At press time, the studio and the production team were exploring the logistics of moving the production to Los Angeles in an attempt to fulfill the lead actors' wishes, despite series creator Chris Charter's public assertion that he has a plan for keeping the series in Vancouver, by introducing a new FBI agent character played by actor Chris Owens who just might be Mulder's half-brother.

A final decision on whether the series will travel due south has not yet been announced although rumors continue to fly.

Nick Lea admits that he has mixed emotions about the controversy. "I totally support David," he says. "Being on location and away from your family and friends and the business in L.A. is a very hard job. I don't think people realize how difficult it is.

"[David's] life consists of doing the show and having people stare at him on the street. That's not an easy place to be. At least in L.A., he's with his wife and surrounded by his peers and friends who understand his lifestyle. He can hang more easily down there rather than walk up Robson Street getting stared at.

"But I think the show will suffer visually by moving to L.A. because Vancouver is the perfect place to shoot the show. I'm living in Toronto now and I don't particularly like it but I'm there because I have to be. None of my friends are there. My life is the show and that's it."

To really understand the appeal and success of the series, Lea explains that the show is "about an archetype. Will you find answers? I don't know. Is the truth out there or is it not? And remember, it's just a TV show. It's main objective is to entertain. The show isn't there to answer questions about what's going on in the world. It should ask some questions but it's not going to answer any. That's not its job. It's chiefly to entertain.

"The show is built upon the idea that one is a believer and the other is not and they represent the viewing public. Some believe and some don't. It's opposite sides of the coin. The show's moniker is 'The Truth is Out There' not 'The Truth is in Front of your Face,' or behind the tree. The truth is out there somewhere, so it's posing questions, which I think is interesting. It's not pat, it's not obvious. Most shows wouldn't do that. They would give you an answer and give you a nice tidy ending. It's very clever that they keep people thinking about it. It's thought provoking and that's something we need more of on TV.

"For the same reasons THE PRISONER is still fascinating today, THE X-FILES will still be fascinating in 20 years regardless of whether we answer successfully some of these questions or not."

To better understand the scope of Nick Lea's popularity with devout fans, a computer printout detailing a list of 84 Internet websites that either are exclusively devoted or mention his name in a relevant context to acting roles was presented to Lea. Looking over the detailed results, listing URLs and brief descriptions from an Internet Search Engine, Lea was impressed and says, "Wow. I'm fascinated by the level of interest there is. Somebody told me they'd seen something where I was married and had kids which is BS. It's funny, it's good. It means that people are watching and that's cool.

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