The Lost Years meta
FINALLY, I finished this thing. It's not even that long, wtf self? Anywho, here's an analysis thing on the Lost Years and other intriguing time gaps of interest to Kirk/Spock shippers. This is about as casual as intellectual discourses get, lol.
Intro of sorts
Kirk/Spock fans are the luckiest slash fans in the universe. Our ship was the first slash ship. That alone gives us serious street cred (and I can't help but picture this street in which we would have this cred. Are there, like, a bunch of slash couples standing on the street, and Kirk and Spock are walking down the middle of said street clad in bling and pimp canes and everyone moves the fuck out of the way in awe of their badassitude? I digress.) Almost every single episode of the original series is dripping with subtext, UST, and innuendo. We have been blessed with the entirety of Amok Time, the term t'hy'la, and epic soul-saving quests whose storylines span three movies. We have a virtual treasure trove of proof for any who may argue for "just friendship" and, more often than not, it is so convincing that only narrow-minded or stubborn people refuse to see it.
But my favorite part of Star Trek is not necessarily what's right in front of your nose. It's the little things that I adore, those little factoids that slip by even the most rabid Spork fangirls. Things like "let me help" (see this commentary here; it's a little less than halfway down the page) or one of the few Spock/McCoy scenes being interrupted with "I know. I'm worried about Jim too." (Bread and Circuses) Perhaps the biggest piece of subtlety of all is The Lost Years.
For those who are new to Star Trek or aren't new but haven't heard or understood this term, the Lost Years are those years between the end of the original series and the first movie. Why are these years so important to slash fans? Simply because of the fact that the first movie does something very intelligent and tells the story in media res, a fancy literary term meaning "in the middle of the action." Instead of showing what happened during those years and explaining it, we are unceremoniously plopped into the story and are forced to figure out what the hell is going on. This is where I'm jealous of those who have lived longer than I and got to see this movie right when it came out, because imagine it being years since you last saw Kirk and Spock on the small screen in Turnabout Intruder. Now imagine sitting down to watch their first movie and suddenly Spock is all scraggly and on Vulcan, and Kirk is an admiral and is basically cold and subdued. Whoa nelly.
The Lost Years are not the only unexplained years either. There are several gaps in canon where the viewer is left to come up with their own conclusions, most notably regarding the following blank spaces: What happened in the last year of their five-year mission? Just how long did the Lost Years really last? Why did Spock decide to go through kolinahr? How did Spock resolve all his Pon Farrs? What happens after Kirk dies? Were Kirk and Spock bonded? This is what moved me to write about the Lost Years, but even more, ALL those lost years and the unanswered questions that are, coincidentally, easily explained when slash is applied.
Now I'm a visual person who is not overly concerned with stats; if I don't have a concrete thing to look at, my facts get jumbled, and I blithely make up things to fill in gaps. So I did a little extra research and decided to make a timeline of events that are of only of concern to K/S shippers, namely, Spock's Pon Farr cycle and the major events in the K/S relationship. I will present the timeline first, and then give a general overview of my fanon interpretation of what canon gives (and withholds) from us. I must now disclaim the chart and everything in this analysis-type-thing: while the chart is a somewhat accurate statement of facts I gleaned from Memory Alpha (bless them, truly), the analysis is entirely conjecture. Furthermore, it is my own conjecture, meaning that your opinion can be entirely different on some matters. What I basically hope to get out of this is to cement my own beliefs while hearing what others have say and, maybe I can learn more about these unspoken moments in K/S history as well. With that said, let's begin with the Lost Years themselves.
The Lost Years and The Motion Picture
I begin by pointing out that there's confusion about just how long of a timespan the Lost Years have. The last date listed for the final episode Turnabout Intruder was 2269; that is the only precise date we get until the Wrath of Khan, which is set in 2285. That's..a fucking wide gap. The date for the first film simply says "mid-2270s." Thus the guesswork begins, and it all depends on how you see canon and what the characters themselves say in-universe. Some say that the five-year mission lasted from 2264 to 2269, but that doesn't take into account the semi-canon animated series that is supposedly set in the year where TOS left off, and there's also the fact that we don't know if Kirk was promoted to admiral right after the mission ended or if it came some time later. The general consensus for the end of the five-year mission seems to be 2270, so I personally go with that, mainly because it gives an extra year after Turnabout Intruder, and the series itself started mid-mission, so it's entirely plausible to me that TOS starts in the second year of the five-year mission, given that Kirk and Spock are already close friends and everyone on the crew is familiar with each other. So just how long of a gap is there between the end of the five-year mission and the first movie? At the very, very least there is eighteen months, given that the Enterprise refit took 18 months, as stated by Scotty in the first movie. In the novelization, Spock says that it had been 2.8 years since he left the crew of the Enterprise. Now whether this means he left right after the five-year mission or that he continued longer with the crew and then left is anybody's guess. So the first movie could have started anywhere from 2273 to 2278, because the new uniforms went into effect in 2278. I tend to say 2273 or 2274, because of how other dates fall around that date and it seems to be a reasonable amount of time.
Regardless of how long the gap was, there is one mind-blowing fact that makes The Lost Years a slasher's wet dream:
It's never directly stated what exactly happened between Kirk and Spock during those years.
All we're given in both the movie and the novelization is facts and current events. The facts are the following: Spock went inactive in Starfleet and underwent the kolinahr discipline. Kirk was promoted to admiral. The Enterprise had a refit. Kirk forced his way back into the captaincy of the Enterprise by pulling rank on Captain Decker, even though Kirk was not familiar with the Enterprise's refit. Spock returned, ostensibly to lend his services and help the Enterprise, actually more because he wanted to meld with V'Ger. The current events are the following: Kirk is not his usual self. He's ornery, pushy, and obsessive. He practically drafts McCoy back into the service because he needs him. He doesn't mention Spock during all this. In fact, the only thing Vulcan Kirk talks about is getting himself a Vulcan science officer (R.I.P. Sonak, you rebound Vulcan, you.) When Spock returns, everyone is surprised as hell to see Spock, none more so than Kirk, who looks as if he's seeing a ghost. Obviously, no one believed they'd see Spock any time soon (and in the TMP novel, just before Spock utters that wonderful word t'hy'la, he states that his plan was never to return to Earth or interact with those people again.) Kirk is more like himself for the rest of the movie. Spock melds with V'Ger, and then there's the This Simple Feeling Scene® in which Spock actually holds hands with Kirk, telling him that "this simple feeling is beyond V'Ger's comprehension."
I'll give you a minute to breathe. Now let me bowl you over again: We're never freaking told why Spock actually left. Yes, ostensibly to complete the kolinahr. But what made him want to go through it in the first place? Not every Vulcan has to go through it. Spock is an even more unlikely candidate for an emotional enema, as he had spent many years serving alongside humans and had no reason to want to push his best friend away...unless something happened with said best friend that made Spock decide that emotions were BAD and that he'd rather not feel anything for anyone anymore. Whatever this event was, it wasn't a fight. Why do I say this? Because one, it's not mentioned (and I'd imagine there'd be some apologies going around if there was a fight) and Kirk nor Spock is angry/bitter with each other. So what the fuck did happen?
Something of a failed romantic nature happened. Why do I say this? Am I just a crazy obsessed slash fangirl? Well yes I am that, but I actually say this because nothing else makes sense. Obviously Roddenberry couldn't outright say what really happened if it was indeed of a romantic nature. But if it wasn't romantic and we're supposed to treat their relationship as platonic, why the fuck wasn't a reason given? Even a stupid one like Spock saying, "Oh, you know, I had my reservation booked at Gol like, years ago and I think unkempt shaggy hair is totally chic" would work. But none is given, and if you take that big load of subtext and couple it with the This Simple Feeling Scene®...suddenly the subtext really is text.
The Pon Farr Question
Moving a little away from just the first movie, I'd like to point out why I included Spock's Pon Farr cycle. I assure you it's in the name of science and not for my viewing pleasure. Mainly I include it because canon never tells us how he resolves any of them apart from his first (and even that one was a shaky resolution that many a fanfic deliciously resolve.) The only time Spock's Pon Farr even comes into play is in Search for Spock, and those were extraordinary circumstances that put him off his normal cycle (whether it resets itself or if it still follows the same path, we don't know, so I just assumed that it stays normal apart from this one deviation when I made the chart.) If you accept 2273 as the date of the events of the first movie, then two pon farrs occur between the first movie and the second movie. And yet Spock has no bondmate...or does he? The fact that they never tell or never even hint as to how Spock spent any of his pon farrs is quite interesting indeed, and, really, how hard would it be to casually throw in that info? How difficult is to to mention that Spock is married? Pretty damn hard if it's Kirk he's married to. And that simple explanation makes sense. What was it both Spocks said in the Undiscovered Country and STXI? "If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Take away the impossibility of slash actually occurring, and you've got the improbable, simple truth that Kirk and Spock were bondmates.
The bondmate question
Now if you believe that they were indeed bondmates, there's still a good question that remains: How long were they bonded? There are quite a few fascinating theories on this.
I've heard some say that were never bonded or that they were bonded late, because they really only behave like a married couple except in last two movies. This theory is very thin, but it is reasonable to assume that a bond doesn't mean sex, so they could have been bumping interspecies uglies and been in a relationship much earlier than those dates.
My favorite theory that's not necessarily my own personal canon but a theory that I find myself becoming more and more convinced of is the theory that Kirk and Spock were accidentally bonded in Amok Time, and that's why the blood fever went away without consummation. This theory fits pretty well. It also helps that it gives a better explanation than "it must have been the combat." There is also a canon accidental Vulcan bond made in the Voyager* series (*I had at first put Enterprise series, which it so was not.) Also, in the TMP novel-which I myself regard as canon because Roddenberry wrote it-their unusual telepathic connection is brought to attention in McCoy's POV when Spock mentions that he heard Kirk's thoughts about wishing Spock were there when Spock himself was all the way on Vulcan and McCoy mentions that it is highly unusual for a Vulcan and a human to have that great of a telepathic compatibility (I highly recommend that slash connoisseurs read that novel. It has a million instances like this of subtext, you get to see t'hy'la in action twice, and you actually get to see how good the actual story of the first movie is when you're not being bored to tears by the special effects or are distracted by their pajamas uniforms. I will provide a download of it at the end of this discussion.) The only problem I have with this theory is that it seems a little far-fetched, and I can buy that seeing Kirk dead would in itself cure Spock of the blood fever. Call me a closet romantic. :P
My personal canon theory is a bit more complex, and it seems to be the reigning theory on the matter. The This Simple Feeling Scene® was when Kirk and Spock got together, and in the time between the first and second movies, they officially bonded. It easily solves the question of how Spock spent his pon farrs until Kirk is gone, which if you look on the handy timeline I made, each of his pon farrs fall in convenient places. His third one occurs just before Wrath of Khan, and his fifth one occurs after the fifth movie, so Spock even has all his mental facilities in order. Another bit of proof is how Kirk and Spock interact in Wrath of Khan. It is truly here that I see them as a married couple. The scene where Spock gives Kirk his birthday present is not only warm and friendly, but has an undercurrent of martial suggestion. Kirk softly asking, "where are you off to now?" is not visibly slashy, but it's his voice and how he asks that is fascinating. It's like he's sort of angling for a little quickie between shifts. I think I'd freak my friend out if I asked them that question in that tone. I think they'd look at me askance, put a little distance between us, and respond, "somewhere far away from you, you're creeping me out, man." And then there's the part where Kirk goes to talk to Spock while he is meditating. Notice that Kirk doesn't seem to knock to enter, as it takes Spock a moment to notice his presence. In The Undiscovered Country Kirk doesn't knock again, except in that movie you actually see Kirk enter without signaling Spock. That's pretty amazing when you consider Vulcan privacy and all that jazz.
In any case, it definitely gives one food for thought. Oysters perhaps (or dark chocolate if you're Vulcan.)
Generations and Kirk's death
Man, just typing that section title has me all teary-eyed. What I find depressing as hell is that the events at the beginning of Generations happen in the same year as the events of The Undiscovered Country. Talk about heartbreaking! Kirk and Spock were separated forever just after that movie. I didn't even realize this until I looked up the dates, and I had previously assumed that there had been some time between these events. Get your hankies and bathrobes, it only gets sadder from here.
Now I've watched some of Generations and have read the description of the whole movie on Memory Alpha, and I like many others wish this movie had never happened, both because Kirk dies in a pointless way and because Spock wasn't even in it (I don't blame Nimoy one bit.) For those who don't know the events of the movie, I'll give you the pertinent cliff notes, leaving out most of the godforsaken plot. Kirk, Chekov, and Scotty go on the new Enterprise-B to see her off on her maiden voyage. There's this strange energy ribbon that we'll later find out is called the Nexus, and it wreaks havoc on the ship. Kirk bravely goes into the bowels of the ship to save everyone, and he disappears. Everyone assumes he is dead, but instead he got sucked into the Nexus. 78 years pass and Captain Picard gets sucked into the Nexus too, finds Kirk riding horses and with some chick from his past, and it turns out the Nexus keeps you blissfully happy and time has no meaning. They both snap out of it in turn, and Kirk helps Picard defeat this Dr. Soran guy, but gets killed in the process.
(It was kindly pointed out to me that Unification came out in 1991, which was three years before Generations came out, therefore the following thoughts are incorrect as Kirk is not dead canonically yet. Sheepishly I will leave it here, to prove that I am quite prone to fucking up.)
Now, this is unfortunately canon, so we won't dwell too much on the actual events. Instead, I want to focus on where Spock fits into all this. There is a TNG two-parter episode called Unification that actually helps fill in gaps because it's about Spock on Romulus, working underground to unite the Vulcans and Romulans. I actually like this episode a lot and I'm not a TNG fan, and luckily some kind soul uploaded it to youtube (I'm linking the second episode, as it's the one that actually has Spock in it. BTW, what is with those clothes? Spock looks like one of those goombas from the Super Mario Bros movie.)
In the episode, Sarek dies and Picard is sent to find Spock because the Federation knows that he's on Romulus and thinks he's defected. Spock is found, there's a lot of talk, the Romulans try to trick Spock and attack the Vulcans, Spock learns that his daddy loves him. In short, I absolutely love this in-between Spock. This is how I imagine Spock post-Kirk. He is emotional, filled with passion, even expresses anger. But where does slash come in? It's all in the fact that the ghost of Kirk is there. Spock notes that Picard is "as stubborn as another captain of the Enterprise" that he once knew. Picard accuses Spock of "cowboy diplomacy", a tactic that we saw Kirk and Spock were famous for, thanks to Kirk's influence. Finally, he reveals something that will make you choke up a little: He vehemently doesn't want anyone else involved in his plans because he blames himself for what happened to Kirk in Generations. "It was I who committed Captain Kirk to that peace mission, and I who had to bear the responsibility for the consequences to him and to his crew." Good god, that is so in character, for Spock to blame himself for Kirk's death using the most indirect logic ever. It positively reeks of his over dramatic spiel in Amok Time when he wanted to turn himself into the authorities and remarked to T'Pau that he would neither live long nor prosper, even though we all know that the only Starfleet regulation offense punishable by death is visiting Talos IV. And while we're on the subject of guilt, let's hop on the good ship reboot.
Star Trek XI and Spock Prime's Guilt
By now I'm fairly sure we all know the events of Star Trek and Spock Prime's current condition. In 2387, Spock volunteers to go on a mission to save Romulus. According to the Countdown comic, he had not expected to survive the mission (D':) From the script written for an alternate ending to the movie (provided below because if you haven't read it, OH MY GOD, snap to it!) we know that Spock took a holomessage of Kirk wishing him a happy birthday, and so we can assume that it meant so much to him that he wanted it with him when he died. Spock arrives too late to save Romulus, and launches the red matter into the super nova, which creates our black hole plot device of plausibility win. Spock is pulled into the black hole after Nero. He arrives 25 years after Nero in the year 2258, which is about six or seven years before Spock had started the famous five-year mission with Kirk as captain. Nero intercepts him, puts him on Delta Vega, and destroys Vulcan while Spock Prime watches, helpless. Then somehow, as fate would have it (literally, because the writers say that the universe is trying to right itself), Spock Prime meets up with a young Jim Kirk and mind melds with him.
Anyone remember the end part of the mind meld, when Spock says, "because of me, Jim, because I failed?" Remember how alternate reality Kirk was overwhelmed with an emotional transference? It's official: Spock Prime must feel like the guiltiest motherfucker in the universe. He blames himself for his own Kirk's death for 94 years, then puts all the guilt of Vulcan's destruction in the alternate timeline on himself. How does this guy get up in the morning, seriously? And this brings me to my final point.
Their Epic Love Story
I'd like to take a moment and just bask in how epic this pairing is. It truly does read like a love story. Spock leaves Kirk to rid himself of emotion and by proxy, rid himself of his love of Kirk, but he fails and finds that "this simple feeling" means more than logic. They get together for a while, then Spock is killed. Kirk risks his career, the Enterprise, his life to bring Spock back. He succeeds, and Spock's only first memory is Jim's name. Spock slowly gets his memories back, they stay together for another seven years, then are separated forever. Spock blames himself for Kirk's death and then later the death of his planet. He encourages his younger counterparts to stay with each other, that they needed each other.
Fuck, I need a giant bar of chocolate right about now.
And what makes it so lovely is that it has its ups and downs, it's tragedy and beauty and above all, love. I mean, Spock Prime lived 94 years without Kirk. That...is a long. Damn. Time. And look, I have very close friends, I have family. I lost someone close to me, and just seven years later, I feel a little better about it. Time heals all wounds, it's a fact, so you'd figure in 94 years, Kirk wouldn't be the most important thing in Spock's mind, if he were just a good friend. But no, Spock cared so much that he brought the holomessage Kirk left him just before he died (the time of the recording was between Generations and The Undiscovered Country, just to remind us of how little time they really had) on a mission in which he would probably die. He wore Kirk around his neck into death. Until death do you part, indeed.
Resources
You once said being a
starship captain was my first, best
destiny… if that’s true, then yours is
to be by my side."
Intro of sorts
Kirk/Spock fans are the luckiest slash fans in the universe. Our ship was the first slash ship. That alone gives us serious street cred (and I can't help but picture this street in which we would have this cred. Are there, like, a bunch of slash couples standing on the street, and Kirk and Spock are walking down the middle of said street clad in bling and pimp canes and everyone moves the fuck out of the way in awe of their badassitude? I digress.) Almost every single episode of the original series is dripping with subtext, UST, and innuendo. We have been blessed with the entirety of Amok Time, the term t'hy'la, and epic soul-saving quests whose storylines span three movies. We have a virtual treasure trove of proof for any who may argue for "just friendship" and, more often than not, it is so convincing that only narrow-minded or stubborn people refuse to see it.
But my favorite part of Star Trek is not necessarily what's right in front of your nose. It's the little things that I adore, those little factoids that slip by even the most rabid Spork fangirls. Things like "let me help" (see this commentary here; it's a little less than halfway down the page) or one of the few Spock/McCoy scenes being interrupted with "I know. I'm worried about Jim too." (Bread and Circuses) Perhaps the biggest piece of subtlety of all is The Lost Years.
For those who are new to Star Trek or aren't new but haven't heard or understood this term, the Lost Years are those years between the end of the original series and the first movie. Why are these years so important to slash fans? Simply because of the fact that the first movie does something very intelligent and tells the story in media res, a fancy literary term meaning "in the middle of the action." Instead of showing what happened during those years and explaining it, we are unceremoniously plopped into the story and are forced to figure out what the hell is going on. This is where I'm jealous of those who have lived longer than I and got to see this movie right when it came out, because imagine it being years since you last saw Kirk and Spock on the small screen in Turnabout Intruder. Now imagine sitting down to watch their first movie and suddenly Spock is all scraggly and on Vulcan, and Kirk is an admiral and is basically cold and subdued. Whoa nelly.
The Lost Years are not the only unexplained years either. There are several gaps in canon where the viewer is left to come up with their own conclusions, most notably regarding the following blank spaces: What happened in the last year of their five-year mission? Just how long did the Lost Years really last? Why did Spock decide to go through kolinahr? How did Spock resolve all his Pon Farrs? What happens after Kirk dies? Were Kirk and Spock bonded? This is what moved me to write about the Lost Years, but even more, ALL those lost years and the unanswered questions that are, coincidentally, easily explained when slash is applied.
Now I'm a visual person who is not overly concerned with stats; if I don't have a concrete thing to look at, my facts get jumbled, and I blithely make up things to fill in gaps. So I did a little extra research and decided to make a timeline of events that are of only of concern to K/S shippers, namely, Spock's Pon Farr cycle and the major events in the K/S relationship. I will present the timeline first, and then give a general overview of my fanon interpretation of what canon gives (and withholds) from us. I must now disclaim the chart and everything in this analysis-type-thing: while the chart is a somewhat accurate statement of facts I gleaned from Memory Alpha (bless them, truly), the analysis is entirely conjecture. Furthermore, it is my own conjecture, meaning that your opinion can be entirely different on some matters. What I basically hope to get out of this is to cement my own beliefs while hearing what others have say and, maybe I can learn more about these unspoken moments in K/S history as well. With that said, let's begin with the Lost Years themselves.
The Lost Years and The Motion Picture
I begin by pointing out that there's confusion about just how long of a timespan the Lost Years have. The last date listed for the final episode Turnabout Intruder was 2269; that is the only precise date we get until the Wrath of Khan, which is set in 2285. That's..a fucking wide gap. The date for the first film simply says "mid-2270s." Thus the guesswork begins, and it all depends on how you see canon and what the characters themselves say in-universe. Some say that the five-year mission lasted from 2264 to 2269, but that doesn't take into account the semi-canon animated series that is supposedly set in the year where TOS left off, and there's also the fact that we don't know if Kirk was promoted to admiral right after the mission ended or if it came some time later. The general consensus for the end of the five-year mission seems to be 2270, so I personally go with that, mainly because it gives an extra year after Turnabout Intruder, and the series itself started mid-mission, so it's entirely plausible to me that TOS starts in the second year of the five-year mission, given that Kirk and Spock are already close friends and everyone on the crew is familiar with each other. So just how long of a gap is there between the end of the five-year mission and the first movie? At the very, very least there is eighteen months, given that the Enterprise refit took 18 months, as stated by Scotty in the first movie. In the novelization, Spock says that it had been 2.8 years since he left the crew of the Enterprise. Now whether this means he left right after the five-year mission or that he continued longer with the crew and then left is anybody's guess. So the first movie could have started anywhere from 2273 to 2278, because the new uniforms went into effect in 2278. I tend to say 2273 or 2274, because of how other dates fall around that date and it seems to be a reasonable amount of time.
Regardless of how long the gap was, there is one mind-blowing fact that makes The Lost Years a slasher's wet dream:
It's never directly stated what exactly happened between Kirk and Spock during those years.
All we're given in both the movie and the novelization is facts and current events. The facts are the following: Spock went inactive in Starfleet and underwent the kolinahr discipline. Kirk was promoted to admiral. The Enterprise had a refit. Kirk forced his way back into the captaincy of the Enterprise by pulling rank on Captain Decker, even though Kirk was not familiar with the Enterprise's refit. Spock returned, ostensibly to lend his services and help the Enterprise, actually more because he wanted to meld with V'Ger. The current events are the following: Kirk is not his usual self. He's ornery, pushy, and obsessive. He practically drafts McCoy back into the service because he needs him. He doesn't mention Spock during all this. In fact, the only thing Vulcan Kirk talks about is getting himself a Vulcan science officer (R.I.P. Sonak, you rebound Vulcan, you.) When Spock returns, everyone is surprised as hell to see Spock, none more so than Kirk, who looks as if he's seeing a ghost. Obviously, no one believed they'd see Spock any time soon (and in the TMP novel, just before Spock utters that wonderful word t'hy'la, he states that his plan was never to return to Earth or interact with those people again.) Kirk is more like himself for the rest of the movie. Spock melds with V'Ger, and then there's the This Simple Feeling Scene® in which Spock actually holds hands with Kirk, telling him that "this simple feeling is beyond V'Ger's comprehension."
I'll give you a minute to breathe. Now let me bowl you over again: We're never freaking told why Spock actually left. Yes, ostensibly to complete the kolinahr. But what made him want to go through it in the first place? Not every Vulcan has to go through it. Spock is an even more unlikely candidate for an emotional enema, as he had spent many years serving alongside humans and had no reason to want to push his best friend away...unless something happened with said best friend that made Spock decide that emotions were BAD and that he'd rather not feel anything for anyone anymore. Whatever this event was, it wasn't a fight. Why do I say this? Because one, it's not mentioned (and I'd imagine there'd be some apologies going around if there was a fight) and Kirk nor Spock is angry/bitter with each other. So what the fuck did happen?
Something of a failed romantic nature happened. Why do I say this? Am I just a crazy obsessed slash fangirl? Well yes I am that, but I actually say this because nothing else makes sense. Obviously Roddenberry couldn't outright say what really happened if it was indeed of a romantic nature. But if it wasn't romantic and we're supposed to treat their relationship as platonic, why the fuck wasn't a reason given? Even a stupid one like Spock saying, "Oh, you know, I had my reservation booked at Gol like, years ago and I think unkempt shaggy hair is totally chic" would work. But none is given, and if you take that big load of subtext and couple it with the This Simple Feeling Scene®...suddenly the subtext really is text.
The Pon Farr Question
Moving a little away from just the first movie, I'd like to point out why I included Spock's Pon Farr cycle. I assure you it's in the name of science and not for my viewing pleasure. Mainly I include it because canon never tells us how he resolves any of them apart from his first (and even that one was a shaky resolution that many a fanfic deliciously resolve.) The only time Spock's Pon Farr even comes into play is in Search for Spock, and those were extraordinary circumstances that put him off his normal cycle (whether it resets itself or if it still follows the same path, we don't know, so I just assumed that it stays normal apart from this one deviation when I made the chart.) If you accept 2273 as the date of the events of the first movie, then two pon farrs occur between the first movie and the second movie. And yet Spock has no bondmate...or does he? The fact that they never tell or never even hint as to how Spock spent any of his pon farrs is quite interesting indeed, and, really, how hard would it be to casually throw in that info? How difficult is to to mention that Spock is married? Pretty damn hard if it's Kirk he's married to. And that simple explanation makes sense. What was it both Spocks said in the Undiscovered Country and STXI? "If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Take away the impossibility of slash actually occurring, and you've got the improbable, simple truth that Kirk and Spock were bondmates.
The bondmate question
Now if you believe that they were indeed bondmates, there's still a good question that remains: How long were they bonded? There are quite a few fascinating theories on this.
I've heard some say that were never bonded or that they were bonded late, because they really only behave like a married couple except in last two movies. This theory is very thin, but it is reasonable to assume that a bond doesn't mean sex, so they could have been bumping interspecies uglies and been in a relationship much earlier than those dates.
My favorite theory that's not necessarily my own personal canon but a theory that I find myself becoming more and more convinced of is the theory that Kirk and Spock were accidentally bonded in Amok Time, and that's why the blood fever went away without consummation. This theory fits pretty well. It also helps that it gives a better explanation than "it must have been the combat." There is also a canon accidental Vulcan bond made in the Voyager* series (*I had at first put Enterprise series, which it so was not.) Also, in the TMP novel-which I myself regard as canon because Roddenberry wrote it-their unusual telepathic connection is brought to attention in McCoy's POV when Spock mentions that he heard Kirk's thoughts about wishing Spock were there when Spock himself was all the way on Vulcan and McCoy mentions that it is highly unusual for a Vulcan and a human to have that great of a telepathic compatibility (I highly recommend that slash connoisseurs read that novel. It has a million instances like this of subtext, you get to see t'hy'la in action twice, and you actually get to see how good the actual story of the first movie is when you're not being bored to tears by the special effects or are distracted by their pajamas uniforms. I will provide a download of it at the end of this discussion.) The only problem I have with this theory is that it seems a little far-fetched, and I can buy that seeing Kirk dead would in itself cure Spock of the blood fever. Call me a closet romantic. :P
My personal canon theory is a bit more complex, and it seems to be the reigning theory on the matter. The This Simple Feeling Scene® was when Kirk and Spock got together, and in the time between the first and second movies, they officially bonded. It easily solves the question of how Spock spent his pon farrs until Kirk is gone, which if you look on the handy timeline I made, each of his pon farrs fall in convenient places. His third one occurs just before Wrath of Khan, and his fifth one occurs after the fifth movie, so Spock even has all his mental facilities in order. Another bit of proof is how Kirk and Spock interact in Wrath of Khan. It is truly here that I see them as a married couple. The scene where Spock gives Kirk his birthday present is not only warm and friendly, but has an undercurrent of martial suggestion. Kirk softly asking, "where are you off to now?" is not visibly slashy, but it's his voice and how he asks that is fascinating. It's like he's sort of angling for a little quickie between shifts. I think I'd freak my friend out if I asked them that question in that tone. I think they'd look at me askance, put a little distance between us, and respond, "somewhere far away from you, you're creeping me out, man." And then there's the part where Kirk goes to talk to Spock while he is meditating. Notice that Kirk doesn't seem to knock to enter, as it takes Spock a moment to notice his presence. In The Undiscovered Country Kirk doesn't knock again, except in that movie you actually see Kirk enter without signaling Spock. That's pretty amazing when you consider Vulcan privacy and all that jazz.
In any case, it definitely gives one food for thought. Oysters perhaps (or dark chocolate if you're Vulcan.)
Generations and Kirk's death
Man, just typing that section title has me all teary-eyed. What I find depressing as hell is that the events at the beginning of Generations happen in the same year as the events of The Undiscovered Country. Talk about heartbreaking! Kirk and Spock were separated forever just after that movie. I didn't even realize this until I looked up the dates, and I had previously assumed that there had been some time between these events. Get your hankies and bathrobes, it only gets sadder from here.
Now I've watched some of Generations and have read the description of the whole movie on Memory Alpha, and I like many others wish this movie had never happened, both because Kirk dies in a pointless way and because Spock wasn't even in it (I don't blame Nimoy one bit.) For those who don't know the events of the movie, I'll give you the pertinent cliff notes, leaving out most of the godforsaken plot. Kirk, Chekov, and Scotty go on the new Enterprise-B to see her off on her maiden voyage. There's this strange energy ribbon that we'll later find out is called the Nexus, and it wreaks havoc on the ship. Kirk bravely goes into the bowels of the ship to save everyone, and he disappears. Everyone assumes he is dead, but instead he got sucked into the Nexus. 78 years pass and Captain Picard gets sucked into the Nexus too, finds Kirk riding horses and with some chick from his past, and it turns out the Nexus keeps you blissfully happy and time has no meaning. They both snap out of it in turn, and Kirk helps Picard defeat this Dr. Soran guy, but gets killed in the process.
(It was kindly pointed out to me that Unification came out in 1991, which was three years before Generations came out, therefore the following thoughts are incorrect as Kirk is not dead canonically yet. Sheepishly I will leave it here, to prove that I am quite prone to fucking up.)
Now, this is unfortunately canon, so we won't dwell too much on the actual events. Instead, I want to focus on where Spock fits into all this. There is a TNG two-parter episode called Unification that actually helps fill in gaps because it's about Spock on Romulus, working underground to unite the Vulcans and Romulans. I actually like this episode a lot and I'm not a TNG fan, and luckily some kind soul uploaded it to youtube (I'm linking the second episode, as it's the one that actually has Spock in it. BTW, what is with those clothes? Spock looks like one of those goombas from the Super Mario Bros movie.)
Click to viewIn the episode, Sarek dies and Picard is sent to find Spock because the Federation knows that he's on Romulus and thinks he's defected. Spock is found, there's a lot of talk, the Romulans try to trick Spock and attack the Vulcans, Spock learns that his daddy loves him. In short, I absolutely love this in-between Spock. This is how I imagine Spock post-Kirk. He is emotional, filled with passion, even expresses anger. But where does slash come in? It's all in the fact that the ghost of Kirk is there. Spock notes that Picard is "as stubborn as another captain of the Enterprise" that he once knew. Picard accuses Spock of "cowboy diplomacy", a tactic that we saw Kirk and Spock were famous for, thanks to Kirk's influence. Finally, he reveals something that will make you choke up a little: He vehemently doesn't want anyone else involved in his plans because he blames himself for what happened to Kirk in Generations. "It was I who committed Captain Kirk to that peace mission, and I who had to bear the responsibility for the consequences to him and to his crew." Good god, that is so in character, for Spock to blame himself for Kirk's death using the most indirect logic ever. It positively reeks of his over dramatic spiel in Amok Time when he wanted to turn himself into the authorities and remarked to T'Pau that he would neither live long nor prosper, even though we all know that the only Starfleet regulation offense punishable by death is visiting Talos IV. And while we're on the subject of guilt, let's hop on the good ship reboot.
Star Trek XI and Spock Prime's Guilt
By now I'm fairly sure we all know the events of Star Trek and Spock Prime's current condition. In 2387, Spock volunteers to go on a mission to save Romulus. According to the Countdown comic, he had not expected to survive the mission (D':) From the script written for an alternate ending to the movie (provided below because if you haven't read it, OH MY GOD, snap to it!) we know that Spock took a holomessage of Kirk wishing him a happy birthday, and so we can assume that it meant so much to him that he wanted it with him when he died. Spock arrives too late to save Romulus, and launches the red matter into the super nova, which creates our black hole plot device of plausibility win. Spock is pulled into the black hole after Nero. He arrives 25 years after Nero in the year 2258, which is about six or seven years before Spock had started the famous five-year mission with Kirk as captain. Nero intercepts him, puts him on Delta Vega, and destroys Vulcan while Spock Prime watches, helpless. Then somehow, as fate would have it (literally, because the writers say that the universe is trying to right itself), Spock Prime meets up with a young Jim Kirk and mind melds with him.
Anyone remember the end part of the mind meld, when Spock says, "because of me, Jim, because I failed?" Remember how alternate reality Kirk was overwhelmed with an emotional transference? It's official: Spock Prime must feel like the guiltiest motherfucker in the universe. He blames himself for his own Kirk's death for 94 years, then puts all the guilt of Vulcan's destruction in the alternate timeline on himself. How does this guy get up in the morning, seriously? And this brings me to my final point.
Their Epic Love Story
I'd like to take a moment and just bask in how epic this pairing is. It truly does read like a love story. Spock leaves Kirk to rid himself of emotion and by proxy, rid himself of his love of Kirk, but he fails and finds that "this simple feeling" means more than logic. They get together for a while, then Spock is killed. Kirk risks his career, the Enterprise, his life to bring Spock back. He succeeds, and Spock's only first memory is Jim's name. Spock slowly gets his memories back, they stay together for another seven years, then are separated forever. Spock blames himself for Kirk's death and then later the death of his planet. He encourages his younger counterparts to stay with each other, that they needed each other.
Fuck, I need a giant bar of chocolate right about now.
And what makes it so lovely is that it has its ups and downs, it's tragedy and beauty and above all, love. I mean, Spock Prime lived 94 years without Kirk. That...is a long. Damn. Time. And look, I have very close friends, I have family. I lost someone close to me, and just seven years later, I feel a little better about it. Time heals all wounds, it's a fact, so you'd figure in 94 years, Kirk wouldn't be the most important thing in Spock's mind, if he were just a good friend. But no, Spock cared so much that he brought the holomessage Kirk left him just before he died (the time of the recording was between Generations and The Undiscovered Country, just to remind us of how little time they really had) on a mission in which he would probably die. He wore Kirk around his neck into death. Until death do you part, indeed.
Resources
- TMP novel- You can either download as a .txt file or download as a .lit file (go here to download microsoft reader.) I recommend the .lit file both because the .txt file is formatted wonky and the .lit file is in ebook format, so you can bookmark pages and the like.
You once said being a
starship captain was my first, best
destiny… if that’s true, then yours is
to be by my side."