As usual, this originated as an X-Files mailing list post:

I'm grateful to an atxf lister who posted information about where the X-Files was shooting. I had been moaning since June about the fact that I live in LA and it was beginning to feel like everyone else had witnessed the filming of the show. If I'd had to suffer the next two years without seeing them film X-Files just once I was not going to be a happy camper. Luckily, I was spared such a fate last Friday.

I convinced a fellow Phile, Arik, to join me after dinner in downtown at the 4th Street Bridge. I'd tried to convince another friend to join us, telling her this didn't sound like another LDP situation (a reference to the fact that we'd gone to Magic Johnson's short-lived show expecting to see David Duchovny being interviewed, and got Lou stinkin' Diamond Phillips instead - no offense to Lou, but come on) but she wouldn't bite.

The episode being filmed was "Tithonus," which I think is the 10th or 11th episode of the sixth season. We'd heard that it might be a Krycek episode and, both Arik and I being Nick Lea fans, we were very excited at the prospect of seeing him in action (I won't hold you in suspense - we didn't, but Nick will be in the 3 episodes following "Tithonus.").

We arrived at the foot of the 4th Street Bridge around 9:15pm and spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out how we could get past the cop on the motorcycle guarding the bridge and near the set without being in the way. A man with a bicycle walked down the bridge with his bike, and we stopped him:

"Is there shooting going on at the other side?" At the horrified look on his face, we rephrased the question. This is downtown LA after all.

"Is there filming going on at the other side?" Affirmative. I decided to drive around the bridge. I've worked on a film set before, but I had no way of telling what the security was going to be like on the X-Files. It wasn't easy, but perseverance paid off. We found a leak at one end of the bridge where there was no cop. We approached at a respectful distance and no one stopped us. We were in an area of lofts, people walking their dogs, even a nightclub, so a certain amount of light traffic was allowed close to set. We could have blended in.

Of course the fact that we were the only two people ogling the set at 10pm dashed all hopes of blending in (I imagine there'd been more people watching earlier in the day), but no one told us to leave. "If you're in the way of a shot, they'll tell you," said one of the crew members, and obviously we weren't. As it stood, half the crew members weren't even wearing their set badges. One of my friends joked later that I could have brought them coffee and they probably would have put us to work. ;->

The set consisted of a few neon signs, a make-shift New York subway entrance (in the middle of LA, *guffaw*) and some street signs. We arrived just when they were filming day-players - hookers and what have you, sort of background characters walking under the bridge, a Mustang driving by. We were told that Gillian was still having "lunch" (they'd started filming around 4pm. Yes, 9pm was lunch) so we should stick around. We were amused by the machine which constantly streamed the streets with water in between shots for that New York wet look.

10pm, everyone broke for lunch. They didn't strike set, so we stuck around trying to figure out where we should go in the interim. I think I saw Vince Gilligan at that moment. But I wasn't sure because it was dark and I'd read that "Tithonus" was a John Shiban ep, not Vince's (again, our informants had confused the following ep with "Tithonus.") So I wasn't sure, but I kept saying to my friend, "Is that Vince? Is that Vince?" Of course my friend had no idea who the hell I was talking about. I kept staring at this man, so he stared back. I decided it wasn't him because why would a writer be at a shoot at 10pm if he didn't write it? Since that night I've found the correct information, so with my luck that was probably him. :-P At least I'd already met him at the Expo.

During the lunch break, Arik and I spotted the directors/actors chairs on set - they were green with the X-in-a-circle logo. "We have to get a picture of that!" But we didn't want to just start snapping pictures without asking, so we approached the cop who was guarding the set.

"Are you with the crew?" he asked. Apparently this was a really casual affair if we could have passed for crew that easily.

"No, we just wanted to ask if we could take a picture of the directors chairs."

Suddenly the cop assumed a defensive posture, probably embarrassed he mistook us for crew: "Okay, well, you're going to have to get off the set NOW!"

This is us, startled: "Okay, okay we're moving. We just wanted to ask if we could take a picture - we didn't want to just start snapping."

"That's fine, I just need you to stand at a distance."

After our pleasant little brush with the LAPD, we got our damn dorky picture which probably won't come out, but at least we tried. We killed time scouting outside base camp. The crew were briefing on the next scene in a tent. I was coveting the sign labeled "Tithonus" outside the parking lot as a souvenir. ;-> "Oh, great," Arik moaned. "We haven't even been here a half-hour and you're already going to get us in trouble." Mindful of the fact that my life tends to follow Murphy's Law, my better judgment prevailed and I resisted the temptation.

By the time we returned to our original post, the crew was coming back, setting up. The same guy who told us that Gillian was on lunch break this time said, "Aren't you bored yet?" *Shrug* "We knew you were on break, so we killed time."

We watched the transport the crew all of a few hundred steps from base camp to set for anyone we could recognize. Then we saw Gillian walk purposefully in a black trenchcoat, carrying another outfit, under the bridge towards set. "That's Gillian!" "It can't be! Why isn't she in a van?" "Gillian Anderson can walk." "You sure?" "Maybe it's her stand-in." "Well, we'll know for sure soon."

We spotted another woman with red hair wearing a parka standing where filming was to take place. "No, that's her stand-in. That was Gillian!" Much grasping of sleeves and giggling ensued at this point - thank God we weren't anywhere within hearing distance. We're such geeks. We watched them set up, willing the post office truck to quit blocking our view. "That has to be a prop. What the hell would that be doing here at this time of night?" More water streaming on the street. *Yawn* We were developing much more respect for any actor who puts up with this kind of wait. A half-hour later:

"God, we're pathetic. Even the crew's asking if we're bored."

"Yeah, but we're about to watch Gillian Anderson in action. I can be pathetic for one night for that."

What was truly pathetic is the fact that two near-sighted fools like us were trying to figure out what was going on from a few hundred feet away. Bringing binoculars would have been smart, but I've since been told that the crew hates that - so if you ever go, don't. I was certainly cursing the fact that I didn't. We watched a tall man in black leather. "Is that Nick?" "That's gotta be Nick. He's wearing black leather." Pause. "I don't think that's Nick. You think any of the drivers might know who they have?" Pause. "I think that's Nick. He's tall enough to be Nick." "Well, we'll see how tall Gillian is standing next to him then we'll know."

In the scene, this actor fought with a woman - possibly a hooker - grabbing her by the arm, yelling. "That's not Nick. We've never seen Krycek man-handle anyone in public like that." The post office truck passed in front of Gillian, who ran up to the man - her hair was bouncing, it was so cute - until she grabbed the man and hand-cuffed him to a One-Way sign.

Next time the scene was shot, the man traded in his leather for a black overcoat. Definitely not Krycek. Just to be sure, we asked another couple of Philes who were bolder than we were and had stood much closer and, unlike us, didn't wear glasses. ;-> No, the actor's definitely not Nick Lea, darn. But, dammit, we gotGillian, this time ad-libbing a bit:

"FBI! Don't move!" What a pair of lungs that woman has. Clearly the whole neighborhood could hear.

Third time: "FBI! Don't move! Spread 'em!" She hand-cuffed the guy again, nearly knocking the One-Way sign down, and Gillian burst into laughter. Wow. We actually witnessed a blooper. ;-> She was still cackling minutes later as they considered how to improve the lighting in the shot.

It was decided that they'd have to set up more screens on the bridge to drown out the glare. This was going to take a while, and my friend was getting tired, so two hours after we'd arrived we left. I know some people meet the stars and get autographs in those situations, but ol' Murphy and his Law were peering over my shoulder, and frankly, we were content with what we did see.

Okay, maybe that wasn't the most exciting story, but I have no complaints about watching one of the two major stars from one of my favorite shows and being able to watch this episode and say, "Hey I remember that. We were there!" Most importantly, we actually got to see Kick-Ass!Scully in person. I can imagine worse ways to spend a Friday night. :-D