Truth Be Told . ..

The catch phrases are familiar to any viewers of “The X-Files”: “Mulder, where are you?” and “Trust no one.” But lately for many fans, the lines apply not to “Files’ ” fictional world, but to the real-life creative forces behind their beloved series.

They are looking forward to Sunday’s episode, which promises the long-awaited official return of Special Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), held captive by aliens since the end of last season and existing thus far this season in just fleeting verbal and visual references. Mulder’s reemergence may not be enough to satisfy some avid fans who complain that they’re the only ones who have been looking for Mulder, that the brain trust behind the series is trying to deny his character’s importance.

Consider these postings on the Web site X-Philes for Mulder: “Frankly, the comments of cast and crew recently suggest that they are willing to trod over Mulder’s dead body to create a new hit show--’X-Files: The Next Generation.’ ”

“If [series creator] Chris Carter and Fox can forget Mulder, I can forget the Files. ‘X-Files’ without Mulder is a contradiction in terms.”

These tirades and thousands like them have appeared since September on the site, where fans of “The X-Files” can vent about the shoddy treatment they believe Mulder is getting at the hands of the show’s writers and publicists.

“If there isn’t this respect for the character, don’t be surprised if we won’t be tuning in,” said Monica Duff, 36, one of the creators of the Web site (https://www.geocities.com/xphilesformulder/) and an information technology consultant in Australia.

For most of its life, the show, now in its eighth season, has featured FBI agents Mulder and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) chasing monsters, murderers, an interplanetary conspiracy and the Truth. But more than the scary stories, what kept many viewers tuning in season after season was the chemistry between the two agents, who have grown close in the face of torture, loss and near death.

However, real life intervened. Wanting to spend more time with his family, Duchovny agreed to return this season for just half of its 22 episodes. That left Carter and the rest of the show’s creative team to figure out how best to use Mulder when they had him, and what to do in his absence.

“This year was an anomaly,” Carter said. “We never anticipated this, and it turned into a remarkable change-up.”

Carter and company brought on Robert Patrick (the evil Terminator from “Terminator 2”) as Special Agent John Doggett to pair with Scully in Mulder’s absence and help her look for her partner. Heading into the season, Carter said Mulder would be the “absent center” of the show, and that the search for him would bring new energy and passion to the series.

*

Many fans were uneasy from the beginning, believing that Fox and Carter were promoting the new season and Doggett at Mulder’s expense, and they have grown more irate as the season has progressed. The Mulder fan contingent contends that the characters don’t even seem to be looking for Mulder, who has received scant or no mention in some episodes. And their greatest fear isn’t that his character will be killed off, but that it will be rewritten so fundamentally that it puts a lie to everything fans had known about him before.

“It’s a character who means a lot to a lot of people,” said Meg Belviso, 32, an X-Philes for Mulder member and magazine editor in New York. “It’s as if, in a sequel to ‘Gone With the Wind,’ they had decided Scarlett was actually a man.

“Some people get involved with a TV show and they feel the show owes them,” she said, a sentiment she insists she and her fellow Philes don’t share. “What most people want is some resolution to his story that doesn’t negate everything that happened before. People disagree as to how that story should end, but they’re clear they want some sort of ending.”

Carter said he’s always known how he wants to end the series but was never sure when that would come. And though he relished the challenge of progressing without one of the show’s two main characters, now he’s glad to return to the series’ focus. As he puts it: “It’s always been Mulder and Scully.

“It’s really nice to have David back,” Carter said. Mulder “and Scully were the heartbeat of the show--as good as the show is this year, I think it will be even better with his return.” Though Carter cautions, “He’s going to be somewhat hobbled by what’s been done to him.”

In addition, a new dynamic will emerge between Scully, Doggett and Mulder: “Mulder is coming in really as a third wheel, if you will,” Carter said.

Such news may not cheer some fans, such as the one who signed the message board on Fox’s official “X-Files” site with: “I despise Chris Carter with the white hot passion of a thousand burning suns.”

“I think a lot of the criticism is unrealistic,” said Carter. He finds no small irony in the fact that while some fans are complaining about the direction the eighth season is taking, there was a chance the series wouldn’t survive to an eighth season. And though there are gripes about missing Mulder, Duchovny might have chosen to quit the show completely.

“There’s a very vocal group of people on the Internet, that’s a very small group of people. There are certain rabid campaigns afoot--I try to take everything with a grain of salt,” he said.

In years past, Carter had talked about the synchronicity of the rise of the Internet and the increase in the popularity of the show, with fans dissecting episodes online each week. The series creator once said he used the chats to “feel the pulse of my audience.”

Nowadays, “I’m finding the Internet less helpful,” Carter said; instead, he finds too much noise and vitriol. When he does check the message boards, he tries to focus on the middle ground of fan reaction, cutting out extremes that are too fawning or venomous.

He also “bridles” at the comments that the show’s ratings are slipping. While not as high as during the series’ peak, 1996-1997, when the show drew a 9.6 rating and averaged 15.5 million viewers, the ratings this season are far better than last year, when Duchovny was in every episode, and about the same as season No. 6--and this even before Mulder’s highly anticipated return. Through the Feb. 11 episode, the series had a 7.6 rating compared to 6.5 the year before, drawing 12.6 million viewers compared to an average of 10.4 million the prior year. The show is still Fox’s highest-rated drama.

Duff understands the fans have no control over Carter, but they hope to at least serve as his conscience, and make sure he remains consistent to the character and to the story line he’s threaded through the past seven years.

“Ultimately it’s Chris’ creation, and Mulder is his creation, and whatever he wants to do with it is fine. It’s more reminding him how the characters are viewed,” she said. What the fans argue is that some of the show’s logic has been lost. Throughout the series, with the agents following separate clues on the same case and keeping in touch via cell phone, a recurring scene had Scully asking, “Mulder, where are you?” Now that he’s being tortured in what looks like a demented dentist’s chair aboard a flying saucer, some fans complain that Scully isn’t putting much effort into finding him, instead dropping his nameplate in a desk drawer.

“If your best friend, your partner, had been kidnapped, I don’t think you’d be talking about him as if he were on vacation,” said Anne Peters, 39, an X-Phile for Mulder contributor and media librarian in Ottawa.

“For a lot of people,” Belviso added, “the damage has already been done. All we can do is say it seems like this season that Mulder wasn’t important.”

For now, the man at the center of the storm is remaining silent. Duchovny declined interview requests. Though Anderson is signed for another year, Duchovny does not have a contract to appear in a ninth season of “The X-Files,” if there is one. He has expressed interest in playing Mulder in more feature films, though, following 1998’s “The X-Files: Fight the Future,” and is currently working on an Ivan Reitman film.

Meanwhile, Carter--whose devilish sense of humor is evident in the episodes and ambiguous clues he parses out--at times seems to work the series like a magic act, relishing the illusion and misdirection.

“It’s fun--the audience is leaning far in one direction, and you get to pull the rug out from under them,” he said.

Some fans clearly no longer are enjoying the act.

“I think there’s manipulation,” Duff said. “When you have the creator of the show saying Mulder will be a focus, you get the fans tuning in every week saying, ‘Where’s Mulder? Where’s the search for Mulder?’ There’s the constant tease. If you continue to throw that bait out [with no payoff], you’re going to get a reaction.”

*

* “The X-Files” can be seen Sunday nights at 9 on Fox. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).