DD has a confession to make. "I’m not Mulder," he says flatly. "I don’t speculate about alien forces and don’t have much time for conspiracy theories about life. I’m too pragmatic and cynical for that."

This matters. If DD, or rather the person we think is DD, wasn’t famous enough already, then FTF - to give TXF movie its extended title - is surely going to make him even bigger. And it’s something he’s not sure about.

His commitment to the cause has never been unshakeable. He risked alienating the rest of the cast and crew by insisting the production move from Vancouver to LA so he could be closer to his wife, TL. TL needed to be in LA for her series The Naked Truth, and DD was tired of travelling back and forth. The irony was that by the time that move was in the works, TL’s show had been cancelled. The show duly relocated and the many people who work on TXF - some of whom had bought houses in Vancouver, settled their kids in local schools - had all moved to suit one man.

"I try to maintain a healthy attitude about my work," he says, "but after five years it’s extremely difficult to cover the same material or find new angles to your character or to the plot without diluting the value of the series. Some time this year Gillian and I will sit down with Chris Carter and hammer everything out."

Six years ago, DD had no weight to throw around. At that time, a man called CC was trying to interest Rupert Murdoch’s TV network in his idea for a science-fiction series. Unlike the bigger US networks Fox had less to lose, so they were taking chances on potentially risky shows like Matt Groening’s The Simpsons.

Even so, they weren’t initially that keen on CC’s proposal. He’d been trying to get through to Fox executive Peter Chernin, now CEO with Murdoch’s News Corporation, but he couldn’t get that far. At a meeting with one of Chernin’s many underlings, the outlook seemed optimistic - "Hmmm," they said, "that sounds interesting" - but a few weeks later there was a phone call. The answer was no.

CC is adamant that the decision was taken at the highest level: "I’m sure PC was behind the scenes there somewhere saying, ‘I don’t get it.’" But he wasn’t deterred, and his persistence paid off. "They bought it," he says. "They still didn’t know what it was about though." And no one’s sure whether they do now.

CC didn’t exactly have a pedigree to tempt Fox. He’d studied journalism at California State University, Long Beach - an institution low on academic grandeur - but the surf was good and CC was most definitely a beach bum. After graduating, he spent 13 years as a senior editor on Surfing magazine, circumnavigating the globe in an endless quest for the perfect wave, then moved into smalltime TV work. Before TXF, his only credits were for a couple of very short-lived and distinctly unmemorable TV series, B.R.A.T. Patrol and Rags to Riches.

In person CC is gregarious, friendly and straightforward - a far cry from the shadowy, patrician image perpetuated by the Internet. His intellect though is beyond dispute. CC has thought long and hard about the show’s appeal, and can encapsulate its success in a single sentence: "The less you know, the more you believe." But his amazingly fertile imagination is the real reason.

CC knows that he is excellent at two things: feeling the fear and conveying that in writing. "I love shows like The Night Stalker, Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits and Alfred Hitchcock Presents," he says. "Clearly, I like to be scared and if you like to be scared, you have to confront your fears." He desperately wants to see a ghost, for example - "I want it so badly I just might get it." He knows people who have seen ghosts, people he "believes and trusts" emphatically, but the prospect of actually going out of his way to see one daunts him so much that he actually refuses to spend too much time at a friend’s supposedly haunted house.

He’s even thinking about using a medium to contact his parents, who died six years ago. "I’m terrified and not quite ready, but it’s something I would like to try," he says. CC firmly believes that everybody gets a kick out of being afraid, though not many of us feel the need to plumb the depths he goes to, literally, to feel that fear. "Last weekend I was free-diving five miles out into the ocean," he says. "You jump off the boat and there are sharks, sharks which are very aggressive. You go with guys who are good at it, who have these giant spear guns. I had one too. And again, it’s all about confronting your fears - which I find very interesting."

Other good friends of CC’s have told him they’ve seen UFO’s and have been abducted. He says he has no reason to doubt them, and claims that one of the more frightening moments of his life was attending a regression hypnosis session and seeing a man relive a past life experience. "It was chilling," CC says. "And I have no reason to doubt that these things happened to this person."

Ghosts. Aliens. CC wants to believe. But there’s something else he says he believes in even more.

"Their box office potential."

While CC was literally surfing through college, DD was finding a way to sabotage a promising academic career. He was born in Manhattan in 1960. His mother was a teacher and his father, who worked for the American Jewish Committee, harboured an unfulfilled desire to be a writer. They separated when DD was 12, but DD grew up to be the perfect American kid. He was good at baseball, good at basketball and good enough academically to set himself up for the most elite college education available: getting a BA at Princeton, an MA at Yale. He was an excellent student. And he hated it.

"The atmosphere was incredibly arrogant and stifling," he recalls, "and I never felt very comfortable sitting next to people who’d count up their stock portfolios and complain, ‘Todd and Kimmy won’t be able to fly down to the Bahamas for Spring Break...’" he says. "I always felt like an alien at places like Princeton and Yale. I just had to get out of that Wasp-ish environment, and acting was the only thing that gave me creative validation."

During the early ‘80s, DD couldn’t quite work out what he wanted to do with his life. He worked evenings as a bartender, tried writing a novel - about a bartender - and began a PhD at Yale before dropping out to concentrate on acting. It was a long, slow haul: his first film appearance, as ‘Tess’s Birthday Party Friend’ in 1988’s Working Girl, didn’t come until he was 27, and his career didn’t exactly take off from there. After James Spader had dropped out at the last minute, DD played the transvestite DEA Agent Dennis/Denise Bryson in Twin Peaks, but this was a brief high spot in a filmography that includes the likes of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (1991), Beethoven (1992) and of course TV’s Red Shoe Diaries series, which he narrated.

A role alongside rising stars Brat Pitt and Juliette Lewis in the pretentious Badlands-rip-off Kalifornia (1993), shortly after TXF began airing, did little to catapult DD onto the C-list, never mind the A-list. And it wasn’t even the film that captured his new, laconic persona on celluloid for the first time - that was achieved by an obscure, barely-released curiosity called The Rapture (1991), a film directed by Michael Tolkin, the maverick scriptwriter who penned Robert Altman’s The Player. It was Tolkin who spotted DD’s potential and may conceivably have been the first to identify the qualities that came together to create Fox Mulder. DD, said Tolkin, had " a flatness that I really liked."

Summer 1998. GA, DD and CC are sitting on a stylish red sofa installed on a platform in an otherwise virtually empty soundstage on 20th Century Fox’s LA film lot. They’re here for the biggest on-line chat ever conducted - to be broadcast live in the US on MSNBC, giant network NBC’s 24-hour news channel competitor to CNN, and of course on the Internet, where their words of wisdom will be immediately translated into French, Spanish, Chinese... It will feature questions from XF fanatics the world over whose medium of choice is, of course, the Internet.

All three look completely relaxed, sitting knee to knee with CC between his two stars. They make small talk between themselves directed at the media. Someone walks on stage proffering small bottles of Evian water. Without consulting each other, without even breaking the flow of conversation, GA, DD and CC immediately begin the seemingly unconscious task of peeling the Evian label from the bottles. By the time the cameras roll, none will be seen to be promoting the particular brand.

That such action is undertaken without a second thought speaks volumes about the almost limitless global appeal of these three people. Five years ago, no one could have imagined such a thing. Even when CC first pitched the idea of an XF movie two years back, insisting that it should pick up from the cliffhanger ending of the new season’s last episode, 20th Century Fox was horrified. Wouldn’t such a plot device alienate non-XF fans? And what about international markets where the film might be released before the new series had even aired? Somehow, CC got his way.

For months before the filmed opened, tidbits filtered out via the Internet. Scully and Mulder would kiss in the film. The Smoking Man would be unmasked as Mulder’s father. The alien project would finally be resolved. CC never commented - all he ever promised was some resolution to key questions.

But in actual fact, there is much less in the finished project than many XF fanatics would like. Mulder’s paternity is left hanging frustratingly in the perennial gloom, and WBD, the actor who plays The Smoking Man, says even he doesn’t know the answer. "All I can do as an actor," he says, "is create a back-story that makes sense of the scenes I have to do. If I receive new information, I may have to change that back-story if it conflicts with the one I’ve created for him. But yes, there is a lot of conjecture about that."

CC isn’t affected by criticisms that the film delivers little of what was promised. "It answers a lot about the project and what the Syndicate is up to," he insists. The problem, he thinks, is that the "serious fans had such high expectations but the film could only answer some of the questions." But of course, the main rumour sweeping X-philes was the unthinkable: Mulder and Scully would finally get it together...

"No," says DD. "There was never going to be a sex scene between them in the film. Because that would have betrayed everything the series said about them. They find refuge in their shared obsessions, the fact that they’re alone against the rest of the world and they have to rely on each other to keep their knowledge alive. That type of secretive association is what people find sexy about the relationship. The sexual energy comes from what is not spoken between them. They only have each other to trust, and their work comes first.

"Mulder doesn’t get off on Scully sexually - that’s not what attracts him to her He doesn’t want to fuck her; he wants her understanding. He listens to her and needs her scepticism to keep his head screwed on straight - at least as straight as possible. And as the series has evolved, she’s become more the believer, while he’s grown more dubious about the aliens."

At the Internet conference, he and GA are bombarded with e-mails begging to know what’s going on.

Question: Is there sexual chemistry between Mulder and Scully?

GA (Giggling): Yes, there’s definitely sexual tension between the two of them.
DD: It’s chemistry of a kind.
GA (Indignant): I’d say that’s chemistry!
DD: We like to keep the sexual tension underplayed, especially between The Smoking Man and me!

Question: Why do Mulder and Scully never refer to each other by their first names?

DD: We use them as a dramatic device.
GA: Because it ends up getting pretty intimate when we do. Using the name Fox sounds naughty. (DD laughs)
GA: It seems like a step towards intimacy.
DD: Next she’ll call me Fo, then Fff...

Rumors of a sex scene were so rife, it was even suggested that the film involved nudity. Specifically, Mulder’s behind.

"People always ask me when we are going to see his butt," says CC. "If I had known that putting his butt in the movie would have gotten that much attention, we might have put it in. But I do what I want. I’m not putting his butt in just because people tell me to, and I won’t have them kiss if people tell me to."

As for the talk of Mulder and Scully finally kissing if not having sex, CC laughs and says, "It’s actually a pretty old fashioned idea that a kiss could cause such a stir." Do they, in fact, kiss? Well, they certainly don’t sleep together - although CC has already conjured up a scenario which would address the prospect. "I’ve already imagined the scene where they wake up in bed together and they’ve lost nine minutes and don’t know what happened," he says wryly.

CC plays down allegations of tension between his stars. Everyone involved is well aware of the rumours that they don’t speak, and many have remarked on the number of scenes in the series which show the two communicating by phone and rarely in the same shot.

"That is not true," CC says. "Imagine the relationships in the last five years of your life that are not contractual. They are always difficult; there are always ups and downs. The same things happen with every serious relationship as happen with people who work together every day. You are happy to live your life and do your work and go home. Just because they don’t socialise outside the workplace doesn’t mean they don’t like each other. There’s really no drama here."

"If there is, I haven’t seen it," says WBD. "But then I haven’t seen them together that often. I don’t see a whole lot of Gillian, period, but when I’ve seen them together they seem fine. They come back to work on Monday and say, ‘Where did you go on the weekend?’ Normal stuff."

DD strays a bit further from the party line. "We get along as much as we have to get along - professionally. But we’re two very different kinds of people, and that’s as true today as it was at the beginning of the series. We don’t spend time together away from the set because we work very long hours together and we need to get far, far away from each other. I’m too glib and sarcastic, and I know that rubs Gillian the wrong way."

If there have been rumours about DD and GA, that’s partly because there have been rumours about DD and a lot of people. Stories that DD is addicted to sex, stories that he’s addicted to porn. He denies being addicted to anything, but being INTERESTED is a different matter. He won’t deny that until his recent marriage, he had more girlfriends than the average man. As he sees it, it was part of his search for something missing. Being Jewish, educated and from New York, he’s been in therapy.

"Therapy has helped me try to figure out who I am and gain some greater self-awareness," he admits. "I don’t suffer from extreme highs and lows but I have a natural tendency to feel down and depressed even though I try to pretend that everything’s OK. That’s not a very satisfying way to live, and I don’t want to bring other people down to my grim level. But somewhere along the way in life I lost my capacity to experience pure joy. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it doesn’t make you the life of the party either."

When asked if he had always envisaged the show as a movie, CC is entirely convincing in his deadpan response: "Oh yes." In fact, nothing was further from his mind in the beginning. "You just can’t imagine this kind of success because TV shows don’t have this kind of run. Normally in the business, shows just come and go. And to be honest, so much of what has happened is unprecedented so it’s best not to dare imagine anything."

DD and GA both say they envisioned a film version early on. "We always thought the show was like a movie though," DD insists, "and I really wanted to do this film from the first or second year."

GA disagrees. "It might have been a better experience to do the film when the audience no longer had the show to watch any more," she suggests.

Whatever the timing, 20th Century Fox wanted to be certain the film would be attractive enough to lure everyone seeking a satisfying summer blockbuster. Bill Mechanic, head of Fox Filmed Entertainment, actually stopped watching the show so that he could judge its appeal for non-XF junkies. WBD goes so far as to say that the movie has "reinvigorated" the series.

To add a new texture to its big-screen incarnation, CC decided that a substantial new character or two was required for the film. These are provided in the forms of Martin Landau and Armin Mueller-Stahl; Landau plays conspiracy theory-promoting author Dr Kurtzwell and Mueller-Stahl appears as Strughold, the never-before-seen leader of the shadowy Syndicate. ML, a veteran of everything from Hitchcock’s classic North By Northwest (1959) to tacky TV series Space 1999, had seen only a few XF episodes but he immediately thought the show played "very cinematically." He was a little worried that the script might be something of an in-joke but it was, he had to admit, very good.

At a script meeting, CC told ML he needed him to be "crazy and credible at the same time." "Wow," said ML. "That’s crazy...and credible!" He read the script again and found "an inordinate amount of exposition, facts and information and conspiracies and viruses and buildings blowing up. And exposition is really not an actor’s best friend." But the thing he really couldn’t figure out was why credit is rarely given where it is due. He gets almost angry in castigating those who can’t see the show’s greatest assets: DD and GA.

"Any good film is about a recipe," ML says, "like making a good bouillabaisse - a little paranoia, a little paranormal, a little science, a little science fiction - but the most important thing that no one is picking up on is this relationship between these two actors. It’s gold, and the audience reaps the benefit of people really understanding a character. They’re not lovers but there’s a sexual tension between them."

ML goes so far as to compare them with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. "And you don’t see that kind of relationship any more in films. Buddy movies today get me upset. I see two actors who don’t like each other. There’s a movie out now, a caper movie with a guy and a gal which I won’t name, and there’s nothing going on. Not enough critics have recognised the thing that holds TXF movie together is that relationship. It’s a knock-out. I’ve seen actors have to play the break-up of a four-year relationship before they’ve even met, and that scene is going to be skinny. But these guys know the tone of each other’s voices, they see something in their periphery that the other is doing. They know what’s going on before it happens."

One other vital question remains. After making a movie, will GA and DD want to go back to the grind of doing the TV show? CC thinks so. "It’s actually harder to make the film because it takes so long," he explains. "Even just the lighting, lyrically and poetically, takes a long time - and they have a lot more time in their trailers. They want to get to work and get out of there. TV is more what they’re used to, and for the movie they’ve had to learn a lot more material in a short time. And they’ve been working weekends on the film."

GA has been noticeably reticent to comment on either the move to LA or commitment to the show. While GA seems the more loyal of the two, she’s also been working harder to lay the groundwork for her post XF career. She has a small but juicy part as an alcoholic alongside Sharon Stone in The Mighty. After that, she’ll be romantically paired with Anthony Edwards in Dancing About Architecture opposite Sean Connery, Dennis Quaid, Gena Rowlands and Madeleine Stowe.

WBD is sympathetic and does concede that the pair may feel a little hemmed in sometimes because "they carry so much of the weight of the show." Even WBD knows how cloying the trappings of fame can be. "Every time you’re going somewhere, they send a car," he says. "Everything is kind of done for you, which is nice in a way but it reminds me of the time when my mother finally had to go to a nursing home. You give up having to look after yourself and become almost childlike, in a way. It’s important to retain full control of your life."

Can WBD imagine the series without one or both of its leads? Actually, he can. "I don’t think anybody is irreplaceable, ever," he says. "There’s no reason you couldn’t find other people who would work together." And his ideal series-concluding scenario? "I’d like to finally knock off Mulder. That would be a nice ending - and then Scully would have to get a new partner. That could happen, but the network doesn’t want it to because they know this works and they’re making money." He’d also quite like The Smoking Man to be "somehow redeemed" on his deathbed. "But then," he admits, "I wouldn’t be in the show any more."

Typically for a man who’s not afraid to face his fears, CC isn’t scared of what might happen should his stars fly the roost. He probably won’t be there anyway. He initially planned to leave the show after five seasons sooner than either of them, but has been persuaded to stay on for two more years. "I just hope when the time comes, everyone is in agreement as to what should be done. We will, I’m sure, all leave as friends."

Meanwhile, the man recently voted one of the world’s 50 most beautiful people by America’s People magazine is already looking forward to starting work on the next XF film. "In the second movie you’re going to see more people that you’ve seen before," CC reveals. "They gave me a budget on the first one that required I bring in a lot more people than just the hardcore audience, so I couldn’t load it up with too many unfamiliar faces."

So it’s fair to assume there will be a sequel?

"The world ‘sequel’ scares me," he says. "But the word ‘prequel’ doesn’t scare me at all..."

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