By Marisal Camba

I cringed when I learned the X-Files was going on the road. I thought, 'An X-Files expo? This is not going to be good.' A show that draws millions of people to their TV sets for an hour each Sunday is one thing, but expecting those same people to look at some props, buy some merchandise, see a sneak preview of the much anticipated movie, and meet a couple of its stars is just plain.....ahh.....where do I pay?

Fans lined up by the thousands at the Mare Island Round Building in Vallejo, California. Since this was the first of a series of expos throughout the country, many came from outside the Bay Area, such as Sacramento, Oregon, and Nevada, to take part. Once there, however, everyone was treated to incredibly long lines at every attraction. Think a miniature Disneyland.

Still, fans lined up to take photos in Mulder's Office using "green screen" technology and take a look at the upcoming X-Files feature film. Kids of all ages sat down in front of computers to sign a virtual guest book courtesy of America Online, have intranet access to exclusive Web pages on the X-Files website, and sneak a peak at the unreleased CD-ROM, The X-Files Unrestricted Access, as well as preview the X-Files CD-ROM adventure game.

Although hundreds lined up for the attractions, many were delighted to just sit and listen to the supporting actors who came to talk with the audience and answer their questions. Non-fans will ask why main players David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson did not attend. The simple answer is that the show has such a rich and strong following that they weren't needed.

Bruce Hardwood, who plays one of the Lone Gunmen, won the crowd over with his hushed answers and funny anecdotes, while co-Gunman Dean Haglund made the audience roar with laughter as he exhibited his comic streak, with help from some young participants. William B. Davis, the actor who plays the Cigarette-Smoking man, gave a cynically humorous, if not convincing, account of why his character is the actual hero of the show. Who cared about the lines when you could ask Cancer Man if he was really Mulder's father?

The afternoon autograph session featuring Davis, Mitch Pileggi, and Nicholas Lea was another opportunity for fans to wait hours in non-moving lines -- and they did. Pileggi portrays Assistant Director Walter Skinner, and Lea has the part of evil, one-armed Alex Krychek. Pileggi was the second to last speaker, and from where I was sitting, he was the most sought after by women of all ages. Much to the dismay of the audience, fans like Andrea Stevick and Adelle Martin, both 13, wasted valuable question-asking time to get hugs from Pileggi.

Although a majority of the 4,000 some fans were over the age of twenty-five, there was a large number of teenagers in attendance. Fourteen-year-old Joanna Fuller of San Jose had gone to other conventions before and said that this was worth it. Why? Because she and her friends' lives were devoted to the X-Files. In fact, her friends were so devoted they could recite, verbatim, lines from an episode to each other. You decide whether that's scary or impressive.

What is impressive is that the young people I talked to wanted something more out of the TV programming that's offered to them. Oriana Reyes, 14, of San Francisco, said the show is "not only entertaining but complex. It's almost a religious experience." Her friend, 14-year-old Lily Marshall-Bass of Sacramento, also agreed. Lily enjoyed the "monster of the week" episodes because they gave her a good scare and found the "mythology" episodes interesting. They might have only been fourteen, but the essence of the show -- its characters and stories -- were the driving force in their devotion.

Other young men and women agreed that it's the story that makes them watch. One 15-year-old boy said, "I'm tired of stupid shows. I like the X-Files because it makes me think while it entertains me. Why do those people who make programs think they can make me watch TV by showing beautiful people just hanging around and doing nothing? That's not interesting to me."

In an era when kids are made to grow up faster than past generations, it's not surprising that these kids would tune into the X-Files. Their devotion to this smart show made them come and pay not only money to attend the expo, but homage to something they find unbelievably great. They came to share an experience that would normally not have been accessible to them, and they came to know that they were not alone.