plot was foiled by the FBI, it was believed to have caused the dissolution of the Group. Production The inspiration for the Millennium Group was a real-life organization called the Academy Group, which consisted of retired law enforcement agents working as a private investigative firm. Millennium creator Chris Carter had come to know members of the Academy Group through contacts he had made with the Federal Bureau of Investigation while researching his earlier television series The X-Files. The Academy Group focused on offender profiling, which shaped the main Millennium Group characters of Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn). Describing his initial inception of the Group, Carter has stated "they believe that all this random violence we see these days, there may actually be some order in the chaos [...] These guys think that, if they care enough, that they can stem the tide of this thing". In the series' second season, new executive producers Glen Morgan and James Wong began to explore a new direction for the Group, moving away from its investigative function and giving a more religious focus. The tone of the second season focused more on the supernatural, showing the Group dealing with demonic forces more than the serial killers of the first season. Producer Ken Horton felt that the increased focus on the Group in the second season arose as the first season's use of serial killers as episodic antagonists had "overpowered" its storytelling, making it necessary to turn the show's attention elsewhere instead; the focus switched from external forces and villains to the internal workings of the Group. The introduction of schisms within the Group was inspired by Wong's research into the Knights Templar and Freemasonry, as he considered these secretive organizations to have mirrored the way he wanted to present the Group, and he felt each contained factions or reactionary elements which he wanted to recreate. During the third season, the Millennium Group became the series' chief villains, playing an antagonistic role against Frank Black rather than the supportive role they had previously played. Series star Lance Henriksen, who portrayed Black, felt that this change was unnecessary and damaged the series, as it discarded the work that had been done to "build up" the Group in previous seasons. Henriksen would later state his belief that the "idea of a cultish kind of Millennium Group [...] just about destroyed the show". Reception