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André Bormanis is a television producer, screenwriter, and consultant who worked on several series of Star Trek. He was the principal scientific consultant for TNG, DS9, and Voyager. He also wrote episodes for Voyager and Enterprise and served as a producer for the latter.

When I was rewatching the Season 8 X-Files episode "Via Negativa", I noticed a character by the name of Dr. Andre Bormanis (played by Grant Heslov):

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The Bormanis character manufactures drugs for a cult leader.

It would be hard to believe that these identical names are a coincidence. I have come across pieces of unofficial commentary that concur with this — for example:

The name "Andre Bormanis" is almost certainly taken from Dr. Andre Bormanis, science consultant to the Star Trek films and television series and a consultant to The Planetary Society.

(Source)

But I'm looking for something official.

Is this X-Files character named after the real-life Star Trek writer / consultant and, if so, why?

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    Next question: does Grant Heslov look like the real Andre Bormanis?
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Commented Feb 14, 2016 at 0:16
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    I read 'X-Files' and 'Star Trek' in the one question and knew this had to be you @Praxis: +1
    – Often Right
    Commented Feb 14, 2016 at 1:22
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    @N_Soong : You know me so well. ;-)
    – Praxis
    Commented Feb 14, 2016 at 5:55
  • Andre Bormanis' name pops up in the credits of many different shows, not just Star Trek, although I believe Star Trek was his first.
    – CJ Dennis
    Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 22:04

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Yes; because Andre Bormanis was an old friend of the episode's writer.

From an archived version of the X-files official website:

Andre Bormanis was named after Writer Frank Spotnitz's childhood friend. Bormanis went on to become a science consultant for Star Trek:Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

I found this by Googling "Andre Bormanis X-files named after". The first hit was from the Wikipedia page for the relevant episode, which contains a reference to the archived page linked and quoted above.

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    Nice find. The X-Files web site used to have a great episode databank. :-)
    – Praxis
    Commented Feb 14, 2016 at 0:11
  • This is an instance of tuckerization. It's very common for writers to name bit characters after real people.
    – zwol
    Commented Feb 14, 2016 at 15:49
  • @zwol Curiously, Anthony Horowitz often seems to be used for this: an Antoine Horwitzer appears in Darren Shan's Demonata series, and a Horri Antowitz is mentioned in Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series.
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Commented Feb 14, 2016 at 15:59

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