"The Springfield Files" is the tenth episode of The Simpsons' eighth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 12, 1997. The episode sees Homer believe he has discovered an alien in Springfield. It was written by Reid Harrison and directed by Steven Dean Moore. Leonard Nimoy guest stars as himself and David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson guest star as Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, their characters on The X-Files. The episode serves as a crossover with The X-Files and features numerous references to the series. The story came from former showrunners Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who returned to produce this episode while under contract at Disney. It received mostly positive reviews from critics; Jean and Reiss won an Annie Award for producing it.