aria | we interrupt the polling broadcast for some absurdity

For no particular reason I have lapsed back into watching TOS Trek. (Maybe the reason was that I suddenly realized Abed would make an awesome Vulcan? That is the only reason I can think of short of my brain just suddenly going, "Okay, hilarious 60s sci-fi time!") And from there it is but a short slide into seeking out all the Kirk/Spock fic. I am not very surprised I am all over Kirk/Spock -- it's got aliens, telepathy, snark, inarticulateness about feelings, and an epic history of friendship, so it is pretty much my ship kryptonite -- but I have discovered some weird difficulties in the course of seeking it out.

It is so, so much easier to find well-written AOS fic than it is to find well-written TOS fic. But this is a problem! AOS!Kirk/Spock is TOS!Kirk/Spock minus epic friendship plus Uhura. And ... well, the more TOS I see, the more bewildered I am the film went the Spock/Uhura route (not least because I apparently have a side gig watching the old films and shipping Scotty/Uhura like burning) but, this said, I really don't want to sacrifice Uhura to the Gods of Slash, because she's too awesome for that. The entirely excellent compromise is Kirk/Spock/Uhura, which is fine, but at that point they have rejected the ghosts of TOS, and that is not the dynamic I'm craving.

Hilariously enough, when I'm reading AOS fic, everyone is definitely AOS Kirk and Spock and Uhura and Scotty et al, and same with TOS fic -- but Bones is always just Bones. I can flicker back and forth between their faces, but the tone and expression are always the same. Karl Urban, I take off my metaphorical hat to you.

Anyway, TOS Kirk/Spock! A lot of it is seriously delightful. A lot of it, by which I mean the fic from zines way back in the day that their authors have obligingly posted online, is delightful for anthropological reasons -- I just read a fic, for instance, in which Spock spends a lot of time agonizing over/analyzing his feelings, and realizes that he thinks of Jim as a friend in the sense that he is a comrade-in-arms and maybe something more, and I was sitting there going, "Spock, t'hy'la is in your vocabulary, why don't -- WAIT" and realized that the fic's publication date was 1979, the same year Roddenberry coined the term in the movie novelization. Dude. Guys, I read fic that is older than t'hy'la. *___*

(Reading TOS Kirk/Spock has an element of don't-think-about-pink-elephants to it, though. There is nothing quite like coming upon a sex scene and going "DON'T REMEMBER THAT IT'S WILLIAM SHATNER." Oh, Chris Pine, if only you were as interchangeable with Shatner in my head as Urban is with DeForest Kelley. My life would be much less full of horror.)

Lastly: this still! The one of Kirk clutching at Spock while they are no inches apart! And I think Spock is about to meld with Kirk or something? It crops up in vids a lot. But I do not know which episode it is from! Can anyone tell me? I would very much like to know.

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THERE ARE NOT WORDS TO EXPRESS MY HATRED FOR KIRK/SPOCK

ALL I HAVE HAD TO EAT TODAY IS ESPRESSO

AND HATE.

t'hy'la: the next time I see this fucking word on my flist, it is defriending time. My god I fucking hate this fandom right now.

ALSO SHATNER IS RLY HOT

IS HATE TASTY

I am sorry I am using silly fandom words that make you rage. :|

NO, TASTES OF COFFEE

I just--aaaaargh. SOULMATES ARE SUCH SHIT. And even that aside, the way that term is used just infuriates me unduly, idk why.

> Lastly: this still!

I'm guessing The Enemy Within.

Aha! Thank you. :)

swishing in from my network page - the still is from "And The Children Shall Lead," which is a terrible episode except for that one scene, where Spock frees JTK from an alien influence that's forcing him to experience his deepest fear - by the sheer power of his love.

Hah! Okay, that sounds like an excellent scene, so I think I'll find that episode and skip straight to it. Thanks for the tip! :)

I bow to your greater wisdoms, madam. For some reason I never really got around to watching third season---word on the street is that I didn't miss much, alas.

I contest that opinion! The third season has some real groaners, but so do they all - and it's got "The Immunity Syndrome," "The Empath," and "The Tholian Web," all of which are excellent. IDK how that word got out on the street, because I've heard it too, but maaaaan it just ain't true!

MAN WHATEVER NUTREK UHURA/SPOCK/COMPETENCY OTP, WHY YOU GOTTA HATE. :P

I HAVE NO HATE, I AM JUST NOT SURE WHERE THEY CAME UP WITH THE IDEA IN THE FIRST PLACE. IT IS PRETTY GREAT THOUGH. TBH ME/UHURA OTP.

But it's obvious she's hitting on him in the first season. 'Cause she wants it!

I do not think I have seen enough s1 Uhura episodes. MOAR UHURA NEEDED. Idk though I also think it's obvious that she and Scotty are basically married by the ... third film or so? Definitely by the fifth. So I will be in a corner absurdly shipping that instead.

I don't see it. I live in the book universe where Uhura becomes head of Starfleet Intelligence.

Oh my god, you live in such an excellent universe.

I was so squeeful about Spock/Uhura. ZOMG THEY WENT THERE.

I actually did kind of love it the first time. But subsequent times I was like, "That is okay, but I want Uhura to do less love-interest stuff and have more ADVENTURES." I am probably being curmudgeonly.

I agree with this comment as well. Something for the next movie.

TOS fic is indeed fascinating for anthropological reasons! But I have such trouble appreciating a lot of it as story. The genre conventions, they are so different! It is astounding to think how much these have changed in the scant decades between TOS and today.

I have to confess that really old school slash is sort of like my version of romance novels. It is my stupid idfic! I know it's stupid, but oh man, I love weird claustrophobic struggling-with-feelings slash that is rambling and earnest and not at all like any shipfic is now. But it actually really works for Kirk/Spock, because [1] it keeps the feeling of future-through-a-60s-lens and [2] Bones is the best yenta ever, basically, because he just goes "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU TWO." BONES. *___*

What I really want, though, is TOS fic that is written with an AOS aesthetic? Except then there might be no story. "Mr. Spock, I know fraternizing is against regulations, but this is becoming absurd." "Agreed, Captain." "Well then." *makeouts* THE END.

I see what you mean about future-through-a-60s-lens, because yeah, that's so true! And Bones as yenta is awesome. He appears in that role at times in AOS fic too, and it's always funtimes.

TOS fic written with AOS aesthetic? BRILLIANT. Hang on. Wait. I think I might have some of that bookmarked. *goes to check*

YES. I do not remember much about them, but here are a few TOS stories that have been written since the movie came out, that apparently I liked well enough to bookmark:
You've given me the best of you, but now I need the rest of you
First Contact
Intimacy

I do not think any of them quite follow your (awesome) storyline, but I believe they are pretty great nonetheless!

YAY OMG RECS. It is absurd how much K/S fic I am reading right now, so thank you for this. :DDD

You're very welcome! There's no such thing as too much K/S, obviously. :D In which spirit: here, have the tag for all the K/S fic I've bookmarked that I've had the chance to tag (I've got 76 more K/S fics bookmarked privately because I haven't organized them yet)

There is nothing quite like coming upon a sex scene and going "DON'T REMEMBER THAT IT'S WILLIAM SHATNER."

LOL forever. Yes, this, except that I have this problem with Leonard Nimoy, too. To a lesser extent than Shatner, maybe, but he's still this guy I've seen a million times since childhood, whose book of SCREAMINGLY hilariously bad poetry I used to own, and whose table I once waited on when I worked in a deli. (Matzo ball soup, chopped liver, and a coke.) None of these are fantastically sexy associations.

My AOS OTP is "Look, clearly all of you people won the genetic jackpot, so just...shipwide orgy, okay?" I want all of them to be besties in space forever, and get sad when anyone thinks ill of anyone else for non-plot reasons. Like, K/S fics that bash Uhura, or S/U fics that paint Kirk as a fratboy twit, etc.

irisbleufic did a whole series of TOS fics a little while ago, and she's reliably great. You should check them out if you haven't already.

I confess that I find Nimoy's Spock kind of unbearably attractive. But I can certainly see how you've had enough contact with Nimoy to not find him sexy. :D

"Look, clearly all of you people won the genetic jackpot, so just...shipwide orgy, okay?"

Hah, yes. This times a million. Also, I am willing to stick out Uhura-POV fics that think Kirk is a fratboy because I have eternal faith that part of the narrative point is her realizing he's actually pretty competent and awesome, but in the main, I want everyone to love everyone else. I mean, in general I like fics that obviously love or at least are tolerant and non-hostile to all the characters, but this is particularly important with Trek fic, because I adore everyone.

Oooh, yes! I have the directory entry open in a tab, in fact. The amount of fic I have open in tags is ridiculous.

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