#tarsus and vulcan and khan

[bardicious]

Star Trek TOS/SNW Prompt List

Okay, for now this is what I got, and I'm thinking maybe Ill try to make a list like this every month (???maybe?) to get my brain working. Might do another Garashir one tomorrow or after tomorrow. 🤔

Spirk are beamed down to a planet of giants

Spirk fixing a console problem from outside the Enterprise

Spirk feels their T'hy'la bond across the galaxy from each other. (Conceptualization of the T'hy'la)

Spock murders the giant Omni (The Price of Phoenix) in defense of an injured Jim.

The moment Spock mind melds with Jim (as Janice Lester) and the memories that pass between them.

Professor James T. Kirk, a stack of books with legs, teaching a class with Mitchell and Carol in attendance and Janice Lester as co-professor.

Jim takes a moment to mourn his brother, Sam, and his sister-in-law, Aurelian with his nephew Peter.

Jim fights the Gorn (SNW style)

Jim watches the Enterprise as it pierces through Tarsus IV's clouds. The crowds that are left stand in shock as well.

Trelane comes back, older (as teen personality vs TOS's young boy personality), a menace as ever. How will Spock and Kirk deal with him this time?

M'Benga in the middle of the Klingon War.

Doctor M'Benga and Doctor Chapel marry, post tmp. The Enterprise (TOS/SNW) are in attendance.

La'an mourns her Jim as the timeline switches back into place.

Omni (The Price of Phoenix) abducts Jim, on Vulcan as Spock prepares for Kolinahr hears Jim's distress. (pre-tmp) (yes, I am obsessed with this villain and the books)

Jim with his Tholian child, Bright Eyes, find themselves in Sulu's botanic lab.

Mirror Verse!Spirk meet over Pike's dead body, Uhura and Spock are aligned, and impressed with their new Captain.

The SNW crew ARE turned into bunnies, Jim, Spock, and Uhura have to care for them while they fix the problem

The Enterprise and Farragut crews team up to deal with a situation on a Greek themed planet. (SNW)

Harry Mudd and his double? is once again found doing something criminal and ridiculous. 

McSpirk finds themselves in the Mirror Verse's past, an earth where Khan wins, and successfully conquers the Earth (my headcanon on why the Mirror Verse exists).

Young Jim copes (or doesn't) with his first kills on Tarsus IV, while holding young Kevin Riley.

Uhura is planning a musical, sadly many of the bridge crew decline participation, surprisingly Spock does not! He plays the music. Their show becomes a yearly tradition.

Admiral Kirk sits alone in his home on Earth, and drinks. He thinks about Spock and the Enterprise and wonders how it all went wrong.

Yeoman Rand brings new Earth trends to the Enterprise, Uhura, Chapel, La'an, and Una all try something new.

Yeoman Rand and Captain Kirk fight a group of hostile aliens, their movements are in sync. (Yeoman Rand is Captain Kirk's protégée in this prompt)

Rand, Uhura, and Sulu attempt to talk to the local parliament comprised by what looks like sentient flowers.

Future!Spirk get time displaced and find themselves on the SNW Enterprise, not knowing whether they've stopped at an alternate universe, or the past, they keep quiet on the state of future affairs. Between a living Sam Kirk, and an uninjured Pike, both Jim and Spock are stressed.

Jim hesitates to fire at the dikironium cloud creature, and loses consciousness as the creature sets upon the Farragut.

Jim and Spock, and begrudgingly Droxine, catch the view from Stratos.

The enterprise picks up a child from a dying ship. The child with prophetic powers opens a popup storybook that involves the future of the enterprise, the art style depicts a style like the tos series, and two indistinct figures of a captain and his first officer. Chris Pike watches in trepidation as the story unfolds.

[thegeminisage]

the thing about star trek into darkness is, there are literally no redeeming qualities to star trek into darkness. EXCEPT. the warp core thing. and the warp core thing is GENUINELY so nuts it canceled out enough of the rest of that film's bullshit to get a third kelvin film made.

like. i watched the kelvin movies first, right. and so when i found out that it was spock in the warp core in the original wrath of khan i lost my fucking mind. i'm retroactively imagining sitting in the theater as an OG trekkie watching star trek into darkness waiting for spock to die in the core and then kirk goes "you aren't making the climb" and the shock kills me, probably. imagine if that had been in a good movie. or even a mediocre movie! the very conceit of the kelvin movies means that moves like this - a painful and unexpected reshuffle of canon - are where the strongest storytelling potential lies. we call it the "alternate original series" but you TRULY could have remade tos as a WHOLE SERIES instead of 3 action movies with this premise, instead of whatever they are trying to do in strange new worlds (which to be fair i have not seen yet but i do dread). wasted potential!!!

other "fun" (shocking, horrible) canon swaps aos could have done:

spock or bones somehow have jim's soul instead of whatever happened with khan's blood

jim OR whoever housed his soul has amnesia during the whale thing in the voyage home

bones's kid dies instead of jim's kid

jim's brother is the one to start the freaky cult in the final frontier, spock's dies at the result of those little pancake guys - maybe they attack new vulcan instead

bones knew there'd be a cure so he refused to kill his father when asked, but then his dad kills himself (so he regrets his choice no matter which road he takes)

bones or spock on tarsus iv instead of jim

spock splits into two selves during the enemy within and one is the vulcan one and one is the human one (this makes him miserable) (to be fair i have seen this in fanfic 1000 times)

spock or bones in the brainwashing chair from dagger of the mind

spock is the crazy person running around depression era nyc and jim and bones are stuck in the apartment. or SPOCK AND BONES ARE IN THE APARTMENT...

pon farr hits and bones fights spock. or jim fights him but thinks he's killed him rather than the other way around

bones gets possessed by sargon or henoch

spock the one having the nervous breakdown during romulan espionage

bones bodyswapped with the vengeful ex <3

and don't even get me started on mirrorverse.

anyway the fact that we're never getting a mediocre 4th movie let alone any of this is criminal. paramount i just want to talk

[gerardspuppy]

Thoughts on aos bc why not

+ Casting was great (except benedict cumberbatch as Khan he's a good actor but like. Didn't fit the role imo)

+ Weird detail but the way the starships go into warp speed is sick

+ The relationships between the younger triumvirate were great.

+ Leonard Nimoy :)

- the whole spock/uhura thing. Honestly regardless of if u ship them or not (and i do like the ship) there's no way they would've gotten together at this point in Spock's life anyway. He definitely wasn't comfortable enough with his emotions to date someone at that point. Especially since they were making out in front of other people. What happened to touching hands alone being incredibly intimate for Vulcans.

- ok maybe for unknown reasons they desperately wanted to give Spock a girlfriend. Whatever. But spock/tpring would've made so much more sense. They could've left Uhura alone without forcing her into a relationship (at least so early on and with little chemistry/buildup), and we would've gotten to see tpring. I wish they'd included her tbh.

- they made young Jim way too cool. They also gave him good driving skills. Unacceptable

- Idk if Tarsus iv happened in this timeline or not but if it did and they didn't mention it at all that's pretty strange

- this is my complaint for most of new trek but the colours are so so bland. Give us more wacky tos colour schemes please.

Honestly enjoyed the movies, the only thing that genuinely took me out of it was spock and uhura straight up making out on the transporter pad. Like. Tf. But they're like my biggest gripe w it pretty much the rest was fun.

[ao3feed-spirk]

Recognition of the Self

read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/51511678 by Tragicomic_Warrior_Poet After the confrontation with V'Ger, Kirk and Spock are married and embarked on another 5 year mission on Enterprise, but Spock's discovery of a half-Vulcan child on an abandoned Romulan colony forces Jim to remember things he'd rather forget. Words: 734, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 1 of Little Cat - Assorted Saavik Stories Fandoms: Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen, M/M Characters: James T. Kirk, Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Spock (Star Trek), Saavik (Star Trek) Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock, James T. Kirk & Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Saavik & Spock (Star Trek), James T. Kirk & Saavik Additional Tags: Dialogue Heavy, Post-Movie: Star Trek I: The Motion Picture (1979), Pre-Movie: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Tarsus IV References (Star Trek), Angst, Found Family, Parenting, David Marcus - mentioned read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/51511678

[walkingstackofbooks]

SNW 2x03 Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow thought-stream

[30 June '23]

First of all, what an amazing, TOS-style title. I love it.

La'an sounds so done right at the beginning XD

I thought this was going to be a complaint - "Nobody told me when I took this assignment just how many friends it would make for me."

Oh, it was XD

Pelia! Already an icon

"I will make every effort to practice less vigorously."

"Well as your sparring partner, I advise you talk to your physician."

Okay wtf was that?? Okay random dude just disappearing?

Kirk!

Wait this is yet another AU! Kirk?!

Is she gonna grab him and press the button? Because she totally should.

He doesn't feel like Kirk... but also I guess he *isn't* our Kirk, so that's okay?

*BIG SIGNS WITH TORONTO* "Seems to be New York City." Oh, honey XD

"I was born in space on the USS Iowa" - huh! I like the way they did that!

Hah, they dressed in the same clothes, hilarious! XD

Ohhh... does the crush really need to happen? :/

Chess chess chess! It is Kirk!

Actually, re:La'an's crush, tbf, I think it's just weird to not have a crush on Kirk myself 😅

Wait, mid 21st century? I thought in the ST universe that was when WW3 was happening... *Checks* 2026-51 yeaaaaa

Kinda creepy La'an, just standing there and watching him think.

Because we know Jim so well, it feels kind of weird that she doesn't

"My earth still has sunsets." Boom. That sure is a good argument.

I forgot she knew Sam! Or in fact that Sam was on the Enterprise 😅

You should look up Pelia!

Is this Jim actually gonna be a good driver?

VULCAN NERVE PINCH WHAT?

YISSSS, A PIECE OF THE ACTION THROWBACK INCREDIBLE

Tbf I'm sure that car is easier than 1930s

Wait why has she read his file and not Sam's

What happened to lessen the eugenics war impact???

Why do we have to have action Kirk in ace? But at least it's au Kirk?

Profiling? Oh Canadian against Americans?

My wife was abducted.

Love how ahe has to do all the work

Jim keeps being hungry but this Jim never went to Tarsus?

So is this supposed to be now so I'm America the sanctuary districys

Engineering extension

"I might actually know someone in Vermont." YES, PELIA!

>> Though my guess is she's not actually an engineer yet, just because that would be funny :P

I like how weird time travel gets when immortals are involved

"People are usually difficult for me." Oh, La'aaan <3

He's just another guy though 😅

🙄

((Why can they always squeeze m/f romance in one episode but never anything queer in one-and-a-bit seasons?))

Sera?! You're a villain?!

"Try me." *bang* oh jeez oh wow they really did just straight up kill Kirk??? Incredible.

Superior Romulan strength...

How is Khan about?? This is the wrong time? Unless they're going with DS9's "the Eugenics war was 200 years ago" miscontinuity and placing it where WW3 is supposed to be? I am a confuse

"And all this was supposed to happen back in 1992, and I've been trapped here for 30 years trying to get my shot at him."

WHAT WHAT WHAT???? SO THE TIMELINE IS ALREADY CHANGED? WHAT??? I love time travel but man this is messing up my head!

What on Earth just happened though with her disappearing into smoke? what.

"Are you gonna kill me?" Jesus, I cannot with this. MY HEART

Fricking Heck

So Khan was once just be a kid being experimented on? (Like Julian? 💔)

BUT HAS TIME CHANGED? WAS THE EUGENICS WARS NOW IN 2020S?? Pls I need to know!

Uhura's complete confusion and need to check out La'an when Pike says "You're not wearing your uniform." XD

Ohh, our girl's just been though a whole heck of a lot

Eyyy damn for a sec I thought that was gonna be Section 31 😅 Temporal Investigations are slightly less fucked

Nah nah nah, this girl needs therapy, please

Well she forget this? I kinda hope so... Because gosh, if she doesn't that's her and Pike who are gonna be weird when Kirk actually shows his face

They just ban her from talking to anyone about this despite all the massive trauma they just dumped on her?!! No that's not okay actually??? Damnnnn

She just straight up rings Kirk? Oh my word I love her so much

Ohhhh, La'an <3 <3 <3

This is the worst this is so unfair my poor girl... Oh, what the heck strange new worlds, what sort of comfort show are you??!

This was a brilliant episode, I loved it so much, and seeing so much more of La'an was awesome!

[look-at-the-stars-tonight]

Thinking about AOS Jim Kirk on the daily. 

[marlinspirkhall]

i just finished reading your horror fic 'tomorrow never comes' and i loved it sm!!! say do you have any aos spirk horror fic reccs? your work has started me on a binge and im down for some creepy shit

Hey! I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed Tomorrow Never Comes; it's nice to see it getting some love.

[ID] An illustration from Tomorrow Never Comes shows an image written in dried blood which reads "PLAY ME" in all-caps, with an arrow pointing to the right towards a green PADD. [End ID] Illustration done by the wonderful IdeasCornucopia on ao3, @idealisticcatastasis on tumblr

I've isolated the specific search for AOS K/S "horror" for your convenience.

Recs in no particular order:

Descent of Halcyon by itwastheband

Kirk is plagued by headaches, nightmares, ghosts and visions. I had the honour of beta-reading this fic for the 2020 T'hy'la Bang, and I loved every minute of it.

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence.

Relevant tags: Alternate Universe - Sentinels & Guides, Blood and Gore

Killer Plants From Outer Space! by cowboyjimkirk

This fic is a real treat, you'll love every moment of it. One of those fics which feels like you've read a classic, mind-bending sci-fi novel. I can't recommend it enough.

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence.

Relevant Tags: Hanahaki Disease, Tarsus IV, Body Horror, THIS ISN'T AS DEPRESSING AS IT SOUNDS I PROMISE, it's just a nice halloween romp

Secret Vulcan Mating Rituals by Chase820

At first glance, this fic doesn't seem like a horror fic, but before long you'll be reading about violence, murder, espionage, repression and mind-torture. An excellent read if that's your kinda thing, with a surprise Doctor Who cameo in the middle. Please note that this fic is unfinished as of 2012.

Warnings: Rape/non-con, graphic depictions of violence.

Relevant Tags: Porn With Plot, Spock's World (Diane Duane)

in dreams i cry to wake again by Ahira

I'm a little biased because I was present in the t'hy'la bang 2022 server when this was created

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply (see author's tags), non/con

Relevant Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Blood, Depression, Suicidal Thoughts, Body Horror

Kashan by Plotweaver

Torture-heavy fic which leans pretty heavily on some horror conventions. Angst with happy ending.

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Relevant Tags: hand whipping, Hurt/Comfort, romulans being assholes, Torture

In The Dark by imzadi_deanna, with art by thunderbottle

I'd be remiss not to recommend this fic by my partner in crime imzadi_deanna, as she was my wonderful beta-reader for TNC. "In The Dark" is unfinished at time of writing, but the chapters that are there deserve a read if you like disturbing imagery.

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Relevant Tags: Psychological Horror, Tarsus IV, Hurt!Jim

Honorable mention: Safe by SidSky

This isn't a K/S fic, but I'm including it because it's my go-to fic for anything fucked up. It really has a handle on Leonard McCoy's characterisation and headspace- and my god, does it drag you down into that headspace with him. The chapters on recovery at the end are wonderful, and it does a better job at making Khan truly terrifying than any other piece of Star Trek media. Go over there, and tell Sid that Marlin sent you.

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence.

Relevant Tags: Kidnapping, Manipulation, complex characters, Mind Games, Torture, Violence, suggestive threats, Character Study

Thanks again to @idealisticcatastasis for the page dividers, they're always good fun to use on TNC posts.

• [prev] Endless Spirk Fic Recs [next] •

[princesssarcastia]

Thoughts on Star Trek AOS? (And do you think Kirk was on Tarsus?)

i have SO MANY THOUGHTS about star trek aos, so buckle up.  brace yourself.

star trek aos is a terrible disaster and i love it SO MUCH.  for me, star trek 2009 is still in that class of unreasonably pleasing movies like the mummy or stardust or jumanji: welcome to the jungle.  what they are isn’t exactly top notch but you love them for being exactly what they are.

star trek aos is a star-studded fucking phenomenal cast of some of the best actors working today, which makes up for the very inconsistent writing and unfortunate low-level current of sexism.

literally where would i be today if chris pine could not make faces Like That. i honestly couldn’t tell you.

overall, I have quite a few bones to pick with JJ Abrams for setting up a star trek universe that is less Wacky Space Utopia adventures with liberal political commentary ranging from unsubtle to im-hitting-you-over-the-head-with-my-opinions-like-they’re-a-brick—

to this kind of overtly militarized action-hero adventure porn where one white man saves the universe from Scary People Who Don’t Look Like Us And Are Crazy.  I also don’t appreciate what they did to Jim Kirk, turning him into this womanizing self-centered bastard who has to be in charge.  I REALLY don’t appreciate the casual misogyny, what with the last of rank stripes for women and the gratuitous sex-ed up scenes and the way that Amanda Grayson gets fridged for man-pain and and and— you get the picture.

Or at least, that’s what they tried to do to jim kirk.  and god fucking bless chris pine for being able to make facial expressions, because i firmly believe if pretty much almost anyone else had played Jim Kirk as written by JJ Abrams, that’s exactly what he would have been.

But because of chris pine’s acting, instead, most of the AOS fandom and I realized/decided that this “womanizing” version of jim kirk actually really really hates himself so much, most likely for trauma reasons. 

we took that shit and ran with it and never really stopped.

zachary quinto is also like god tier casting.  unfortunately the writers for the first two movies mostly gave him Anger as a primary motivator, which like, is not exactly how I would interpret Spock at all, but quinto played this Angry Spock so so well.

ZOE SALDANA PLAYS THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE, NYOTA UHURA, PERFECTLY AND THAT’S ALL I’LL HEAR ON THE MATTER.

john cho should be cast in everything ever he’s amazing and I love seeing him.  this man has the range. hikaru sulu is the backbone of this fucking ship.  this man wins the big damn hero award every single movie. 

i still miss living in the same world as anton yelchin. i really, really do.

I also have found family feelings all over these movies, where these baby versions of iconic characters from the sixties are brought together too early to witness too much fucking trauma.  harry potter references aren’t exactly in vogue right now, but there’s this one piece from a—well, actually, its a harry potter reference in an mcu fic i read years ago, now that i think about it, but anyway:

it was something like, there are some things you can’t go through with a person—like that mountain troll in harry potter—without becoming friends for life.  there are some crucibles that will bind you together forever.  and awful as it is, I think Nero and the Vulcan genocide were the AOS crew’s mountain troll.  there’s no going back or separating, after that.

also I feel like there’s a ton of competence porn in this trilogy that i deeply, deeply enjoy.

star trek: 2009 and into darkness are both grimdark male power fantasy bullshit that only accidentally hits all the right buttons for me.  I love them dearly but i know EXACTLY what they are, thank you.

star trek: beyond is a delightful movie with no real plot where our favorite crew are finally Adults With A Modicum Of Common Sense And Stability, instead of Disaster Children Angsting All Over The Place, and they get to save the universe with the power of excellent rock music and friendship. how cool is that?!?  i wanna give simon pegg a high five for making this movie.

on a more meta note, what I find kind of satisfying about these movies is that—for all his many faults that i’m always happy to expound upon—JJ Abrams actually went for it.  He Did That.  He just made his own brand new timeline, killed jim kirk’s dad, then gave him an abusive uncle/step-dad, then literally destroyed one of the founding planets of the Federation, then he, in an iconic fashion, switched Jim and Spock’s places in the infamous “wrath of khan” death scene, so instead Spock gets to watch Jim die. 

and you know what? I can forgive a lot of bullshit for that kind of poetic angsty fanfic plot detail. 

every time uhura says, “an alternate reality,” in star trek 2009 just gives me chills.  every time she says it, you feel the weight of sixty years of history and legacy sitting on these people’s shoulders, the weight of arguably one of the most popular TV shows of all time.

imagine, living in a new world you’re aware isn’t the one that was supposed to be.  imagine that!

oh! and on the question of tarsus:

what I think is probably true irl: JJ Abrams has never thought that far ahead in his life.  correct me if i’m wrong, but hadn’t he.....not even watched star trek.........when he made these movies............like lol i’d bet you this man didn’t even really know Tarsus was a thing.  And even if he did, I don’t think he thought it was part of the new canon he was creating.  AOS is much more self-contained than the serialized universe the original star trek was, so I don’t think that AOS was intended to encompass all those things, like tarsus, that we as a fandom like to obsess over.

what I personally enjoy: i love me some AOS fic that explores the ridiculous amounts of trauma that comes from living through a genocide.  I think that, given we all decided AOS Jim Kirk hates himself, and engages in a shit ton of self-sabotaging and destructive behavior to cope, it’s a reasonable jump to think that at least some of that comes from some survivor’s guilt bullshit from Tarsus.  And honestly, hit me up if you want recs for this, because boy do I have them.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: no one does angst quite like AOS!Jim Kirk.

what I believe wholeheartedly: this is like Schrödinger's Plot Point, okay, it both exists and doesn’t exist simultaneously.  it’s easy to read tarsus into some of jim’s behavior, and it’s easy to read none of it in, and both of those choices are valid.  go with your gut, go with what makes you happy, go with what you think makes sense.  This is where fandom lives, in these little details that fall through the cracks.

anyway WOW did I talk a lot.  those are at least some of my star trek thoughts.  i do have others, but i’ve expounded on them before on this blog, and y’all don’t need me to repeat myself

ask me my thoughts on ______

[bearsinpotatosacks]

Character that weren't seen/included in AOS and my ideas for them in AOS

Christine Chapel-

Trans woman 

Trained as a Biochemist from 2249-2253

Goes on HRT in 2251

Has a vaginoplasty in 2255

Goes to train as a nurse in Starfleet Academy in 2253

Works with Bones in Starfleet Medical from 2255-2257

Gets assigned to a medical Starbase in 2257

On Enterprise in 2258

Has a womb transplant in 2259 (uses lie "She slept with Jim Kirk, he didn't remember her so she fled to the outer frontier" as a cover) so misses Khan

Joins the crew on the 5 year mission 

Becomes close with Bones, M'Benga and Uhura 

Geoffrey M'Benga-

Born in Uganda in 2229

Joined Starfleet in 2247, did 5 years for his medical degree, 1 foundation year and was on Vulcan doing his residency years by 2253 and was done on a Starbase by 2257

He wasn't on the Enterprise when Nero happened but arrived soon after to help remaining Vulcans, he was quite heavily affected 

He joined the crew when they returned to space, mainly because Spock was there and M'Benga is specialised in Vulcan anatomy 

He joined the crew for the 5 year mission 

Kevin Riley-

Born in 2242

Survived the Tarsus IV massacre and was saved by Jim Kirk, who picked him up when Kevin's mum was taken away and killed

They didn't stay in touch

Kevin was somewhat of a child genius and joined Starfleet at 16 after Nero happened 

He joined the Crew after the events of Beyond and befriended Sulu 

He's just as proud of his irish heritage as he is in TOS

And just as prone to singing 

Janice Rand-

Born 2241

Joined Starfleet in 2259, partially motivated by the Nero attacks, partially motivated by Jim's death, resurrection and the overwhelming increase in adverts for Starfleet 

Left the Academy in 2263 and joined the ship when the 5 year mission kicked off again

T'Pring-

Born in 2230

Was the closest thing to a friend Spock had, she didn't bully him and studied with him

Joined the VSA in 2248 and was fully trained by 2254

Was on a VSA vessel when Nero destroyed Vulcan 

Met up with Spock after Jim died when Spock was visiting Ambassador Spock 

Amok Time happens in 2260 but maybe there's no Stonn, maybe there's no fight

All I know is that this restarts Spock and Uhura's arguments about whether Spock should go to (in Bones' words) make little Vulcans or be with Uhura because he wants to 

~~

I hope you enjoyed these. All I'm saying is that, Beyond ended with a lot of crew gone and a new ship. So we could, perhaps, get some small scenes, even a glimpse of some of these characters. Probably not T'Pring but maybe we could see finally see Chapel in the hypothetical 4th film since she's mentioned in every film. Anyway, what are your headcanons for these characters in AOS?

[fireinmywoods]

the heart of the matter (is Leonard McCoy)

Followers...friends. I come to you today, hat in hand, to ask for your support in a certain fandom matter, a trifling concern of little real consequence which nevertheless has been driving me absolutely cross-eyed bonkers for some years now.

Simply put: can we please all agree that Bones is the heart of the Enterprise???

In AOS, I mean. I’m not aware of any debate over this when it comes to TOS, where the roles of the triumvirate have always been explicit, though there are a few different ways to identify them:

Spock = logos = superego = head

Bones = pathos = id = heart

Kirk = ethos = ego = soul

So clear! So clean! So universally accepted by Trek fandom at large!

Oh, but things get murkier in AOS, and there are plenty of posts floating around which suggest that it’s Kirk, not McCoy, who serves as the heart in the Kelvin timeline. Even the writers of the first two AOS films have outright stated that their interpretation of the triumvirate had the original roles switched, with Kirk as the highly emotional one and McCoy as the arbiter between Kirk’s passion and Spock’s logic. It’s true that this technically counts as a Word of God pronouncement by the actual creators of 2/3 of the series thus far, which some would argue renders it canon. However, it’s equally true that those same creators also felt that Kirk was a fuckboi and that Benedict Cumberbatch wonderfully embodied their vision for Khan Noonien Singh, so honestly, who gives a hot hollerin’ fuck what those dingdongs think. This seems as justified a time as any to invoke Death of the Author, and in fact, it’s my firm belief that despite the writers’ intentions, Star Trek and Into Darkness both support the original triumvirate breakdown.

Under the cut you’ll find a long-winded and self-indulgent ~*~character analysis~*~ of the Kelvin-timeline incarnations of Jim Kirk and Leonard “Bones” McCoy, reviewing why Leonard is still unmistakably the heart, unpacking what the hell Jim’s deal is, and finally taking a look at some key examples from canon, because ya girl believes in showing her work.

Let’s get down to business.

[A quick warning, as this is starting to spread beyond my own followers: if you don’t like McKirk as a romantic pairing, you ain’t gonna like part IV, so I’d bow out before then or just take your leave now.]

i. Leonard

Independent of Jim’s characterization, it should be blindingly obvious that Leonard is the heart. He’s by far the most nakedly emotional of our seven core crew members, a trait we see writ large and small throughout the films. He’s reactive; he’s passionate; he’s humane. He cares, first and foremost.

Not about Starfleet, of course. Leonard doesn’t give a damn about playing the game or advancing his career, or even really about the Enterprise’s mission - he has no desire to explore strange new worlds, he’ll pass on seeking out new life and new civilizations, and he spends half his time trying to convince everyone else that boldly going where no man has gone before is a great way to die horribly. Fuck exploration, fuck space, and fuck the Federation while we’re at it. Leonard is perhaps the most improbable of the Enterprise’s senior officers for the simple reason that he seems to resent everything about the job.

Well. Almost everything.

See, what Leonard cares about is people. He cares about their lives, about their stories, about their hopes and dreams, about their suffering. That’s why he entered and has stayed in an extremely taxing caring profession, and it’s why he’s still on the Enterprise despite his incessant bitching about everything they do. He wouldn’t trust anyone else to take care of the crew he’s become so attached to, and he finds fulfillment in helping the people they encounter out there in the nightmare of space.

In every timeline, Leonard McCoy defines himself by what he can do for others: the pain he can ameliorate, the wounds he can heal, the diseases he can cure, the small amounts of good he can bring to a galaxy filled with so much absolute horseshit. Unlike most of his colleagues, he’s not motivated by curiosity or an adventurer’s spirit or a burning desire to make sense of the universe. (Fuck the universe, too, as a matter of fact.) Instead, he’s driven by the incredible depths of his compassion and empathy and concern for the people he serves alongside and those they meet along the way.

Sure sounds like the heart to me.

ii. Jim

I actually totally get why some people characterize Kelvin-timeline Jim as the heart. He’s quite literally a different man than the original timeline’s Kirk, and he definitely has more of the pathos qualities to him. Early on, he’s a total spitfire, fierce and hot-blooded, quick to anger and other sharp-edged emotions we’re not used to associating with James T. Kirk. Even as he grows into himself and leaves some of those traits behind, he remains spontaneous, passionate, protective, and self-sacrificing - easy enough to mistake for the heart if you squint.

But let’s not confuse having a heart for being the heart. Sure, Jim is more openly emotional and reactive than his TOS counterpart, but there’s still a marked difference between the way he and Leonard express and act on their emotions.

AOS Jim definitely has a lot of feelings - big ones - but at the end of the day, he’s not driven by his heart. He’s driven by his gut.

Whenever there’s trouble, Jim makes a beeline right for the center of it. He’s impulsive as hell, rarely pausing to think past his first instinct, because he just wants to be doing something, no matter the odds, no matter what it costs him. He explicitly calls himself out on this in ST:ID when arguing with Spock: “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. I only know what I can do.” He doesn’t have the patience or the constitution to sit and debate all the options, either internally or with his crew. If there’s a path forward from where he is, even a bad one, Jim’s gonna take it.

[Sidebar: One could make the case that the roots of Jim’s instinct to act reach back to his childhood traumas - canonically ignored abuse and neglect on the one hand, and the Tarsus IV famine and massacre on the other - but that’s a whole post on its own and we ain’t got all day here.]

Jim can’t not act, and while that gets him into a lot of trouble, it also saves lives. Sulu probably appreciated that Jim’s gut drove him to leap off Nero’s drilling platform without a moment’s hesitation after a man he’d only just met. He may have been a real shithead about it, but Jim’s impassioned insistence on going after the Narada and not wasting time on the possibility of a better option was key to saving Pike and Earth itself. And I don’t know why Spock was so surprised that Jim intervened to save him on Nibiru, considering that the reason they were there in the first place was because Jim couldn’t sit back and watch the Nibirans die when there was something his crew could do to help them, even if it meant risking a violation of the Prime Directive.

Jim is a good man with a big heart, and he cares about people, absolutely. But he cares most of all about Doing The Right Thing - which in the heat of the moment often translates to Doing Something, Anything, Hold My Beer.

iii. heart vs. gut (i.e., time for some receipts)

I think one of the main reasons Leonard and Jim’s characterizations get confused is because they both tend to act on instinct, only lightly informed by higher reasoning. However, I’d argue that their motivations and the nature of those actions are super distinct, and those distinctions remain relatively consistent throughout all three films. (And y’all know I really mean this shit if I’m out here calling ST:ID consistent.)

Jim is a big picture guy, figuratively and often literally heaving himself full-body into the mix of whatever problem the crew has encountered for lack of any better alternative. That energy propels the plots of all three films: the chaotic path he carves through the events of Star Trek and ST:ID, and the slightly calmer but still undeniably bananas course he charts for himself and his crew in the second half of Beyond.

As the heart, Leonard operates on a more micro level. His concern invariably lies with the individual people caught up in those grand events Captain Chaos is busy dragging them all through. While Jim’s zooming around flipping plot switches, Leonard can always be counted on to bring it back to the personal.

We frequently see this juxtaposed right there on film. Think of that slow pan through medbay in the first movie after the Narada’s ambush and the destruction of Vulcan: while Jim is stewing over what to do about the Big Bad, Leonard has stepped into the CMO role without fuss or fanfare to care for the wounded crew and traumatized survivors.

Or jump ahead to Beyond: during Krall’s attack on the Enterprise, there’s a gorgeous cinematic shot of Jim sprinting down the corridor with two crew members to take on the invaders - and then we cut to Leonard moving slowly through those same ghastly red-lit corridors, searching for casualties in need of help, visibly affected by what his scanner is telling him about the downed crewman he tries to save.

Actually, Beyond as a whole does terrific justice to each of their roles. (Perhaps because it was not written by dingdongs.) The first act finds Jim flailing around for a sense of purpose and forward momentum - an understandable consequence of a gut-driven character having stalled out for too long - and he ultimately gets his mojo back by spending the rest of the film careening through one insane seat-of-his-pants ploy after another. Meanwhile, in the quieter moments between all the mayhem, Leonard serves as the empathetic sounding board for both Jim and Spock as they struggle with deep emotionally charged secrets and Big Life Questions, helping them untangle their feelings and reminding them of the emotional attachments which are ultimately key to their respective decisions to stay on the Enterprise.

More examples, you say? Don’t mind if I do!

Star Trek

GUT: Jim hurtles around the Narada, improvising almost every step of the way and paying the price for his and Spock’s scheme in bodily harm, and ultimately succeeds in rescuing Pike. HEART: Leonard calls out for Jim as he runs into the transporter room, overwhelmed with relief that he’s made it back, and takes Chris Pike’s weight literally and figuratively onto his own shoulders to begin healing him while Jim runs back off to the center of the action.

Star Trek: Into Darkness

GUT: Jim argues with Leonard, Spock, and Scotty in quick succession as he’s preparing to drag them all off to Qo’noS, immune to their attempts to reason with him because, unraveled as he is by grief and pain, he can only focus on his visceral drive to Do Something. HEART: Unlike the others, Leonard is upset not about the larger moral questions of whether it’s right to go after John Harrison or bring torpedoes aboard the ship, but about the fact that Jim himself is hurt and hurting and won’t accept help.

GUT: Jim makes a snap decision to sacrifice himself by hurling his body against the warp core to realign it and save his crew. HEART: Shellshocked by the emotional grenade of his best friend’s death, Leonard suddenly realizes, through the haze of his own numbness and upswelling grief, that he might still be able to do something for this lonely radiation-ravaged body he’s been brought and the life it represents.

Star Trek Beyond

GUT: At the tail end of an improvised plan to out-maneuver Kalara, Jim quite literally shoots first and asks questions later, igniting a fuel tank and setting off an explosive series of events which he and Chekov just barely escape. HEART: The next time we see Leonard, Spock is opening up to him about Ambassador Spock’s death and his own plan to leave Starfleet for New Vulcan - and while he’s empathetic toward Spock (I can’t imagine what that must feel like), Leonard’s thoughts go immediately to the emotional impact of Spock’s plan on the other people he’s closest with. (I can see how that would upset [Nyota]. / I can tell you, [Jim]’s not gonna like that.)

GUT: Jim frantically strains to reach the final switch in the life support hub, believing that he’s going to die either way since the vent has already opened, but spurred on by the knowledge that his ability to move that switch is the only thing standing between Yorktown and annihilation. HEART: Knowing exactly what’s at stake, with the fate of the station and millions of lives hanging in the balance, Leonard’s greatest concern is that Jim won’t make it out in time.

iv. never bet against the heart

Let’s wrap this up with a deep dive on one of the absolute best examples of Leonard as the heart: his decision to sneak Jim onto the Enterprise in the first movie.

As relentlessly as I drag him for the, you know, poisoning and kidnapping aspects of that whole deal, there’s no denying that it is a god-tier heart move. Is it logical? Absolutely not. Is it really the right thing to do for either himself or Jim, as far as he knows at the time? Nope. It’s 100% the wrong choice for his own job security, reputation, and relationships with his fellow crew, and it’s almost guaranteed to get Jim into even worse trouble. Leonard is a smart dude who must understand that this course of action will likely end up coming back on them both in a real bad way. For someone who argues loudly and often in defense of self-preservation, this is a shockingly bad idea.

But none of that matters, because Jim shakes his hand and tells him to be safe with that horrible empty-eyed smile, and it gets him right in the heart, one-two-three.

One: sympathy, worry, and affection for Jim - his best friend, his wild and troublesome stray, his only family.

Two: guilt over adding onto Jim’s pain, and the instinctive urge to fix whatever‘s hurting him.

Three: fear of heading out into the unknown by himself, the agonizing uncertainty of not knowing what’s coming, craving for the security and reassurance Jim’s presence would give him.

“Dammit,” Leonard says, as his heart wins out over his brain. He knows this is a garbage plan, and he doesn’t care. His heart chooses Jim. That’s all that matters.

So he goes back for Jim, and to his own surprise it turns out that this Very Bad Idea was actually a Very Good Idea because Jim’s impulsive instincts end up saving Earth, and Leonard’s not in the habit of fixing what ain’t broke so he figures he may as well keep on chasing Jim’s crazy ass around the galaxy for a while, through jungles and off cliffs and into the goddamn afterlife when need be, until finally one day Jim’s gut drives him right into Leonard’s arms and he suddenly realizes that this is what his heart was choosing all those years ago: Jim’s wide terrified eyes, Jim’s voice breaking over his name, Jim’s hand pressing hard against his chest, reaching out for what’s his.

But that’s another story.

[qwertyfingers]

we know that bobby only watched ds9 and dean watched the tos movies for sure which implies he's seen tos as well (plus he calls jack spock). so what do you think everyone's favorite trek is? sam is without a doubt a tng fan first and foremost. i think out of all tos movies cas prefers the wrath of khan because he Feels Things when kirk and spock do the ta'al through the glass. charlie has definitely seen some trek (we've seen her llap), do you think she's into tos first and foremost? anyway let's talk about star trek nights in the bunker.

OKAY SO I HAVE. MANY MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS. SORRY THIS IS SO LONG.

like. like of COURSE bobby only likes ds9 of course he does i could have told you this without the show becuase like. bobby is That Bitch. i think rufus will have watched TOS at least because leonard nimoy worked hard on linking jewish faith and practices into the vulcan lore and i think that would mean something to him. bobby will catch rufus smiling at him sometimes while they’re watching ds9 and ask him what all gruffly and rufus will smirk at him and say something about sisko with jake and bobby with dean and bobby will just cough and take a swig of whiskey and rufus will raise his eyebrows but let it slide. rufus definitely makes a comment once about dean&cas being like jake&nog that totally flies over dean’s head but bobby is all knowing eyebrow raise about.

i think cas and jack would really like discovery. while it has some issues with inconsistency, pacing, being a little dark, it also does better than the other TV treks at utilising the nature of film as a medium to instill a sense of wonder, at space and the world, and that’s something they’d really appreciate. i have my own issues with disco, but an obol for charon is as close to the central core of trek that disco ever gets. cas and jack also like that one in particular because they like listening to all the different languages being spoken. they all love michael (everyone loves michael). cas’ faves are stamets and reno because they’re mean and gay, jack’s fave is tilly because she’s excitable and bright and he latches onto that. dean likes reno because she’s got spunk. sam’s fave is airiam and he will never forgive them for killing her off. sam, cas and dean all feel an uncomfortable kinship with both ash and culber - they’ve both been the one with monster teeming under the surface, controleld by something not themself, but they’ve also all spent that time in hell/purgatory, separated from everyone they love.

thinking about episodes that would really get to them all, darmok is. THE ONE. i have a whole unfinished essay about darmok as the platonic ideal of star trek; the perfect distillation of everything trek is SUPPOSED to be about. it doens’t always get there but by god it tries! that speech michael gives in the disco s2 finale - “There's a whole galaxy of people out there who will reach for you. You have to let them. Find that person who seems farthest from you and reach for them.” - that’s what darmok is about!!! it’s all about a situation where real communication seems impossible, where everything we know about talking and learning has broken down. and picard says, okay, i will find another way. i can’t relate to you, you can’t relate to me, but by god i’m going to try. we all meet people we have trouble communicating with in our lives, and often, those people will not care about changing their own ways to accommodate us. for people with autism, adhd, psychosis, the list goes on, this is a very common occurrence. it’s exhausting and frustrating and alienating. darmok is all about crossing that barrier. about reaching for someone through a world of difficulty and learning how to talk. learning how to share something with someone who seems out of our reach. it’s beautiful, it’s heartwrenching, it means more to me than i can easily put into words! 

anyway i think the bunker fam would experience a lot of emotions watching it together. there’s defintiely a lot of hugging eachother, sam cries a lot and won’t look at anyone until after the episode ends. jack just asks a lot of questions and talks about his progress learning sign language with cas. dean snakes his hand into cas’ halfway through and doesn’t let go. doesn’t show the emotion on his face, but he clutches harder at the emotional beats. cas runs his fingers through jack’s hair and thinks a lot, and decides not to say anything unless dean talks first. its just a Lot for everyone. 

dean def makes them marathon all the TOS and TNG movies. it’s an experience everyone needs at least once. i think you’re right about cas and TWOK with the ta’al through the glass, but also ‘this simple feeling’ and the hand hold would make him feel crazy. bones being the one that spock entrusts with his katra DEF makes dean feel some type of way because as much as destiel is kirkspock-coded, dean IS bones, and seeing spock trust bones so completely despite how at odds they were when they first knew eachother would dig deep into dean’s psyche and make him more than a little bit nutso. the movies are way too long for jack so he mostly sits and plays animal crossing while they watch and looks at the screen when everyone else gasps or when something exciting is happening that holds his attention for a while. sam’s fave is nemesis precisely because it’s terrible and he loves how camp it is.

dean has definitely seen all of trek. i refuse to believe someone who watches as much tv and films as dean wouldn’t sit and watch the whole shebang. i think he’s probably seen TOS and the TOS movies more than the others because its easier than sitting through 7 seasons, but i think rather than that being his favourite he’d just have really strong opinions about the best episodes of each one? like if you asked him what his favourite is he’d say you can’t answer that because they’re all so different from eachother

VOY - bride of chaotica, non seqitur, macrocosm for the favourite episodes. seven, janeway and tuvok would be his favourite characters. he think toms a bit of a knob but also feels a kinship with him for the similar brand of bab dad-ism but he wouldn’t be able to put that into words. he’s also a fierce defender of threshold being a good episode (he’s right for that)

DS9 - our man bashir it’s our man bashir. he doesn’t dislike ds9 but its very plot heavy and he didn’t care for it when he was younger. rewatching it after living through multiple supernatural wars he’d probably appreciate it more. i know for a fact he cries every time there’s an episode about sisko being a good dad. jadzia and garak are his faves

TNG - he LOVES q. he also absolutely will not be caught dead referencing how much loves q after cas comes into his life because sam will do the little brotherly knowing eyebrow raise at him and he will die of embarrassment. he regularly references ‘there are four lights’ because he’s a fucking nerd. he has made cas watch elementary my dear data and fistful of datas a half dozen times each at LEAST. cas KNEW how dean was going to be about the cowboy hat he’s defintiely got into full cowboy getup at home just for watching movies and in cas’ head star trek is fully to blame.

TOS - oh there are so many good TOS eps to choose from. obv he loves most of the series becuase TOS has MANY banger eps, his favourites are probably like. mirror mirror, amok time (baby dean defintiely had some kind of crisis watching it for the first time; i know the rituals are intricate). i know deep in my bones that dean watched the conscience of the king (introduction of the tarsus iv massacre) once and then spent his entire teenage years writing fic about that in his head, whether he posted it or not. dean related too much to those experiences of shared hunger. city on the edge of forever is one of everyone’s faves for a reason (and i’m STILL mad we never got a closer take on that episode in spn it could have been so fun). 

ENT - he definitely thinks enterprise is stupid and he’s not wrong but he has also definitely watched it and been very repressed about the whole thing. mans was like oh i feel a kinship with malcolm reed the obviously repressed queer man. i will never examine this feeling ever again thank you <3 he also makes fun of archer for being obsessed with, of all sports, water polo. shran is his favourite character because he’s a little shit and makes him laugh, and t’pol, because t’pol is a badass and he’d appreciate that. i can’t remember the title of a single episode off the top of my head though lol.

i can see what you’re saying about sam being a TNG stan. i’m conflicted though, I feel like TNG’s generally the favourite of 1) obnoxious nerds who think knowing trivia facts makes them smart, 2) men desperately trying to seem masculine and 3) people who’ve watched it three times and have extremely complex thoughts on the personhood and rights of robots. i could see sam fitting into the third group, but people who are in it for the robot feelings are a coin flip between voyager and tng being the fave, and i just have a feeling that voyager would be his favourite. i know kid sam is getting gender envy watching voyager in shitty motels while dad and dean are out, trying to find the words for it. his first semester at stanford he talks a friend into giving him the janeway haircut and rides that high for months. sam’s favourite characters are seven and EMH. 

sam and dean have definitely had dozens of long drawn out debates about philosophical topics in star trek. do the holograms deserve rights and if so which ones. are the romulans and vulcans still meaningfully the same people. was spock right for trying to foment reunification by going undercover on romulus. can the borg be redeemed. etc etc.

i haven’t seen any of picard at all so i can’t comment. i also think sam and dean probably read a lot of the trek books? they’re pretty common to find in secondhand bookstores and cheap, would have been even cheaper back in the day. sam probably doesn’t care for them much, dean has a few solid faves though. i’ve only read the disco books so i can’t comment anything specifically (besides the fact that i think dean read dead endless and cried like a baby), but some of the TOS and DS9 books are gay as hell and i know dean was eyes emoji-ing that shit. 

[ao3feed-johnharrison]

Re-Three: Wuh Vath Ulef t' Wuh Bosh

by aesira_evrela

A Klingon Prince was sent to live a life with humans when he met a woman. they both raised the child in both human and klingon descent.

They know.

Words: 30, Chapters: 1/11, Language: English

Series: Part 5 of Wuh Vath Ulef t' Wuh Bosh: The Start of Something New

Fandoms: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: James T. Kirk, Spock (Star Trek), Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Hikaru Sulu, Pavel Chekov, Nyota Uhura, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Christine Chapel, Gaila (Star Trek: Alternate Original Series), Carol Marcus, Crew of the Starship Enterprise, Amanda Grayson, Sarek (Star Trek), Original Characters, Klingon Characters (Star Trek), Vulcan Characters (Star Trek), Khan Noonien Singh | John Harrison, USS Vengeance

Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock, James T. Kirk & Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Leonard "Bones" McCoy & Spock, Khan Noonien Singh/USS Vengeance

Additional Tags: Childhood Friends, Klingon, Vulcan Culture, Tarsus IV, T'hy'la, Married Couple, Hybrid James T. Kirk, Comfort/Angst, Vulcan Bond, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Childhood Sweethearts

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/33718744 via AO3 works tagged 'John Harrison' https://archiveofourown.org/works/33718744

Remember to check out the John Harrison fanworks community on livejournal and dreamwidth. Follow ao3feed-johnharrison for all your John Harrison needs including fanfic involving the character in any pairing, crossovers, fanart and links.

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK MASTERPOST

hi my name is liz and i'm watching the entirety of star trek in release order, so this post was SIGH inevitable. i will edit with updates it as i make more

FANFIC

Gambler's Knife - AOS, Spirk, 22k. Twelve years after Tarsus IV and three months after dying to realign the warp core and save his ship, Jim Kirk seems to have a new lease on life: he's been resurrected, started pursuing a tentative new relationship with Spock, and has an entire five-year mission ahead of him. That is, until the attempted murder of an old friend forces him to divert the Enterprise away from her intended course and towards Planet Q. After a chance encounter on the planet's surface, new secrets about Jim's time on Tarsus IV come to light—secrets that threaten to destroy everyone he fought to protect, and the new life he's finally achieved. Some things you carry with you wherever you go.

SKIP/WATCH LIST

as i watch star trek, i am making an incredibly detailed spreadsheet which aims to guide new people into what to watch...or what not to watch. this list includes every single movie and tv series (including the animated ones), multiple watch orders (release order vs chronological order), runtimes, content warnings, and indicators on which characters feature in which episodes + indicators on which episodes are important for continuity. the only catch is i am updating it as i go, so it's a verrry slow work in progress. i've also still got a few blanks in the tos bit.

currently the only tumblr post with a link is this one, but i'll make a better post once i've finished going back and filling in the blanks on the tos section.

SPOCKANALIA DIGITIZATION

@maulthots and i are working on digitizing all 5 volumes of SPOCKANALIA - retyping text, cleaning up images, and adding alt text. they'll be added here as we complete them.

Volume 1

EPISODE REWRITES

sometimes star trek makes me crazy and i wanna fix it, but i don't have the time or patience to rewrite it in fic form so we get tumblr posts instead. they are in the order that i did them. right now there are only a few but i want to do like a thousand

[tos] the motion picture

[tos] the tholian web

[tng] violations

META

these are mostly small posts for now. someday i might make big ones.

marrying a vulcan is not unlike being a horsegirl

tos kirk vs aos kirk on retirement and the infinity of the universe

tos spock vs aos spock on love and death being real

tos spock vs aos spock on becoming close to one parent but remaining forever separated from the other

kirk and bones react differenly to spock showing emotion

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE SPACE BABES - kirk's encounters with women are often nonconsensual (collaboration with @maulthots)

funniest possible pre-mcspirk situation in aos

aos plot devices we could have had

small post about vulcans getting drunk on chocolate the first time

GRAPHICS

most of these are shitposts.

spock in shades for my header

"then perish" tas bones meme

spones graphic for wrath of khan/search for spock

CLIPS

i make clip shows sometimes.

bones being possessed in search for spock

tos scenes that remind me of tarsus iv

kirk insults spock for a minute and a half

kirk reacting to spock's emotions vs bones reacting to spock's emotions

STAR TREK TAGS

#tos -the original series

#tas - the animated series

#tmp - the motion picture

#wok - the wrath of khan

#sfs - the search for spock

#tvh - the voyage home

#tff - the final frontier

#tuc - the undiscovered country

#tng - the next generation

#ds9 - deep space nine

#aos - collective tag for the kelvin timeline movies

#st books - posts about the star trek novels

#st comics - posts about the star trek comics

#vintage trek - anything from before the turn of the century

#spockanalia - post about spockanalia, an early spock-centric fanzine

#spirk - kirk/spock

#spones - spock/bones

#mckirk - kirk/bones

#mcspirk - spock/kirk/bones

#st fav - fav star trek posts

LIVEBLOG TAGS

this includes the series AND the novelizations, if/when applicable - i am working my way through the tos movie novelizations and i want to read more. also, spockanalia <3

#tos lb - the original series liveblog (technically i didn't start liveblogging it until late into the series. rip)

#tas lb - the animated series liveblog

#tmp lb - the motion picture liveblog

#wok lb - wrath of khan liveblog

#sfs lb - search for spock liveblog

#tvh lb - the voyage home liveblog

#tff lb - the final frontier liveblog

#tuc lb - the undiscovered country liveblog

#tng lb - the next generation liveblog

#ds9 lb - deep space nine liveblog

#aos lb - the kelvin timeline movies (not much here because i wasn't star trek posting back when they came out)

#spockanalia lb - spockanalia

#star trek blogging - all of the above put together

MISC

my top 10 and worst 10 tos episodes

non-exhaustive list of youtube videos of vintage trek commercials, feel free to add your own

funny and unhelpful version of the skip/watch list i used with friends ie my only true record of tos first impressions

star tos "episode sorter" to rate every episode from best to worst

tos episodes on a tier maker

[kinetic-elaboration]

December 29: The Wrath of Khan

Today’s movie watching was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

My overall impression versus TMP is that this is clearly a smoother and more consistently entertaining film. It has a definite story with very little filler, good pacing, a lot of great little dialogue and character moments, and a strong conflict at its center.

But its sci fi bona fides are much weaker. Like by a lot.

Mom and I are talking a bit about Genesis and the more we talk, the weaker it appears to me. First, it’s not really as believable, imo, as a lot of Star Trek. Maybe it’s because it’s not alien based, but I just have a harder time suspending disbelief to think this is possible. Second, it’s not clear why anyone thought this was a good idea. I mean, as McCoy immediately pointed out, it just seems so CLEARLY dangerous: an object meant to foster creation that could so easily be the worst weapon the universe has ever known--nothing could go awry there! Third, the reason for creating such a device isn’t obvious at all. Carol mentions the “growing population” and “food scarcity” but nothing we’ve ever seen of the Federation implies they’re running out of space. Or, frankly (Tarsus IV aside), food. And fourth, there really isn’t any point to Genesis in all its particulars in this film. Like, obviously, its actual purpose is a plot device to resurrect Spock. Within just this film, it doesn’t do anything. Khan wants it, for some reason I’ve already forgotten even though I just saw the film, and he gets it, but I didn’t even notice that happening, because it was so unimportant. His REAL mission is his single minded revenge fantasy on Kirk. Genesis is just a McGuffin/space filler/plot device for the next film.

And honestly that’s not such a big deal, except that when you compare it to TMP, ,and its central idea of a human made probe that gained so much knowledge, doing what we taught it to do, that it became sentient and then started searching for the meaning of life, and how this relates to the search for meaning experienced by the main alien lead, and how his search, in that film and throughout the series, is a mirror for humans and OUR need for purpose... well it just seems really weak. “We made this really dangerous and unrealistic thing for no reason whoops!”

Mom is now criticizing Kirk for being too slow on the uptake when he first encounters the Reliant, which is fair. That’s pretty OOC of him. The idea that he’s too old for space is both one that I must personally disregard, and one that the film would have you discard, since we’ve already heard from TWO characters, the people who know him best, that his best destiny is as a starship captain, and command is his proper role. And that he might be a little rusty is also not a great explanation imo, because the rust was supposed to have come off in TMP. So, plot hole probably.

We were trying to do some math--TMP is at least 2 years post 5YM and TWOK is at least 10 years post TMP, so at least 8 years post TMP. I can understand more rust growing but like... he was already an Admiral in TMP and the idea that he was out of practice with actual command was a big part of his arc there. So it doesn’t seem warranted to do that again.

Also, the way he was commanding poorly in TMP was very IC: he was pushing too hard, trying too much, caring too much about the mission and not enough about...the laws of physics. That’s very Kirk. Being slow on the uptake, caught with his britches down--that’s not Kirk. Plus, with no one to call him out on it, like Decker did in TMP, his poor command doesn’t seem like a big character obstacle to overcome but just like...sloppiness all around.

I thought Khan was over all... just not that interesting. I guess I’m just not into the obsession/revenge plot. Also...idk man he didn’t seem that super to me. He outsmarted Kirk, like, once, and Kirk outsmarted him like 4 times. He tortured some people--but regular humans can do that. He used those sandworm thingies, which is also something humans could do. Overall, he didn’t seem to have any particularly special skills. The only time he really seemed like a worthy adversary for Kirk was when Kirk wasn’t really being IC himself.

I’m also not into the fridging of his wife. Think how much cooler it would have been if she’d still been alive! The only non-super human in the bunch and she’s still there! Ex-Starfleet and bitter!

The K/S in this film is very soothing. Imo they are clearly together here, and the whole film is better if you assume they’re boyfriends and everyone knows. That Vulcan convo that Spock and Saavik have? Waaaaay funnier if you think she’s talking about his boyfriend (”not what I expected....very human” “Well no one’s perfect”). Every time they call each other ‘friend’ like ““friend”“? All the Looks? The birthday gift?

Also the “I have been and always shall be your [friend]” scene is a wedding I will not be taking criticism on this opinion. Could it have been written more like a vow? I think not. It’s not quite This Simple Feeling but it’s the best this film has in that regard.

I liked Saavik and I do think she’s one of the better later-movie additions (though I only like her, as far as I can remember, when played by Kirstie Alley). She didn’t necessarily strike me as super alien, though, at least not at first... But I appreciated how persistent she was about the stupid test, and her regulation quoting. I enjoyed her. I also liked how she was obviously Spock’s protege, which makes her Kirk’s step-protege, and they had just a little bit of that awkward dynamic going on. (”Did you change your hair?”)

The Bones and Kirk relationship was great in this film. You can really feel their friendship and their history with each other. Bones knows him so well and can be honest with him, just when Kirk needs it most.

I also love how Kirk has the SAME conversation with both Bones and Spock (re: being a captain again) but with Spock it’s sooooo much flirtier. In case you weren’t sure what the difference in these two relationships is.

Bonus: this bit of dialogue: Spock: “Be careful, Jim.” / Bones: “WE will.” Lol Spock people who aren’t your boyfriend do exist.

Obviously, I cried during THAT scene. Honestly AOS should have taken note about how to do emotional scenes like that: they come after the main action is over and the villain is defeated. Then they hit at the right time and to the right degree. Kirk just slumping down after Spock dies....like he’s boneless...like he doesn’t know what to do... I CANNOT.

I feel so bad for him that I’ll even forgive him that awful eulogy. Spock died for Genesis? Uh, no, he died for the Enterprise, and for YOU. Spock is the “most human”? You shut your whoreson mouth

I remember hating both Carol and David but I actually hated them less this time, Carol especially. My mom is being really harsh about her, though, which makes me feel less confident in my assessment. I mean first off, she’s the inventor of Genesis, which is a pretty big strike against her. Second...pretty lame to keep Kirk from David. Although I did some vague math and Kirk would only have been about 21, still in the Academy, when David was born, so you can see how that would work out. Also, she distinctly says “Were we together?” which means they were not--this was a fuck buddy arrangement for sure. More complicated. But it still feels weird to retcon that, like, he’s known THIS WHOLE TIME that he’s a dad and we’re only learning about it now, as an audience.

Anyway I’m getting off track. Carol. What to make of her? Is she unstable? Is she still mad at Kirk? My mom points out that she just decided on her own that David would want to join Starfleet if he knew Kirk was his father--whereas what seems to have happened instead is he didn’t just become a civilian scientist like his mom but became her specific protege--working on a project where everyone was probably handpicked by her? I would assume? Also..he hates Starfleet. Not to put everything on the mom, but how did that happen?

Also...going down the rabbit hole of this and feeling awkward about it... but David KNEW Kirk. As “that guy you hung around with.” That means Kirk was in his life for quite a while, long enough for him to have memories, and long enough for those memories to still be with him even into his 20s. But he was never allowed to know who Kirk was. That means Carol’s rule must have been “You can see your son but you can’t tell him who you are” which in some way seems meaner to me than just “please don’t contact us again.” If he was already on his way into space, that could even make sense--”I know you’re not going to be able to be a family with us, so let’s not pretend, let’s make a clean break now.” But that wasn’t what happened!

Anyway whatever not to be HAICG!Kirk about this or anything lol

David is mostly annoying because he’s so anti-Kirk lol. I found him least annoying when he came around to Kirk at the end. Another big strike against him: he wore his sweater tied over his shoulders in such a Preppy manner. I honestly don’t see what about him is supposed to be reminiscent of Kirk.

David/Saavik was definitely happening lol. I wish I could have heard that conversation. It sounds like she told him a lot!!! Not sure why she attached herself to this particular annoying human so fast but I guess she did.

....I think that might be all. The uniforms and general styling were much better than TMP (though less funny/entertaining), and it was certainly an enjoyable overall yarn. A lot to pick apart and critique but in a fun way. Will probably watch The Search for Spock soon.

[scioscribe]

have you got any Star Trek fic recommendations? I love what you’ve written and I’m super into the fandom atm

Oh, boy, do I.  I’ll try to keep this reasonably compact, but there’s a ton of excellent fic.  My to-read folder for this fandom currently has 262 items, and I’m also way behind on leaving comments on the stories I’ve loved because I’ve been glomming them so enthusiastically.  Hopefully this will shame me into appreciating the authors as they deserve.

My definition of “reasonably compact” apparently means “twenty-two separate recs,” so have a cut, everyone.

Kirk/Spock

Communication: One of my all-time favorites.  It’s a beautiful, incredibly romantic epistolary romance where Kirk and Spock wind up captaining separate ships during a war with the Tholians.  They write each other letters where they slowly feel out a resolution to their mutual pining, and the characterization is exquisite.

To Sing the Sun in Flight: I will happily read a million “Amok Time” AUs, but this might be my favorite.  It’s simple, hot, beautifully written, and perfectly characterized.

Our Bodies Safe to Shore: Excellent, plotty, and emotionally complex fic where Spock’s body is taken over by a hostile alien intelligence, one that can read his thoughts and imitate him, and he’s locked helplessly inside.  And the alien has noticed his feelings for Jim.

Joyboy: Post-Tarsus IV story where Kirk and Spock meet as teenagers, when Spock is with his father on a diplomatic mission where the Tarsus survivors are brought for temporary shelter.  Great characterization, maybe especially of Kirk, who gets to be both the woobie (he’s being shunned by a lot of people for doing sex work on Tarsus to stay alive) and the controlled, honorable budding leader.  Little bit of underage, but not particularly explicit.

Fulfilling the Needs of the One (Or the Both): Sweet Old Married Spirk story that blends slice-of-life with a nuanced emotional plot where Spock suddenly fears that he hasn’t been giving Jim the emotional support and romance Jim needs.  (Jim begs to differ.)

Sunlight: Kirk, Spock, and McCoy start filling out one of those “getting to know you” questionnaires together for a crew newsletter, and of course Spock and Kirk have ridiculously detailed opinions about things as simple as the other one’s hair color and eye color and what kind of animal they would be.  Also some cute McCoy characterization and appreciation for shortish Jim, which I always appreciate.

Freely Given: The last by this author, I promise!  This is the best “McCoy subtly plays matchmaker” fic I’ve read, where his prods and a trip to a planet where on-the-mouth kisses are a common form of greeting make Spock start thinking about what he wants from his relationship with Kirk.  Delightful, sharp Bones, a Kirk who wants to make sure his authority as captain isn’t coming into play here, and a beautifully analytical Spock who is slowly realizing the depths of his pining.

Great Expectations: My favorite bit of xeno!  Kirk and Spock are about to have their first time together, but Spock shies away from getting completely naked, and when he finally does, Kirk has an unfortunate reflexive reaction to his unfamiliar genitals.  Before sweetly and humorously consoling Spock about it and boldly and sexily going where no man has gone before.  This is hot and romantic and perfectly characterized, and I just want to give Spock a hug.

Centennial: More Old Married Spirk!  Kirk is turning one hundred, and he’s feeling his age a little.  But Spock has the perfect gift for him.  Absolutely heartwarming, and written with grace and restraint.

A Private Obsession: Outsider-POV narrated by a man from a rigid, sexually conservative planet.  He owns a factory where Kirk and Spock (clearly stranded and/or forced undercover for purposes the narrator doesn’t know) wind up working.  He becomes sexually and romantically obsessed with Kirk and painfully jealous of Spock–and the ease with which the two men love each other–and, of course, leveraging Spock’s failing health to get Kirk into his bed doesn’t, and can’t, solve his problems.

Famous Last Words: Super adorable fic where there’s a shipboard poll of everyone’s favorite quotes of famous people’s last words, and all of Kirk’s have, um, a certain subtext about seconds-in-command, love, and sex.  Contains flirting and foreplay and love confessions via quotes.  Which is fitting, because Kirk and Spock are enormous nerds.

The Game: Funny, insightful story with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty playing a game–come up with something another person at the table would never, ever say–that then takes a sharp turn into devastating pining.  This ends as UST, but I can’t believe they don’t get together.  I mean, come on.

Warm Thoughts: Lovely, aching post-”Amok Time” story where Kirk wants to talk about what happened on Vulcan, Spock really doesn’t, and everything is brought to a head by an absolute hurt/comfort gift of a situation where Kirk comes back from a planet with an inability to get warm.  Spock can ostensibly use mind melds to help him a little–but things keep slipping through that he’d rather not deal with.  Excellent hurt/comfort and pining.

…And a Bottle of Rum: Adorable, hilarious, sexy established relationship fic where Kirk tries to use the “Shore Leave” planet for a bit of fun pirate role-play and Spock tries to be a good sport about it.  Hilarity ensues: “Help, help,” Spock called dutifully, and was set down again with a thump as Jim collapsed in a paroxysm of laughter.

Not So Last Words: Heartbreaking post-Wrath of Khan soulmate AU.  Your soulmate’s last words are supposed to be written on your wrist, but Kirk can’t understand how Spock could have died without saying what’s on his.  There is beautifully layered tearjerker stuff here.

Round is a Shape: There are a bunch of “older Kirk is self-conscious about his weight, Spock loves him just the way he is,” and I will read them all, because I am a chubby sap.  But this is my favorite.  Utterly adorable.

And the Truth Shall Set You Free: Smug telepathic aliens force Kirk to publicly declare his feelings to a shocked, unresponsive Spock who has been avoiding him lately.  The aliens feel like they could come straight out of an episode–there’s lots of debating about morality!  I love debating about morality!–and the romance is lovely and the crew is 1000% in Kirk and Spock’s corner.  And it’s delightful.

Cut Point: Spock gets an exceptionally flattering haircut, one that would probably make me moan, “I want to touch his hair,” even more than I already do.  Suddenly, everyone on the ship can’t stop talking about how good he looks, while Kirk loses his mind due to what he thinks is unrequited love.

Gen

Way, Hey, An’ Up She Rises: Nuanced and exquisitely written first meeting story about Kirk coming onto the Enterprise and Spock evaluating him.  Really well-characterized and great at the tentative feeling of the two of them feeling each other out.  And has “pretty shitty but not actually an indiscriminate villain” Gary Mitchell, which is a take I’m especially fond of.

Second Decent Destiny: Very shippy and technically pre-slash, but reads comfortably enough as gen.  “Amok Time” AU where T’Pau doesn’t alibi them to Starfleet and Kirk winds up with an honorable discharge for diverting the ship.  Spock joins him in extremely early retirement and the two of them try to figure out where they’re going from here.  Lovely, and a very good idea for a second-chance life.

Fortune’s Favoured Child: The formatting on this is kind of terrible, but it’s extremely well-worth it if you love Kirk hurt/comfort as much as I do.  In the aftermath of the deaths of Edith Keeler and his brother, Kirk is foundering a little, and seems to snap under the impact of yet another crisis–and in the process, reveals layers of suppressed pain that even his friends didn’t know about.

Lost and Found: Again, superb Kirk hurt/comfort–well-plotted, tense, angsty, and perfectly executed.  Kirk has been kidnapped and brutally tortured by Romulans, and as the story opens, he’s been brought back to the Federation in disgrace, having made a televised confession to all manner of crimes and (presumably) spilled Federation secrets to stay alive.  His crew is supposed to keep him in the brig and bring him to justice, but of course their loyalty is such that their immediate response is basically, “Fuck no.”  (I am bowled over by the sweetness of a particular gesture here.)  And Kirk gets to be both extremely damaged and extremely resourceful and inventive.

Other Ships

Matchmaker of Mars: I initially left this off by mistake because I was going through my bookmarks, and I always just get to this one through my gift page!  It’s Uhura/T’Pring 1930s Science Fiction Writer AU, which should be enough to make you want to read it--it has lovely characterization, note-perfect pastiche, and the two of them struggling to deal with John W. Campbell.

Oh, okay, so this was the short version.  It could have been longer, I promise.  This was relative restraint!

[ao3feed-kirkmccoy]

Into Light.

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2E5AMe0

by 3DBABE1999

..

Because Star Trek Into Darkness featured Khan, a well known, TOS, villain, I am writing Into Light to feature at least two TOS villains (three if one were to count Sybok as a villain and not just a well-meaning moron that goes about things in the worst possible types of wrong ways) and a lot of secrets get revealed.. Especially several of Jim's secrets..

..

..

Jim wishes a certain Vulcan had kept those fingers to himself..

Or..

Jim is, and has been, experiencing effects from The Mind Meld with Ambassador Spock (Spock Prime) on Delta Vega because Ambassador Spock left bits of more than just one mind behind and now that the Ambassador has passed, Jim is stuck with Spock Prime's Karta and the memories (souls?) of Kirk Prime and McCoy Prime

Words: 482, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage

Characters: James T. Kirk, Spock (Star Trek), Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Nyota Uhura, Sybok (Star Trek), Spock Prime, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Crew of the Starship Enterprise

Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock, James T. Kirk/Leonard "Bones" McCoy, James T. Kirk/Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Spock

Additional Tags: Tarsus IV, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Past Sexual Abuse, Past Torture, Dark Past, Past Lives, Vulcan Mind Melds, Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Mind Rape, Past Mind Control, Implied Mind Rape, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Hurt Jim, James T. Kirk Has Issues, James T. Kirk Has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, James T. Kirk Angst, James T. Kirk Needs a Hug, James T. Kirk Speaks Vulcan, Pre-James T. Kirk/Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Spock, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Episode: s01e12 The Conscience of the King, Kodos - Freeform

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2E5AMe0