 Steven Maeda , the writer , had previously written eighth season episodes " Redrum " and " Vienen " . Due to their success , Maeda was asked to pen a ninth season stand alone episode . His efforts were hampered by the fact that , due to the departure of David Duchovny , the general circumstances of The X @-@ Files had become more difficult . The plot for " 4 @-@ D " was inspired by the situation of a real @-@ life French journalist , Jean @-@ Dominique Bauby . Bauby had been paralyzed and could only communicate by blinking his left eyelid . Maeda wanted to employ a similar type of aliment in his script , and originally thought of drawing up a guest character for this purpose . However , he eventually felt that the plot would be more successful with a regular character , and decided to use Doggett . Maeda employed the theory of parallel universes in order to explain the circumstances of the episode . The character of Lukesh was in part inspired by Alfred Hitchcock 's 1960 film Psycho . Maeda later noted that he wished to create a villain that would be as memorable as other antagonists in The X @-@ Files , such as Eugene Victor Tooms and The Flukeman . 
