thefourthvine | Slashy Nominations 128: Small Fandoms Well Pursued

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Slashy Nominations 128: Small Fandoms Well Pursued

I have a feeling I'm going to regret this. But, see, recently

liviapenn reminded me that I have been remiss in my duties as a fan. Specifically, I have neglected my Fannish Heritage. (Capitals inserted to make the topic seem more important. Also, I figure this way I'm enhancing the chances that soon a course called that will be offered for credit at universities. Ideally, I'm thinking a history elective. Ooo, and there should definitely be extra credit for porn.)

I do not want to be a Fannish Heritage Neglector. There would likely be shame involved.

So if anyone feels like making me a sampler for any of the following fandoms, with a focus on slashy moments and other topics of fannish interest, well, you would be doing me (and Our Heritage!) a great service.

The Sentinel
Star Trek: the Original Series (But I've already seen The Trouble with Tribbles. Um. Almost half of it, anyway.)
Highlander (Ideally, with a focus on Methos, a character Best Beloved seems to find peculiarly appealing, although said appealingness took a slight hit tonight, when we found out his name is pronounced with a long E.)

You wouldn't have to send me all the episodes! Not even close. I'm just asking for, you know, a highlights reel. Like, if SGA appeared on that list, you'd only need to send me Sanctuary, The Defiant One, The Brotherhood, and Trinity, although of course if you felt like throwing in, for example, Rising or Underground or The Storm, that would be excellent, too. And if you wanted to explain why these were the critical episodes/scenes/vids/transcripts/insane theories posted on whatever fans used before they had the internet, well, I would love you forever and ever, and also, um. Be very grateful.

Sorry, haven't really got anything else to offer, unless you want a highlights reel for SGA, in which case I'd be happy to trade. (I doubt it, though. I think every fan in the universe has already been pimped into that fandom at least twice, and I suspect non-fans are starting to be sucked into the SGA Galactic Black Hole because of the sheer size of its Schwarzschild radius, and oh my god, now I have to write a story in which Rodney compliments John on the size of his Schwarzschild radius. It would make me giggle! And only me, probably, which is why I'm going to have to be the one to write it.) DVDs would be ideal, but we also have the technology to play VHS tapes, because we are very retro. Volunteers? Anyone? I stand ready to be educated.

And am I missing anything? If I know the canonical whys and wherefores of Kirk/Spock (is there canonical support for Kirk/Spock?), Jim/Blair, and Duncan/Methos, have I pretty much got my Fannish Heritage down? Will I be able to hold my head up if I am ever in a large gathering of fans? Will I be able to pass the undergraduate course? Keep in mind that I've already seen some of due South, SGA, SN, BtVS, and AtS. (And no one is allowed to make fun of me for being immensely proud of that. TV was an unknown country to me before fandom, people. I'm new there.)

And now that I've revealed my shameful lack of Fannish Heritage, let's move on to the service portion of this evening's programming, shall we? I'm requesting information on large fandoms, so it seems only right that I should be recommending from small ones.

Best FF That Shows Us That Travel Isn't Broadening and Love Has Nothing to Do with Never Saying You're Sorry. What Idiot Even Thought up That Whole Sorry Thing? That's the Wrongest Phrase Ever. Certain Dark Things, by

jae_w. Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne/Marie Kreutz. (You should have seen at least the first movie to read this, and although I'm going to attempt to write the summary without spoiling the second, it's going to be tough.) Wow. I love this story. For me, the heart went out of the Bourne series (the movies, I mean; the books are a whole other deal) about fifteen minutes into the second movie, but it persists in stories like this one. This is just an astonishing look at the characters, at the way they lived between the first and the second movie, and the way they are. Neither of these people are perfect - um, and we're leaving out the whole assassin deal on Jason's charge sheet - and this shows that, and also shows why they belong together. Why they work together. This is basically a brilliant series of vignettes from Life on the Road with the Former Assassin and His Current Lover, and, frankly, I wish this had been the second movie. I would've loved it. The only thing I loved about the real second one was that I got popcorn. (The first one is fun, though. Things, you know, go boom, and also there is a pretty girl. I, uh, don't have high standards for movies; basically, if I'm sitting in a darkened theater, and I'm not crying at the end, and I didn't spend large periods of the movie reading in the hallway outside (Titanic, I am looking at you; I only sat through half of you, and my ass still hasn't recovered), I'm happy.) So. You know, just read this. It's amazing, and with an ending that just kills, and...did I already say wow?

Best FF That Perfectly Encapsulates the Outsider Perspective, Which Is Nice, Because It Means We Don't Have to Look at Flocked Velvet Elvis Paintings Anymore. Although I Suspect Some of Us Will Continue to Do So Anyway. Done, by

elishavah. Boondock Saints, gen or I guess you could take it as Connor MacManus/Murphy MacManus*. But for me, this is gen; the incest won't be showing up until slightly later in this set. Yeah. (So, I bet you're really looking forward to the rest of this now, huh?) Here is another amazing character piece, and I love this because it shows what it must be like to be inside the head of a MacManus (ooo, that name) twin. Because, seriously? They speak their own language. (As well as, yes, eight others.) No, it's more than that; it's like they aren't even entirely separate entities, which is probably why they didn't ping me as slashy in the slightest when I saw the movie. (I know. I am branded with the Slasher's Shame: I saw the canon, and yet not the slash!) And I also love that this story fills in one of the many, um, plot lacunae (sounds much better than hole) in the movie, so perfectly it might as well have been in the movie. And, best of all, this has the kind of last line I dream about.

sg_workshop was talking about opening lines this week, and although I never actually managed to post my comment (tragic browser crash; wit of the ages lost, except totally not), I had one, and it prominently featured my favorite opening line of all time: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." (Which, in addition to its many other charms, is brilliantly poetic and nearly erotic when put through Lost in Translation.) But the thing is, compared to last lines, first lines are easy, which is why I am totally the slave of any piece of writing that closes brilliantly. And this story's last line - okay. You have to have seen the movie. But if you have, you read this, and it doesn't seem like much, and then...it echoes, is all I'm saying. Two minutes later (probably only thirty seconds for most people), it's just amazing. (Of course, two minutes after that, if you've been on LJ a while, you want to put it on a Boondock Saints icon. But it's best to focus on the first part of the reaction, I think.)

Best FF That Is Going to Make Me Happy Every Time I Mistype "Brian" As "Brain." For the Rest of My Life. Higher Education, by Resonant,

resonant8. The Breakfast Club, John Bender/Brian Johnson, and, wow - that's a weird and probably unintended resonance in their names, isn't it? Didn't notice that until I typed them out. But all the more reason to slash these two, that's what I say. Although I don't think we need a reason beyond this story; this is the kind of FF that creates a fandom. Because, okay, my initial reaction to this concept was a hearty yawn. I did see this movie, yes, but I understood about .5% of it - all I really remember is that there were some desks. I mean, I had to dig up a plot summary to figure out who Brian and Bender were, even. So, obviously this didn't ping on my then-primitive (but now much enhanced and upgraded!) slash detector. I mean, it barely registered on my long-term memory. But I found myself actually remembering and understanding chunks of the movie as I read this story, and, even though Resonant never really describes either character, I started remembering what they looked like, how they moved, how they dressed. That's some impressive characterization, people. And the dynamic in this? Is just...perfect. I mean, absolutely, spot-on, dead-center...no. Here's the thing: the dynamic in this is the Platonic (only, you know, so not platonic, but work with me, here) ideal of a Resonant pairing. It's like she's been writing all this time because she was working up to these two. Now, I love and adore Res's work. And I rec it all the time. And I go into her stories with high expectations. And even so, I was stunned, because - well, look. Go read it, okay? You won't be sorry.

Best FF That Proves That I Am Dead to Shame. Also Possibly to Several of You, by the Time You've Finished Reading This Rec. Only Your Brother Knows the Places You've Been, by

annakovsky. Super Mario Brothers, Mario/Luigi**. Yeah, um. You read that right. I figure anyone who didn't blink several times at the fandom and pairing has already read the story, and thus is no longer with us in this particular paragraph. But I'm hoping the rest of you stayed, even though it's kind of icky to imagine sex between little mustache-intensive animated guys who jump and, um, fight...turtles and hammers? I don't know. I never played the game; I was always more the Sonic the Hedgehog kind of girl. And, of course, there's the added ick of incest. Plus, because I really think this needs mentioning twice, animated video game characters, and I don't mean the weirdly androgynous RPG hotties, because those people are clearly begging to fuck in any number of positions - we're talking about, you know. Mario. And Luigi. Can I get a hearty ewwwww? Yeah. That was my reaction. Until I actually read this gorgeous little story, which is oddly sweet and plays on the Mario Brothers back story and is just stunningly good. Really. And maybe you're thinking: "Um. Yeah, still giving that one a miss, and happy to be doing so." But, well, look. I'm sitting here seriously considering using phrases like "wistfully beautiful" and "touching and gentle" to describe incest between mustache-wearing, turtle-jumping, pixilated plumbers. In other words, I'm voluntarily sacrificing what remains of my dignity, my reputation, and my belief in my own morals to try to get you to read this story. I can't think of a heartier, firmer recommendation than that.

Best FF That Shows Us That to Everything, There Is a Season, and a Fan Fiction for Every Sexual Act Under Heaven. Pushover, by Shalott, aka

astolat. Mr. & Mrs. Smith, John Smith/Jane Smith. (And, yeah, you'll definitely need to have seen the movie to read this. But it is a marital, martial good time, so, you know, no hardship there.) I'm ending this set with - well, with more movie-based het. But there's a difference! Because this is het based on a movie that does not begin with B! And every other thing about this story is different, too, except that it is also very, very good. And, okay. I don't want to describe and discuss the sex act central to this story, because that pretty much is the story. But I will say that it has never appealed to me in the slightest particular. It doesn't even squick me. It just leaves me indifferent and sort of vaguely looking around for something else to do. Maybe a snack or a comic book or something. But this sex act is so in character for that charming couple next door, the Smiths, that I love it in this story. In fact, in a very real sense, this is the characters: their entire dynamic and the entire movie, summed up in less than 800 words, so apparently we didn't need all the bullets and mayhem after all. Just one, um, assistive device. Plus Shalott. But, hey, that's probably true of The Godfather and Casablanca and Dr. Strangelove, too, although we'd probably need a different device. At least, I hope to god we would, because if you put Ilsa and Rick in the places of Mr. and Mrs. Smith in this story, it suddenly becomes...surreal. To put it mildly. Oh my god, I'm sorry I ever even thought of it. Must go exorcise these images from my brain right now, or they will haunt me forever. Bye, y'all!

-Footnotes-

* Can someone more knowledgeable about Boondock Saints (I've seen the movie, but I don't remember this name appearing in the subtitles) confirm the spelling of the brothers' surname? This is how IMDb has it, but - these guys are Irish(-American). That's the whole point, that they're Irish. And yet this last name does not seem so Irish. So I'm confused, and I would welcome enlightenment.

** Do these guys even have last names? I honestly have no idea.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm amazed that I enjoyed the Mario slash. And yet, I so did.

and Sarek, in that episode, gives a lovely portrayal of rather proper Vulcan-ness, from proper social shunning (of Spock) to proper patent dislike (of the Tellarite ambassador) to proper deep love (of Amanda) to proper, well, spoiler. Sarek was 102 in this episode, so slightly older than middle-aged.

Tuvok, on Voyager, was a rather smashingly good Vulcan as well, in, I think, his mid-80s?

Nimoy's portrayal of Spock changed over the years; older Spock's face is less mobile and expressive generally, but can convey entire novels with slight changes in the mouth and eyebrows. Younger Spock was much more prone to facial expressions that border on full-on smiles, etc. The only episode with other Vulcans about his age in it is "Amok Time", the pon farr episode, and at least one of the other young men has nearly his level of facial expression in it (although Spock's wife has remarkable facial control).

My theory, which is mine, is that younger Vulcans generally have less control over their outward expressions, probably due to still-imperfect emotional control. As Spock aged, he blathered less about logic and unemotionalism, seemed reasonably comfortable discussing his feelings even with his father (going so far as to call his crewmates "friends"), but also was much more in control of his expressions and body language generally. It was an interesting progression.

Oh! Oh! You have to see "Mirror, Mirror"! Unemotional MURDEROUS Vulcans! Yay!

*flops around helplessly*

God. First fannish love. You never do recover.

Totally dead serious.

Can't blame you on the Hee Haw disbelief. I had trouble believing it, and I'd seen Green Acres.

SH is distinguished by the presence of a red-and-white striped Torino, cop cliches of all descriptions combined with Southern California 70s cliches of all descriptions. Thus the hugging and crying, and some Really Bad Clothes.

Professionals was sometimes described as the "British Starsky and Hutch," although the similarities were of genre, not tone or character. American fans who could score tapes of it were easily converted by the style. For instance, S&H might bawl in maudlin tones, "I'd die for you, Man!" after a dicey shoot-out; but Bodie and Doyle would assess a lethal situation with a couple of glances and one of them might say, conversationally, "Getcher arse back to HQ while I hold 'em off." There followed several thousand fan stories, an impressive number when they had to be typed on actual paper and sent to other fans by snail mail, in which Bodie and Doyle engaged in every slash cliche then known to fandom and invented a bunch of new ones. It's definitely not to be missed in a history of fannish slash. Look not at the hair but at the actors' posterior parts, of which the camera gives an occasional luscious frame, and much will be explained even if the big guns and British dialogue don't do it for you.

Along with Classic Trek and S&H, MUNCLE might be considered seminal in a study of early slash: Two guys, life-and-death action, tongue-in-cheek dialogue, picturesque torture, gadgets, and in the mid-60s, no particular screen taboo against showing two guys sharing a hotel room or, in a pinch, a toothbrush. (There's a convoluted timeline of its effect in fandom, but it pointed the way for many.)

well. canonically they *talk* a lot about how vulcans don't have emotion, but kirk, spock and mccoy have a lot of adorable teasing friendly banter about it and it's fairly clear that neither of them actually believes he is free of emotion. it's kind of a running joke (see, for instance, the end of the menagerie, kirk: "this regrettable tendency you've been showing lately towards flagrant emotionalism..." spock: "i see no reason to insult me, sir."). it's clear that spock, as a vulcan, is supposed to be immune to "going off half-cocked", or allowing his emotions to override or mask his reason (mccoy talks about this in the menagerie, too).

i think it's fairly clear from canon that vulcans are supposed to have (A) the ability to strictly compartmentalise their emotions. (B) a society where showing emotion is in extremely bad taste, so much so that they cultivate from childhood the ability to hide their emotions. (C) the cultural imperative to refrain from allowing emotions to have a say in their decision-making.

now, spock is half-human, and learning to accept his humanity is a big thing for him, presented as thoroughly desireable by the series. (he rarely mentions it, however. it's always "i am a vulcan".)

but it's clear that he does act with emotion in a number of important episodes, for instance, "the tholian web", "the devil in the dark"... um. (i have a friend with a dvd ripper. i'm trying to find out if it could be possible for me to rip and burn some for you.)

it's clear again in star trek: the motion picture, which i really don't recommend seeing since it's badly written and horribly out of character for most of the principals in my own view, but it is pretty slashy. when the enterprise is called up for an emergency mission, everyone is surprised that spock appears because he was supposed to be in retreat on Vulcan at a place called Gol where he was supposed to get mental training that would teach him to purge all emotion completely. (i personally imagine he was looking on it as a kind of vulcan finishing school, trying to probe and better understand the workings of his mind and whatnot, but many star trek writers have imagined he went as an act of desperation because the angst of being in looooove with jim was, for one reason or another, too great.) anyway, there's a rather tense conflict in which kirk, clearly hurt and angry, says something sharp about spock's choice to rid himself of emotion. later in the film spock tries to mind-meld with v'ger, the "living" (sentient) machine, and because it knows too much, it kind of shorts out his brain and he screams and loses consciousness. kirk is waiting by his bedside when he wakes up and sounds all shocked and thrilled. "spock!" allow me to quote a really fairly factually accurate passage from "full circle" by killashandra (slightly edited to focus on dialogue and stage directions)

[oops the comment wouldn't fit. here's the quote]

"And yet, with all its pure logic, Vejur is barren. Cold." His voice broke; he seemed suddenly, astonishingly to be on the brink of tears. "No mystery," Spock whispered, still as if they were utterly alone. "No beauty." His eyes drifted closed, exhaustion overtaking him. "I should have known."

"Known?" [Kirk] managed finally, though it came out in a strangled, stranger's voice. "Known what?" His hands were on the Vulcan's shoulders--how had that happened? "Spock."

"Captain." McCoy tried to make him back off.

Kirk almost snarled at him. "Bones--!" Then he was shaking the Vulcan, pleading with him, not caring that his command composure was shot to hell. "Spock, what should you have known? What should you have known?" For an instant he thought Spock had lapsed into unconsciousness or sleep, and he despaired. Please...

Dark eyes opened then, full of starlight.

"Jim," he said, as if it were an answer to every question ever asked. And his hand closed on Kirk's bicep, then slid down his arm--took his hand, touching him gently in a place no one else had ever touched, a place James Kirk hadn't been touched in almost three years. Kirk held very still. A tremor ran through him, and Spock's voice washed over him in a low, devastating, intimate ripple of certainty. "This... simple feeling... is beyond Vejur's comprehension."

The captain of the Enterprise could not speak. He smiled unsteadily because he could not help himself, and closed his other hand over Spock's, heat rising powerfully behind his eyes.

also from the movies:

+ spock dies of radiation poisoning in stii. he's separated from jim by a pane of plexi-glass at the time, and they're pressing their hands together with the glass in between, clinging to the window, when he dies.

+ after he's brought back to life in the end of stiii--that is, he's a body and his soul, but is supposed to still have no memories at all--he walks past all his own shipmates in a row with no sign of recognition, but stops at last in front of kirk and says slowly and wonderingly, "jim. your name is jim."

+ at the beginning of stiv, spock is being re-trained with most of his knowledge of vulcan, but hasn't yet got in contact again with his emotional knowledge; he has conflicts with his mother and mccoy both over this. at the climax, he shows that he is himself again by choosing to behave illogically by taking a gamble, and the happy last line is him telling his father to tell his mother "i feel fine" (the point being that a full vulcan does not understand the point of the question "how do you feel?")

HEE!

Okay. Yes. I will do that for you. Because I luff you. *luffs* Now I really do have to figure out how to work that thing...

Not questioning your credentials! It's just that, for all I know, all the really cool linguists just laugh haughtily when IPA is mentioned. It's been years since I learned it, and even then it was in an anthropology class. It could be that proper modern linguistics is done entirely using little tick marks on the back of cocktail napkins.

So my question for you (well, actually, I have another one, but it's dependent on a) me figuring out how to put IPA into a fic and b) finishing the fic: is there an IPA font/program/applet for download or web use somewhere, like there's formula makers that you can download? Because, seriously, I've got no chance of making those marks in a drawing program; I can't even recognizably produce my own name in those things.

Huh. And now I'm wondering why Daniel Jackson doesn't keep his field journals in IPA. Wouldn't that make more sense?

*worriedly eyes

daegaer, who has never acted like this before*

But, seriously, you'll love BDS. Explosions and twins and Latin and the best and gayest FBI guy ever. (And I do mean canonically gay.) Where shall I send it? (If you'd rather email: thefourthvine at livejournal dot com will always find me, thanks to the wiley marketing strategies of the LJ folks). And do you have an all-region player, or would you like me to convert it?

You've seen Star Trek and you never told me?

*sulks*

Good lord. I'm dead from slashiness, and it's thirdhand.

Also, I've seen the radiation death. (In a vid.) It was just mystifying, and then Best Beloved (who groks TV in an alarming way, and has this whole pool of knowledge to which I am not privvy) explained what was happening, and suddenly it was very sad.

*blinks*

I can see I have much to learn.

(And, actually, I've seen part of a ST movie, but all I remember is whales and some joke about LDS/LSD. I don't know if that's the one Spock dies in or not.)

(That is a brilliant icon.)

Don't question the biology of this. His father was Vulcan, his mom was human, they had a baby. In the Trek universe, this is possible.

Hey. I played AD&D in my formative years. You know, where if you have a human and an elf, and they have sex, you get a half elf, which is like a blend of the two races, and is entirely capable of breeding. So when it comes to dodgy biology, I'm on familiar, comfortable turf. (This raises the question of what happens if Spock mates. You know, with an actual female. Is he a mule, or is it more like when you crossbreed dogs?)

Also, how did he end up with a human parent and a Vulcan parent? Is this common, or is Spock weird?

But even full Vulcans have emotions. They're just not supposed to display them publically or make decisions based on emotions rather than on logic. But the line between the two isn't always as clear as all that.

*blink*

They have emotions, but it's bad manners to show them? I...huh. I didn't know that. I thought they actually didn't have emotions at all. In fact, I used to think they were cyborg-type things, or androids, or something - humanoid machines, or human machine hybrids. But I have no idea, come to think of it, where I got that concept, unless it's the name "Vulcan," which has strong associations with metal and machines.

*takes notes furiously*

*Googles Star Trek*

*dies from information overload*

NB: There is a ton of information on Star Trek on the internet, and it is all apparently written for people with doctorates in Trekology. I can't be the only person on the planet who doesn't know the difference between a Klingon and a Romulan!

Hurray! I'll mail you. If you cold convert it, that'd be great, as my fangirl mother is very fond of films with explosions, and would probably love to see it. Alas, her quest for modern technology hasn't included a multi-region player! (If it's in any way a hassle to convert it, though, then I'll simply not tell her and watch it at home :-)

I've just finished going through all your screencaps. Thank you. Also, my brain is about to explode. This show is filled with slash and terrible costumes and really scary hair and amusing props and a really surprising amount of eyefucking. It's like the ultimate SF TV show, basically.

Also, one tiny question. That...stone penis thing. That Kirk is holding in "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" What is that? I mean, besides a stone penis. We stared at that for quite some time without being able to come up with a single theory beyond "dildo made by the Giant Stone-Fucking People of Eroticon VIII." (Well, we also formed a few theories about what the props people were on, but that's more of a side issue, really.)

now, spock is half-human, and learning to accept his humanity is a big thing for him, presented as thoroughly desireable by the series.

So does "learning to accept humanity" = "learning to accept/deal with/have/integrate emotions"? Or is it just learning to accept that he has a human side?

it's clear again in star trek: the motion picture, which i really don't recommend seeing since it's badly written and horribly out of character for most of the principals in my own view, but it is pretty slashy.

Best Beloved has informed me that in the movie Kirk voluntarily destroys the Enterprise to save Spock. Is that the out of character part? Because it is most definitely insanely slashy.

Also, I'm a total sucker for waiting-by-the-bed-in-the-infirmary scenes, and I love the long history of those in various SF shows. I had no idea ST started it. Fannish Heritage strikes again!

i have a friend with a dvd ripper. i'm trying to find out if it could be possible for me to rip and burn some for you.

That would be excellent, and I would be wildly appreciative. I have learned tons just from these comments and the screencaps (and the vids - do you know if anyone has good ST vids online besides Killa et al?), but Googling for further information proved to be a really bad idea.

(That is a brilliant icon.)

Thanks! Space jellyfish are love.

(This raises the question of what happens if Spock mates. You know, with an actual female. Is he a mule, or is it more like when you crossbreed dogs?)

AFAIK, this question has never been answered in on-screen canon. In one of the pro novels, Spock has a son (with Zarabeth, with whom he had a brief fling while in an altered mental state caused by time travel ... it's a long story.) The pro novels aren't generally considered canon, though.

Also, how did he end up with a human parent and a Vulcan parent? Is this common, or is Spock weird?

Spock is weird, or, more to the point, his parents are weird. Sarek/Amanda is actually fairly interesting to write about for a canon het pairing, because there's the eternal question of what on earth possessed them. It seems pretty clear from "Journey to Babel" and the much later Next Gen episode "Sarek" that Sarek loved Amanda in some sense, even if he wouldn't necessarily have used the word.

I thought they actually didn't have emotions at all.

Vulcans sometimes talk as though they didn't have emotions, but this is pretty clearly not actually true. There's a spiritual discipline called Kolinahr that's supposed to lead to being completely freed from emotion, but this isn't something all Vulcans practice. Most Vulcans do follow the teachings of the philosopher Surak, though, who taught that emotional control was the only way to prevent war and the destruction of society. It's a religious/cultural thing, not a biological one.

I can't be the only person on the planet who doesn't know the difference between a Klingon and a Romulan!

Hee! If you can get your hands on a few episodes to watch, it will all start to come clear.

I would be glad to answer any further questions about Trek, TOS, NG, DS9, and general universe-type issues. (I only have scanty information--or interest--in Voyager or Enterprise series). There is just SO MUCH information that might possibly be of interest or use to a fan that I don't see where to start unless you ask questions, though.

Like the Vulcan=unemotional thing.

BTW: Romulans: basically resemble Vulcans with less interes in emotional control; they are basically the same race, genetically compatible. The story is that at the time of the philosopher Surak mentioned above, two main factions of vulcan culture split in a big way, and the more militant ones were kicked off the planet (they'd had spaceflight for some generations by then). Those went off an colonized another star system and grew up to become the Romulans, who arearrogant, conquering and militaristic but not especially mean unless you get in their way (which of course the humans do, they way they go galivanting around the galaxy as if they owned it). The ones who stayed home embraced the teachings of Surak and started naming all their boy children things that started with S or ended with K, or both if they were especially pious.

The klingons are more aliens who don't get along with humans and their allies. The early makeup made them look quite a lot like Mongols in movies produced by Ted Turner--bushy eyebrows, bad goatees, 'barbarian' clothes, but basically human-looking. The later makeup gave them big ridged carapace-like foreheads ala Mr. Worf on STTNG (google for pics). In any case, another warlike, conquering culture, though made out to be more overtly hostile and mean--kinda the biker gang of space; they have a code of honor, but it's a rough one, and hard to notice when they're shooting at you.

Ask more questions!

Actually what Kirk says is more like, "D'you really think that a guy as horny as me would hook up with someone who can only be convinced to do the Wild Money Sex once per seven years?"

Which makes a loophole big enough to fly a starship through, since it's not that Vulcan's don't have sex except when in Pon Farr, it's that they don't have the psychobiological fuck-or-fight imperative except then. I'm sure if they had a logical reason to screw other times they'd go ahead and do so.

okay, yeah, and about the radiation death--the touching of the hands, facing, fingertip-to-fingertip, is a ritual gesture for vulcan married couples. the gesture doesn't look exactly like what k & s do in that scene--you see spock's parents doing it in "journey to babel", which laura jv mentioned up there, and it's touching with the first two fingers of the hand--because vulcans are touch telepaths, but telepaths *only* through touch. which evidently makes touching more special, and also makes it rude to invade personal space. it's also much noted in canon that spock's personal space is fairly huge, but that he and kirk touch one another a lot (they canonically *do* have a telepathic soulmate bond, only it's PLATONIC! according to roddenberry, as someone mentioned up there).
the movie you've seen part of is star trek iv, which is the one nimoy directed. it's generally the most-recommended and the most accessible to the non-tos connoisseur, but it's also light compared to the others and hm, sort of... full of references and in-jokes: really made for fans. (it's my favourite too, though. and at the end of it after spock's given into his emotions and whatnot and the whole crew is clinging to the outside of their ship which is slowly sinking into the bay below the golden gate bridge, kirk swims out of the water and puts out his hand to spock and then uses it to jerk him down into the water with him and it fades out on them laughing and splashing--that was unscripted on shatner's part but nimoy loved it so much that he left it in.)

Your friend is mistaken.
I have done a bit of historical onomastic (name origin) research, and spoken with folks who have doctoraates or equvalents in the subject.

both Irish and Scottish Gaelic use O', Mac, and Mc. The difference between Mac and Mc is only of usage--it arose before spellling was standardized, when names were writtend own phonetically by scribes who half the time did not even speak the language. The difference between O and Mac/Mc is of meaning. O'Dammit is a member of the family of Dammit, named after an illustrious ancestor named Dammit, who himself might have been Dammit O'Darn or Dammit McGosh, frex. McDammit (or Mac Dammit) is the son of Dammit himself--or a descendent of the son of Dammit, after the point at which surnames switched from being literal to inherited. Before around 1400, there were no female Mc Anythings; the equivalent for a woman was 'ingen', spelled variously, meaning "daughter of".

Clear as mud?

It's like the ultimate SF TV show, basically.

heeeeeee. although i think that might be because it was an early and highly influential one!

We stared at that for quite some time without being able to come up with a single theory beyond "dildo made by the Giant Stone-Fucking People of Eroticon VIII."

actually, they're in a cave and it's a stalagtite that kirk has broken off from the ceiling. he needs a weapon quick, sees that, throws himself on it and hugs it tightly and makes a comical face and sort of tugs and it just miraculously comes off.

So does "learning to accept humanity" = "learning to accept/deal with/have/integrate emotions"? Or is it just learning to accept that he has a human side?

the show pretty much presents it as though accepting emotions (if not dealing with them) is an integral part of accepting one's humanity. it's one of star trek's biggest themes--humanity and its emotions versus machines, which can't have emotion. it's what makes us human and what makes us great, in the star trek universe. (there are a LOT of episodes about this.)

huh, i didn't remember that that happened in stmp, but he does it in st iii for sure--they're stuck with a scavenged klingon bird of prey throughout stiv. one of my favourite quotes is from star trek v--spock's coming to the rescue and when kirk sees that it's him he throws himself at him joyfully and i think tries to hug him. spock says repressively, "captain. please. not in front of the klingons." (generally a TERRIBLE movie, it's directed by shatner and it's so bad that in my mental canon it just didn't happen at all because there's no way to make sense of it. -- in fact my mental canon follows

ellen_fremedon's story in which the entirety of the movie is a fever dream kirk has while recovering from the flu he catches in stiv.)

i haven't seen any other good vids, but i am not much of a vid-watcher so i'm not up on it. however, i will say that k/s slash fandom on the internet is mostly dead and hasn't produced anything good in years in my opinion (there was a mass exodus around 2002 to harry potter and other fandoms). so it wouldn't be too surprising if there were no good vids.

Ooooh, now that's interesting. :)

I only mentioned Nic because my name in the Gaelic is apparently Moireach Nic Bhroadhurst, and 'cause I like seeing all the gender-differentiated surnames in the Tirisdeach phonebook. I dunno, I think it's cool.

So how come you meet no O'Dammit's in Scotland?

Whoops, posted before finishing - only thing I'm a bit dodgy about is modern Scottish Gaelic using 'O''. It easily may have done in the past. But my wonderful informant's first language is the Gaelic, and she was pretty clear about 'Mac/Mc' being Scottish 'O'' being Irish. By which I mean: she easily could have been mistaken about whether the Irish use 'Mac/Mc' or not. I'm not so convinced she could be mistaken about whether the Scots use 'O''.

Could be regional. *shrugs* But I didn't think Hebridean Gaelic was particularly differentiated from mainland Gaelic.

best i can do for you is this: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/bylanguage/ipachart.html (http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/bylanguage/ipachart.html) -- unless you have the capability to turn your documents into PDFs, in which event you might be interested in the font package available for free download from sil.org (http://www.sil.org).

it would indeed make sense for daniel to keep his field journals in IPA -- but with his own idiosyncratic extras, because rough transcriptions are rough, you know?, where you have to work fast and make whatever notes you can, so often there's like IPA+individual shorthand at work. (but i never watched enough SG:1 to know the condition of daniel's journals at all, really.)

Yayyyyy, small fandoms! Love, love, love them.
Sorry I can't help you with your heritage research, but I've never really watched any of them either.
Due South, SGA, Sentinel, Sports Night...I've read thousands of pages of FF and probably seen a total of 45 minutes of the shows put together.
Hell with the fannish duty, that's what I say.

being the silly person that i am, i searched "narnia fanfiction slash" on google and your lj came up. so i'm friending you - hope you don't mind.

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Slashy Nominations 128: Small Fandoms Well Pursued

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