#T'Pring is everything to me

[bumblingbabooshka]

T’Pring Memes 

[freylaverse]

Been having art block, have some Vulcan women.

[spirkme915]

spirk fics i've read in the last two-ish months and loved

I will have you (if you let me) by ros3bud009 @roseymoseyberry (TOS) - starting out this list with a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ fic. i loved everything about this fic - the premise (k&s know they're t'hy'la from the second they meet), the yearning, the journey, the love. i could live in this fic

Spock 🖖 by vaksur, WerewolvesAreReal (TOS) - need a laugh? this one is it. spock decides to use emojis in his comms. shenanigans ensue

A Friend Like You by kierawrites (TAS, yes you read that right an animated series fic!) - pre-slash, a glimpse into their lives after the episode "mudd's passion." this one is short and yet is packed with *them*

A Different Perspective by Maeko (AOS, SNW) - transporter malfunction fic, and this time it brings AOS Spirk to SNW verse. loved this one for the AOS Spirk dynamics, but mostly the SNW Spock and AOS Spock interactions and Maeko's perspective of Vulcan telepathy. it's a fascinating character study!

in the dying of the light by scar_a_mouche (zanni_scaramouche) @zanniscaramouche (AOS) - i'm not sure how to categorize this one, other than to say that i had this *ache* in my chest through every sentence and it just felt so AOS Spirk that i wanted to drown in it. one of my faves over the last few months

Personal Personnel Protocol by dothedeux (TOS) - another comedy entry for the list. this time it's not just the bridge crew that knows what's up, it's the computer. such a fun read and so sweet too

Professor Kirk by TonightNoPoetryWillServe (AOS) - cadet spock, professor kirk, and all kinds of fluff with only a touch of angst. perfect bedtime reading

Let Forever Be by gunstreet @gunstreet (TOS) - listen. i need everyone to drop what they're doing and read this fic. it's a city on the edge of forever fic that is mostly a jim character study but pulls in queer history. it breathes compassion and humanity, and is stocked with OCs you'll fall in love with. another ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read

Shall We? by Jenna Hilary Sinclair (JennaHilary) (TOS) - yet another comedy entry? what has the world come to? i love my angst just as much as the next spirk truther, but when comedic spirk is done right it hits perfectly and this one is definitely done right

And When the Bond Breaks by LadyRa (TOS) - finishing this spirk list with a final ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read. this became easily one of my favorite TOS fics of all time. it's from 2003 and deserves WAY MORE hits, kudos, and comments than it has!

for the non-spirk entries this time around:

StarDate.org by Exxact (TOS/AOS fusion) - christine/t'pring and online dating. fluff and friendship. perfect

The Time of Neither by gunstreet (SNW) - spoimler nation rise! your definitive fic has arrived!

My World Is No Longer Hollow by existentialcrisistime @existentialcrisistime (TOS) - a mcspirk fic about finding where you belong. so beautiful

and two recs for WIPs for you to read and subscribe to:

Place Your Hand In Mine by remylebae @twinkboimler (AOS) - a super sweet mckirk fic about leonard having a secret admirer (who could it possibly be??)

It's Not An Illusion by Borealisblue @thetimetostrikeislater (AOS) - gorgeous story about healing and gorgeous artwork? i'm sold!

please do send me recs, and don't be afraid to self-promo! you can find all my recs here

[electronickingdomfox]

"Spock's World" review

Novel from 1988, by Diane Duane. In a similar vein as her previous work, "The Romulan Way", is a combination of novel and historical account, this time about Vulcans instead of Romulans.

The historical chapters present different moments in the life of the planet and its peoples, from the very creation of the rock known as Vulcan out of primordial stardust, to the initial career of Sarek as ambassador and his encounter with Amanda. Many of these chapters have a chilling, somber ending, always presided by the ever-watchful eye of T'Khut (Vulcan's moon, which isn't really a moon). My favorites were the ones dealing with primitive Vulcan, at a time when speech wasn't even invented and everything had a touch of the mythical, and the ruthless story of a family of Vulcan asteroid miners, destroyed by their greed for diamonds (this was before Surak, obviously). Some details about Vulcans seemed a bit weird to me, like their wide array of customized psychic abilities, or the technological advancement in pre-Reformation times. I had this image of pre-Reform Vulcan as some sort of "warrior and monk" society. Though this is probably a silly complaint, since not much is known about Surak's times... Yet I still have difficulty picturing Surak as a corporation accountant, I don't know... I liked more the version of Romulan history from the other book, though these episodes were also beautiful in their own way.

As for the main plot (if you can call it "main"; it doesn't take more pages than the history part), is set in post-TMP times. Vulcan threatens to leave the Federation, in a climate of political discontentment, so Kirk, Spock and McCoy are invited to join the public debate, to defend the pro-Federation position. It's a simple but compelling story, more focused on discussing the different worldviews than in actual plot. Though there's also a conspiracy for the protagonists to uncover, but I won't spoil it here. Despite the cover and the title, Spock doesn't have such a big role. McCoy is actually the one who's doing most of the investigations, having become kind of an expert in Vulcan (including learning the language and speaking it with a Southern accent). The plot also shakes a bit the usual status-quo, by turning a well-known character from the series into villain, and killing another. On the other hand, and as minor nitpicking, some things about Duane's Enterprise still seem strange to me. The wild parties aboard, and the opinion network of the ship (where everyone can freely publish their opinions about anything, including invectives against Vulcans) make the Enterprise seem more like college than a ship at times.

Spirk Meter: 1/10*. I can only think about the encounter between Spock and a vengeful T'Pring, who threatens him with taking away his career and his Captain, the same way that Spock made her lose Stonn (it's a long story). It would seem that, in her mind, Kirk means for Spock the same that Stonn meant for her... Though on the other hand, she could mean it just in a professional way.

For his part, McCoy has a tendency to whisper into Spock's ear, from time to time.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[tprings-hair]

2!

2. My favorite fic from the fandom that I’ve read

ooh. this is HARD. I'll link a few of the best fics I've read so far, but this is absolutely not the full list of fics I love.

for tos:

Sugar in Your Hand by WerewolvesAreReal | the ultimate spirk fic. I'm begging everybody to read this right now.

Human Souls by kcscribbler | tag to operation: annihilate! everything by this author is fantastic, but I'm picking this as a sort of representative because it shows what they do best: pick out small canon moments and turn it into an emotional exploration of the episode's events. this one has spock visiting kirk's nephew in sickbay and teaching him to play chess to deal with his grief and give him something else to focus on.

Command and Control by HeronS | tag to the menagerie. this is such a fantastic look at the dynamic between kirk and spock and this constant doubt kirk seems to have through the series that spock may betray him. also shows once again why kirk is a better captain than spock would be, how kirk manages the optics of being betrayed by a senior officer, and how he can work with spock afterwards even now those doubts have been confirmed.

I need a drink of cool, cool rain by Moreta1848 | the worldbuilding for vulcan culture in this is really interesting and feels very real, and the way kirk and spock are sort of circling each other and never quite saying what they're thinking out loud? very in character. also I love it when anything talks about rain. mind the rating

The Empty Hand by Reyka_Sivao | a look at t'pring after the events of amok time that looks at vulcan society and the amount of agency she actually had. this one is so good, I hate it when people just say "oh she's a bitch because she turned spock down" and this is a fantastic exploration of why it's not nearly that simple

and for aos:

Gambler's Knife by thegeminisage | a look at what aos kirk might have seen and done on tarsus iv, starting with the premise that aos kirk would have shot kodos right there in the theatre as soon as he recognised him and going into wild and dark places from there. it gives you the perfect setup and payoff and I love the characterisation, the detailed worldbuilding, the connecting thread of the knives, it's just so good. definitely mind the rating and trigger warnings on this one.

the ship in port is the safer one (but that's not the reason it was made) by KiaraSayre | one of the things I didn't like about aos is that it honestly didn't seem like kirk was very good at actually leading people and getting them to put their faith in him (or actually want to listen to him at all, ever). this fic makes me root for him as it shows how he learns to be a decent captain and all the many (many) mistakes he makes along the way. seriously, I love this fic so much. read it for the puns if nothing else! mind the rating

[linksthoughtbrambles]

500 Followers!?! (a) Thank you!!! (b) It's prompt-submission time!

Everything's fine. I've totally got this!

I will happily write a short fic for each and every one of you. All you have to do is put a prompt in my ask box. You could even put... two prompts in my ask box. Who's to stop you?

I'll write the following:

Fandoms: Legend of Zelda and Star Trek Characters: Any! Ships: Zelink, obviously. I am also now infected with Spock/T'Pring AND Spock/Christine (thanks, Strange New Worlds), so those, too. Ratings: Any! But if it's NSFW and freaks me out for some reason, I might say no.

[ds29gurl2]

Yooooo Amanda is a milf in this episode, respectfully 🤤 I am so glad Spock is now aware of everything she had to go through for him and for Sarek.

That being said, T'Pring continues to be awesome and wants to be with Spock despite her parents. Her mom is a whole bitch and her dad is a spineless man. If someone talked to MY mother like T'Pril does about Amanda, I would flip my whole shit. Pike's face when T'Pril began roasting Spock had me laughing for 5 minutes straight XD He deserves it though, I have never been more disappointed in him. He really out here cheating on T'Pring with Chapel. Damn. T'Pril is right, he does not deserve T'Pring.

[spocks-husband]

Hey guys it's me again here's a comprehensive list of all the star trek women who've made me question my homosexuality

-T'Pol

-Deanna Troi

-Deanna Troi in her Romulan disguise

-Kira Nerys

-Saavik

-Kira again bc she's so fine

-Ro Laren

-God I love Bajoran girls

-T'Pring

-All of those Orion girls who showed up on ENT that one time and kinda ruined everything

-That bald chick from TMP

-Kira again

-Did I mention Kira

-Maybe I just only like girls who kinda look like dudes who could beat the shit out of me

-Is that cause I'm gay??

-ANDREA THAN ANDROID GIRL ILY ILY ILY

-Kira Nerys

[indeedcaptain]

Made up fic titles ask:

The Clingy Coworker

The Unexpected Visitor

Moon Beams and Starlight

hi @introvertia i am so sorry that i let this languish in my inbox for ages. i appreciate you sending it!!

The Clingy Coworker:

AOS Spirk AU, mostly Spock POV

Spock is already working at the Academy when James Kirk arrives, first as a student, and then as hired as a lab assistant.

I just think it would be delightfully funny for Spock's narration to be like "I do not understand my new coworker. He stands too close to me and laughs at the things that I say. I thought he did not like me for this reason, until I saw him physically assault someone who insulted me."

"Jim is a valued colleague. Perhaps we could co-write a paper."

Meanwhile Jim is like "i am in LOVE and i don't care if he knows it, i don't care if it takes me the rest of my life but we are getting married"

The Unexpected Visitor

TOS Spirk

Something something diplomacy needs to happen and the Enterprise gets sent to pick up T'Pau and her retinue for some Federation conference or another. However, the unexpected visitor is T'Pring, who has discovered that being bonded to Stonn is not all it's cracked up to be.

She makes a move on Spock, who does not want this and asks Jim to pretend to be his betrothed until she is gone because she won't accept that he is happier single than bonded.

Lo and behold! Fake Dating tropes abound! They fall in love, etc etc.

Moonbeams and Starlight

SNW Uhura/Chapel (vaguely in the future AU)

Chapel and Uhura become pen pals while Chapel is off on her fellowship thing, after the events of S2

In my brain this is rapidly becoming a Fried Green Tomatoes AU?? Chapel has this whirlwind affair with the professor on the fellowship, Roger Korby, and at first everything is great but he doesn't like that she's a veteran with baggage, that she's a little bit wild, that she's deeply ambitious and smarter than he is, and he wants to control her. he threatens to ruin her career if she doesn't marry him, so they get engaged as she figures out a way to escape.

Uhura is the only one that she's telling the details to and the first to pick up on something being wrong, and when Chapel sends her a coded message that she needs an immediate extraction, Uhura, Ortegas, M'Benga, La'an, and Spock take a shuttle and head for her immediately.

Chapel reclaims her spot on the Enterprise and as she's getting resettled and restabilized Pike starts giving her cooking lessons as a calming mechanism

The first thing Chapel ever bakes entirely on her own she brings straight to Uhura as a gift

She asks Uhura why she came for her, etc etc, and Uhura has loved her the whole time, and Uhura confesses this, and Chapel is like "I almost wrecked my whole life leaping without looking. Can you give me time to think about this?" and Uhura says yes

Time passes etc and then Chapel realizes that she loves Uhura too and they kiss etc etc

Thanks for sending these fun titles. I had a good time thinking of new ideas. Maybe I'll write one of these sometime!

[bumblingbabooshka]

Saw another bad faith take about T'Pring being a murderous bitch, gotta write another fic that paints her in a warm and sympathetic light

[leohtttbriar]

a right to your intimacy

Pon Farr awakens vampiric bloodlust in Vulcans--Nyota doesn't find this erotic, at all. Written for trektober: Day 28 monster of the week

By the time they made it to Vulcan, Spock had tried to suck nearly half the crew dry and McCoy managed to lure Spock into the brig and lock him behind the reinforced shields while he raved and spit and otherwise made a nuisance of himself. 

“Let me out, Jim,” he had said, as if he wasn’t covered in three different people’s blood. 

“Do you think he understands ‘No,’ at this point, or is the vampiric lust addling his language functions,” said Nyota. 

“I think he’s completely nuts,” said McCoy rubbing his hand over his neck in the exact spot Spock had almost bitten him. “But he needs help.”

Spock launched himself at the brig walls. 

It was possible the shields weren’t going to hold with the way he was expressing his profound rage at not being able to sip at McCoy's arteries.

Nyota and McCoy (being the most well-spoken and the most "medical-professional" of the crew) were sent to greet T’Pring as she was beamed aboard—the woman Spock had called before the blood-hunger had officially taken the driver’s seat. She was tall and imperious but that could’ve just been Nyota projecting, who was feeling rather short and helpless in that particular moment. 

“Where is he?” asked T’Pring. 

“In the brig, ma’am,” said McCoy, like the polite, southern weirdo he was. 

Then, as they were exiting the turbo lift on the security deck, the alarms blared and Chekov’s tinny voice echoed from the speakers: He got out! Run for your lives!

“Why couldn’t Spock have attacked him instead of Sulu,” said McCoy. 

“I like it,” said Nyota, pinching her fingers and pulling the corners of her lips down, dramatically. “It adds a certain… je nais se quois.”

“Did you just say something in French?” asked McCoy. “You looked like a French chef for a second there.”

“I would never say something in French,” lied Nyota. “Or English. You know that.”

“I believe Spock is coming this way,” said T’Pring. She pushed in front of Nyota and McCoy and shifted into a defensive posture, fangs coming out. “Stay behind me.”

A loud noise, like an elephant tripping on a basketball court, emerged from down the corridor, and then suddenly there was Spock with fresh blood on his face and shirt and hands. 

“Oh hell, I hope he didn’t kill Jim,” said McCoy. 

Then Spock was on them. 

Or, really, on T’Pring, who was really on Spock, if one was doing the math right. He leaped at them all, claws out, hissing, and T’Pring snatched him out of the air and threw him to the ground. 

They fought viciously, green blood splattering, clothes ripping, snarling, growling, yowling, and everything else that was violent and gruesome and decidedly bad. 

“Should we run?” muttered McCoy, watching anxiously as T’Pring locked her thighs around Spock’s torso from underneath him and tugged on his hair.

“That might make it worse,” said Nyota, who was also staring at T’Pring’s thighs. “Might trigger his predatory instincts.”

“I think that’s bears,” said McCoy. 

Then Spock, strong from the feast of at least four different people now, threw T’Pring off him, and slashed out with his fingers, catching Nyota on the arm and then yanking McCoy to him and sinking his teeth into his neck with a fairly inappropriate groan. 

T’Pring leapt to her feet, pinched his neck, and he dropped. 

McCoy swayed on his feet. “Whoa nelly.”

T’Pring hoisted Spock onto her shoulders and said, “I have brought Vulcan strength restraints. Where is sickbay? We can begin the transfusion now.”

After McCoy had transported the thoroughly fainted Captain to sickbay and then got Spock set up in his specialized handcuffs with a steady supply of T'Pring's Vulcan-blood juice on a drip, he sat himself down in a chair to watch his sickbay of blood-deficient patients recover while he snacked on a packet of chocolate chip cookies. 

Nyota led T’Pring to the mess hall, figuring the least they could do was thank her with an inadequate, replicated meal. 

Just before they reached the hall, however, T’Pring stopped Nyota with a cold hand on her arm. 

“You are bleeding,” she said, gesturing to where Spock had snagged Nyota in the flesh of her bicep. 

“Oh yeah,” said Nyota, ripping the fabric away on her sleeve to reveal the gashes. “That’s annoying.”

T’Pring said, “May I?” Which should have been enough to clue Nyota in to what she was about to do, but, as it turned out, it was not. 

Nyota said, “Sure,” and then T’Pring was pressing her to the bulkhead and laying her mouth on Nyota’s bleeding skin. 

Nyota gasped as T’Pring licked up and down the wounds, careful and detail-oriented and definitely too sensual for Nyota’s state of mind. A tingling started as T’Pring’s saliva dried and Nyota watched in astonishment as the gashes sealed and healed like they were years old instead of minutes. 

T’Pring stepped away and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. 

Nyota said, “On second thought, I have food in my quarters.”

It clearly did not occur to T’Pring that Nyota had meant herself until they had reached a place behind closed doors and Nyota was pulling T’Pring’s teeth onto her neck, saying, “Plenty to spare.”

But, of course, T'Pring responded logically. 

[rainbowresurrection]

The thing I find lame about SNW is that they "lean into" Spock's human half. Ohhhhh oo-hoo-hooooo look at me! I'm a writer who wants to put my goofy ass spin on Mr. Spock!

But then they want to call it a canon prequel to the ORIGINAL? Like canon. To the original. I don't buy it. Canon to the OG where Spock is literally disgusted and ashamed of his human half and has spent his ENTIRE life hiding it? Like the entire time, that includes the time in which SNW supposedly takes place? And the T'Pring shit I can't even bring myself to talk about because it deviates so far from canon? A one-off character they just brought back to make Spock seem less fucking gay?

Hoh look a musical episode! Wow! It's camp get it??? Camp?? Cuz the original was campy?? Except Spock is straightwashed so they managed to make camp heterocentric so what are they doing and what was the point? Who the hell is this supposed to be for?

What. Were. They. Thinking. I'm going insane. Episode where SPOCK becomes HUMAN? Episode where they SPLIT the MIXED RACE character who was written as MIXED RACE in the SIXTIES! I dare them to write a goofy episode where Oops! I turn Full Native and see how quirky and racially sensitive it is. Hoho so fun and goofy!

No I cannot overlook these transgressions. I want as many people as possible to know that I'm disgusted and to feel vindicated in knowing that they aren't the only one. I'm so sorry fellow mixed race queers. We deserve better from a "Star Trek show". And Spock as a character deserves so much more respect than he's ever given in reboot writing. A kid with a Spock action figure could conjure up a superior narrative.

I haven't been this angry since AOS (straight Spock [x2] White Khan [x1] mental diarrhea [x1000]).

There's so many types of Star Trek Show at this point that there is bound to be some contention over what is the "right vibe" and what is sacrilege but whatever the fuck SNW and AOS is dishing out is just sooooo far removed from everything I found appealing about Star Trek. Oooo big het guys do tuff stuff but never in a gay way (maybe throw a qweer in the background so people can't call out lack of rep) and also the enterprise looks like a migraine and maybe there's some explosions oooooooo [has a stroke and fucking dies]

[spirkme915]

I made the decision to be extra-judicious on deciding what constituted a spoiler for the new season of Strange New Worlds and I'm sticking with that.

But I have thoughts and I’ve spent way too much time thinking about them for a season and a half and I can’t hold them in anymore. So here you go.

Definite spoilers for episode 5 and everything before it under the cut. TL;DR at the very bottom of this way too long post.

Episode 5 was an absolute banger of an episode in terms of Hollywood entertainment value. But, and this is a big BUT, what the actual hell are the writers doing?

The Christine/Spock/T’Pring love triangle is tarnishing the gift that was given to Trek fans when Strange New Worlds was announced and it's becoming way too obvious not to comment on.

It’s maddening that they’ve decided to take a thirty second scene of a one-sided crush from the original series (Chapel confessing her love for Spock in The Naked Time) and turned it into a two-sided love affair that's part of a love triangle. It is, quite literally, derailing what is otherwise an incredible show.

I hear you asking… Seriously? Aren’t you being extreme? How could a consensual affair do that? Or.... You're a Spirk blog. Aren't you biased? Oh boy, I wish it were that simple. This is coming from a literal lifelong Trek fan who had Trouble with Tribbles memorized before I had an inkling what romance even was, and who - fortunately - was taught by my Trekkie father what made good writing.

The love triangle is not good Trek or good writing.

For reasons that likely have to do with Spock being arguably the most well known character in Star Trek canon (pop culture wise), the writers have chosen to focus on him. And what kind of storyline can they give us since Spock goes through a massive, decades long character arc in the original series and movies? (Spoiler alert, I answer that at the end and it's not a love triangle.)

For reasons that likely have to do with Peck’s appearance and natural charisma, they’ve decided to give Spock love interests - not just one but two.

Let’s ignore that Spock doesn’t show interest in either Christine or T’Pring in the original series. Really, that’s the least of the problems and easily explained away.

Where the problems arise are two fold - Spock’s emotional journey and the minimization of two strong female characters to love interests.

Spock’s emotional journey - As great as parts of this episode were (looking at you, Amanda), what it achieved was Spock coming to terms with his human side in a way that the Spock we know from the original series hasn’t accepted. It takes original series Spock until The Motion Picture (perhaps not until after The Voyage Home), to be comfortable in being both human and Vulcan. So the ground Spock gained in this episode? Strange New Worlds, if it continues as part of the prime timeline, can only result in character regression for Spock. As a fan of Spock in all iterations, that regression will be a heartbreaking and horrible way to end a hopeful show.

Christine and T’Pring as love interests - Dear god, can these women exist without being defined by a man please? It’s 2023. This shouldn’t be something female characters have to ask for. Sure, there was more about Christine in this episode, but her arc still revolved around Spock. And not only that, but we got the Korby name drop in this episode (her future fiancé). I'd love to think that this isn't headed in a direction where Christine will hook up with Spock then he’ll pull away and she jumps ship to Korby only to be defined again by a man. But for fuck's sake, this last season and a half hasn't given me much hope. Jess Bush is amazing as Christine. Is it too much to let Christine be her own woman? And T’Pring? I adore T'Pring way more in Strange New Worlds than I expected to. So, please, help a Vulcan woman out. T’Pring is already relegated to nothing in the narrative after Amok Time.  If there’s going to be an insistence on bringing her into the story can she please not be defined by Spock then Stonn? I'm BEGGING the Strange New Worlds writers - let these characters and actors shine as fully realized women.

But the larger problem is that this single decision for a love triangle has not only fated these three characters to regression and minimization - IT'S DIMMING THE POSSIBILITIES FOR EVERYONE.

When Strange New Worlds was announced, there were so many possibilities. A whole new part of canon to be explored and expanded. NEW CHARACTERS, NEW PLACES, NEW MORAL QUANDARIES, NEW EXPLORATIONS.

But we only get 10 episodes a season, right? Not the 26ish we got with the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. (Discovery, I'm looking at you and weeping too.)

So, why are the writers insisting on episodes focusing on an unnecessary love triangle when they could be doing this:

Uhura - Hello? SHE'S RIGHT THERE AND CELIA IS INCREDIBLE. The original series is notorious for brushing Uhura under the rug and other people can speak way more intelligently on Uhura meta than I can. But, I mean, she didn't even have a canon first name until 2009. So. Yeah. Good news, Strange New Worlds can change all of that. Build her history, show us her successes, her fears, her failings, glimpses into her past. Give her a chance to have a dalliance with the "alien of the week." Uhura is a beloved character for so so so many wonderful reasons. Give us the stories about her that deepen that love.

Erica - Oh, Erica. My beloved Erica. Paramount PR keeps saying that last week's episode was "Erica's Big Moment" and if it truly was her biggest moment of the season, then I weep for her and Melissa Navia. All we learned in that episode was that she's Erica Ortegas and she flies the ship (and, well, that Navia has a depth in her they haven't let her show with Erica so far). Erica does pilot and flies really goddamn well, but we already knew that. What about her time in the Klingon War? What about her family? Her friends off the ship? What was it that either made her determined to become the best pilot or that happened in her past that inspired her to become that pilot? How does she feel about being on the Enterprise? How does she feel about soup or carpet or art? There's nothing, literally NOTHING, in future canon about her and right now her Memory Alpha entries for her life before Strange New Worlds is seven sentences. SEVEN SENTENCES. All of this for a fan favorite character. *sigh*

Sam - The potential for this character is limitless and all we've really gotten is him touching something he shouldn't have, being xenophobic to Spock, and that he doesn't pick up his dirty dishes. Seriously? We know more about Jim Kirk in Strange New Worlds and he's not even on the Enterprise or in the same timeline! When we rewatch Operation Annihilate, give us a reason to mourn with Jim. Make that episode a billion times worse because Sam is a character that we know and care about outside of being Jim's brother.

Pike - Okay, so admittedly, Pike is probably the most fleshed out character besides Spock in canon and they're not shying away from the future he knows is coming. That's been handled really well. And they've also done a great job of showing how much Pike cares. But, what makes Pike one of the "great captains" and how has his past turned him into who he is today (the canon pieces with his father have so much possibility) and what is he doing behind the scenes to fight for his crew and his ship? I feel like we got more of the "great captain" in Discovery than we've gotten in Strange New Worlds. And, dear god again with the "romance," can his love interest get a canon first name please? Hard to buy he loves her when he calls her Captain Batel even in his personal log.

Una - She was pretty much a canonical blank slate going into Strange New Worlds and they've done some incredible episodes with her, but I'd love to see her actually be the XO? Making that a question because she absolutely is, but we have yet to really see that in practice. The relationship between Pike and Una deserves so so much more screen time. Let them be captain and first officer. Explore Pike mentoring her, and give way more of her mentoring crew. Let her be more than Illyrian. What are the unique challenges she faces as the highest ranked woman and non-Human on the ship? Is she a fighter or a negotiator or some secret third thing? Does she have an intricate knowledge of some space anomaly or ship function that no one else on board does? What are her future goals and plans? I'm rambling now, but the point is that she's a character who disappears from canon after Strange New Worlds and she's the goddamn FIRST OFFICER OF THE ENTERPRISE. Let her be that until she isn't anymore.

La’An and M'Benga - Honestly, I'm not going to put much here for La'An because out of all the "new" characters in Strange New Worlds, La'An has been fleshed out the most. And, out of all the "barely exists in canon" characters, M'Benga is the same. But I'm listing them because they make my point. La'An and M'Benga are good examples of what happens when the writers focus on characters who either don't exist in canon or barely exist there. We know pieces of their backstory and their motivations. We know what keeps them up at night. Both actors have given performances that tie the audience to their characters emotionally. And yet, there's seasons worth of more material for both of them.

So. To come back to my original point - why are the writers focusing on a love triangle that tramples on canon and minimizes female characters when they are wealthy af with primo characters?

I mean, there are so many other ways they could have gone with Christine (making her bisexuality more than a one-off line, having her struggle with what happened on the Farragut, exploring her role during the Klingon War, family, friends, facing moral quandaries in her research...), and Spock (his relationship with Sarek, Vulcan rituals and practices we've never seen ((double parentheses here to emphasize that to us, as viewers, Vulcan *is* a strange new world and there's still a hell of a lot of Vulcan stuff that's veiled in mystery)), and MICHAEL ((remember Michael, his sister, who got a one line mention in the first episode then nothing?? Yeah, that Michael)), Spock's grief over losing Hemmer and Michael so closely together, etc...). Poor T'Pring is pretty much relegated to love interest and plot device at this point unfortunately. Instead of the love triangle route, they could've cut the sex scenes and made her a cool, calculating advisor to Spock and the Angel/Sybok plotline could've still happened. But alas, was not meant to be.

I've written a lot of words and taken up way too much of my day with this, but I seriously couldn't hold it in any longer. Look, I love Strange New Worlds, but I also seriously grieve for the show that it could've been and I seriously hope it will become that show in future seasons.

Strange New Worlds is gorgeous, the sets and special effects are A+, the actors are all pretty too and know how to command a scene. There's a lot to work with. But let's not forget that the original series was put together with styrofoam, glitter, and a prayer and it birthed this 60 year franchise. What kept people coming back to Trek were the relationships and a found family working together to explore, not a forced love triangle.

TL;DR

The insistence on the Christine/Spock/T'Pring love triangle is dooming all of their characters to massive character regression and minimization *and* cheating us out of learning about and loving the characters who are practically unknown in canon.

[atopfourthwall]

Final modern Trek question then I’ll be good: What’re your honest thoughts and feelings on Strange New Worlds Season 1? Pros and cons, how it differs from Discovery and what it does either better or worse? The direction and writing, and if you feel it’s a step in the right path for current Trek shows? I watched it and I personally loved it, but I’m so curious to know what you think.

It is MOSTLY good. Its biggest strength is standalone episodes but compelling character arcs, which was the right call to make. We don't need a mysterious space hole or whatever to keep us invested week after week - just have a story with a beginning, middle, and end - do Star Trek stuff like meet new, weird, alien races and find interesting solutions to problems. The characters can change and advance and we can learn new things about them that influence how we next see them. The characters are just generally likeable and PROFESSIONAL. Professional is really the watchword I should keep bringing up - one of the reasons why I'm so uninterested in watching Lower Decks is because I continually see in gifs a bunch of BOZOS. Morons in command, morons doing the gruntwork. Oh, sure, I don't doubt they do their jobs and live and etc., etc., but nothing about them screams "These are people I would want to trust with exploring the galaxy." I see fanboys and people who shouldn't be anywhere near a phaser, much less the big chair. One of the episodes that many wouldn't put on their highest-ranking list of episodes for season 1 of Strange New Worlds is "Ghosts of Illyria." But it's entirely my jam - the stuff I want out of Star Trek. An interesting sci-fi mystery, character revelations, professionals doing their best to solve the problem, raising some interesting moral questions that will have to be revisited down the road, etc. For many it's just kind of "meh," but for me it made me want to watch more of it again after a long absence after watching the first two episodes. I want to see smart people being smart and solving problems. That's reductive, I know, but it's what gets me every time when watching. Now, as for the cons... well, ironically with that word the big problem is CONTINUITY. There are NUMEROUS continuity issues with this series, not the least of which being T'Pring - Spock's fiancé. There is no reason she should be such a significant part of the show. Everything that we saw in Amok Time seemed to suggest they were not close, had not seen each other in a long time, and the attitude T'Pring had in that is at odds with how she's portrayed as so loyal and dedicated to Spock in SNW. And given her reasons for breaking off her engagement in Amok Time, unless they REALLY openly contradict it with, I don't know, some kind of big betrayal or emotional fallout with Spock, I have a hard time believing that she'd break it off with him there. Don't get me wrong - the bodyswap episode was still good, but the problem again comes down to "I do not see a reasonable way for these two to no longer be together for Amok Time." The show focuses too much on old characters and not enough on new ones. I've already seen Spock's character development in TOS and the movies. I don't need MORE of it here, especially whenever they bring up Discovery. I don't need to see Pike's dilemma about his future - I know what's going to happen there. Uhura is a fine character... but I've seen her already. Give me more of everybody else - journeys for them, arcs for them, change for them. Killing Hemmer was dumb. Killing him while turning the Gorn into xenomorphs was dumber. Having the Gorn at all is dumb given we were pretty sure their first contact with the Federation was Arena in TOS. You could have invented a new baddie and gotten the same effect. Hell, it would have been better since one of the points of Arena is that we judged the Gorn as being aggressive, evil, and monstrous partially because of their appearance... but here comes SNW to be like "Oh, yeah, they are the absolute friggin' WORST. Unimaginably monstrous and horrible." Stop making all the uniform variants try to match with Discovery's stupid uniforms.

[calocera]

Your posts about SNW Spock makes me so curious, could you please explain how they've done him wrong since he seems very different from the original series :O Are they making him more human despite the SNW taking place before the og?

yeah i can! im not the best person to talk about it probably since im a pretty recent trek fan and also tos/spock arent parts of trek i care about as much as a lot of other fans, but i have opinions for sure!!

firstly just up front i do not like ethan peck as spock. he does not look like spock or act in a way i am satisfied with. it feels like the only reason they cast him was because he has a deep voice. so i am going forward in this with haterism for him specifically not JUST how he is written in snw

Spock is written not like a vulcan but like an anhedonic human. actually not even anhedonic, just like a human raised in vulcan society trying to blend in. like there is nothing about him that feels genuine he just feels like woobiebait for 2012 tumblr to make flower crown edits of because he is awkward and quirky. every scene involving spock is a joke about him and his demeanor, everything he says is a wink wink nudge nudge "lol vulcans act like this and its so stupid lol logic is silly" like i can physically feel a laugh track whenever hes on screen. i enjoy jokes about vulcans but it isnt funny when there isnt anything else. its like spock showing emotion, it isnt satisfying when its a constant and not a little treat peppered in. in snw hes stifling a giggle or screaming in pain or being oopsie awkward silly every time he gets a focal scene, it takes the magic away because now it isnt a rare break in character its just how he is. Ive seen a lot of people defend this aspect as him being young and therefore less mature than in tos, but hes like approaching 30 :\ i get him being less mature but he doesnt act like a sheltered 30 year old he acts like someone freshly 18. at this point its just like…MAKE A NEW CHARACTER!!!!

as a point of contrast, i like how uhura is written in snw (in season 1 anyways, she has barely appeared in s2) she is obviously younger and is growing into her spot on the crew, but they arent hinging her character on the 1 or 2 pop culture uhura moments, retconning anything about that that doesnt align with modern media fandom, and calling it a day; they actually expand on her character outside of like idk her doing a sexy dance and her sitting at the phone (though i guess it is easier for her since she had barely any character in tos anyways). meanwhile they DO do that with spock, his bullet point top 10 iconic spock moments of sometimes being awkward and showing emotion are now the only things he is allowed to do. tldr flanderization

i also think its interesting that it is this way since ethan peck played spock in discovery and there hes the exact opposite. hes extremely serious and vulcan; which fits the tone of the show (regardless of my opinions on the tone of disco). i just dont understand how that spock translated into the snw spock. they are not the same guy.

anyways on to the biggest plot related gripe with him...how he interacts with women!!!yay!!

first theres how they decided to have multiple episodes about his, apparently, strained-yet-loving-and-involved relationship with tpring. the inclusion of t'pring feels stupid because other than the 1 minute of cheap "oh i remember her!" from someone seeing her on screen for the first time what point is there to her returning when the ONE canonical fact about her is that she and spock A: had an arranged marriage, B: did not meet in person since they were children, and C: hated each other. its not like there is a huge contingency of t'pring/spock shippers holding out since 1967 so what value does reintroducing her as a character serve? i assume its as some kind of attempt to give a woman who previously had no real character something to do, but her existence on snw is STILL only about spock and her relation to spock so there isnt any sort of feminist level up happening. including her was not interesting enough to justify retconning the plot of the most iconic episode of star trek. especially when multiple episodes tonally and stakes-wise rely on you caring about them as a couple, and anyone watching who knows who she is already knows that her and spock dont have any relationship to speak of in the future so who is this for? if you really really just NEED spock to have sex with a woman why not make a new character? that would also suck but at least it wouldnt be timeline interfering. im not even a huge continuity purist "oh no!!the timeline!!!plotholes!!!" but when the situation is the writers deliberately breaking the continuity in large ways and the outcome isnt even fun? stupid.

and now his relationship with chapel. i am way more annoyed by this one since its just gross. so from tos the only thing with them is that chapel has a crush on him and spock is not interested. also worth noting that its such a non-plot related thing that it only is revealed under the influence of alien drug virus that makes you horny. and they decided that not only was that enough to base a whole reciprocated romance arc around, but now since theyve introduced tpring back into the story, spock is now a cheater??? what is the POINT of breaking canon to introduce spocks girlfriend only to go "well actually hes horny for his coworker" like...that isnt how love triangles work youve just done a character assassination. the man who would rather kill his best friend than have sex with his wife is now fucking both her and the woman who confessed to him and he got so mad he crushed a computer with his bare hands. ok 👍. i just hate that they chose spock to be the romantic center of the show. anyone else could have been the character who gets into relationship drama why spock? there are multiple new characters who could have taken up the position. and its not like spock has nothing else to do as a character without it

to say things specifically about the most recent epsiode since it was particularly annoying and showed things that happen throughout the series:

firstly spock just does shit thats stupid. illogical even. i know the whole logical fallacy moment with vulcans but when it isnt a point of note in the show and rather just happens as if its a normal occurrence for spock as a person im like...he would be a laughing stock on vukcan and not have any of the positive reputation he holds.

the plot of this ep was basically that spock gets turned completely human and they just miss literally the whole point of it. vulcans have MORE emotion than humans, they ACTIVELY suppress it. yet when spock is turned human he just experiences human emotion completely emotionally? he should be having an EASIER time suppressing his emotions. and OMG he gets a BONER because he sees a hot WOMAN LOL LOL isnt that funny? spock got hard isnt that hilarious? its just so cheap. they act like being human makes him a completely different person, they played it like the voyager episode where belanna gets split into human and klingon BUT in that case she was literally split into two different people (this ep had a lot of issues too ie racism but that’s a different can of worms); here spock just becomes human he still has the same memories and training and history...why would he forget what its like to be a vulcan. they could SO EASILY make excuses too but they just didnt care. and anyways bada bing bada boom the ep ends with him and chapel hooking up which i already complained about and could complain about more.

i think thats already too much so im gunna stop myself here but trust theres more i hate and other people have probably talked about this better than i have :')

blade nation

[junewongapologia]

I know it's been lost in the many, many annoying years of ST writers deciding Vulcans are bad and contemptible for having what amounts to just really visible cultural differences from humanity, but I really like how... Culturally Vulcan Spock is.

His colleagues have like a fixation on his mother's heritage but... he grew up culturally Vulcan on Vulcan and his human mother all but states in Babel that she's basically assimilated into Vulcan culture because she agrees with its ethos. In all of TOS Spock considers himself Vulcan.

He's... very well adjusted and settled in so he is, he's a guy who sacked off the VSA to join a pseudo-military against the wishes of his pacifist dad and on the ship he plays Vulcan musical instruments with his human colleagues, and keeps a room full of Vulcan cultural artefacts that presumably remind him from home. (I get that this is half-retconned in the movies - most explicitly in ST V 🙄 - and also pretty inconsistently written in TOS but it's still there!)

Idk it's kind of sad to me that the Vulcans are literally the innovators of IDIC and they've been flanderized into these isolationist bigots because the stoicism/pacifist vibes can be kind of confused and off-putting to people.

Like. List of Vulcans we actually meet in TOS:

Spock

Spock's dad, ambassador to Earth, married to a human in some weird 60s sitcom couple dynamic, in-text reason he is estranged from his half human son is literally stated outright as being because he thinks Starfleet is too militaristic and he's a pacifist - like most Vulcans.

T'Pring - Spock's fiancée/wife, breaks up with him because it seems like too much of a hassle to be married to a celebrity, never seems to have any issue with his parentage, clearly thinks he's Vulcan since she divorces him via Vulcan ritual (logical, fight to the death) and not Human ritual (illogical, loopholes/contacting your local divorce lawyer)

Stonn - has two lines, neither of them are about Spock.

T'Pau - kind of maybe says something bigoted ("they say thy Vulcan blood is thin"), but then pulls strings to get the Enterprise off the hook for disobeying orders at the end of the episode, presumably as a favour to Spock, who she knows is going through a rough time, or out of respect for Not-Really-Dead Jim.

Surak - from a war torn civilisation five hundred years ago, still less bigoted towards other species than McCoy lmao

I might be so wrong about this but idk I just like Spock's room full of unabashed Vulcan shit, and I think ST has ignored and wasted opportunities for interesting stories bc they're kind of obsessed with deconstruction of everything about TOS/the ST universe to the detriment of anything else including the actual original ethos of Starfleet.