2000
by Unknown

It was announced recently that Robert Patrick has signed a multi-year deal to play Gillian Anderson's new partner on the hit TV show, The X-Files. Patrick will appear in all 20 new episodes of the 2001 season.

Patrick's character will help fill the void left by current X-Files star David Duchovny. Duchovny, who's character was abducted by aliens in last season's finale, will appear in 11 of next season's 20 episodes. Duchovny was recently involved in a heated legal battle with Fox over syndication money and had been seeking more free time from the series shooting schedule.

Patrick landed one of TVs most coveted roles, beating out ten other actors that Executive Producer Chris Carter had been seriously considering. Among those were Sex and the City's Chris Noth; Lou Diamond Phillips; Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell; and character actor Hart Bochner.

Patrick will play FBI Agent John Doggett, a former police officer assigned to help Dana Scully (Anderson) find the missing Fox Mulder (Duchovny).

Chris Carter insists that Patrick's new character will not simply be a replacement for Duchovny. Unlike the ever-paranoid Mulder, Doggett will be "the consummate insider. He's a member of the FBI fraternity, a textbook guy," explains Carter. "We thought about what we wanted to do, and we decided we didn't want to add something to the show we already had."