Star Trek: Phoenix-X

Star Trek: Phoenix-X is a fan fiction series based in the late 24th and early 25th century, centring around the crew of the Federation Starship Phoenix-X, and occasionally branching off into focus of other starships and crews. The main format of the series is chatfic, reminiscent of chat room archives. Of this style, stories are mainly written episodically (Episodes) with occasional variants in the same vein (Chapters, Specials, Flashbacks). The series also branches out into other formats such as prose (Literary) and comics.

Overview
The series started as role playing fiction through instant messaging chats between its initial two writers within the first few Episodes. It then grew into a role play through email, with larger sections of story alternated by each writer, per episode. Finally, by late Season 1, it grew into being written as full episodes themselves.

Star Trek: Phoenix-X takes place in the Prime universe and plays along side, and with the history of, all canon series and movies involved:, , , , and the films  to. It also includes prime universe events in. In alternative licensed material, the series follows the timeline, which include several pieces like, , ,  and.

Occasionally, in a soft-break of the fourth wall, characters will make passing references to alternative timelines they unexplainably, or absentmindedly, have awareness of; mostly the in Season 4. In "Displacement Syndrome", the crew actually visits some of these alternate timelines, most notably the Shatnerverse timeline.

Variants
Star Trek: Phoenix-X is primarily presented in episodic format with each story classified as "Episode". This is mostly true with the exception of several variant classifications that emerge and eventually increase in frequency as the series goes on.


 * Episode: the base style of story, written in chatfic, with, usually, the core characters being involved. Episodes are in the spirit of and given style of Star Trek episodes.


 * Chapter: a variant Episode which can be described as a long form story. It is written in chatfic, with the core characters and is in the spirit and vein of the Star Trek films.


 * Spin-off: an experimental first Episode of a series based on a ship, species or aspect from Star Trek: Phoenix-X. The stories are usually posted in parts, to comprise one Episode, some in chatfic, prose, varying from comedy to drama.


 * Short: a separate fiction based on a ship, species or aspect from Star Trek: Phoenix-X. The stories are usually a one-off and written in prose.


 * Special: a variant Episode which can be described as a short story. It is written in chatfic, with core or select characters. The Specials were initially "holiday"-themed, until Season 4.


 * Comics: sequential panels of art and story with select characters for each. Each series was classified as "Comics" with several comics numbered as "Comic" released within it. The comics varied in type and style from full page to comic strip; outlined to color.


 * Flashback: a variant Episode that takes place in the past and is either a full "re-write" of a past episode, or contains parts of past episodes to tell a story. They are written in chatfic and original dialogue is not necessarily altered, but, instead, given additions as to keep series canon.


 * Literary: a variant Episode that is written in prose format. These are Star Trek Online: Literary Challenge entries. They jump the timeline ahead to the early 25th century, and are written in the vein of and in the setting of the  MMORPG. The core Phoenix-X cast/crew differs slightly. Stories will also focus on cast/crews of the ; and to be posted, cast/crew stories from the USS Zephyra and RRW Ketaryn. The stories maintain inside series canon.


 * Unofficial: a variant Episode that is written in prose format. These are Star Trek Online: Unofficial Literary Challenge entries. They continue the Literary setting in the 25th century, and are written in the vein of and in the setting of the Star Trek Online MMORPG. Cast/crew stories focus on ships in Task Force Epsilon; and to be posted, cast/crew stories on ships in Task Force Zeta.


 * Trek: a variant Episode that is written in prose format and takes place in the same timeline as Episodes. These are named after The Trek BBS, where they are posted.

Season 5
Season 5 is the fifth and current season. It is continuing, and is in-progress.

Parallel fiction
Some variant episodes and comics posted in the series timeline continue in parts, and are, in a sense, running parallel to the series.


 * See: Star Trek: Phoenix-X (Parallel fiction)

Cut scenes
The cut scenes were akin to a "deleted scenes" of a film/tv production, where blocks of text that didn't make it in to the final cut of some episodes of Star Trek: Phoenix-X were collected separately.


 * See: Star Trek: Phoenix-X cut scenes

Spin-offs
The spin-offs for Star Trek: Phoenix-X were experimental stories focusing on other ships' or other perspectives related, previously, or in the story itself, to the USS Phoenix-X. They were started around 2003-2004, unfinished, and re-integrated back into Star Trek: Phoenix-X in 2014. As reintegrates, the spin-offs continue as Parallel fiction.
 * Star Trek: B'Chnah
 * A chatfic focusing on the crew of the . Incomplete.


 * Star Trek: Hijinx
 * A chatfic focusing on the crew of the USS Hijinx. Incomplete.


 * Star Trek: Tsunami
 * A chatfic focusing on the crew of the USS Tsunami. Incomplete.


 * Star Trek: Crucial
 * Blog post style from the crew of the USS Crucial's points of views, as personal logs. Can be considered complete.


 * Star Trek: Resurrections
 * A prose format story, serious tone, not comedy, that took place during Star Trek: Phoenix-X`s Season 3, surrounding Project Genesis and Data. Incomplete.


 * Star Trek: Vitality
 * A chatfic, not comedy, serious tone, focusing on the clones of Star Trek canon series characters Jean-Luc Picard (see: Jean-Luc Picard (clone)), Tuvok, Hoshi Sato, Miles O'Brien, and Leonard McCoy. Season 3 character Amp was also included. Incomplete.


 * The Recruited
 * A prequel short story, prose, not comedy, series tone. Complete.

Memorable quotes
"I don't need to be lectured by you. I was out saving the galaxy when your grandfather was in diapers!" "My grandfather is in diapers."

- Wallace and Seifer, "Forbidden Crossing, Part II"

Background information

 * The X in the series and ship name is a parody of its use elsewhere (i.e. "", "X-Files", "xXx (Triple X)").
 * Some early episodes, like "Jello Cubes" or "Find Voyager?", were written over AOL chat for fun between the two writers. Episodes after that began in length through emails, with one writer writing one section of an episode and the other writing the next part. This continued until Episode 21 when one writer (Hawku) continued the series onward alone. Only two episodes in the second season involved the other writer (DL), "Afterdeath"; and "Omega", which was written solely by the other writer (DL).
 * As the first episodes of the first season were role-play, characters Gotens (later renamed Seifer) was played by Hawku, and Daniel (later renamed Cell) was played by DL. Ensign Dan was an accidental creation, misunderstood, between authors, to be played by DL at the beginning (as "Dan", in the first scene of "The Tiloniam System" with Gotens on the shuttle). "Dan" was quickly re-written as "Ensign Dan". This led Ensign Dan to be constantly be written as "relieved of duty" in nearly every episode as an in-joke.
 * Some noticeable external influences on the series' elements and names came from other series: ', ' and .
 * A few episodes have been direct crossovers.
 * "Fight, Parts I, II & III" crossed over with .
 * "Alien Interference" was a more subtle crossover with .
 * The crew of the Phoenix-X are still in their same ranks and assumed ages by 2410. This is explained in "" when several starships are said to have been caught in a massive molecular reversion field, in 2406, intermixed with an ion storm, the result of which causes hundreds of Starfleet officers and people to undergo a reduction in age. The trauma from the accident also causes all included to temporarily lose years of memories, and, in most cases, causes everyone to re-take Starfleet Academy in 2409. Retaking the Academy coincides with in-game events within.
 * Several characters from the 25th century portion of the series share the same experiences from the video game missions of . It is a soft-break of the "fourth wall" that they all are semi-conscious of this whilst interacting with each other. The only differing experiences between characters are depicted through in-story from the Star Trek Online: Literary and Unofficial Literary Challenges.