page_title: The Host (The X-Files)
section_title: Writing
hierarchical_section_title: The Host (The X-Files) / Production / Writing
caption_attribution_description: English: Darin Morgan at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con International in San Diego, California.
context_page_description: "The Host" is the second episode of the second season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on September 23, 1994. It was written by Chris Carter, directed by Daniel Sackheim, and featured guest appearances by Darin Morgan. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "The Host" earned a Nielsen household rating of 9.8, being watched by 9.3 million households in its initial broadcast. The episode received positive reviews, praising the creepiness of the villain.
  The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In the episode, Mulder and Scully investigate a body found in sewage after being reassigned to different departments. Their inquiry results in the discovery of a bizarre fluke-like man—the product of the Chernobyl disaster—that soon goes on a rampage in the sewers of New Jersey.
  Series creator Chris Carter claimed to have been inspired to write the episode based on three incidents; his dog having worms, his readings about Chernobyl, and the extinction of species during the 1990s.
context_section_description: Chris Carter claimed to have been inspired to write the episode after his dog had worms, a situation he called "very disgusting". He also had been reading about the Chernobyl disaster and the extinction of species at the time and blended all three of these concepts when writing the episode. Carter described his mood while writing the episode, "I was in a funk when I wrote that episode. We were coming back from hiatus and I was trying to find something more interesting than just the Flukeman. I was irritated at the time and I brought my irritation to Mulder's attitude. Basically, he had become fed up with the FBI. They had given him what he felt was a low assignment, which was sending him into the city after a dead body. But lo and behold, he finds that this is a case that for all intents and purposes is an X-File. It's been given to him by a man he's never looked at as an ally, Skinner. So it's an interesting establishing of a relationship between them." Producer J.P. Finn described the episode as a departure from Carter's usual work as it did not deal with an alien subject matter.
caption: Darin Morgan, who would later become a writer for the show, played the Flukeman.
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