 The character of Walter Skinner had evolved over the course of The X @-@ Files ' sixth season . At the start of season six , however , the producers and writers felt that Skinner 's character was becoming " expendable " . With their transfer away from the X @-@ Files division , Mulder and Scully saw less and less of their former boss . Originally , John Shiban , the writer of the episode , wanted to infect Mulder with nanobots . However , he decided that since the audience knew Mulder would not be killed , this plot would not be very effective . In order to compensate for this loss , Shiban decided to re @-@ work Skinner back into the series mythology by putting him in Mulder 's place . Shiban , inspired by the 1950 noir film <unk> and its 1988 remake which he <unk> called " [ two ] pretty bad movies " , decided to craft an episode of The X @-@ Files around the <unk> of " a guy who 's been poisoned [ and ] has only a short time to live and has to use that time to find out why and by whom he 's being murdered " . 
