page_title: Provenance (The X-Files)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Provenance (The X-Files) / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Taken just before the BAFTA awards, London. Originally this was on the Flickr website: https://www.flickr.com/photos/richard_martin/ of which I am a member.
context_page_description: "Provenance" is the ninth episode of the ninth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on March 3, 2002. The episode was written by series creator Chris Carter and executive producer Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Kim Manners. "Provenance" helps to explore the series' overarching mythology. The episode received a Nielsen household rating of 5.5 and was watched by 5.8 million households and 9.7 million viewers. It received mixed to positive reviews from critics.
  The show centers on special agents of the FBI who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files; this season focuses on the investigations of John Doggett, Monica Reyes, and Dana Scully. In this episode, when rubbings from the spaceship resurface the FBI hides its investigation from the X-Files. Meanwhile, Scully is forced to take drastic measures when she discovers a threat to William.
  "Provenance" introduced the character of the Toothpick Man, played by Alan Dale. This character became the leader of the New Syndicate and worked within the FBI during the show's ninth season.
context_section_description: "Provenance" was written by series creator Chris Carter and executive producer Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Kim Manners. Manners was very pleased with Anderson's performance in the episode, later saying that her acting "was very sexual." He further elaborated, "There's some burning within her that really comes across on screen. She really is brilliant, and she brings so much; the camera loves her." A large portion of the episode was based on the ancient astronaut theory; a theory that proposes intelligent extraterrestrial beings have visited Earth in antiquity or prehistory and made contact with humans. The themes had previously been visited in the "Biogenesis"/"The Sixth Extinction"/"Amor Fati" story arc.
  The episode marked the first appearance of Alan Dale as the Toothpick Man, the leader of the New Syndicate who works within the FBI. An interview with Digital Spy described him as "effectively [stepping] into the nicotine-stained chair of the departed Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) as the head of a shady new syndicate, although he was later exposed as an alien." Laura Leigh Hughes makes her third and final appearance as Kersh's Assistant. She had previously appeared in the sixth-season episodes "Triangle" and "Dreamland."
  The scenes in Calgary were actually shot in the back of the Universal Studios lot in Los Angeles. In order to convert the Los Angeles cityscape into Calgary's, Mat Beck created a matte of the shot; the background buildings were then edited out. A separate shot of Calgary was superimposed in the background and the scenes were composited in post-production editing.
caption: The episode marked the first appearance of Alan Dale as the Toothpick Man.
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