Fox is breaking its silence on that Bones-meets-Sleepy Hollow crossover, giving reporters some story details and explaining why the network is mashing together two dramas of different genres.

At the Television Critics Association’s press tour in Beverly Hills on Thursday, first Fox announced this official description about the crossover episodes, which air Thursday, Oct. 29.

On Bones, “the grisly discovery of human remains lead Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz) on a hunt for clues, during which they encounter Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) and Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie), searching for answers of their own. Realizing that they are after the same evidence, they team up to solve the mystery. Then, immediately following on Sleepy Hollow, the intrigue continues as Ichabod’s old nemesis is back from the dead. Ichabod and Abbie need advanced forensic help and expertise to stop him and turn to Brennan and Booth to unlock 18th century secrets using 21st century science.”

A Bones producer likened the crossover’s science-meets-fantasy mash-up to Fox’s The X-Files.

“The Bones/Sleepy Hollow crossover is like a great episode of The X-Files, where the Bones hour is the Scully, logic-based perspective and the Sleepy Hollow hour is more Fox Mulder-esque,” said Michael Peterson, executive producer of Bones. “Put them together, and it’s going to be a great two-hour event that fans of both programs are going to love.”

While Sleepy Hollow’s new showrunner Clifton Campbell added, “When the idea came about to create this crossover event for fans, our writers’ room was immediately energized. The creative freedom to merge these two worlds which, at face value, seem so different; but at their core have such striking similarities – mystery, intrigue and methodical deduction, wrapped up in such strong character partnerships – was a challenge that we all welcomed, and we believe that fans of both series will be very satisfied by the result. It was a terrific collaborative experience across the board and we are eager to see the fan reaction to Ichabod and Abbie working alongside Brennan and Booth.”

Later, Fox chairman CEO Dana Walden told a huddle of the reporters that Sleepy Hollow season 3 hopes to return to the dynamic of the first season—which was much higher rated than the first.

“What we asked for a return to the storytelling model of the first season, a little bit more of the fun instead of such a deep mythology that got a little bit dense,” Walden said. “We’re still proud of the episodes of last season. That show takes an enormously huge swing. It’s not like they’re just doing a traditional cop show, where there’s a formula. Part of it is finding what’s the mix that’s most successful. But I would say our observation was a lot of the show last season moved into the fantastical world, where it used to be a show that was weighted very evenly between Abbie in the real world and Ichabod in the fantastical world. We’re trying to shift it back so it’s a more even-handed storytelling engine.”