3 (The X-Files) - Production

Production

"It's a very different show because it's the first one without Scully. She's been away for quite some time. It's a situation where Mulder is in a dark place, doesn't know which way to turn, and is really very much on his own. The whole vampire thing happened because he went to a dark place that he normally wouldn't have gone to."

Howard Gordon was originally supposed to write the seventh episode of the season, but when he became unavailable Glen Morgan and James Wong, who were working on writing the eighth episode of the season, agreed to rewrite a freelance script provided by Chris Ruppenthal. The writers had to do significant edits, but retained the main plot surrounding three vampires.

Club Tepes, named after Prince Vlad Tepes—better known as Vlad the Impaler, who was the inspiration for Dracula—was shot inside a closed-down and redecorated nightclub, with extras recruited from other Vancouver clubs. The location for Kristen's house was the mansion of hockey player Pavel Bure, then the leading name of the Vancouver Canucks. The producers had an agreement for the late filming from all but one of Bure's neighbors, who was absent during the petitioning. Said neighbor later tried to sue Fox, only agreeing to let production continue after receiving an indenization.

Perrey Reeves, who played Kristen, was David Duchovny's real-life girlfriend at the time. Speaking of Mulder's possible sexual encounter with Kristen, series creator Chris Carter said, "I thought, 'This guy's a monk. Let's let him be a human. Especially in absence, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to do it." Duchovny had previously acted alongside another real-life girlfriend, Maggie Wheeler, in the first season episode "Born Again". Gillian Anderson is absent from the episode as she was on leave to give birth to her daughter Piper at the time. This episode was the first in which Scully did not appear.