thefourthvine: Two people fucking, rearview: sex is the universal fandom. (Default)
Keep Hoping Machine Running ([personal profile] thefourthvine) wrote2009-07-02 09:12 pm
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195: What Is This Thing You Humans Call 'Star Trek'?

Having a fandom that is public knowledge is weird. I mean, no one ever discussed due South in my presence who wasn't also discussing Fraser's cock. I don't think anyone but fans has even heard of The Sentinel. I know lots of people read comic books, but no one is willing to admit to it at the places where I go. I'm not sure anyone over the age of 15 has ever watched Merlin who didn't want to write fan fiction where someone got it on with someone else. A few people had, presumably, heard of Stargate: Atlantis, but it's not like anyone said anything about it. But Star Trek is - well. Let me tell you a story.

Twice a week, I take the earthling to OT. The pediatric therapy section is part of a unit that also provides therapy to adults. Because I spend a lot of time in the waiting area, I know most of the adult therapists at least vaguely, and I know the names of all the women, because they wear their badges. (So do the men, technically, but they usually clip their badges to a pocket and then put the badge inside the pocket. It's on, but it's not like you can see who they are.) So I have to make up nicknames for the guys.

Once, I was waiting for an elevator with one of the adult PTs and he spontaneously shared with me that it was his first day back at work after some surfing championship thing. "Oh?" I said politely. "How was it?"

"Totally awesome," he said very sincerely, and that was the last thing he said that I understood, although he kept talking all the way up in the elevator and then down the hall. Just before we parted ways, I figured out that he was relating the details of his own performance, with helpful side notes about the condition of the ocean.

"Awesome!" I said, confidant that at least I knew that much of his dialect, and he nodded enthusiastically. I went to the waiting area and he went off to teach a stroke patient to walk, and I started to think of him as Surfer Boy.

But then one day I sat in the waiting area next to a woman in her sixties and her forty-ish companion as they watched Surfer Boy demonstrate one of the weight machines and discussed in great detail what they'd like to do to him. (It started with the younger one saying, "I'd like to sink my teeth into those thighs." "Honey," said the older one as she crocheted something pink, "If I got my mouth on him, I wouldn't waste time on his thighs.") They called him Mr. Hotass throughout their very extensive discussion of his features and probable abilities, and the nickname Surfer Boy just couldn't compete. He is Mr. Hotass forever to me now.

And there's another adult PT who I think of as the Professor, because he reminds me of a professor I had in college - he's very tall, and he wears wire rim glasses, and he's fond of slightly frayed Oxford shirts that in no way match his corduroys or chinos. He, like my college professor, speaks very very quietly. I have never understood a word he's said. (With my college professor, if you didn't get to class in time to get a front row seat, you just studied from the book, copied down the board occasionally, and hoped someone up there was taking good notes.)

And, finally, there is Itsuko. (See? She wears her name tag!) If I had to give her a nickname, it would be PT Fangirl. She is very, very interested in American Idol (she was near tears over Adam Lambert's loss - no, really, there was a small group of sad, hugging women in the hall the next day, and I just thank my friends list, because without y'all I would have thought Adam Lambert was a patient who died) and also those dance shows.

So, the other day the Professor was using the work table, and Mr. Hotass was next to him getting a hot towel out of the big scary steamy hot towel machine that you have to use the Tongs of Giantness on. Itsuko was waiting behind Mr. Hotass. And they had the following conversation:

The Professor: *something inaudible, ending in a questioning tone*
Mr. Hotass: Damn it, Jim, I'm a physical therapist, not a doctor!
[Laughter.]
The Professor: *something inaudible and semi-emphatic sounding*
[Further laughter.]
Itsuko: Fascinating, Captain. Dr. McCoy, if you do not require any additional hot packs, I believe it would be most logical for you to yield your place to me.

And I knew exactly what they were talking about it. I could even make some decent guesses about what the Professor had said, and that has never happened before.

My primary sensation was one of injustice. That was my fandom! They weren't supposed to know about it! I wanted to yank them aside and say, "YOU! Obviously your fandom is surfing. Go back to being incomprehensible about that! Itsuko - okay, you can stay, because really I think you're more than halfway there already. But as for you, Professor, I don't know what your interests are, but I'm betting you're a founding member of the Speak Softly (Stick Optional) Club for Boring Men. STAY AWAY FROM MY FANDOM."

And then I remembered that everyone knows about Star Trek, and in fact basically everyone in the Western hemisphere knows more about Star Trek than I do (because they've seen more than one episode of the series, and probably the movie as well).

Because the thing is, there's so much stuff in Star Trek. It's not just the movie. It's not even the movie and the original series. It's some number of spinoffs, and I don't even know how many. (People, what the hell is Enterprise? Is that the same as TNG? TOS? Is it a whole OTHER series? I would check Wikipedia on this one, but it tends to really enhance my feelings of Star Trek inadequacy.) It's a very large number of novels, many of them, bizarrely, written by people whose names I recognize, some I even know. (And one, apparently, was slash, and no one noticed until after it came out. Oops!) And it's half a fucking century of fans, and fanwank, and people writing long impassioned essays about things like insignia design and the meaning of spaceship numbers. (For the record, I entirely salute this. It's just too much for me to assimilate.)

It's overwhelming, is my point. In a good way! A good way! But I keep turning to Best Beloved and saying things like, "Okay, what is with this t'hy'la thing? It's in every story ever!"

And she says, "I don't know." (Because she hasn't watched all the original Trek. This is a problem, as she is my source of information for all visual media. And she probably won't be seeing the whole series, either. Normally I could buy her a season or two as, like, a subtle hint in the shape of a gift, but have you seen how much those things cost? Too much for a hint, I'll tell you that.)

Or I say to Best Beloved, "Okay. Pon farr. So there was - um, a girl? That Spock didn't marry?"

And Best Beloved, who has in fact seen that episode, says, "Well, yes. She wanted to marry someone else, so she challenged Spock and picked Kirk as her champion - no, I don't know why, so don't ask - and they fought and Spock thought he'd killed Kirk. He was very sad, as I recall. And then she went off and married the other guy."

So I - nimbly avoiding the question she told me not to ask, because I am no fool, say, "What happened with the pon farr, though? Doesn't he have to have sex with someone?"

And she says, "I don't know, but looking back, I'd have to say he and Kirk went somewhere private."

It's also intimidating. I normally eventually get to a place where at least I feel like I can write in a fandom, even if I never actually do, but I don't think that's going to happen here. There's just too much stuff to know. This means, of course, that I will have to sit here and just hope that someone else writes the stories I want to see. Like the story where the reboot universe gets a few more Spocks - like, raised-on-earth Spock, and Captain-of-the-Enterprise Spock, and never-met-Kirk Spock. How many Vulcans can one starship hold? (Oh, like you've never wanted to see a vid to "Part of Your World" for Spock.) LOTS, would be my feeling, and, really. The more Spock, the better.

Which brings me to another embarrassing element of all this. I appear to have developed an OTC. (Yes, I, too, look at those initials and see over the counter. But I refuse to spell it out.) And my OTC is - well, Spock. This is highly distressing! First, I feel like, well, what else have I missed about classic fandom? Will it turn out that my favorite show in the whole entire world is Starsky and Hutch or something? (Just having a favorite TV show would be quite a shock to my system.) But most of all, I feel strangely adrift. I'm usually an OTP kind of girl, and so I know what to read: things with my characters' names on them, and a slash in between. With an OTC, it's different. Because I will happily read Spock paired with basically anyone - Kirk, Uhura, Sulu, his tricorder, the warp cores (although Scotty would kill him if he tried anything), John Sheppard, Jack Sparrow, the Enterprise, a culturally significant and aesthetically pleasing rock, whatever. As well, of course, as any gen in all kinds of quantities

This makes it much harder to read fan fiction. I need to know, in advance, if a story that's gen will contain sufficient Spock, or if it will leave me muttering, "Okay, that was kind of awesome. But, seriously: not enough Vulcans, too many mans." (It's not that I don't like the others. I do. I just - SPOCK. He is everything I ever wanted a character to be! And also telepathic, which I find deeply creepy, but that just adds an edge, you know?) Plus there's ever the danger that I will read a story that ends with a SAD Spock. And I think we all know that a sad Vulcan (grimly repressing all signs of sadness and pretending that it is totally logical to lie on his bed and listen to Fall Out Boy all day) is the very saddest thing of all.

I remain hopeful that I will settle into some kind of stable OTP orbit, though I don't know exactly how that would work. (NO, it is not going to be Spock/Spock. I have limits. Probably.)

And so I am here, overwhelmed (Why isn't there an easy, bullet-point summary? For people who are maybe not up to reading fifty years of, like, Trekian scholarship?) and out of my element (an OTC, seriously; I cannot even cope).

But definitely in the fandom. Eeee! Trek!

The One That Is Everything (Okay, Not Quite, but Still) Wrong with Movies Today. And It's Brilliant. ...On the Dance Floor, by [livejournal.com profile] sloanesomething.

This is for that one lone fan out there who didn't know what I was referencing with "not enough Vulcans, too many mans." It's also for anyone who doesn't know Star Trek at all. Or anyone who knows Star Trek but isn't our kind of fan. Because, oh my god, this is so awesome, and I don't care who you are: you will get this. (And if you don't love it, there's just no hope for you.)

Of course, the sad part is that you could use this song for a vid in basically any fandom, except, you know, Xena. But I refuse to think about that! Instead I will think about the joy that this vid brings me. Which is a lot. And it brings it about every ten minutes, because once you start watching this vid, there is no stopping.

(There's also no chance that you'll get through the day without singing this song. It's like heroin for your ears. I just feel I should tell you that now, so you don't blame me later when you sing it in front of your direct supervisor, or your entire family, or, you know, a gathering of Sunday school kids.)

The One That Answers the Question of Who Is Doing All the Unglamorous Work in Starfleet. The First Time, by Afrai, aka [personal profile] bravecows. It's - OFC/OFC? Kind of? That's not really the point, though.

So, having spent quite some time wibbling about my negative reaction to any story not featuring Spock (which, seriously, in my head I want to make that sparkly text, except I know it would be wrong), I'm going to start off by recommending something that is totally Spock-free. And here's the thing: I don't care. This is that good.

What's it about? Well. Let's just say this is meta as well as fan fiction, and you'll get it as you go along, and I can't tell you in advance.

I can say, though, that I love these characters. And I want them to be canon. I want the concepts to be canon. There's something in here that is SO AWESOME and makes so much intuitive sense and yet I cannot think of any visual SF that does it, although of course my reference set is limited - I mean, I haven't even seen all the Star Trek spinoffs.

So I can't tell you what this is about, really. I can just tell you to read. Oh, and I can say that if this story were canon, well, that'd be a step toward correcting the problem the last rec identified.

The One That Features Courtship Via Phonemes. I Mean, I Guess Almost All Courtship Is, but These Are Explicit Phonemes, and, No, I Don't Mean That the Way You Think I Do. Break, by [livejournal.com profile] yahtzee63. S'chn T'gai Spock/Nyota Uhura.

This story, on the other hand, has an entirely acceptable amount of Spock. It also has lots and lots of profoundly awesome Uhura. My only complaint about this story is that, once again, I think everyone in the universe has already read it, but I want to rec it, so I will. I've never worried about that problem before, after all.

This is backstory - although that seems like an insulting term for it, really - for the Spock/Uhura relationship in canon, and I looooooove it. (I think most dedicated slashers will love this one. There's enough emotional distance and longing and requited passion, plus just a touch of angst, to satisfy. Or so it was for me.) This has all the elements I need in a story featuring Spock (great seething cauldron of emotion, sternly repressed, occasionally bubbling to the surface while he pretends that, no, there are no disturbances in the core of Planet Spock, which is of course not at all volcanic, no, really, ignore that eruption you hear). And it has a Nyota who is truly an equal character, truly intelligent, and truly human. I could not ask for more.

In fact, this story has made me kind of afraid to see the movie, because if there's one thing I know about big-budget summer action movies, it's that they don't usually provide rich character development and thoughtful, realistic relationships and depth. I am guessing, if this story were canon, most of the words in it would be replaced by something exploding.

The Vid That Teaches Us That Vulcans Are the Real Rough Trade. Or, Okay, Not, but They Sure Do Give New Meaning to Rough Sex. Poker Face, by [livejournal.com profile] talitha78. S'chn T'gai Spock/Jim Kirk.

So, um, this vid is pretty much the closest we'll get to an actual canon Kirk/Spock sex scene, or am I the only one seeing that on that screen? No, I can't be.

And, if that is not enough to compel you - this is Spock. Spock! Who has a POKER FACE! Except not, as it turns out, for Kirk. Kirk: the illogical exception to every aspect of Vulcan control! I could not love this more.

PLUS, we get to see the evolution of Spock, from fierce but wee baby Spock to more-Vulcan-than-Vulcan pre-Starfleet Spock to Kill him? Fuck him? Maybe both! Spock-with-Kirk. They are all my favorite Spocks, let me tell you.

And I love that this fandom has been so prolific, with so many excellent vids set to so many songs I would not normally listen to at all. And yet, you know, there's a decent chance I'll end up loving this song. I mean, I watch the vid enough.

(Spoooooooooock. <3 <3 <3 <3!)

(P.S. Anyone know of a good place to get ST icons? I neeeeeed them. Apparently.)
copracat: spock with his hand raised above a flower with text 'classic hand porn' (spock - hand porn)

[personal profile] copracat 2009-07-03 05:06 am (UTC)(link)
You are proof positive (and I mean very positive) that fanishness eclipses fandom.

I believe the Memory Alpha wiki may be your online resource of much Trekishness.
abbylee: (Default)

[personal profile] abbylee 2009-07-03 05:09 am (UTC)(link)
This post fills me with LOVE. For everything.

<3
melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (Default)

[personal profile] melannen 2009-07-03 05:19 am (UTC)(link)
T'h'la was, for the record, the Vulcan word Spock used in extremis to refer to Kirk, for which they had to put an actual footnote in the novelization in which Captain Kirk rather obviously *failed* to deny that it actually meant "lover":

Here, I'll quote it for you: "I was never aware of this 'lovers' rumor, although I have been told that Spock encountered it several times. Apparently, he had always dismissed it with his characteristic lifting of his right eyebrow, which usually connoted some combination of surprise, disbelief, and/or annoyance. As for myself... I have always found my best gratification in that creature called woman. Also, I would not like to be thought of as being so foolish that I would select a love partner who came into sexual heat only once every seven years."

That was in 1979, in the official novelization of the first movie.

T'hy'la : fandom history/footnotes OTP!

(Now I kind of want to write a Kirk/Spock fic where the sex takes place entirely in footnotes.)

And I am off to read your recs! (I would be feeling totally intimidated by this fandom too, except that I was raised on it. I don't actually care how closely it fits actual canon! The version that lives in my head has existed for longer than about 3/4 of the canon anyway, so it gets priority.

For example, I live in Rihannsu-verse: I don't care how slashy and cracked Ishmael was, or how amazing Barbara Hambly is, I go with Diane Duane: Spock's full name with patronym is Spock cha'Sarek. If you want to add more, he's Spock cha'Sarek of the house of Surak. Though the 'unpronounceable' bit is Dorothy Fontana canon, and she claims the rest of his name is XTMPRSQZNTWLFB.

I realize that made about as much sense to you as the surfer's story. But god, I love the history in this fandom!)
Edited 2009-07-03 05:20 (UTC)

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strina: stock icon of cherries against a green background - default icon (Default)

[personal profile] strina 2009-07-03 05:23 am (UTC)(link)
First, a cheap (relatively - $20-$35) alternative to buying the compete boxed sets: the Fan Collectives, where fans voted for their favorite episodes on a certain theme (whole DVDs devoted to time travel or alternate realities! see, there are benefits to the famous fandom thing). And you can get a Best Of DVD of the Original Series for 10 bucks; it only has four episodes, but it includes the pon farr ep.

Second, the five Trek TV series are The Original Series (Kirk), The Next Generation (Picard), Deep Space 9 (Sisko), Voyager (Janeway), and Enterprise (Archer; the most recent, it was a prequel to TOS).

Third, "In ST:TMP novel, Roddenberry introduced the "Vulcan" word T'hy'la, as a label for the Kirk/Spock relationship. Kirk and Spock are more than friends or brothers-in-arms: according to Roddenberry, they are T'hy'la. T'hy'la translates to friend/brother/lover. The creation of this word was apparently necessary because the terms friend and/or brother alone were inadequate."
from The official alt.tv.star-trek.tos K/S FAQ by Laura Goodwin

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sinensis: z. quinto and l. nimoy, spock squared (new spock old spock)

[personal profile] sinensis 2009-07-03 06:25 am (UTC)(link)
yay, Trek! OH, SPOCK, character of my HEART.

If Best Beloved can stand to watch tv shows online, CBS is streaming all of original Trek here:

http://www.cbs.com/classics/star_trek/video/video.php

cheese-tastic music! Kirk and his frequently ripped shirts! Spock being AWESOME.

http://trek-news-feed.dreamwidth.org/profile Feed for the trek_news LJ comm, which has a category for icon/graphics posts.

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[personal profile] asdi 2009-07-03 06:48 am (UTC)(link)
It's overwhelming, is my point.

I am the person who first heard about Spock and Star Trek two months ago (I'm not American, so that can partly explain it, but I admit that I've been living under a rock as well).

When I first tried to watch the new movie, it took me ages to identify the characters (I gave up on understanding what was going on after the first 10 minutes). After reading Wikipedia for a couple of hours, I now have the basic information which allow me to read fic.

So I totally agree with you that it's overwhelming.

(Also, Spock/Spock? An awesome idea xD)
cimorene: cartoony drawing of a woman's head in profile giving dubious side-eye (k/s pondering)

[personal profile] cimorene 2009-07-03 09:08 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I don't think there's any firm canon source for that string of syllables for Spock's name. Since the books tend to disagree wildly with one another they are not a part of canon proper. Certainly a name that he never actually uses in canon can well be left out of references to him.

It's also amazing to me if you've never run into Trekkies before those PTs! Haven't you spent time around groups of nerds before?

The first time I went to NASFiC when I was old enough to remember (North American Science Fiction Convention, in Atlanta at DragonCon when I was abt 12), I went to a Trek wedding that was part of the con program, where the couple were in SF uniform and the officiant was Klingon judge. I think the bride was a Vulcan, if I remember right.

Also there was a huge group of Klingons in the deep south and at one of the tiny more local-ish Alabama cons a few years before that, I went to a Klingon trial completely populated by Klingons. The con hospitality suite that time was also stocked with nothing but Klingon food, which was kind of awesome, and yet kind of disappointing (how much spaghetti, grapes, eggs, etc with food coloring in can you possibly eat?).

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trouble: Sketch of Hermoine from Harry Potter with "Bookworms will rule the world (after we finish the background reading)" on it (Default)

[personal profile] trouble 2009-07-03 09:58 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, see, the reason she wants Spock to fight Kirk is so that if Spock wins, he'll be so horrified at having killed his best friend (and upset that she challenged) that he'll release her from his bond, and if Kirk kills Spock, he's not Vulcan enough to marry her, so she'll be releases from her bond.

There's a book where she gets so pissed off at Spock about the way this all played out that she tries to get Vulcan to leave the Federation and almost succeeds. I think it's Spock's World.

Also, Spock gets over his ponn farr by rolling around all over Kirk in front of other people while they get sweaty and shirts get ripped, in a scene that would have been perfectly fine in that Poker Face vid. "If it ain't rough than it ain't love" or whatever the line is.
jeeps: (st:tos ♡ vulcan internet addiction)

[personal profile] jeeps 2009-07-03 10:06 am (UTC)(link)
yeah, he basically (i can't remember the exact quote) says something about how apparently fighting kirk was sufficient to relieve him of his pon farr (!!!), when mccoy asks him the same question.

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watersword: Keira Knightley, in Pride and Prejudice (2007), turning her head away from the viewer, the word "elizabeth" written near (Default)

[personal profile] watersword 2009-07-03 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I love you and your bewilderment and your taste SO MUCH.

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saffronhouse: Zhao Yunlan looking forward at Shen Wei's profile. (ignatz-thank you)

[personal profile] saffronhouse 2009-07-03 03:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow -- you know, as usual, your recommendations are just as great as, um, your recommendations! Seriously, your prose is like potato chips--I get to the end of the post and I turn the bag upside down and shake it, hard, looking for just a few more crunchy, salty, marvelous crisps. Such joy!
princessofgeeks: Nichols' Uhura against a black background (uhura by texaspirate)

[personal profile] princessofgeeks 2009-07-03 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)
thank you for this. i too am overwhelmed by all things trek, tho i have apparently watched more of the original series than you. and yes, Enterprise was Another Series.

And yes to Spock.
quinfirefrorefiddle: Van Gogh's painting of a mulberry tree. (SGA: McShep H/C)

[personal profile] quinfirefrorefiddle 2009-07-04 12:01 am (UTC)(link)
Spock/rock, you say? It already happened.



From "Devil in the Dark." Pretty good ep, actually.
quinfirefrorefiddle: Van Gogh's painting of a mulberry tree. (SGA: McShep H/C)

[personal profile] quinfirefrorefiddle 2009-07-04 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, and if you want a "canon" Spock/Kirk sex scene from TOS, please tell me you've seen this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PwpcUawjK0 (Warning: dub/noncon)
merrily: Mac (Default)

[personal profile] merrily 2009-07-04 01:16 am (UTC)(link)
(And one, apparently, was slash, and no one noticed until after it came out. Oops!)

WHAT. MOAR INFOS. Sometimes I slip into lolspeak when I'm really excited, and I think this time counts. Do you know the title? If not, do you remember where you heard about it, that I might go figure it out? If all else fails, I can probably go down to Bakka Phoenix and see if the staff knows what I'm talking about.

As for STXI icons, I loved this set that [personal profile] totallybalanced made.
melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (Default)

[personal profile] melannen 2009-07-04 01:29 am (UTC)(link)
It was "Killing Time" by Della Van Hise. They realized after the first printing shipped, and made her revise it in all later printings. But it's really hard to tell if you've got the slash or the non-slash printing, because the regular one is pretty darn slashy, and the slash printing's hard to find. I haven't managed to read that version yet.)

As far as I know it wasn't anything explicit or direct, but apparently the author let her "subtext" lose track of the "sub" part, if you know what I mean. Of course, I'm pretty sure even that one still doesn't beat out the story published in "New Voyages" where Kirk gets genderswapped and almost leaves a bar with a (male) Klingon captain before Spock shows up and comes over all possessive and growly. Ahem. [personal profile] telesilla has that one up in full, if you're interested. And then there's "The Price of the Phoenix", which is basically an entire novel of blatant Spock/Kirk H/C, that the editors apparently never noticed the slash in. (officially authorized tie-ins! swear to god! Of course, there's a BDSM AU *episode* in the original show, so ...)

It's possible I know too much about this fandom.
Edited 2009-07-04 01:45 (UTC)

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wintercreek: Blue-tinted creek in winter with snowy banks. ([ST 09] finest mind in the Fleet)

[personal profile] wintercreek 2009-07-04 07:42 am (UTC)(link)
This is a comment to offer my Trek knowledge wherever required (I was raised on TNG/DS9/VOY and some TOS reruns and movies 1-9, but not 10, oddly; even my parents who faithfully watched all the episodes of everything else gave up on ENT, so I feel okay about ignoring it), although it is not as sprawling and comprehensive as [personal profile] melannen's. And also a comment to say \TREK!/

And to suggest that you read Spock's World, which can be had in Kindled format from Amazon, because it is my favoritest (yes, not a word) Star Trek novel. And then if you're hungry for more, the other Diane Duane ones (The Wounded Sky, Doctor's Orders, the Rihannsu books) are also awesome - but for maximum Spock, read Spock's World. <3 Spock <3

[identity profile] feochadn.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 04:43 am (UTC)(link)
Enterprise is another series. Admiral Archer's beagle? That's an Enterprise reference.
Last time I counted:
5 television series
11 movies
459 novels
43 years of fandom

Have fun. *g*

[identity profile] thefourthvine.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 05:44 am (UTC)(link)
I think I need to go put a cold cloth on my head.

(FOUR HUNDRED FIFTY NINE NOVELS? Holy shit. And I hear some of them are actually good.)

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[identity profile] cesperanza.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 04:53 am (UTC)(link)
This thing you have for Spock, the OTC? Is basically the PRIMEVAL OOZE OUT OF WHICH ALL FANDOM CRAWLED AND EVOLVED, imo. It was that desperate OTC thing, more than any other single factor in the entire known universe, IMO, that led to the evolution of the entire fannish race--we crawled out and got lungs, legs, then stood up and made the wheel and fire and office buildings and cars and the iPhone--the whole of fannish civilization. It is like watching Patient Zero all over again. I am delighted.

[identity profile] thefourthvine.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 05:47 am (UTC)(link)
See, and it never made sense to me before, but NOW I GET IT OMG. Spock is like a walking definition of slash! I can see how people might look on him and be compelled to create a whole new way of being fannish! He is JUST THAT AMAZING.

Seriously. I have never before felt like someone looked into my head and created the character I'd always wanted, the swirling vortex of my id.

Oh, SPOCK.

(And isn't it just like me to re-create the wheel fifty years on? But I cannot help it! Spock is, as you note, just one of those people you build civilizations for!)

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ext_2351: (star trek: TOS ship by draculasheir)

[identity profile] lunabee34.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, like you've never wanted to see a vid to "Part of Your World" for Spock.

It's like you can see deep inside my heart. Deep, deep inside. LOL

[identity profile] thefourthvine.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 05:49 am (UTC)(link)
Anyone who says she doesn't want that is a LIAR. It would be so awesome!

(I also desperately want a Spock vid to Fuck the Pain Away. I CANNOT HELP IT, OKAY?)

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[identity profile] lunabee34.livejournal.com - 2009-07-03 05:57 (UTC) - Expand

[identity profile] par-avion.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 05:07 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, Enterprise is a whole other series, but it is mostly ignorable. :)

(I love your recs!)

[identity profile] lilacsigil.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 05:46 am (UTC)(link)
*fights for my Enterprise*

I loved some parts of it! Like most of Season 4! Andorians!

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[personal profile] azurelunatic - 2009-07-12 22:13 (UTC) - Expand
minim_calibre: (Default)

[personal profile] minim_calibre 2009-07-03 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
All you will really learn from Enterprise is that Vulcans have perky nipples.

(Really, how did that show go so wrong??? It is the only Trek show I was unable to watch for more than a season. And, man, the only reason I quit Voyager was that I moved somewhere with no cable and no TV reception.)

[identity profile] tzikeh.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 05:41 am (UTC)(link)
Really, how did that show go so wrong???

Right from the start, with the Diane Warren-penned, Russell Watson-sung theme song "Faith of the Heart." Nothing could recover from that.

Enterprise: the only show that managed to make Scott Bakula boring.

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[identity profile] odditycollector.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 05:18 am (UTC)(link)
I know lots of people read comic books
Are you among them? I know, random, but you may have mentioned in passing once or twice that you and tv are less than the bestest of friends, and suddenly I think, does this feud extend to *other* visual media? Fancomics seem to be okay, but so do *vids* and...

I was going to end on a zombie joke here, but the set up was getting longer than the question. Or maybe I am just checking the calibration of my long distance telepathy machine. We could still be friends if I let that slip, right?

[identity profile] thefourthvine.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 06:02 am (UTC)(link)
Are you among them?

*laughs hollowly*

Let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a young, innocent girl, all alone for the first time in her life, off at college. And she fell into the clutches of a Bad Man who introduced her to comic books and AD&D. And she was never the same again. It was EXACTLY like those "by Anonymous" fake diaries about, like, heroin addiction and so on, except more tragic.

And since this Bad Man was an obsessive collector, the girl (young! innocent!) learned to keep her books in special sleeves in special white boxes. She learned the importance of buying every issue, even when the issue frankly sucked. She spent a lot of money.

And then she woke up one day and said, "Why does EVERYTHING have Wolverine in it? I don't even LIKE him!" (Note: the Bad Man was hugely dismissive of DC and openly mocked all adherents to same, so she was strictly a Marvel girl.) And then they canceled her favorite book. And her favorite character disappeared and then came back all different. And she went to a comic book shop to get stuff, and she couldn't get the people there to talk to her let alone set up a pull box for her - she had to bring the Bad Man with her, or she was totally invisible no matter how many times she asked for someone to take her money.

And somewhere in there, she wondered why she was doing this shit, and she stopped, and swore NEVER AGAIN. And now she only reads scans on the internet. (But she still has, like, five long boxes filled with god knows what somewhere.)

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[personal profile] athenejen - 2009-07-04 08:29 (UTC) - Expand

[identity profile] tzikeh.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 05:18 am (UTC)(link)
"Okay, what is with this t'hy'la thing? It's in every story ever!" And she says, "I don't know." (Because she hasn't watched all the original Trek.

Well, it's not in TOS, per se, though since it comes from The Great Bird himself, most consider it canon (at least, all slashers do and many "Gene wrote it, so it's true" TOS fans). It is Vulcan for "friend" and/or "brother" and/or "lover." It comes from the novelization of Star Trek: The Motionless Motion Picture. The novelization was written *by* Roddenberry (hence the "might as well be canon" opinion of most fans). Spock thinks of Kirk as his t'hy'la as he is about to, well, sort of renounce his human half forever and join the Vulcan world as fully Vulcan.

The quote from the novel is Spock's thoughts:

"Jim! Goodbye, my...my t'hy'la. This is the last time I will permit myself to think of you or even your name again."

ETA: There is, of course, a footnote in which Roddenberry hedges his bets on the "lover" bit (by having *Kirk* comment on the rumors that he and Spock are/were lovers--it gets rather circular and meta-fictional and weird), but then one must ask, why include it as a possible definition of the word in the first place? You made it up, Gene....
Edited 2009-07-03 05:25 (UTC)

Addendum

[identity profile] tzikeh.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 05:39 am (UTC)(link)
Five series (with an asterisk):

Star Trek*
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Star Trek: Voyager
Enterprise (yes, it's just called "Enterprise," though at the beginning of season three it was renamed "Star Trek: Enterprise.") It's set ten years before the Federation is created. It had a soft-rock-cum-power-ballad theme song, and basically just flat-out sucked.

*Three live seasons, and one animated series that had 22 episodes.

Eleven movies:

The First Six: All TOS

Star Trek: The Motionless Motion Picture
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek V: Shat Happens The Final Frontier
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

The Seventh: TNG w/Kirk:

Star Trek: Generations

The Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth: All TNG:

Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Nemesis

The Eleventh: TOS Alternate Timeline:

Star Trek (aka Star Trek: The Future Begins, aka Star Trek Zero, aka Star Trek XI)

Re: Addendum

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risha: Illustration for "Naptime" by Martha Wilson (Default)

[personal profile] risha 2009-07-03 05:23 am (UTC)(link)
I'm not sure I'm emotionally prepared to cope with the thought of emo!Spock listening to Fall Out Boy.

[identity profile] thefourthvine.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 06:11 am (UTC)(link)
It makes perfect sense and you know it. He wears all black and gloomy colors for his civilian clothes - robes, even, sometimes. And you can't tell me he doesn't have eyeliner in his quarters.

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[identity profile] daegaer.livejournal.com - 2009-07-03 07:41 (UTC) - Expand
ext_2180: laurel leaf (planets and moons)

[identity profile] loriel-eris.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 05:39 am (UTC)(link)
So. I was thinking about this the other day. I'm not in what one (I) would classify Star Trek fandom - I don't read fic, or meta, or discuss it with friends (on or off the internet), or watch it endlessly (in fact, I cannot tell you when I last saw an episode), in don't have a ST icon, I don't post about it on LJ, or basically any of the things you expect from a fan.

What Star Trek and I have far far surpasses what I'd call my being in the fandom. For me ST is one of those facts of life - the sky is blue, the sun will rise, Star Trek will be a part of me 'til the day I die. I mean, I was never as obsessive as a great number of the fans. I only own a fraction of the books (~250 apparently). I know a lot of the detail, but I've forgotten a lot more and never knew the majority of it.

But I do know that I while I don't (and doubt that I ever will) call myself part of Star Trek fandom, Star Trek is as integral to me/who I am as breathing is.

Star Trek just is.

[identity profile] thefourthvine.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 06:16 am (UTC)(link)
But I do know that I while I don't (and doubt that I ever will) call myself part of Star Trek fandom, Star Trek is as integral to me/who I am as breathing is.

Wow. That's incredibly sweet, and I'm slightly envious. Why must my relationship with television be so hostile? The only things that make up part of my soul are, like, certain books for kids.

Star Trek just is.

"Star Trek is" needs to be on an icon. *nods firmly*

[identity profile] angevin2.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
She wanted to marry someone else, so she challenged Spock and picked Kirk as her champion - no, I don't know why, so don't ask

Oh, she explains that! Her rationale is that if Kirk won, he wouldn't want to marry her, so she could have the other guy. If Spock won, he either wouldn't want to marry her because she'd challenged him, in which case she could marry the other guy, or, alternately, if he married her anyway, he'd go off and do his thing in space and she could just sleep with the other guy behind Spock's back. As far as I can tell the usual fannish response to this is "...that bitch!" but I think it's kind of awesome nevertheless.

There's a Voyager (the second-crappiest spinoff) episode where a minor Vulcan character goes into pon farr and we learn that fights to the death are another way to work through it, but of course that's done by back-formation from "Amok Time" (Spock was okay without any non-subtextual sex), and of course the episode also suggests that PF is contagious. So, yeah.

(Also, since I am a Trekkie and the daughter of Trekkies, it is kind of hilarious and awesome to see everyone all atwitter about it suddenly. Of course, I also hold the rather minority view that Trek + sex = REALLY UNSEXY -- possibly through affiliation with my parents, I dunno -- so it's also kind of weird.)
Edited 2009-07-03 05:50 (UTC)

[identity profile] thefourthvine.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 06:18 am (UTC)(link)
All I can say is that Kirk must have a powerful trouble magnet attached to his belt.

of course the episode also suggests that PF is contagious.

But wouldn't that lead to, like, a whole planet full of rutting Vulcans?

I cannot believe I even TYPED THAT SENTENCE. I - I need to go think about my sins now.

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[identity profile] lilacsigil.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
Don't listen to them about Enterprise! It's the latest of the TV series and it...had some good bits. I got into the fandom by reading the novels (not much TV out in the wilds of Australia, and we didn't have a VCR) so when I actually saw the show after reading 70+ books, it was quite a surprise, especially the sexism!

[identity profile] thefourthvine.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 06:19 am (UTC)(link)
I am totally listening to them about Enterprise, are you kidding? LOOK AT ALL THIS CANON. Anything I can strike from my mental list is BEING STRICKEN, let me tell you.

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