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.

 

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