The "X-Files" is one of the most iconic science fiction shows and it has gained a significant following since its debut in 1993. Now on season 11, the show seems to be leaving its roots and getting closer to a storytelling style similar to another great sci-fi series, "Black Mirror."
"X-Files" used to be about Agent Fox Mulder (played by David Duchovny) and Agent Dana Scully (played Gillian Anderson) following leads about extraterrestrial invasions. These adventures often lead them to the monster-of-the-week, usually alien in nature, and the two find ways to neutralize the threat.
However, the modern incarnation of the show departs from this original premise, and this departure is more apparent in season 11. For one thing, Mulder learns this season that the alien invasion he had always feared will never happened, and in fact was not even planned.
Now, their main adversaries are humans— chosen few "elites" who want to take whatever advanced technology they can get and use it to leave Earth.
Mulder's long-time antagonist Cigarette Smoking Man (or CSM) got his hands on alien technology that can potentially wipe out most life on earth. The plan is that the elites will leave Earth and live on a prefabricated paradise on another planet. Through the season, it is revealed that those involved in this conspiracy have already started building Dyson spheres on other star systems.
The said elites were lead by a woman named Erika Price (played by Barbara Hershey). She and her group apparently had advanced alien technology that enabled them to travel to space and build advanced structures like dyson spheres, plus other habitable structures on other planets.
This shift of villains fro alien to humans (and in some cases, artificial intelligence) is a very noticeable departure from the show's roots. Mulder and Scully may still be the skilled agents as they were, but now they have to contend against their own race instead of extraterrestrials.
