S.R. 819

"S.R. 819"
The X-Files episode
Walter Skinner lies in a hospital bed, dying from a nanobot infection. Mitch Pileggi had to endure long bouts of make-up application, a process he reportedly hated.
Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 9
Directed by	Daniel Sackheim
Written by	John Shiban
Production code	6ABX10
Original air date	January 17, 1999
Running time	45 minutes
Guest appearance(s)
Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Walter Skinner Nicholas Lea as Alex Krycek Kenneth Tigar as Dr. Plant Jenny Gago as Dr. Katrina Cabrera John Towey as Dr. Kenneth Orgel Raymond J. Barry as Senator Richard Matheson Arlene Pileggi as Skinner's Assistant
Episode chronology
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List of The X-Files episodes

"S.R. 819" is the ninth episode of the sixth season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on January 17, 1999 in the United States. The episode was written by John Shiban, and directed by Daniel Sackheim. The episode helps to explore the series' overarching mythology. "S.R. 819" earned a Nielsen household rating of 9.1, being watched by 15.7 million people in its initial broadcast. The episode received mixed to positive reviews from critics.

The show centers on Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully has been assigned to debunk his work. In the episode, Mulder and Scully have 24 hours to save Assistant Director Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) from a biologically engineered disease. In order to combat the disease, Scully looks for a medical answer, while Mulder searches for the culprits behind the attack on Skinner's life. To aid him in this task, Mulder visits Senator Matheson, whom he hopes can help him find who is responsible before time runs out.

Before the writing of "S.R. 819", the writers for The X-Files felt that the character of Walter Skinner was becoming too "expendable". John Shiban, the writer of the episode, decided to re-work Skinner back into the series' mythology by crafting the episode around him. Mitch Pileggi had to endure long bouts of make-up application, a process that he admitted he "hated". The nanobots in the blood sample were designed on a computer and then rendered for the final footage.