sentences:  "Excelsis Dei" was written by Paul Brown, his final script for the series after the earlier episode "Ascension".The episode was directed by Stephen Surjik (his only credit for the series), who had reached out to the show's producers and requested a chance to direct an episode because he was a fan of the show.Production for this episode was notoriously difficult, and the book "The Complete X-Files" notes that it "gave the staff headaches—both during the shoot and editing process".