The Fandom that's Eating My Brain, Stardate 20-Whatever

[jedibuttercup]

I watched a TOS episode at lunch today: 1.05, "The Enemy Within". It's... really disconcerting, I've found, watching these episodes back now in order, with all the weight of all the Trek I've watched since the last time I looked at the original series, all the novels I've collected, all eleven movies, backed up in my head sparking things at me as I watch. Like my experience with XI in reverse, actually. Weird, watching Shatner play good and evil Kirks, unable to stop myself from reading into the situation insights from all the things that happened in the Trekverse after, imagining where the division of Pine's Kirk might differ. And where it wouldn't.

Also: came across an essay this morning suggesting that Kirk might have some sort of empathic ability; the essay's geared toward a logical (and slashy) explanation of the craziness of "Amok Time", but includes a fascinating amount of other analysis from other episodes that makes me believe he easily could have some kind of non-telepathic ESP. The author isn't the first person I've seen advance that theory, either. So of course I can't help but read that into the episodes I'm watching too; and you know what, it does seem more plausible than otherwise, if never actually admitted. Fascinating.

Also: damn, there's some excellent fanwork coming out of the Reboot. I'll have to assemble a recs list at some point with my favorites. I've stuck my toe in the pool myself (obvs.) and got some excellent reviews and feedback, but I'm positively shallow compared to some of these people, and it's just a bit... well. Seven years writing fic, more than half a million words, and I still feel like an intimidated newbie sometimes. *shakes self* That said: more Pike fic this weekend, I swear, and a Spock-POV conversation with Kirk immediately post-XI movie. I just-- I'm going to see it one last time before I post anything else, I think, to clear my head and regrasp my own interpretation of the characters.
~

Comments

Spockanalia, Organia, all zines gone with the trash from so long ago. Boohoo.

[pronker]

Yup, there was a reason why Harlan Ellison and others wrote for ST; the premise of an Earth that was not apocalyptic like lots of other 'futures' was so appealing. How did we do it? Who did we meet when we finally got Up There? That was a big reason why, if you read scifi at the time, you switched to a kinder, gentler future for us rather than the 'go all the way back to the apes' sort of story.

Seven years writing, wow, that's great. How fun that there is a movie to spark all this.

Re: Spockanalia, Organia, all zines gone with the trash from so long ago. Boohoo.

[jedibuttercup]

> That was a big reason why, if you read scifi at the time, you switched to a kinder, gentler future for us rather than the 'go all the way back to the apes' sort of story.

Dystopian stuff is enjoyable in its own ways, but I cut my teeth on Trek and original Star Wars, and I've always loved best that grand mostly-optimistic all-possibilities-open type of universe, filled with heroes not ashamed to be heroes and yet still very human at the same time.

> Seven years writing, wow, that's great. How fun that there is a movie to spark all this.

It was Buffy fandom that actually got me started writing for the Internet, back when it was airing its sixth season and broke the characters and I thought, "Hey, I can do better than that." And now the 'net has brought me back to my very first heroes, with a bright shining new canon that isn't too intimidating to touch. ♥