#or at the very least it takes spock a lot of time to come to terms with that being his son and the conditions he was made under. like a lot.

[archersartcorner]

Totally understand this isn’t everyone’s thing, but unfortunately for y’all I love fucked up family dynamics, SO

[reigningqueenofwords]

Home

Pairing: McCoy x Reader Word count: 3,778 Warning: Tiny bit of angst

Read on AO3

You sagged as you looked at the clock. Another night without so much as seeing your husband. It had been 24 hours since he’d been home, and you missed him. The amount of times you had to pack up leftovers for him was nearing a full week at this point. Other friends were packing up snacks for playdates. You were packing up food your husband would eventually just take to work, and hopefully get time to eat. At this rate, you didn’t think you’d ever have the same type of life as your friends. You really did want a family one day, or at least a dog. But co parenting anything living right now would be a disaster. You’d be doing it solo, and you worked, too! 

As you went to get ready for bed, you checked your phone for the hundredth time and sighed. You had been with Leonard for a few years now, but you supposed you didn’t know what you were truly signing up for. Seeing nothing, you put your phone on silent and put it down. You had already showered so you got into bed for the night and found yourself wiping your cheeks. While you loved that he wanted to help people, you would have also liked to not feel single again. 

You had gotten together his last year of residency and he was constantly showering you with attention. While you didn’t need it constantly, you now felt you were not worth a text or call. Hell, he could shoot you a damn emoji at this point and it would mean the world. The last time you had a full conversation was at least a few weeks ago. Everything else had been interrupted by a page or call. Could you do this much longer? You’d only been married just over a year and you felt like you already lost him. You hugged his pillow tightly and tried to get some rest. 

Come morning, you needed a lot of coffee. You were tired, having not slept well. You were off that day, and didn’t know how to spend your time. You checked the fridge to get your creamer and your heart hurt as you saw some missing leftovers. Was Leonard here? “Leo?” You called out. When you were met with silence, you closed the door harder. He had come home and not even bothered waking you or leaving a note? You felt sick. Putting the creamer on the counter, you pulled out your phone to send him a text. 

Thanks for at least taking the food I cooked you, I guess. 

Part of you, a very tiny part, wondered if there was someone at work he liked so much he just had to get back. You had worried about that in the beginning since you weren’t in the same field. Your heart skipped when your phone lit up but it was only Uhura. Sniffing, you opened her text, contemplating asking to stay with her for a couple days. You tapped the table a little and decided to do that. 

Hi, are you busy tonight? And tomorrow? And tomorrow night? Can I visit? You hoped you didn’t sound completely desperate but you figured she’d understand. You continued on making your coffee as you waited for her to reply. 

Of course. Everything okay? 

Not great. Haven’t seen my husband in a day and a half. You typed out quickly. Thank you. You sent another, looking forward to not being alone. Want me to grab some lunch on my way over? 

Sure and I’ll pull out some drinks <3 Spock might pop in on his lunch break but he won’t bother us. She promised. I’ll see you in a bit. 

Running a hand through your hair, you transferred your coffee from a mug to a travel mug. Once you did that you went to get ready and pack. It didn’t take you long, and just twenty minutes later, you were pulling out of your driveway. Glancing in your rearview mirror, you teared up as you watched the house you bought with Leonard get smaller. It had been such an amazing day when you got it. You had pictured a couple of little feet running around at that time, but that image was fading. Your eyes shot to your wedding ring for a split second, then back at the road. 

Leonard finally came home at midnight that night, barely making it to the couch before he flopped on it and fell asleep. He had the next couple of days off and planned to rest, which is how he slept a straight ten hours. Finally getting up, he ran his hand down his face and scrunched his nose. “I need to shave.” He muttered. He shuffled to the bathroom to wake himself up, figuring you were still asleep as he didn’t smell coffee. He’d crawl into bed to hold you for a bit after.

Once he was clean and felt brand new he smiled and went to the bedroom. His smile fell when he found a perfectly made bed. He checked the time and had no idea if you told him you had plans. Walking out of your shared room, he went to the office to check the calendar. Nothing. He was starting to worry. He rushed to find his phone, hoping everything was alright. He called you as soon as he had it.

He bit his lip as he waited for you to answer, pacing a bit. His heart was hammering in his chest before he heard you pick up. “Baby?” He breathed. “You okay?” 

“Leonard.” You said simply. “I’m fine. I’m with Uhura.” 

“Oh.” He sighed in relief. “Glad you’re safe.” He sat down on the couch. “What time will you be home? I’ll order take ou—“ His phone beeped at him, making him pinch the bridge of his nose.  “Dammit.” He mumbled. 

You sighed. “Goodbye, Leonard.” Your voice cracked. 

“Wait. When will you be home? I’ll see what I can do.” He said quickly. 

“A couple days, probably.” You sniffed. “You probably won’t be home either way.” 

“Babe...I’m sorry.” He said gently. “It’s been a killer week. I know. Maybe for my next day off we go out?” 

“It’s been like this for weeks! You don’t ever have a damn day off! I haven’t seen you in three damn days !” You told him. “And you only come home for food. Which is fine but I would’ve been thrilled to be woken up by you.” You sniffled. “I don’t know anymore…” You said honestly as his phone beeped again. “I feel like the other woman. Go. Just… go.” You sighed. 

Leonard opened his mouth but you hung up. He sighed heavily and rubbed his face. He’d make it up to you. He had to. You were his wife, and he loved you so much. He’d have flowers sent over once you were home. It was a start, at least. Getting up, he groaned as he went to get dressed. 

You stared at the wall a day later, not believing you were actually thinking of separating from your husband. Nothing felt right. You stayed, and you broke your own heart. You leave, and you break both your hearts. But you couldn’t see yourself doing this everyday. Licking your lips, you got up off the guest bed that you were using at Uhura’s and grabbed your bag. You packed up your stuff slowly, mind racing. You’d be going home to pack up as much of your life as you could, and wait until he got home to tell him you were leaving him. 

You hugged Uhura tightly and thanked her for everything before leaving. She felt for you, and told her that you were always welcome there. The drive back to your house was short and you knew your mind was elsewhere. Your heart hurt, and it felt like someone was sitting on your chest. 

You were almost done packing your 4th box the following day when you heard the front door open. The living room had two suitcases and a couple boxes you’d managed the day before. Today you were more numb, moving on autopilot. You sighed as you stood and put your hands on your hips as you waited. This was not going to be fun. 

Finally, he walked through your bedroom door. “Babe, what’s with the boxes and suitcases?”  He looked at you, brow furrowed. 

You took a deep breath. “I’m leaving.” You said simply. “I’m going to stay with my sister while I look for a place.” You wiped a tear from your cheek. “I’m sorry.”

He blinked, not believing he heard you right. “What? Leaving? For how long?” He asked, as if he thought you’d be back. “A break? I didn’t know you needed one.” He was rambling. 

Licking your lips, you felt the tears really start. “For good.” It hurts like hell to say. “I’m not the love of your life, the hospital is. I’m basically a live in maid and cook at this point. And I’m not about to be a single mom.” You told him, sniffling. 

He stared at you. “No. I’ll fix this.” He quickly went up to you and cupped your face but you stepped back. “Please don’t leave me.” He pleaded. 

“You’re the one who left first.” You held your chin high, how? You weren’t sure. “I’m sorry, Leonard. The moving truck will be here tomorrow.” Your voice was shaky. 

He looked down. “You’re sure?” He asked, voice broken. “There’s no hope for us?” He looked back at you. 

You shook your head. “No. I thought things would get better, but we can’t even talk on the phone anymore without interruptions. I love that you help people, I do. I just never realized there wouldn’t be any room for me.” You hiccuped slightly from trying to hold back tears. “Which means there’s no way this can work.” There would be no little pink plus signs, no adopting a pet, no celebrating more anniversaries. Your future hopes were gone.

He deflated further. “I’m so sorry.” He said quietly. “I didn’t realize how bad it got.”

“You weren’t here enough to realize.” You told him. “We’ll worry about the paper work next week or something.” You knew that would be hell. “I do love you, Leonard.” You said softly. 

“I love you so much. Please rethink this. Take as long as you need but...come back.” He begged. It killed you to hear him like this, but you knew that if you stayed...nothing would change. You’d go days without seeing him, weeks without a proper conversation, you’d sleep every night alone, you’d wake up alone, and you just couldn’t mentally handle that. And neither could your heart. 

You simply nodded and looked back at your box. “I’m almost finished.” You said, hoping to end the conversation. 

He bit his lip. “I’ll always be here.” He said sadly before you heard him walk out of the room. 

You focused on your box, willing yourself not to cry again. When you heard the front door open and close, you took a break to hug your knees to your chest. 

Kirk opened the door and his eyebrows shot up. “You look like shit.” He muttered. “What the hell happened?” He asked as he stepped aside to let Leonard in.

He sighed heavily. “We’re separating. Well, she’s divorcing me…” He sat on his couch, rubbing over his face. “She’s packing now and I couldn’t just stand there and watch.” He gripped his hair in his hands. “It’s over, Jim.”

Kirk sagged slightly as he sat near his friend. “Shit, like over over?” When he nodded, he patted his back. “What brought it on?” He saw you guys as so in love. He used to tease him over how ‘grossly in love’ you two were. 

“My work schedule.” Leonard looked down. “These past couple weeks have been rough and I guess that was the final straw.” He shook his head. “She pointed out that the last real conversation we had that wasn’t interrupted was weeks ago. The last time she saw me before today was over three days ago. Hell, I called her yesterday and just as I was asking about getting takeout...my phone beeped. I was worried. I got up from sleeping on the couch and went to clean up. Went into my room to a perfectly made bed, but I couldn’t remember her having plans. I called her and when I asked when she was coming home, she said a couple days. I didn’t understand. Now I do.”

Kirk hadn’t seen his friend cry often, and watching him pretty much fall apart in front of him was hard. “I’m sorry, Bones.” He said gently. He wouldn’t voice it, but he could see where you were coming from. “Any chance she just wants a break?” He was hoping for that. 

He swallowed. “No.” He sighed, flopping back on the couch. “She said there’s no room for her, that the hospital is the love of my life, and that there’s no way it can work. I’m sure she mentioned something about papers next week. I’m guessing she’s serving me with divorce papers. For a divorce I don’t goddamn want.” 

“Well, you can stay as long as you need. I’ll get you some water.” He stood. “I know you love your job, but can you step down or something?” He shrugged. “I don’t know how that works.” He said before getting him a glass. “Do you have a contract or something?” He handed it to him. “Because I mean, I think in your shoes I’d rather be with her and jobless than at a job miserable because my wife left me.” He wanted you guys both happy, and it’s clear that neither of you were. “I always saw you two having kids and a couple dogs or something.” Was that another reason you were leaving? You wanted a family?

Leonard drank from it and nodded. “Yeah, I thought we would. She mentioned she was basically a live in maid and cook and she wasn’t going to add single mom to that list.” He stared at the glass. “I have a contract but maybe I could talk to someone.” He sipped the water. “When I called her and she hung up I thought starting to make it up to her would be by sending flowers. That’s not gonna do anything.” He muttered.

“No.” Kirk agreed. “She needs to really see a change.” He knew you meant business if you were already halfway out the house. “And it needs to be a big one, and fast. I don’t know how fast divorces go, but if papers are going to be worked on next week…” 

Leonard nodded. “The one day I have off.” He mumbled and pulled out his phone. “I’ll schedule a meeting with the boss people.” He sighed. “Not even sure what I’ll say but…” You were worth it. He let out a breath. “She loves that I help people, and that’s what I do. How can I be with the woman I love while doing what I love? It seems there’s no middle ground.”

The blonde nodded. “Yeah.” He rubbed his jaw as he thought. “I mean you can’t just cut your hours right?” 

“No. I get called in.” He told him. 

“Hmm. I don’t know. I don’t know which you’re willing to give up.” He said honestly. Kirk had known him for years. He was one of the most driven people he had ever met. 

There was a long silence. “I’m gonna quit my job. I’ll sell the damn house, and tell her we can move wherever she wants and I’ll find a job at a place I won’t be on call.” Even if it took him time to prove it, you were worth it. 

Kirk looked surprised. “Okay. As long as you’re happy. Not worth it if you hate your job and take it out on her.” He said simply. “Take the afternoon to think about the entire situation?” 

He nodded. “Yeah, alright.” He agreed, leaning back. “Thanks, Jim.” 

Sitting in your sister’s guest room, boxes surrounded you. This wasn’t your home, but even your home really wasn’t your home anymore, either. You were grateful she had room, but you knew you’d have to find your own place soon. You felt like you could just sleep forever at the moment. You hadn’t taken your ring off yet and you found yourself playing with it as you laid back. You knew it was unhealthy but you pulled out your phone to look at old pictures of you and Leonard. Back when he spent time with you. The first one that came up was from six months before. He had been trying to make you a nice dinner, but you kept distracting him because of how hot he looked in the apron. The picture was him looking at you sideways, cocking an eyebrow at you, trying not to smile.  Your heart hurt at the memory. Snuffing, you swiped to the next one, unaware that he was doing the same on Kirk’s couch.

It had been a few days and you were barely eating cereal, dreading calling your lawyer for the papers. You’d taken some personal time off work, which you knew couldn’t last forever. Your sister and her husband were off at work, leaving you in the completely silent house until right before dinner. You were sitting on the couch, staring at the fireplace when there was a knock on the door. You sighed, figuring it was a delivery or something. You went to open it, faking a smile. 

“Hi.” Leonard swallowed, holding out a bouquet of your favorite flowers. 

“Leonard.” You said softly, taking them automatically. “Thank you...but what are you doing here?” You asked, letting him in, chewing on your lip. “I’m surprised you aren’t at work.”

He came out with it quickly. “I quit yesterday.” He said softly. 

You stared at him. “You...quit?” You asked, not sure you heard him right. “The job you love more than anything? The one you basically live at?”

“I didn’t love it more than you.” He rubbed his jaw. “So I quit. It wasn’t worth it if I lost you to it.” His voice was soft. He really wanted to pull you close, but didn’t want to risk you pulling away. “And, I want to sell the house.”

You looked more surprised. “Why?” Your brain was still trying to catch up. “You love that house.”

“I do. But only with you in it.” He said simply. “I’m willing to move wherever you want. I have a list of places that I can practice at. As a regular doctor with regular hours.” He explained. “So I can be home, I can spend time with you, and I can work on proving to you that you mean more to me than anything.”

You stared at him, not knowing what to say. This was not close to what you expected to happen today.

He shuffled a bit. “Do...you need time to think about it?” He was really hoping things would go well. He honestly hoped you’d come home. 

“I’m just trying to process this.” You went to put the flowers in some water, thinking it over. The fact that he quit his job spoke loudly to you. It was just something that was so shocking that it was like your brain was trying to catch up to that fact. Once you stepped back in front of him, you eyed him. “Will you hate me down the line for making you quit the job you love?” You asked softly. 

“No. I’d only hate myself if I completely lost you.” He said honestly. “I could never hate you.” He offered his hand to you. “If I had to work some fast food job to prove that to you, I would.”

You bit your lip before taking his hand. “And you won’t have these hours anymore?” You asked. “No more not seeing you for days?”

“No more. I’ll have lunch breaks and evenings.” He tugged you gently, wanting to hug you. “I’ll get to sleep next to you and take you on dates.” 

“I really hope these aren’t empty promises.” You looked up at him. “Please don’t say all this for things to go back to how they were.” 

“I’ll prove to you everyday that I’m sorry and that I’ll do better.” He rubbed your knuckles with his thumb. “Come home. Please.” He pleaded. “We’ll find a new place for us, together.” This entire this was a huge stab to the heart for him, and a wake up call. “Even if that’s some backwoods town with 100 people. If that’s what you want, I’m there.”

You teared up again and found yourself burying your face in his chest. You gripped the back of his shirt, scared he’d disappear. He hugged you tightly, kissing your head as he kept mumbling ‘I’m sorry’s’.” He’d spend the rest of his life making this up to you. “I’ll come home.” You finally choked out. “I, uh, have a lot of boxes upstairs.”

“We’ll figure it out.” He rubbed your back.  “Have you had lunch?” He asked. “Or can I take you out so we can talk about where we’d like to go?” 

You nodded. “Pasta place?” It was your go to when you had hard days. It’d been that way since college. “And maybe tomorrow, when we’re home, we can cook dinner together?” 

He nodded. “Sounds perfect to me, darlin’.” He said gently. “I love you so much.” He’d told Kirk the day he met you that he’d marry you one day. It was love at first sight. 

“I love you.” You said softly. 

Leonard carried another box into your new farmhouse, smiling as he saw you unpacking. He set it down before going to wrap his arms around you from behind. “Hi.” He said cutely. “You look so peaceful right now.”

“I am.” You set down what you were holding and turned in his arms. “This place is so beautiful.” You’d found it on accident while browsing online for a birthday present for your sister. 

“More beautiful with you here.” He grinned and pecked your lips. “Like this place was made for you.”

“For us.” You smiled brightly at him, happy you had your husband back. You ran your hand through his hair, enjoying how he closed his eyes for a moment. “How about we finish getting the boxes in and cuddle for a bit?” 

“Sounds perfect.” He squeezed yo

[mystery-star]

What would it be like to be spock,s mate/ other half ?

This goes for a Non-Vulcan, gender-neutral reader 

Words: 841 

Warnings: none 

First off, Spock would cherish and love you very much – in his own way. 

So at fist it would take you some time to being able to read him and find out what his love language and way of showing his caring for you is. 

Maybe that first phase can be frustrating because it feels like he’s still rather distant. Tho he’d actually need some time to get used to the whole situation and know how to deal with it. 

But once you figured him out, so much he did earlier in the relationship would make sense. And of course anything else he does in the future. 

It would take him some time too to get to know and fully trust you before he will tell you about what he thinks (and feels if he does have a feeling for once) 

He will almost never say ‘I love you’ but use other words like ‘I cherish you’ or ‘You mean very much to me’ or ‘I must admit that I am feeling a sense of happiness I cannot and do not wish to suppress if I think about you having decided to be my mate’. 

Which, if you consider him being Vulcan, is something very sweet to say. 

He will always remember anything you told him and not forget any birthdays, anniversaries etc. and will also be able to gift you something that you maybe just mentioned in passing. 

He’s not the most touchy person – especially in the beginning – and will not often initiate physical contact with you. Or at least ask first like if you’d like a hug when you’re not feeling well. 

Which doesn’t mean he doesn’t like physical contact – it's just something he’s not used to and after a while he will even enjoy it when you just hug him. (But of course you respect his boundaries if he sets any and will also try to hold back some touches so you’re not constantly touching him) 

If you don’t work on the same ship as he does, your relationship often becomes long-distance, consisting mainly of regular calls. 

Which also means that moments he’s back with you are something to be cherished and enjoyed, making you try to spend as much time together as you can. 

He’d make it clear that he also has a responsibility to the crew and the ship. Meaning his work usually comes first. 

Then again, if he feels like your life is in danger he might even make a rash and not so logical decision sometimes.  

Your little quirks would amuse him to no end and he’d find them super cute but he’d never admit it. 

But if you mention them being silly, he will correct you, saying they’re a part of you and that he loves you as a person and you wouldn’t be you without your quirks, meaning he doesn’t want you without them. 

You totally could have long talks with him and sometimes the biggest challenge is that they don’t turn into a monologue of him where he’s talking and talking about a topic. (eg something scientific or one of their adventures they’ve been on) 

Of course you would introduce your families to each other and Amanda loves you from second one, treating you like a second child 

Sarek is of course more reserved about it all and he might seem scary at the beginning but with time you learn to read him too and that he means very well and is fond of you as well. 

Spock would teach you a lot about Vulcan and it’s culture while you try to show him things from your world and make him more open to them. And it’s much fun to see him try and struggle with some things (take Inline skating as a basic example) 

Jealousy would totally not be a thing. Because you know that if someone flirts with him it would be illogical if he paid attention to it (and might not even notice what they’re doing). And he trusts you too and knows that there is nothing he has to worry about if people try to flirt with you.  

However, there sometimes is the thought within him that he fears you could leave him for ‘someone better’, who is from your own race and would be able to show their love for you more openly. 

Meaning that then it’s up to you to comfort and reassure him that he’s the only person in the whole galaxy you want. 

It gets better once you get married because of the mating bond that would be done then.  

The wedding would be mixed, part Vulcan, part from your world. And it most likely would come to be when he’s experiencing Pon-Farr. 

But he has informed you about it and even proposed so he’d know that if it happens to him you will be willing to take him as your husband (or wouldn’t feel forced to just do it to save his life) and that it isn’t all totally surprising to you. 

Thank you so much for your ask and sorry this took a while.  (also I really hope I got it right and this was about what you wanted xD)

[samthetrekkie]

for having watched this movie at least twice before (albeit several years ago), I recalled surprisingly little of the plot. and so did my dad, who had once watched this with me! I used to think this was my favorite tos movie and I think the reason was bc this movie needs the smallest tos context. like it's objectively a - not super inventive - but thrilling and interesting plot. I also only now realized how much this movie made parallels to the end of the cold war and overall had some really good dialogue, which, let's be honest, not all of tos has.

but I think the reason it's not my favorite tos movie anymore, is bc I now do have the context and for a star trek movie, it was pretty weak when it comes to the characters. and tos is especially character-driven (to the point were the same 2-3 characters are protagonists in each episode). and I find that really interesting bc I do like all of the tos crew, but I also need that kirk/spock relationship thrown into my face again and again. and there was very little of that this time (not nothing though) and each character had kind of important roles to play. I don't want to say this is the only tos movie that operated like that, but I do notice it more in this one as I used to think this was the best movie.

anyway, there were still a few things I liked about the character portrayal in this. kirk and spock seemed to have some bigger issues prior to this as kirk seemed to be pissed off and distant with spock the whole time. and you can't tell me this was just bc of the assignment with the klingons. kirk felt like spock had personally attacked him with this assignment and spock seemed really confused, probably thinking he had given kirk an interesting last mission. so in my headcanon, their seem to have separated at this point :( but later on I really enjoyed how unusually angry spock got when he found out valeris was the one responsible for getting kirk convicted and had ultimately put his life in danger. there was a certain level of guilt in there too, as spock had been the one to get them into this mission in the first place. and kirk having pretty much forgiven spock in rura penthe of all places, was really surprised to see spock's behavior and even felt bad for it, so it seems. he was not even initiating the kiss with iman's character! (also very interesting alien concept, similar to changelings, when it comes to gender.) in general he seemed almost never interested in any of the women in the movies, which I have mentioned before, but I love as it fits right into my headcanon :) but mccoy's "what is it with you" after the kiss was still amazing as it summed up the entirety of kirk's obsessive womanizing behavior in tos. generally, mccoy had the best one-liners ever in this. and he was by far not the most prejudiced one in this movie. and he was actually really nice to spock the entire time and seemed relatively tame in general. do we see a little character change caused by the last movie…? I still don't see mccoy and kirk being a thing, but mccoy and spock on the other hand…

I won't take this any further and rather conclude my tos walkthrough for good now (even though some of the characters appear in other series and movies again). I thought it was really interesting to see the changes the decades made on sci fi and to watch it with a person who actually lived through those decades.

I have to say tos really is up there now in the star trek ranking for me, maybe even above tng. (but we'll watch that next, so this view might change very soon.) spock (as played by nimoy) is certainly one of my top 3 star trek characters and I think that says a lot for a show that was written in the 60s. (the other one is seven and I have no idea who the third one is, but... we got all the autistic-coded ones up there, don't we.)

I'm so glad we have so much to go when it comes to star trek, though! even if it'll take us several years, now that I've counted it… (there is some shows and movies I will skip, though.)

[cantsayidont]

I think setting STAR TREK: DISCOVERY and STRANGE NEW WORLDS in the TOS era was a questionable idea for a variety of reasons, but one of the more troublesome is their treatment of Spock, which opens some cans of worms I don't think there would have been a good way to handle even if the writers weren't intent on making bad and reactionary creative choices in other areas.

In TOS, most of the Enterprise crew, and really the majority of the Starfleet characters we're shown, are exceedingly racist to Spock with disconcerting regularity. Of the regular cast, I think the only ones who aren't overtly nasty to Spock at least some of the time are probably Uhura and Sulu; they get frustrated with him at certain points, but generally because he's a difficult and inflexible supervisor rather than due to racial animus. A lot of the rest of the crew is openly hostile, and McCoy routinely addresses him with slurs in front of the bridge crew. Kirk tolerates and sometimes participates in this racist abuse, and the only times he seems to take it very seriously are when it threatens to become an operational problem (as in "Balance of Terror"). The main feature that comes to characterize the bond that develops between Kirk and Spock is not that Kirk is significantly more tolerant, but that he will usually (not always) at least listen to Spock's point of view, which the rest of the crew is very reluctant to do (most pointedly in "The Galileo Seven"), and can be persuaded to respect his judgment, which Spock values even though Kirk's attitude and behavior still often make him uncomfortable.

This kind of space-racism toward nonhuman Federation citizens is not necessarily a structural element of STAR TREK (unlike anti-indigenous racism, which definitely is), but it is a structural element of Spock's character. Spock spends a lot of TOS teetering on the brink of a nervous breakdown, and it's tempting (though not canonical) to read his decision to pursue Kolinhar in the beginning of STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE as a response to the stress of being on the Enterprise (fleeing to become a monk!). Even where Spock is not enduring racial slurs and constant microaggressions, you can see how that treatment, both in his youth on Vulcan and as an adult in Starfleet, has shaped his personality. Indeed, this is something I think to which fans of Spock have responded strongly over the years, because his alienation and stress are very relatable for LGBT people, people of color, Muslim and Jewish people (despite STAR TREK's canonical antisemitism and Islamophobia), and autistic people. This doesn't mean STAR TREK stories necessarily have to show Spock being tormented, which is often painful to watch, but if Spock had not been tormented in these ways, he would be a very different person than the character viewers know and love.

Making Spock a regular in DISCOVERY and later STRANGE NEW WORLDS thus presents the writers with a problem: Treating Spock the way he's treated in TOS would be uncomfortable, but avoiding it creates a tension with TOS that the newer shows obviously don't know how to resolve.

Prior to ENTERPRISE, the general presumption about the TOS era (which is stated as fact in some of the novels) was that having mixed-species crews is relatively new for Starfleet, and that the problems Spock faces stem from his colleagues never having lived and worked with an "alien" before and not knowing how to not be weird about it. (ENTERPRISE essentially transferred that idea to Archer's era, where T'Pol gets similar treatment.) In DISCO and SNW, however, we see that many Starfleet vessels have mixed crews, including officers (like Saru) who are much more obviously nonhuman than Spock is, and have for a while. So, how are we to read the events of TOS, with which DISCO and SNW still want to (uneasily) coexist? Is Kirk's Enterprise just a lot more racist than Pike's? That's possible, I guess, but how many STAR TREK fans really want to canonize the idea that Kirk and his crew are unusually intolerant by Starfleet standards? Are we to presume that SNW means to soft-retcon the hostility and constant microaggressions Spock experiences in TOS, shifting the entire onus for his twitchy alienation to his upbringing on Vulcan and to Sarek (who DISCO reiterates is a tremendous dick)? That would be sadly consistent with the disdain with which modern STAR TREK media treats Vulcan (and with the antisemitism of the modern shows), but it's a pretty bitter pill for anyone who thinks Vulcans are neat or cool, which used to be an uncontroversial majority opinion among STAR TREK viewers and writers.

The more sensible answer would have been to just dodge the issue entirely by staying further away from TOS and the period in which it takes place. There are other periods of the TREK timeline that are still largely unexplored (like the early 24th century era of the Enterprise-C), and there's always the option of moving further forward in time, as DISCOVERY eventually did. However, CBS seems very insistent on making heavy-handed appeals to nostalgia that require riding the coattails of TOS, even where that just doesn't seem like a good idea creatively.

My sense with DISCOVERY and SNW is that the producers would really like to simply redo TOS in a manner more consistent with their current vision, but that the decidedly mixed reactions to the alternate timeline JJ Abrams movies has made them gunshy about just declaring that openly. So, it seems they're instead trying to back into it with a kind of death-by-a-thousand-retcons approach, seeking to sand off both the uncomfortable aspects of TOS and stuff the producers and/or the network don't like (like Spock's gay-coding — SNW's determination to no-homo him is pronounced, albeit unpersuasive). I think I would find that vexing even if the producers' vision weren't frequently more jingoistic and racist than TOS, which it often is.

[calliecat93]

I just love this so much, okay? The way that Kirk is so distressed at having to take his dark half back. How he knows he has to, but having seen his own darkness in its most raw form, he's questioning himself. The way that McCoy gently tell him that it's okay. Everyone has their dark side. That as bad as it can be, he needs it to be able to captain. How he, the good half, still has the traits that are vital as well, such as his intellect and his bravery.

When it comes to being vulnerable, Kirk can't do that around anyone else. He HAS to be the perfect, strong captain. He can't afford to let anyone see him have doubt or weakness, lest he bring anyone around him looking to him with him. But he can around McCoy. He can express those fears and doubts hi him. He can trust that McCoy will at least listen. Will be there to give him that assurance that he needs. At this moment, where he is indecisive and losing his will to command, it was what Kirk needed most. To be assured that yes that darkness is a part of him, and he needs it, but that his good half is still very much also who he is and he has what he needs to get through this.

McCoy knew that this is what Kirk needed to hear. He always does. He's right there to give Kirk the guidance and assurance that he needs in his time of weakness. Despite how the bad Kirk had nearly gotten violent with him earlier, which freaked McCoy out enough to call Spock to go and talk to Kirk, all that matters to him in the end is Jim's well-being.

Hell, after realizing that Kirk could die if they went through with it, he pretty much goes 'yeah sucks about Sulu and the other guys, but like Hell we are risking Jim's life'. He likely wouldn't risk anyone under those circumstances, but he is especially not going to risk the life of his captain and closest friend. Even earlier, when it appeared to him that Spock was exacerbating Kirk's fears and questioning him and his ability to command, McCoy gets angry at him for daring to do so. Yeah he admitted that he was right in the end, but it still shows just how loyal to Kirk he is even this early.

Then finally at the end, as the two Kirk's are about to merge back, McCoy is there right beside the transporter pad, ready to get to Kirk ASAP if he needs to. He's anxious, not sure if he's going to see his best friend back to normal or going to be pronouncing him dead in just mere moments. Kirk's anxious too, as despite knowing and accepting that this has to happen, he still has to merge back with the worst part of himself and not know if he's going to survive. He knows that Spock will take care of the ship, but that doesn't change tha the may be dead in just seconds.

But Kirk looks over at McCoy...

And he gives him that little nod before bracing himself. It's the closest thing to assurance that he can give the man who is always there to give it to him when he has to. It's only after looking at him that he is able to steel himself, still needing that assurance from him to truly accept whatever happens next. Even if the only thing that he can do is look at him, for Kirk that's enough. And it works, though McCoy remains on edge until he sees Kirk there, alive and whole. And even as the landing party is getting wheeled to sickbay, McCoy takes the moment to ask Jim if he's alright.

These two just do a lot to me, okay? I love them~!

[measurelessdreamer]

I've seen many posts about people missing how common asks used to be so I have been trying to send about an ask a week. Now I send this ask first anytime I follow someone as I really don't want to bother anyone, so I'd love to know if you enjoy receiving asks and if so what kind of asks. Not having energy for asks or being comfortable with them is perfectly okay.

The categories I have in my ask notebook that I file under are in colour. Please feel free to make your response as long as you want or private (the asker cannot directly respond to private responses).

Self, Job/Work: please let me know what you are comfortable with from eh idk just ask it to nothing personal at all.

Baggishield/Tolkien, Dragon Age, Johnlock/Sherlock, ineffable spouses, other fandom: Please let me know what fandoms. I think my main fandoms and ships are Bagginshield/The Hobbit, Sherlock/Johnlock, Dragon Age Inquisition, {Pippin/Faramir Merry/Eowyn}/The Lord of the Rings and I dip my toes in a few that I currently can't remember but ships I don't engage with the canon of at all are: Good Omens but only for Crowley/Azirapheal, Stranger Things but only for Steve/Eddie , The Witcher but only for Geralt/Jaskier, and Ladybug and Cat Noir but only for Adrinette .

OC's, art/drawing, their writing, blog specific only

Story snippets ideas and prompts: Do you like receiving them?

Pets: I'd love to know all about them

Garden and Hobbies: What type of gardening and/or hobbies?

Like being tagged in things: If so what kinds of things?

*Asks are sent for fun, no pressure to answer.

Oh, hi! Thanks for the message! I honestly didn't know that asks are no longer as common as they used to be. I've never been a good candidate to receive them since I don't have so many followers (I always thought you needed at least 500 to get asks lol) and I'm not much of a creator. I usually just reblog stuff that makes me happy and occasionally (like once in three years) I share a fic I wrote here so I never had high hopes which is why I was very surprised when I received this ask and it made me so happy! Seriously, you're so cool for doing this, especially when people don't expect it at all. Even though it's through social media, it requires a bit of coming out of your personal bubble and putting yourself out there and I rarely do that in my life no matter how safe the space is. So it's really cool and thank you. I received probably like 2 asks aside from this one in my whole life, but yeah, I enjoy it a lot. ^^

As for what kind of asks...

Self, Job/Work: I'm good with sharing some stuff as long as it's not something that hits too close to home, but I would probably say that's the case. Asking about how I'm doing in general and what I do and what I enjoy about it is probably fine.

Fandoms: Asks about fandoms would most definitely be my favourite. I always enjoy ranting about stuff I love with other like-minded people. I love Bagginshield, The Hobbit, LOTR (Faramir especially), Ted Lasso (and particularly royjamie), Star Wars (obikin is very close to my heart), The Walking Dead (rickyl is the goat ship of that fandom for me), and probably my favourite otps are superbat (superman/batman) and spirk (kirk/spock) so I enjoy these fandoms too. Fandoms where I have no ships but I enjoy them all the same are Mass Effect (only the original trilogy) and The Witcher (the games, I only read two books so far sadly, I ship geraskier from the show but I don't like the show otherwise). All these things are something I enjoy talking about. ^^ I also like Johnlock/Sherlock and I played the Dragon Age trilogy (but I enjoyed Origins the most and aside from the Cullen romance and meeting Alistair and Morrigan in Inquisition, I didn't enjoy that game very much).

I write fanfics sometimes. I haven't written many and it usually takes me a lot of time to finish anything, but I enjoy it. I'm happy to talk about my writing any day even if it frustrates me to no end.

Story snippets ideas and prompts: Not sure about this. I think receiving them is nice, but I wouldn't be able to do anything about them aside from talking and speculating about them. I'm not very good at writing something from a prompt, so probably no story would come of it, but if it's only discussion people seek, then I'm happy to provide! And if it turns out to be very interesting, then I'm all for taking it further!

Pets: I have lots. I'm happy to talk about them any time.

Garden and Hobbies: Not much of a garden person, I'm afraid, but I enjoy nature more than anything. I live in a very Shire-like country, which is the best thing when I want to let my imagination roam. I enjoy running (but I started only recently so I'm rubbish), reading (fantasy and romance especially), learning French, playing video games, hiking, watching movies and tv shows, and I recently started to learn how to play the Irish tin whistle.

I like being tagged in things, sure! Something funny or heartwarming is usually the best, but I love posts with random facts which are super elaborate and interesting. It can't have anything to do with politics, though, tumblr is my escapist haven. :D

I think I answered everything to the best of my ability. Sorry that it's so long! Thank you again for sending the ask! I hope you have an amazing day!

[jennelikejennay]

Just watched Operation: Annihilate! I've heard so much about it that I missed out on any of the suspense or fun guessing what might solve the problem. But it was still pretty intense and emotional.

Very Spirky how Bones kept saying "of course you care about Spock......and your nephew too." But I also love the way that Kirk is capable of caring very deeply for those he loves while also keeping on with the job and remembering the million other victims. It certainly comes out in how snappish he is, and the way he keeps just demanding Bones fix things NO MATTER WHAT! (I can imagine Bones saying "oh, sure, I told you it was impossible, but now that you've yelled at me that it's important, I guess I can magically think of another thing to try!") But he doesn't cry, he doesn't cling to Spock, and he doesn't take time off. Especially after Spock is blinded, there's a lot of respect in the way he refuses to show how upset he is about it because he knows Spock would not welcome it.

Science-wise, it makes no sense at all. "I've tried radiation! But not light, which is a kind of radiation. Or UV radiation, which is a kind of light. And certainly I didn't try using one wavelength at a time like a real scientist." In McCoy's defense, he only had one sample to work with so he could hardly have a control. But you're not going to at least start with a low dose and ramp it up when you've got a person in there? Not going to wait till the results come back to tell you what worked?

Also UV radiation does cause burns and cancer, so uhhhhh...

But oh well, we can ignore that part, we already suspend disbelief all the time for this show.

Meanwhile I noticed A City on the Edge of Forever comes right before this one in the episode listing. No idea if this was intentional, but in that episode, Jim explains that in one of his favorite books, "let me help" is more meaningful than "I love you." And in this episode, Spock looks pointedly in Jim's eyes and says "let me help."

JUST SAYING.

[abigailnussbaum]

I put off watching it for a while because I was pretty sure I was going to have this reaction. But now that I've bitten the bullet, I'm sorry: the Strange New Worlds musical episode is bad. It's bad as a Star Trek story, it's bad as part of the Strange New Worlds story, and it's bad as a musical.

To start with, I think it's time to admit that the musical episode concept is pretty depleted. "Once More, With Feeling" was more than twenty years ago, and what was once fresh and shocking now feels almost rote. Very few shows really manage to earn it, because they don't have to - the musical episode of a non-musical show is an established trope, which means the very thing that made it so groundbreaking is now gone.

But it's specifically a bad fit for Star Trek, not because it can't justify the concept - there's honestly no daylight between Buffy's "a demon who makes people sing and dance" and SNW's "subspace anomaly pulls us into a universe where people habitually break into song" - but because that kind of fourth-wall-breaking, genre-aware storytelling doesn't belong in Star Trek (or, at the very least, it belongs in something a lot more heightened like Lower Decks).

Star Trek isn't knowing. It isn't genre-savvy. Star Trek is earnest. And it takes its world seriously and treats it like something coherent in its own right, not something you can poke holes in and peek into our own universe from. When it comes down to it, the core flaw of all NuTrek shows is that they're often less concerned with being Star Trek, the story, and more interested in being about Star Trek, the franchise.

Strange New Worlds is an odd duck in this respect, because there are parts of it that so clearly understand Star Trek, the story, and are so clearly interested in expanding it, that I can't help but fall in love. Episodes like "Spock Amok", "A Quality of Mercy", and "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" do such a great job of slotting into the existing story while making it their own (though I could wish the show was better at telling original stories). I'm especially wowed by how they're handling Kirk, who is such a smart, non-sensational take on the character while still having all the recognizable flaws and quirks of the original.

But it's also a show that thinks breaking the fourth wall is the height of sophistication, that is more than willing to comment on its storyness in a way that runs completely counter to its Star Trek-ness. You see this in episodes like "The Elysian Kingdom", "Those Old Scientists", and now "Subspace Rhapsody". And if the first two of those at least had a Star Trek link - "Elysian Kingdom" is essentially a holodeck episode (even if it isn't as good as any of them), and "Those Old Scientists" is obviously all about Star Trek (even if, like so many media franchises these days, it collapses living in the Star Trek universe into being a Star Trek fan). But "Subspace Rhapsody" is just a gimmick, fundamentally no different from similar episodes on Lucifer or Grey's Anatomy or The Flash.

And worst of all, it's a bad musical. One effect of the fact that this trope has become so familiar is that it has created an sideline for talented songwriters who can knock out an episode like this without putting much personality or style into it, just hitting the required beats. There's got to be a power ballad. There's got to be a comedy song. There's got to be a kicky saloon number and a big finale. "Subspace Rhapsody" feels like the nadir of that cottage industry's output. The songs are all generic. The lyrics are forgettable while you're listening to them. There's no unified theme or style, because the point isn't to be a musical. It's to convey a general sense of musical-ness. Beyond the novelty value of a Star Trek musical - which, as noted, is pretty degraded in 2023 - there's nothing here of artistic merit, much less something that feels uniquely like a Star Trek musical.

(Case in point: the Klingons. Having them do boy band music is a joke that's funny for the audience, probably means nothing to the characters, and most importantly, does not make sense within Star Trek. Of course Klingons would sing - they would sing opera.)

As if to add insult to injury, the biggest character development in the episode - which is also driven by the only memorable song - feels baffling, and ends up shortchanging a relationship that the show has been trying to get us to invest in for more than ten episodes. Spock and Chapel got together at the end of episode 6, had a crisis in episode 8, and are now, in episode 9, breaking up for another, unrelated reason. Seems like a better use of everyone's time might have been to let these characters and their relationship develop organically, rather than informing us, through song, that Chapel has suddenly decided to prioritize her career (by, um, leaving Enterprise for so short a period that most couples wouldn't even consider it a major relationship challenge). Are we meant to understand that something deeper was wrong, and that the internship has brought it to light? If so, why haven't we seen it? It's hard not to feel that the musical was being used as a shorthand for emotional development the show didn't feel equipped to deliver, which is only one more way in which it underserves the show.

[thegeminisage]

ranking voyager characters from favorite to least favorite

i meant to do this at the end of season 1 and again after the finale but we'll just have to go with at the end of season 2 instead

seven of nine - i haven't met her yet but i just know.

janeway & tuvok - cop out to do a tie? possibly. they remind me so much of kirk and spock respectively. every time i go "oh no it's gotta be tuvok" it switches to janeway. every time i go "oh no it's gotta be janeway" there's another good tuvok episode. tuvok is such a wonderful look into vulcan culture through the eyes of someone who was not alienated from it and abused by it, and you never doubt his ability to get ANYTHING done, even if it's sketchy as hell. i think about his wife of 68 (almost 69! nice) years and his 4 babies and his orchids and his lute all the time. man can SING. on the other hand, janeway is such a breath of fresh air after deanna troi - who i love, but who was constantly victimized for being a woman. janeway just gets to be janeway - she's excited about exploration, she's deeply compassionate, and none of these things make her weak anymore than they made kirk weak. sometimes her adherence to her Ideals is a little picardian, but i forgive her, because she reminds me way more of kirk

chakotay - sometimes a man builds a bathtub and your opinion of him rises by. a lot. i've always liked the difficult position he was in of trying to balance maquis and starfleet interests and protect both sides from themselves and each other, but the ADDED LAYER that for much of the journey he has CANONICALLY been in love w janeway is simply too much to bear. also, i think his trust issues w betrayal are very gripping and they compel me. he has been through so much SHIT and i do love a little traumatized guy. ALSO also, they don't do enough w this in canon, but in my mind palace he and tuvok HATE each other (chakotay hates tuvok for being a spy, tuvok hates chakotay for nabbing first officer job), which i think is extremely funny

the doc - my best friend the emergency medical hologram...i like that he's a brand new kind of person, even if it brings up infuriating questions about the status of all these endless holodeck characters we create and then carelessly abuse or delete. he doesn't have a name! people treated him like he didn't exist! watching him come into his own and bond w kes has been one of voyager's great delights. also, gay king.

b'elanna - she doesn't always get a lot to do but when she does it's almost always good, racism episode notwithstanding. what i like most about her is how ride or die she is. she was willing to get her ass beat to give tuvok a tiny chance of escaping torture, she was willing to die to take down her own superweapon, she defended chakotay when his actions were entirely indefensible (AND she's secretly in love w him?? girl.), she will not hesitate to do any number of crazy things for Her People, and since she's estranged from her family or whatever they are all aboard this ship. you couldn't ask for a better friend than b'elanna and good for her. also, she gets to be gay with janeway about once a season so far which i've really enjoyed. she could do so much better than tom paris

harry - harry also rarely gets anything to do, but that makes his episodes all the more distressing. he's just a little guy! the so-called baby of the ship, until he was replaced by an actual baby with tiny adorable mother-killing spines on its head. i'm still mad that the really big important harry kim episode we got turned out to be such fucking garbage when the concept was SO good, and i'm not super hopeful for his future, but who knows. btw, he could also do better than tom paris. he and b'elanna could ride off into the sunset w/o him

kes - i don't dislike kes, and her scenes with the doctor are especially nice, but i feel like she, like deanna, gets victimized a lot, and her whole thing with neelix was so difficult it's hard to get the taste of it out even though it's over now. that said, i do love how compassionate and mischievous she is, and i love when janeway gets to give her mom hugs :( <3

neelix & tom paris - another tie. this is so difficult for me because i started out HATING tom paris and really liking neelix, and a few plotlines/episodes made me reverse my opinion. tom paris got a lot better when he was like yeah i decided i'm not gonna be a shitheel anymore! especially that he went on a multi-ep arc tricking us into thinking he was backsliding when really he was doing secret agent shit. props! but he's still not terribly interesting. neelix was AMAZING in the atom bomb episode but my interpretation of him as a guy who was gentle not in spite of but BECAUSE of past suffering didn't last long when he decided to be so fucking horrible to kes for no reason. i really want to get over it with neelix the way i got over it with tom paris, but for now they're both at the rock bottom of this list

for fun, i think my season 1 list would have looked like: janeway, tuvok, doctor, b'elanna, chakotay, harry, neelix, kes, tom paris. probably? it's hard to know now. we'll see how all this shakes out by the end of the series.

[whovianwatchingstartrek]

A Whovian Watches Star Trek for the First Time: Part 116 - Tilly in the Network

Star Trek: Discovery - Season 2 Episode 5 - Saints of Imperfection

This episode picks up exactly where engineering left off, with May pulling Sylvia Tilly into the Spore Network, and Michael is kinda doing this thing of burying herself into her work to distract from her sadness about the situation. It's very Vulcan of her, and I can't wait to see how it tears her up.

Meanwhile, Discovery has come across Spock's shuttle, however Spock isn't responding, and Discovery are left with no choice but to open fire before the shuttle can enter a nebula through which Discovery can't follow. They successfully immobilise the SHuttle, and bring it aboard, but to everyone's surprise, Spock isn't on Board: Georgiou is.

Now, last season I didn't like a lot of what they did with Georgiou after leaving her universe, they were a few interesting moments towards the end, but I didn't like that she her comeuppance so bringing her into the main universe in the end kinda felt unjustified. I'm still holding out for some villainous downfall this season, and here specifically, putting her right next to Pike who has built up as very much archetype of the paragon Starfleet Captain, when she is very much the prime example of what I imagine most Terran Captains are like (Granted, my sample size is very limited for them), should be a really interesting point of contrast.

Also the music that plays when she enters, is just perfect. I don't feel like I highlight soundtracks enough on these, but I love Evil Georgiou's theme.

Georgiou is still pretending to be our Universe's Georgiou, but Pike apparently has history with her. Georgiou's current mission for Section 31 is to hunt down Spock. Unfortunately Section 31 ties Pike's hands, and Georgiou is allowed to go free.

Last time Section 31 showed up, a few episodes ago, a couple of you pointed out to me they're they shadowy Group Enterprise too, I don't they were given a name back there, but if this is the same group, they seem be at least slightly more publicly known by know, both Michael and Pike recognise the Section 31 Badge that Georgiou has, whereas in Enterprise they seemed to exist entirely outside of Starfleet's knowledge minus a few people. I kinda wanna know what caused that shift.

The Engineering team manage to confirm that Tilly isn't and indeed is in the Spore Network. Sylvia is rightfully pissed at May for bringing her here, however she is willing to listen to her out. Unfortunately she wants her to kill some sort of creature that entered the Spore Network when Discovery started making it's jumps, and is currently destroying the world of the Network.

Meanwhile on Discovery, as Georgiou leaves, Section 31 drops off an official Liaison, in the form of Ash Tyler. Pike confronts Michael about how different Georgiou is acting from how he remembers her, and that conversation gets put off, Michael and Ash have a small catch up, but nothing really happens immediately and Ash leaves to report to the Bridge.

Paul's plan to rescue Tilly is to jump Discovery into the network, essentially use the ship as a gateway between the real world world and mushroom world. There are a few risks involved, it's been previously established that the mycelium in the network eat normal matter, so the crew would only have an hour to find and extract Sylvia, and there is a risk crew members could just end up like the crew of the Glen if they're in the wrong place when the jump happens.

Pike approves of the Plan, and he gives a really good No Man Left Behind speech, and everyone gets ready to go, and the side of the ship sinks into the network, and Paul and Michael get to searching. Sylvia and May board the Discovery too, although she takes a path to the Armoury to deal with the creature, although they quickly meet up, and Tilly explains the situation

I love that the Monster remains completely unseen until just now, when we find out he is Hugh Culbur, somehow corrupted by the something. Which obviously leaves Paul in a state of conflict. He thought he lost his partner, and he's been grieving really hard since midway through last season, and now he has a chance to save him, but May is still desperate to get Sylvia and by extension the others to kill him. Honestly I was expecting the monster somehow be related to the Tartigrade, so the idea that he's Hugh was a shock, and a twist that I love, even if it's undoing the most impactful death of Season 1.

Meanwhile on the bridge, things are going bad, the Mycelium are still eating away at the Hull, and the Bridge is Starting to fall into the Network, meaning the bridge crew have less space to work. Tyler however calls in some assistance from Section 31, with hidden communicator. A section 31 ship, apparently capable of disguising itself as an asteroid appears out of nowhere, and starts physically towing Discovery out of the Network's space

This little sequence with Section 31 is beautiful, it really showcases how much further ahead they are than everyone else tech-wise.

Meanwhile, Paul trying to convince Hugh that he's real is heartbreaking, he pulls through, and Tilly convinces May to stand down. They rush back to the cube and... Heartbreakingly Hugh is unable to crossover. This scene breaks my heart. Paul had so so much hope, and it just got ripped away from him, and AAAA! I am crying. Fortunately, Sylvia manages to think of a plan to use the Cocoon that dragged her in to create a new body for Hugh on the other side. With that, Paul completes the jump out of the Network, and everything is calm. The team spend time watching the cocoon, waiting, until May fufills her side of the promise, and Hugh is saved.

After this Mission, Pike and the Section 31 leader, Leland have a conversation with the Admiral. Who, one forces them to put their differences aside and work together, and two gives us new information about the Signals. The sites with the Signals have something called Tachyon Radiation, which I'm assuming is the Star Trek equivalent of Artron energy because Leland immediately connects it's presence to Time Travel, although Pike also says could indicate a number of other things, namely Cloaking Devices and Transporters. A Mystery to think about, I can think multiple ways all three of these could be involved with whatever the Red Angels are, Spock is still the best lead.

This episode was a fun conclusion to the May and Tilly Arc, I had fun with it, the rescue mission itself was great, and seeing Section 31 in Action. I still have enough to go on to narrow down my theory on the Red Angels are, and the end of this one kinda widened up the possibilities to it could be anything now. This episode was fun!

[telelsie]

GAY SPOCK REAL OR FAKE PLEASE READ

i haven’t been an active tumblr user in about 3 years but SNW and the whole gay spock debate has been occupying enough space in my mind that i felt the need to inflict my opinion onto you all.

as a spirker myself, i’m not at all denying that the het romance arcs SNW is pushing for jim and spock are by no means my favorite. i dearly dearly wish that we would’ve gotten at least SOME queercoding from SNW this season, but i’m also not as disappointed as some of you are with the choices the SNW team has made for spock’s character. i’ve seen quite a few people begging for gay spock (bless u all) and canon spirk from SNW, which is unquestionably the ideal outcome for the series — and given the way both the writers and actors have reacted to and welcomed fan opinions and questions about where the jim/spock dynamic is heading, i don’t think it’s unreasonable at all for us to be optimistic about the show’s direction. if sybok can be in a queer relationship, then we’ve already gone miles past existing TOS canon in terms of queer rep.

admittedly, SNW has issues (ortegas show us ur girlfriend and the lesbian flag hanging in ur quarters!!! we all know it’s there!!), but i struggle to believe that the het romance arcs for jim and spock were written with the intention of convincing fans to ~let go of spirk~ or anything along those lines. in fact, i think the biggest issue that trek fans are having with SNW is wanting it to deliver on all the subtext and queercoding that existed in TOS on an implicit level explicitly and immediately. SNW is a prequel. it’s whole job is to set up and develop the relationships that appear in TOS; and it does an amazing job of this for the most part, especially in giving the female characters like una, christine, and t’pring traits other than crippling gene roddenberry syndrome. what i’m trying to say is that the SNW writers are doing a good job. yes, even (ESPECIALLY) with spock.

i get why people are protective of his character, i am too, but i don’t understand the lack of faith and, honestly, lack of viewing comprehension, that i’m seeing from self proclaimed spock fans. if you were expecting SNW to give us fully formed Nimoy-Spock within the first two seasons, then i’m sorry, but you’re a little bit of an idiot. a lot of you both don’t understand the purpose of the show (in general and in relation to spock’s development) and don’t value the importance of long form storytelling. in fact, in my ideal world, spirk wouldn’t even be together by the end of SNW. part of the value of the k/s dynamic in TOS was spock’s internal struggle with his feelings for jim, a struggle that defines his character, actions, and life throughout TOS and the movies. this is a struggle that isn’t resolved until midway through the movies, and it wouldn’t be doing justice to the canon that created spirk to have their relationship evolve into romance before the events of TOS.

spirk is, and always will be a long form story which derives its value from the fact that it is a Very Very slow burn. for the relationship to retain its value without being watered down by reinterpretation, it needs to have all the turns, pitfalls, and pining that it did in the original canon. although it’s entirely possible that the SNW writers have no plans of canonizing spirk, it’s also entirely possible that their plans are just a little more long term than what most of the community wants right now. i would far prefer a spirk that begins in 3 seasons of steadily evolving homoerotic friendship than one that jumps the gun and results in an unsatisfying and underbaked depiction of a relationship that deserves to be done justice.

TLDR: be patient!!! stop acting like SNW is actively taking spirk out behind the shed and shooting it!! SNW is already the best new trek to come out of the revival — give it a little more time and slack to build momentum and solidify its position within paramount and the fan community and you’ll be happy you waited.

[fireinmywoods]

I’ve been reading Kirk/McCoy on and off for like 10 years now, and you - through your fic and this here blog - are like single handedly responsible for dragging me back into it this time around. I wondered about any head canons you had around Leonard’s childhood and teenage years. We at least get a glimpse of young Kirk and young Spock in the movies, but nothing for McCoy, and I’m very curious about your take.

Oh, I have plenty of thoughts around Leonard's youth, though I'm afraid it's hard to recall what's already made it into posted works and what's still buried in WIP drafts, so forgive me if I get a little slip-slidey. Some of this is semi-canonical, some I've just made up for Reasons, but I think it's all plausible enough!

1. Leonard grew up as the only son of a prominent family in the (fictional) small town of Marysville, GA.

Extended universe canon has it that his paternal grandfather was Chief of Medicine at Emory in Atlanta, which I think we can reasonably assume is still the top hospital in Georgia as of the 23rd century. And of course his father was a doctor as well. So he comes from a solid line of highly educated and successful professionals.

Leonard is semi-canonically from Atlanta himself, but I've gone ahead and rejected that, because no fucking way was that folksy-ass motherfucker (who is after all "just an old country doctor") born and raised in Atlanta proper. (Though it is also extremely funny to me to imagine him as some city asshole cosplaying as a hayseed for some mysterious reason, knowing damn well that no one else on the Enterprise knows enough about Georgia to catch him out.)

To reconcile this, I've decided that his mother's family was originally from [vague hand wave] some ways outside Savannah and that Eleanora didn't much care for city living, so after getting married, she and David moved to Marysville, where they were initially viewed with some suspicion as outsiders (and high-and-mighty city slickers, at that) but in time came to be accepted and respected as pillars of the community.

2. He was the only grandchild on his maternal side and spoiled rotten by his granny and granddaddy.

The family alternated holidays between David's parents in Atlanta and Eleanora's parents near Savannah, and while Leonard loved both sets of grandparents, he preferred being at his granddaddy and granny's place and often accompanied his mama on extended summer visits. The McCoys were kind but a bit more serious and reserved, with a beautiful home filled with lots of things little boys weren't allowed to touch. Much more fun to run around orchards sticking worms in his pockets and getting into mild mischief. It didn't hurt that Granny was a superb baker (and also known for her eggnog, as noted in pentimento).

Fun fact: it's his granny and granddaddy's home outside Savannah (which tends to get a lot of there-and-gone afternoon thunderstorms in the summer) where his childhood memories take place in sforzando.

3. He was a mama's boy.

He looked a lot more like his father and of course went on to follow in David's footsteps as a doctor, but personality-wise, he's much more like his mother, who shared a similar blend of fussing over her brood and low tolerance for bullshit.

4. He was raised up right. Theoretically.

Look, an attempt was made, okay? Someone - many someones - for sure gave that boy all the right home training. He's from two long lines of born and bred Georgians, and there is absolutely no way he wasn't rigorously trained in appropriate manners, decorum, and housekeeping. He even did cotillion classes, remember! (Jim definitely remembers. Jim will never, ever forget, nor let slip an opportunity to bring it up.)

So his elders tried. And as noted in pentimento, his parents did their best to work with him on his temper when he hit his teen years and started blossoming into the mouthy hothead we know and love. It's not his their fault he grew up into such an irascible old cuss who's apparently determined that the genteel passive aggression he grew up steeped in must sometimes be supplemented with full-on aggressive aggression.

I guess what I'm saying is, you can't blame his raising for why he's so Like That. That's sheer force of personality, baby. (I mean, aside from the part where he enjoys swanning in to inquire about his frenemy's troubles and drop a "helpful" and vaguely insulting pearl of wisdom before swanning back off to gossip about it with his bestie. That there's a Southern specialty.)

5. He was fairly popular growing up.

I recognize I may encounter some skepticism on this point, given the, uh, everything about the grown-up Leonard we know and love, but let's look at the facts.

He was from a good family, which goes pretty far in a town like Marysville.

He's exceptionally smart and hard-working as an adult, and given where he ended up career-wise, one can imagine he must have done well in school. I've even gone so far as to decide he skipped a couple grades at some point, though admittedly that was partly an effort to make sense of his timeline so that he could be a fully trained doctor by the time we meet him on the shuttle at 28.

So anyway, he was smart and a good student - but as Jim intuited in pas de deux, it wasn't the sort of disquieting freaky-smart that made baby Jimmy something of an outcast in his own small town. Leonard's was a more...palatable intelligence, let's say. And it helped that he was also a jock.

Yeah, you heard me. The extended universe indicates that baby Leonard dreamed of being a pro basketball player, and as an adult he is in suspiciously good shape for a man of science, so I went ahead and had him play basketball in middle and high school until a knee injury took him off the court for good.

So in summary: smart, good family, an athlete, well-mannered, and looks like young Karl Urban? Yeah, I'm pretty sure my guy did just fine among his peers, introversion/short fuse/social awkwardness be damned.

In fact, I'm looking forward to introducing you to some of those peers in the high school reunion fic! Assuming I can manage to finish it before the heat death of the universe!

That's all I've got off the top of my head. I'd love to hear anyone else's ideas too!!

[calliethetrekkie]

Star Trek TOS S01E09: What Are Little Girls Made Of?

Original Thoughts

"The concept of androids/robots and emotion is used all the time in sci-fi, but it felt pretty well-done here, such as Andrea clearly having emotions despite being told that she doesn’t. Guess this is where ‘Kirk is a woman chaser’ comes from, though tbf he made out to get her to realize that she had feelings that aren’t just programmed. He more or less used the same manipulation on Ruk. It shows how pragmatic he can be. It was an interesting deconstruction, though I think the robotization process less robbed Korby of emotion and more robbed him of his morality. Still standard as far as sci-fi goes, but still interesting to see here."

(Original Post)

Rewatch Thoughts

Well, it's an episode without McCoy in it, so that already sucks.

Okay, in all seriousness, this was still a good watch. It was nice to see Christine get a bit of spotlight, since she's otherwise just kind of there. Does she ever go on another Away Mission after this one? I do feel like she was just... passive, though. Yeah, she tries to keep Korby from killing Kirk, and I get that it's hard for her because she still cares for her old fiancé. But it's also mostly just... her standing around as things happen. IDK, I just wish that she'd had more to do. But I guess her getting to do anything at all is something I should be grateful for.

This is one of those episodes I remember being really invested in the first time around... then two years later I could only remember the bare minimum about it. I guess a lot of the later ones overshadowed this one in my head. But there's still some good stuff in here.

There's the whole thing with the androids. I remember that being the selling point for me when I first watched the episode. There's a LOOOOT that I had on my mind. Korby robotizing himself and becoming utterly obsessed with his vision of creating a utopia, to the point where he was willing to keep Kirk captive and have an android impersonate him to get control of the ship. I find it interesting that the episode try to portray this as Korby losing his humanity... but IDT that's accurate. We see in this very episode with Andrea and Ruk that they are NOT fully controlled by their programming. Sure, it becomes confusing in Andrea's case, but it's still a fact.

No, what Korby lost wasn't his humanity, but his morality. Let's face it, humans can be driven off the deep end and to such twisted obsessions. Kirk even lists off several dictators that did just that, the only difference being that IDT Korby was pure evil. He lost sight of everything, maybe in part due to robotizing himself in desperation. Either way, it lead to him believing a mere delusion that as we learned from Ruk already failed once with his original creators. Hell, his insistence on Andrea not having emotions feel like him projecting his denial onto her. His plan was doomed from the start, and it ended in him dying for real.

I actually feel kind of bad for the androids. Ruk was left after his makers tried to kill him, his need to survive overpowering his programming. Andrea was programmed to please and obey Korby and at the end it's clear that she's in love with him, Kirk's tactics causing her to be utterly confused. It's clear that, regardless of Korby's insistence, the androids do feel things. The only one we don't really see that from is the android Kirk, but he didn't exactly live long enough to see if anything popped up.

Speaking of Kirk...

This shows Kirk at some of his most pragmatic. He takes Andrea captive briefly. He strangles Korby to make an escape attempt. He more or less forces himself on Andrea to make her confused. He decides to use racism against Spock so that he'll figure out that at the very least something's not right. It is really some of Kirk at his most callous, but that's not a bad thing in my opinion. At least part of it can be explained as Kirk trying to survive and realizing that he's stuck with a man who's clearly lost his mind. The bit with Spock is a little harder to explain... maybe being strapped butt naked on that spinning table can be blamed on that XD How they convinced Shatner to do that shoot I'll never know...

But anyway, as much as I hate the depiction of Kirk as an arrogant, womanizing hot-shot, he shouldn't have those darker parts ignored. Like we saw in The Enemy Within, that darkness is there and he needs it. He NEVER would have acted as he did if he didn't have the ability to threaten or manipulate others. If he has to do those things, he'll do it. That doesn't make him bad, it makes him a more interesting character, imo. He's still ultimately heroic, but he'll certainly play dirty when he has to.

I'm trying to think of what else to say, but there isn't much. I liked seeing Ted Cassidy again, and this time not as just a dummy. Not much goes on with the Enterprise, so I guess McCoy being absent isn't really that big of a deal since he wouldn't have anything to do anyway... but I hate not having him! Even Spock isn't really given much to do except get clued in on the fake. Though the scene at the start where Chapel asks if he's ever been engaged and the face he makes is hilarious. Oh Christine, if you only knew.

So yeah, not much left to say. It's a good episode, I just don't have a lot to say about it. But it's one I'd be willing to watch again, so hey there's that.

Original Rating: 4/5 Rewatch Rating: 7/10

[My TOS Reviews]

[TOS S1 Reviews]

[Previous Review] / [Next Review]

[lenievi]

For the random character asks: 1, 30, and 37? Dealer's choice of character ;)

I initially wanted to answer each one for a different character, but it became just Kirk...

1. Canon I outright reject I'm someone who follows canon (sometimes to my own detriment, especially when it comes to fics lol), so I typically am able to reconcile pretty much anything (even things I initially had an ugh reaction about).

When it comes to Kirk, I reject the entirety of Requiem for Methuselah though – I haven't seen it since 2020, but accepting that Kirk would just flirt and fall in love with a woman when his entire crew was dying is absolutely wild to me. So… the episode just doesn't exist for me, and I take nothing from it into consideration. I know that I should rewatch it now when time passed (and I also have a different understanding of the characters), and even if I ended up changing my mind, just knowing that the episode ends with Spock manipulating Kirk's memories and feelings is so offputting to me (or rather knowing that a lot of people romanticize the moment and villainize McCoy…)

ETA: I know what the ending scene was going for with its "If only I could forget." "I wish he could forget her." "Forget." (and I do kind of enjoy the idea that McCoy can manipulate Spock - but that's not the popular reading of the scene), I just dislike Spock erasing Kirk's memory and people seeing it as positive or proof of "love", rather than something really messed up on Spock's part, something Kirk would hate being done to him without his knowledge. If I didn't know what the fandom thinks about this episode, it might be better.

30. Sleeping habits It's really hard to keep a schedule on a starship, especially when you're a captain. Typically, when everything is calm, Kirk makes sure to be in his room by ten o’clock. He takes a shower, takes care of stuff, reads a book for thirty minutes, and goes to sleep. Never after eleven, if he can help it. (Because he likes to get up early.)

When things aren’t calm, he just steals an hour or two whenever he can, to hide in his room and at least rest if not sleep.

37. What they really think about themselves hmmmm I think Kirk in his early 30s was very insecure about his age, because he felt he was too young and many people he served with were around the same as him (or even older), and he could sometimes feel like he didn’t have their complete trust. His insecurities made him put up a front, which then put a distance between himself and his crew (and it got a bit worse after he killed Gary), and he believed that was for the best.

He believed that he always needed to be in control, he needed to be able to make a difference, to show everyone that he was worth it, that his life wouldn’t be wasted, and that he deserved to live when others died (because of him). He thought he didn’t deserve his own life, only the life dictated to him by the Enterprise...

[swimmingwolf59]

Saw a friend doing this so I was curious about my own c:

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Spock Characters: Spock (Star Trek), Leonard "Bones" McCoy, kirk briefly, other enterprise crew members briefly Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Baseball, Fluff, Getting Together, Making Out, brief lead-up to smut but no full on smut (sorry lol), references to sexual encounters, Arousal, Tide Pools, Ocean Summary:

Spock, a star baseball player, faces off against a pitcher who has the most beautiful hands he has ever seen. He finds it more than a little difficult to focus on the game, or anything else, after he witnesses the pitcher's wind-up routine.

26 notes - Posted August 8, 2022

#4

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Spock Characters: Spock (Star Trek), Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Nyota Uhura Additional Tags: marriage proposals, Established Relationship, Constellations, Fluff, tos and snw canon compliant Summary:

McCoy comes home late after a long surgery and asks Spock a very important question. However, in the morning, Spock is the only one who remembers what he asked.

32 notes - Posted July 26, 2022

#3

Can I give you more than one so you can choose in case none of them would be inspiring? But also if none of them are that's also fine

Spock&Sarek + vacation

McCoy&Sarek + tea

spones + Amanda

Ahhhh all of these prompts are so fun, thank you!! I may do all of them eventually lol, though it's probably not surprising which one I picked to do first ;) I already failed to just write 100 words lol but at least it's still short!

--

Sarek startles awake as Doctor McCoy suddenly appears next to his biobed. He watches with mild confusion as the doctor places a teapot and two cups down on the table next to his bed. It’s the first time he’s woken up since the surgery, and based on the lack of pain he’s currently feeling, it must have been a success.

McCoy glances at him, and upon realizing he’s awake says, “Forgive me, Ambassador – I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It is no matter.” He stares as McCoy pours the tea. “May I ask what you are doing?”

“I thought you might like some tea. Spock programmed a recipe for Vulcan spice tea into the replicator, and it’s pretty damn good in my opinion.” McCoy offers one of the cups, and Sarek takes it. “The Captain says I need to work on my bedside manner, so. Here I am.”

“I see.” Sarek looks into the cup, and then glances at his son lying in the biobed at the far end of the room. He’s still unconscious, and something in his chest tightens. “My son—?”

“He’s fine, despite his best efforts,” McCoy grumbles, and then checks himself. “Ah, sorry. His blood production rate is back to normal. And your heart is back to normal, too.”

“Then I must compliment you on your surgical skill, Doctor,” Sarek says. McCoy seems surprised by this, and Sarek reflects on their interactions thus far. He supposes he had been less than polite to the doctor when he had asked him why he had retired so early. While it had been because he did not want Amanda to learn about his heart condition, it was still inexcusable behavior. “As you probably already guessed, my heart condition is why I retired so early. Forgive me for not answering your question before.”

“Oh, it’s alright.” McCoy leaves briefly to place a cup of tea by Spock’s bed, and then returns to Sarek’s side. “It was probably insensitive of me to ask.”

“And yet that did not stop you from asking anyway,” Sarek says drily, realizing only after he’s said it that he should not tease McCoy as he would his wife.

But, to his surprise, McCoy grins. “You know, a lot of things make more sense now that I know you’re Spock’s father.”

Sarek blinks at him, unsure of his meaning. He glances over at his son again, who is starting to stir. McCoy also notices this and leaves Sarek’s side, fussing around Spock as he checks his biomonitor and hands him the teacup. He’s complaining about Spock taking unnecessary risks and giving McCoy an ulcer on purpose, which seems strange coming from a medical professional. But seeing the playfulness in Spock’s expression as he responds to McCoy in kind, Sarek realizes that he misinterpreted McCoy’s teasing from earlier.

He is gratified to see that Spock has such a close and valued friend.

Sarek takes a sip of tea. It’s good, and tastes just like the kind he makes from scratch at home. To think that his son programmed the replicator to produce an exact copy…

He feels warm, and tells himself it is merely because of the tea.

34 notes - Posted November 30, 2022

#2

My friend and I realized that OFMD is literally a Bollywood film and I thought it was too funny not to share 🤣

Like:

-someone gets shot

-there's a jealousy arc

-mysterious twin brother popping up out of nowhere

-evil mother in law (aka Izzy because evil mothers in law are always antagonistic towards the mc because they don't think they'll ever be good enough for their child which is just a hilarious interpretation of Izzy imo)

-wealth disparity arc (Blackbeard wanting to go to that fancy party because his mother had always told him they'd never be that kind of people)

-arranged marriage conflict

-and all the episodes combined are like 5 hours long

basically every single trope in a Bollywood film is in ofmd. All that's missing is the song and dance numbers 🤔

41 notes - Posted May 16, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Last reblog reminded me that I was thinking about spones accidentally swapping uniforms the other day....

It's the long sleeved uniforms so neither of them notice right away, but when they step on the bridge Kirk notices immediately. As bones comes to stand beside him, Kirk grins and says, "why bones, I didn't know you got a promotion."

Bones has NO idea what he's talking about at first, but spock does, and he just freezes at his post.

Massive teasing ensues.

Omg it would be even funnier if some admiral was coming aboard before they had time to change and kept referring to bones as Commander and First Officer, much to Spock's annoyance

139 notes - Posted September 23, 2022

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