The Alternative Season 8 website can be found at
http://surfacing.com/as8 . The site contains dustjackets and
trailers for each episode, plus bios of the authors and other
great information. Be sure to send feedback to as8@surfacing.com.

Thanks,
XochiLuvr

 What is Alternate Season 8?

It's the time when the fans come together to reclaim the
destinies of the characters and the show we've loved.

For eight years, we've poured our time, energy, and devotion into
The X-Files. It has become a part of us, and we have become a
part of it. Alternative Season 8 is the point where what's right
for the stories and the characters and the fans diverges from
what happened on the television screen. It's the point where the
breakdown of characterization and continuity became unacceptable
to us, to the extent that we feel we must stand up and say to
Chris Carter and Co.: "You've had your shot. We gave you our
faith and trusted that you would do right by us and the show
we've come to love, but you haven't. It's our turn now."

To say that the 2000/01 season was mishandled to some degree is a
statement no X-Files fan would deny. The discontent of some is
more extreme than for others, but the core disappointment holds
true across the board. So we, a sampling of fandom as a whole,
have come together to prove a point: that it could have been
better.

That's it, that's all. This is not a "virtual season" as the term
has come to be known in fan circles, where fans discard the
direction the show has taken, create their own stories and take
the characters in entirely new directions. Alternative Season 8
is a retelling of the episodes aired during the eighth season of
The X-Files, utilizing the same starting point (the 7th-season
finale, "Requiem") and the same essential story premises. We do
this in hopes of demonstrating that, given the same basic
storylines, there was a better way this season could have been
handled, a higher road the producers could have taken. Departures
from characterization will be rectified, needless and senseless
continuity errors will be fixed, and bad storytelling and plot
devices will be eliminated.

These are not "novelizations" of the episodes, as such, nor are
they screenplays. They are written in the third person, present
tense, but with a minimum of narration. This eliminates the more
distracting elements of reading a screenplay, while still
focusing on the dialogue and actions. Everyone reading these
episodes is aware of show, the actors, and how what happens would
have been portrayed. Beyond the essential elements of action and
dialogue, we leave the fans to supply the rest--the spirit and
emotion of the story--with their imaginations and preexisting
knowledge of the characters and situations of "The X-Files."

Some text from aired eighth season episodes will be used
directly, and some will be discarded or edited to suit the spirit
of Alternative Season 8. The idea is not to claim that the eighth
season of "The X-Files" never happened, but to demonstrate that
it could have happened better.

We do this because we love the show, and we are distressed by the
direction it has taken. Because we want to renew our faith in
these characters who have become a part of ourselves. Because we
want to make the show better, to recreate the show we loved once
again.

So join us on what will be, for many of us, our final journey
with these characters. Sit back, relax, and enjoy: Alternate
Season 8.


