#non star trek

[forecast0ctopus]

more sweaters

[voskhodart]

I've been feeling very normal lately.

[star-trek-dumb-comics]

In their rebellious era

[spirk-trek]

S3E19: Requiem for Methuselah ⋆.˚ ✧ · ˚⊹ ·

[amartianonmars]

Technicality and non-binary Data for the win

Image ID below the cut

[ID: a four panel comic in grey scale with yellow accent colors for Geordi and Data's uniforms. The first panel is of Geordi and Data holding hands with Geordi in front of Data, leading him forward. Geordi, in response to their hand holding, says "No homo tho" and "lol". Data is looking down at their linked hands. The background is a light shade of grey.

The second panel is a headshot of Data at a 3/4th angle looking left at Geordi, who is offscreen. He says " Geordi, seeing as though I am an android, I am neither male or female, nor do I identify as either one." The background is a plain grey.

The third panel is a headshot of Geordi at a 3/4th angle looking right at Data, who is offscreen. He responds with a simple "oh?" The background is white with an ombre greyscale halftone going from a white to a deep grey.

The fourth panel is of Geordi and Data heavily making out, Geordi's mouth open and Data with his tongue out, both of them blushing and panting. Geordi pinned against a wall with his legs around Data's waist, his left hand on his back and his right hand squeezing his butt. Data has his right hand on Geordi's back lifting up his work uniform and exposing his back, his right hand holding up Geordi's body from his butt. Data has his left leg between Geordi's legs to hold him up, his right leg pulled back to stable them where they stand. They are against a greyscale background with white sparkles around them. /End ID.]

[bumblingbabooshka]

-crawling out from under an abandoned house- B'Elanna Torres who has been denied the chance to feel feminine and small and protected and cherished (as everyone around her constantly portrays her as 'strong, angry, loner, explosive, mean, bitch, standoffish' which obviously heavily colors her perception of herself and makes her less likely to feel she can be vulnerable or she literally just can't be because she has to do her vitally important job and survive and help everyone else survive) to the point that even though she desires it she feels it's silly to even want let alone pursue or expect X Seven of Nine who has been denied the chance to explore her own relationship to gender because ever since she became aware of the concept it has been her tied (and monitored, chastised when deviating) strictly to the most traditional and sexualized definition of femininity imaginable - discovering that she's butch. Are you hearing me? B'Elanna Torres who fantasizes about being wanted gently by men, loved and yearned for by them [looking at her daydream of Chakotay, her classically romantic novels] and Seven of Nine who is not a man but is not a woman - who loves and yearns for her in a way she can't quite express through the narrow lense of heteronormative womanhood that she's been given. Seven of Nine who wants to kiss B'Elanna's hand and protect her and B'Elanna who's never once been protected by anyone, not even her parents. Her own father wouldn't protect her from bullying, saying she was too sensitive. That she should have been stronger. Tom saying he 'didn't think' she cared about romantic gestures because she's so strong and independent. [In this way she is expected, even as a child or in an intimate partnership, to take on everything stoically and to react to anything at all is an 'outsized reaction', out of character, shocking and dangerous - there is no time and no relationship no matter how intimate where she can be vulnerable and soft and wanting without it being 'too much'] Is this thing on???? Can you imagine Seven telling B'Elanna that she sees how scared she is, how fragile she is, and that she'll protect her with her life if necessary??? Can you imagine Seven, injured in some way [calculated yet foolhardy on her part], being tended to frantically but skillfully by B'Elanna who's scolding her with a furrowed brow and a voice so drenched with worry it dulls any harshness in her words which Seven isn't listening to anyway because she's too busy looking at her face and hearing the sound and cataloging how fast her heart is beating and thinking back to all those old movies Tom showed them all with scenes of women tending to their men and being rewarded for it with a kiss and an 'I'm sorry darling' and those holonovels Janeway goes through where a woman in a silk nightgown meets her monstrous lover in the rain or a darkened hall after finding out some terrible secret and nearly drops her candle upon seeing him but remains brave, holding onto her love. Everyone else might be afraid, but not her, she understands him ['we difficult patients have to stick together'] and Seven never saw herself as the tending type or the bleeding heart but B'Elanna is. B'Elanna loves machines, loves people so desperately it makes her miserable, and she never drops her candle. B'Elanna's beating, bleeding heart is pouring over her and Seven realizes she wants it for her own. She wants her for her own. Her love. Her woman. Seven - She's a scoundrel, a stately figure with a terrible secret written all over her face, a brute who doesn't deserve the tender touch he's being gifted and she raises her hands to cup B'Elanna's face and kisses her. And it's the only experience she would privately characterize as perfect. And something clicks very neatly into place.

[crystal-mouse]

jim ur....command(o)

(otherwise titled as: ebay is a gift that keeps on giving.)

[fogdraws]

The human equation.

He's much more than just a machine.

Individual versions and coments below the cut;

This one was fun to make !! I really liked doing the lightning, but editing that video was a pain in the ass (I know it's literally just two photos passing by, but my edition skills are not the best).

First I planned to make him all machinery and gears inside - which, still, is a superior idea (at least to me) to what I ended up doing - but who would guess drawing them was so dificcult?? It just didn't look right !!! So heart it is.

I do think this painting is my favourite one of my chuchu 'till now.

[hooved]

[g0at0ad]

rip to the crew of the enterprise for having bad taste in poetry because data’s poems fucking rock. sunset bloom and ode to spot are spectacular actually.

[geekysteven]

[dduane]

Hi! I just want to say that I recently got into reading the star trek pocket novels, and so far yours have been my favorite by far (Doctor's Orders especially made me actually laugh out loud more times than I can count)! Thank you so much for writing as much as you do and for sharing your gift with the world, because it has brought me endless amounts of joy! 😊

- Maeve

Thanks so much! I'm really glad you've liked them.

And I have to admit that writing every one of them was an absolute trip, no matter how often the process may have had its hiccups. It's just the damndest thing to be in the first generation of a fandom and then, decades later, to be invited to write in it at the professional end.

It never got old. And assuming I go down that road again at some point—which could possibly happen, as people currently working at the screen end of things seem to know where I am, and keep sneaking my written work into filmed canon—it never will. :)

ETA: to @druid-in-hiding: I don't have a list as such, but every now and then somebody drops me a note and says "Hey, did you know about this?"—and sends along the data. For example: pages from Spock's World were being passed to the cast of the 2009 Star Trek film, apparentl;y to fill in background and clarify some character issues. When I saw a (sadly cut-for-time) script page from that film with actual Vulcan terms that I'd coined for that book being used in dialogue, I was so astounded I had to sit down for a few minutes to recover. ...Bits of Rihannsu-language material, and Rihannsu cultural concepts, have also turned up in (I think it was) ST: Disco. And there are "nods" in my general direction that go right back to the late seasons of ST:TNG. (For these I tend to blame Ron Moore, who's an old friend and occasional houseguest of @petermorwood's and mine.)

The most recent example of this kind of thing, though, and maybe the showiest, happened earlier this year in ST: Picard, where an (alien-crewed) starship I came up with for My Enemy, My Ally turned up at that last big s3 battle. This one:

...What can I say? It's nice to be thought of. At such times, all you can do is go to bed smiling. I sure did. :)

[star-trek-dumb-comics]

NO WAIT. JADZIA DAX IN KEN'S TOXIC MASCULINITY OUTFIT. PLEAXSE

Girls who say "bruh"

[poebrey]

other shows fighting to have diversity meanwhile disco has three non-binary people casually in the same episode

[startrekprodigyfan]

I want to write about Zero’s arc in Prodigy season 2, but I need to preface that by reminding everyone that I am NOT an authority on this subject matter. I will freely admit I could be very wrong about all this so If anyone else has a different read or has more personal experiences then please please PLEASE correct me and/or expand on what I say here.

Alright, so Zero’s arc in season 2 feels very much like a queer allegory. Zero themselves are non-binary and go by they/them. But there’s definitely a lot in this season about Zero learning to accept, grow, and become who they feel the most comfortable being.

Zero constructed a body for them to move around and interact with the world back in season 1, and it was a mess. It’s cobbled together pieces and limbs that don’t work correctly. It’s a jumble of parts but it represents what Zero feels is “themselves.”

At the end of Season 1 Starfleet gives Zero a new containment suit. If functions remarkably better than their old one and looks sleek and fancy… but Zero is still feeling not like themselves. They’re missing out on key parts of life that they want to experience. Touch and intimacy and other senses that they see others experiencing daily.

Halfway through season 2, their body is damaged and they are given the opportunity for a new body. One that is MUCH more humanoid in design and allows them to experience life as everyone else around them does.

But even then… something still isn’t quite right. They have all the senses they wanted but its an alien’s design. It’s not their body as they would want it. So they still don’t feel like… themselves.

And in the end after this body too passes away, Zero works with Jankom Pog to construct a new one. And this body, while looking like the older model, contains flair and features from all their previous bodies. And it’s only NOW that Zero finally starts to feel like themselves.

And in a lot of ways I feel like this is a queer allegory. Knowing you’re different and wanting to be “normal” but not knowing how and thus cobbling together bits and pieces of queer rep to make up a representation of what you want… being helped by more experienced queer people to refine that into something that’s much more presentable… but then realizing that all this flashy stuff isn’t “you” and taking the time to work with friends to cut back a bit and focus on how YOU truly want to present.

I’ve seen a lot of young queer people who were straight presenting for years suddenly go through a phase where they become very openly and very publicly queer, only to eventually reign things in a bit and craft their own way of presenting that is comforting to them specifically. It could also be a trans allegory, and them having to give up their alien body could be akin to someone being on hormones that suddenly had to go off them.

Obviously this is not a 1:1 example, but it’s definitely something I thought about while watching this story. I feel like Zero actually enjoyed their original cobbled together body but wanted the benefits of the tech that Starfleet has and that’s why they ask for Jankom’s help in making a new body that has elements and pieces of their old body.

Because that alien body was never truly Zero. Zero knew who they were when they constructed their first body and that’s who they want to be. But they they lacked the knowledge and tools to refine it. And while the alien body looked real and convincing it was remarkably different from how Zero sees themselves. So when their alien body dies and they’re forced to go back to an older design, it feels… right. It feels natural.

THIS is who Zero is.

(And as an added bonus I really like the way Zero was nervous to re-introduce themselves in this new body. I’ve met a lot of queer people who find a look they feel is their own but are nervous about how others will perceive them, especially if it’s not 100% male or female presenting).

I really liked their story. Like I said it mirrors how I’ve seen other non-binary people grow and present… because becoming who you are isn’t necessarily a linear progression and sometimes it’s okay to go back a bit, and this is something I think is definitely really important for kids to know.

But I am not an expert. Am I wrong in my thoughts here? Can anyone who is non-binary or trans talk about Zero’s story and how they feel it was handled? I’d very much like to hear your thoughts!

[singlecrow]

why am I suddenly obsessed, I don't know! but Mariner needs to eventually notice that T'Lyn is, by Vulcan standards, a bad girl (this is literally why she was thrown off the Sh'vhal!) and therefore exactly Mariner's type