[REC] Star Trek (TOS) (266/365)
This sort of thing keeps happening to me: I have a perfectly good plan for what I'm going to rec on any given day, but then the morning of (or the night before) I read something, part of my push to keep reading forward, but whatever it is is so fascinating or good or interesting or just plain compelling for whatever reason that immediately jumps to the front of the queue. So here we are. I'll admit it up front that I may be in a unique position to be charmed by this story, given where I live and my own personal fascination with said place.
So. The setting is the immediate aftermath of a Star Trek tie-in novel written in 1985 by Barbara Hambly and entitled, Ishmael. The author's note below is excellent at summarizing the pertinent events of the book. I don't think anything else is needed in order to enjoy the fic, which is a sequel that takes place on the Enterprise and not in the book's setting. Certainly, I didn't know anything about it at the time - not the book, not the 1968 TV series with which it was a sort of crossover ("Here Come The Brides"), not the fictional TV character ("Aaron Stemple" (sic)) who was played by the actor ("Mark Lenard") who also played the original and so very memorable Vulcan father ("Sarek") of a certain character below. Apparently, in the book (which I now have to track down and read) it is hinted that Aaron Stemple is an ancestor of Amanda Grayson's, too, which is apparently one of many exciting references and hints and such. But anyway. I digress. This isn't really about the book, and it's not about the genealogy and psychogeography of Seattle (something about which I'm likely to go on at length). Rather it's about Spock. And Kirk. And those things called emotions, which an undercover-as-human Spock had to actually pretend at having, for some length of time while he was on Earth. Apparently, the experience made an impression:
Two Words (Kirk/Spock (ST:TOS) | NC-17 | 13,467 words)
What happened before: Spock, tortured by Klingons and suffering amnesia from the effects of the mindsifter, has been stranded in the past in 1860’s Seattle where he becomes involved in the lives of the people there. The Klingons nearly succeed in changing earth history by attempting to assassinate a man named Aaron Stemple who is a key player in earth history - a man who saved Spock’s life and taught him what he needed to know to survive in Earth’s 19th century. Aaron is at death’s door from the effects of a disruptor ray when Kirk and company come to the rescue. My story starts at that point.
Author: CatalenaMara
You guys. I finally had to break down and install Evernote just to keep track of all the references this story and its setting brought up, all the various bits and pieces of other stories and novels and shows I now have to track down. It was... kind of a busy morning, all told. I'm not going to pretend the story's going to have the same effect on you, though.
Instead, what I do find fascinating and compelling and beautiful about this story is the way in which it explores a classic theme in the life of Spock - in any incarnation and any universe. The theme goes something like this: Spock is a hybrid of two biologies, two cultures, one of which seeks to eradicate what it considers to be the more base instincts of the other. Spock chooses - early in his life - to live and work among humans and other diverse life forms in the Federation. Spock spends a great deal of time in most fanfiction I've read (and, in fact, in some of the movies) trying to come to terms with that decision to join Starfleet, or rather trying to "logic away" his impulse to live not in a community of Vulcans, but rather among a community of others, as an other himself. Spock might be better served to simply accept his position as a given, as a starting point, and enjoy its ramifications and lessons instead, to adopt a more Zen attitude about his position, as it were. IDIC and all that :)
Of course, the best possible instrument of Spock's new understanding would be Kirk. Of course. And so... queue awesome story.
Georgeous storytelling, incredibly incisive commentary on all the characters involved, and so many poignant interactions between Spock and the crew, here. I loved it. I loved also what it had to say, quietly and gently and in between the high points of the action, about Kirk, about Kirk's role in Spock's life, about what they always seem to be to each other, over and over, in every universe.
---
Further bits in my 2012 one-a-day slash recs experiment can be found on my rec: 365 tag ( LJ/DW)
(cross-posted from http://mementis.dreamwidth.org/93542.html -
comments @ DW - reply@DW)
So. The setting is the immediate aftermath of a Star Trek tie-in novel written in 1985 by Barbara Hambly and entitled, Ishmael. The author's note below is excellent at summarizing the pertinent events of the book. I don't think anything else is needed in order to enjoy the fic, which is a sequel that takes place on the Enterprise and not in the book's setting. Certainly, I didn't know anything about it at the time - not the book, not the 1968 TV series with which it was a sort of crossover ("Here Come The Brides"), not the fictional TV character ("Aaron Stemple" (sic)) who was played by the actor ("Mark Lenard") who also played the original and so very memorable Vulcan father ("Sarek") of a certain character below. Apparently, in the book (which I now have to track down and read) it is hinted that Aaron Stemple is an ancestor of Amanda Grayson's, too, which is apparently one of many exciting references and hints and such. But anyway. I digress. This isn't really about the book, and it's not about the genealogy and psychogeography of Seattle (something about which I'm likely to go on at length). Rather it's about Spock. And Kirk. And those things called emotions, which an undercover-as-human Spock had to actually pretend at having, for some length of time while he was on Earth. Apparently, the experience made an impression:
Two Words (Kirk/Spock (ST:TOS) | NC-17 | 13,467 words)
What happened before: Spock, tortured by Klingons and suffering amnesia from the effects of the mindsifter, has been stranded in the past in 1860’s Seattle where he becomes involved in the lives of the people there. The Klingons nearly succeed in changing earth history by attempting to assassinate a man named Aaron Stemple who is a key player in earth history - a man who saved Spock’s life and taught him what he needed to know to survive in Earth’s 19th century. Aaron is at death’s door from the effects of a disruptor ray when Kirk and company come to the rescue. My story starts at that point.
Author: CatalenaMara
You guys. I finally had to break down and install Evernote just to keep track of all the references this story and its setting brought up, all the various bits and pieces of other stories and novels and shows I now have to track down. It was... kind of a busy morning, all told. I'm not going to pretend the story's going to have the same effect on you, though.
Instead, what I do find fascinating and compelling and beautiful about this story is the way in which it explores a classic theme in the life of Spock - in any incarnation and any universe. The theme goes something like this: Spock is a hybrid of two biologies, two cultures, one of which seeks to eradicate what it considers to be the more base instincts of the other. Spock chooses - early in his life - to live and work among humans and other diverse life forms in the Federation. Spock spends a great deal of time in most fanfiction I've read (and, in fact, in some of the movies) trying to come to terms with that decision to join Starfleet, or rather trying to "logic away" his impulse to live not in a community of Vulcans, but rather among a community of others, as an other himself. Spock might be better served to simply accept his position as a given, as a starting point, and enjoy its ramifications and lessons instead, to adopt a more Zen attitude about his position, as it were. IDIC and all that :)
Of course, the best possible instrument of Spock's new understanding would be Kirk. Of course. And so... queue awesome story.
Georgeous storytelling, incredibly incisive commentary on all the characters involved, and so many poignant interactions between Spock and the crew, here. I loved it. I loved also what it had to say, quietly and gently and in between the high points of the action, about Kirk, about Kirk's role in Spock's life, about what they always seem to be to each other, over and over, in every universe.
---
Further bits in my 2012 one-a-day slash recs experiment can be found on my rec: 365 tag ( LJ/DW)
(cross-posted from http://mementis.dreamwidth.org/93542.html -
comments @ DW - reply@DW)