"Travelers" is a 1998 episode of The X-Files

The X-Files

The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...

television series

Television program

A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

. It was the fifteenth episode broadcast in the show's fifth season. A young Fox Mulder visits retired FBI Agent Arthur Dales, who tells him about one of the first X-Files, a case that his father was involved in.

Plot

FBI Agents Arthur Dales and Hayes Michel discover the body of Dr. Terrill Oberman in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Soon afterwards, Agent Dales is informed by State Department official Bill Mulder that the doctor killed himself. Like Edward Skur, Oberman was symbiotically infused with an alien creature. Both Oberman and another operative, Gissing, killed themselves rather than release the aliens to the populace. Also that night, Agent Michel is killed by Skur. Eventually, Dales catches Skur and handcuffs him. He leaves Skur for Bill Mulder and his men to apprehend him. Bill Mulder later frees Edward Skur, and Skur goes into hiding.

Production

• This episode reveals that, by 1952, there were already several "unsolved cases," only some of which were actually called "X-Files."
• This episode does not feature Scully as Gillian Anderson was busy still filming her final parts of Fight the Future
  The X-Files (film)
  The X-Files is a 1998 American science fiction-thriller film written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Rob Bowman. It is the first feature film based on The X-Files series created by Carter that revolves around a fictional FBI paranormal investigation unit called the X-Files...
  
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• Mulder wears a wedding band during the episode. This was done to lead to a possible storyline that never came to be.
• In this episode Mulder can briefly be seen smoking a cigarette (when he talks to agent Dales).

Reception

The episode earned a Nielsen rating of 9.9 with an 15 share. It was viewed by 9,494,000 households.