s biggest non-animated offerings, Carter was obliged to divide his time between both programmes. Then, when it was decided to bring Mulder and Scully to the big screen, our man had no choice but to make Millennium the responsibility of writing duo Glen Morgan and James Wong.
Since they’d previously worked on The X-Files, Carter must have been confident the new boys would make a good fist of Millennium. But while Season Two contained some very strong episodes (the aforementioned ‘The Mikado’, The Thing-inspired ‘Monster), only Morgan and Wong’s families would dare suggest that their Millennium ploughed the same furrow as Carter’s.
Two instalments in particular stood out for all the wrong reasons. ‘Jose Chung’s Doomsday Defence’ not only created an unnecessary link to The X-Files (Charles Nelson Reilly had previously played the eccentric author in Season 3’s Jose Chung’s From Outer Space’), but in depicting a religious cult called Selfosophy the pair needlessly got on the wrong side of the Church of Scientology. ‘Somehow Satan Got Behind Me’, meanwhile, features a quartet of demons who discuss their encounters with Frank Black over a quick coffee in a diner. Entertaining it might be, but Millennium material it most certainly isn’t.
A gentleman in an industry where rogues hold sway, Chris Carter’s loathe to say much of anything about the season of Millennium he didn’t oversee. As for what Messrs Morgan and Wong make of their year on the show, it’s anyone’s guess. Not that their complete silence on the matter doesn’t speak volumes…
By the time Millennium’s third season rolled around, Chris Carter was back at the controls. And by taking it back to its roots, the producer made the programme as dramatically successful as it had ever been. If only he could have convinced the schedulers to bear with him, we might have enjoyed Frank Black’s exploits well into the 21st century. Instead, Millennium aired for the last time on May 21st 1999.
Since then, there’s been the odd spot of talk about resurrecting the series. Lance Henriksen even suggested that a final season could be financed using DVD profits. But watching the show today, you can’t help but think Millennium might have already served its purpose. For while A-Ha might have sung that ‘The Sun Always Shines On TV’, Millennium proved that network television could be every bit as dark as Norway in mid-winter.
When Frank Met Fox And Dana…
Talk of an X-Files/Millennium crossover began the moment Chris Carter unveiled his second sci-fi series. Still, it wasn’t until after the latter programme’s cancellation that Mulder and Scully met Mr Black. Season 7 X-Files episode ‘Millennium’ saw our favourite agents team-up with Black to investigate the deaths of four former members of the Millennium Group. Which isn’t a bad premise but it resulted in an episode that undercut Millennium’s enigmatic finale and reduced Lance Henriksen’s creation to supporting character status. An instalment that disappointed fans of both series, it was lucky for everyone that the person who was most unimpressed with the experiment was Chris Carter.