Dr Dana Katherine Scully, MD, is a fictional character and one of the two protagonists in the Fox science-fiction, supernatural television series The X-Files, played by Gillian Anderson.
31 Facts About Dana Scully
2.
In contrast to Mulder's credulous "believer" character, Dana Scully is the skeptic for the first seven seasons, choosing to base her beliefs on what science can prove.
3.
Dana Scully has appeared in all but five episodes of The X-Files, and in the 20th Century Fox films The X-Files, released in 1998, and The X-Files: I Want to Believe, released 10 years later.
4.
Dr Dana Katherine Scully was born on February 23,1964, in Annapolis, Maryland, to William and Margaret Scully, into a close-knit Catholic family with Irish ancestry.
5.
Dana Scully's father was a navy captain, who died of a heart attack in early January 1994.
6.
Dana Scully grew up in Annapolis, Maryland and later in San Diego, California.
7.
Dana Scully attended the University of Maryland, and in 1986, received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics.
8.
In season two, Dana Scully was kidnapped by an ex-FBI agent turned mental patient named Duane Barry, and then taken from Barry by a military covert operation that was working with the alien conspirators, but was later returned.
9.
Dana Scully was saved after Mulder broke into the Department of Defense to retrieve another chip to be implanted back into her neck.
10.
At the time, Dana Scully was undergoing experimental medical treatments and was having a dramatic renewal of her faith.
11.
Around this time, Mulder was fired from the FBI by Deputy Director Alvin Kersh, and Dana Scully left the field to teach forensics at Quantico.
12.
William was given up for adoption during the end of the ninth season after Dana Scully felt she could no longer provide the safety that William needed.
13.
Early on in the film, Dana Scully is contacted by the FBI, who are looking for Fox Mulder in the hope that he will assist them with the investigation of a missing FBI agent.
14.
Unlike Mulder, Dana Scully was apparently not considered a fugitive by the FBI.
15.
Dana Scully has extraterrestrial DNA, as the test that she performs on herself confirms.
16.
Two conflicting stories exist of how Dana Scully received the necklace.
17.
In season five, Dana Scully recalls receiving the necklace as a Christmas present.
18.
Mulder wore it as a talisman of her until Dana Scully miraculously reappeared in a Washington, DC, hospital.
19.
Dana Scully believes she could have been brought there by Barry, and she began to exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder on a case involving a murdering fetishist named Donnie Pfaster.
20.
Sometime after her recovery from cancer, Dana Scully began to regularly attend mass again.
21.
At the request of Father McCue, Dana Scully got involved in a case concerning a paraplegic girl who was found dead in a kneeling position with her palms outstretched and eye sockets charred.
22.
Dana Scully continued to have visions of Emily, and when the last girl died, Dana Scully believed she was returning the girl to God.
23.
The suspect, a writer named Phillip Padgett, has a particular interest in Dana Scully and is fascinated by her beauty and personality.
24.
All this suggests that Dana Scully isn't a devout Roman Catholic, although she attempted to approach again the Catholic community and the Catholic faith to which she was devout in her youth, after handling the strange case presented in "Revelations" and after dealing with life-threatening cancer during the fourth season.
25.
Skinner learns from the Smoking Man that the Smoking Man, who is Mulder's father, artificially impregnated Dana Scully, thus is William's father, as well.
26.
John Doggett was likewise named after Vin Dana Scully's longtime broadcasting partner, Jerry Doggett.
27.
Dana Scully's character was inspired by Jodie Foster's portrayal of Clarice Starling in the film The Silence of the Lambs.
28.
The casting for Dana Scully caused a conflict between Carter and the Fox network.
29.
Carter decided Dana Scully would be the skeptic to play against established stereotypes; typically on television the quality was attributed to a male.
30.
The character of Dana Scully has become something of a sci-fi heroine due to her intelligence and resilience, frequently appearing on lists of important female science fiction characters, such as Total Sci-Fi Onlines list of The 25 Women Who Shook Sci-Fi, where she came in fourth.
31.
Intelligent, loyal, flawed and brave, Dana Scully was the show's beating heart and saving grace even in its lowest years.