#the premise

[dilbobloggins]

sorry but I don’t think there’s a heterosexual reason why Gene Roddenberry himself wrote a scene where Spock admitted to feeling Jim’s thoughts to the crew, clarified to the reader that Vulcan’s can only feel the thoughts of someone you’re intensely close with and then having Spock think “oh god I just admitted I love him”

[the-zine-directive]

* ✵ * ˚ Meet Our Triumvirate! ✦ ⋆ ˚ ✫

The Zine Directive is being spearheaded by a team of three editors: Kat, Margot and Sim. We thought it was about time we introduce ourselves!

Pronouns: she/her Socials: spirk-trek on bluesky and discord, katruyck on ao3, @spirk-trek on tumblr (inactive) Starfleet Division: Probably command or security! I'm a black belt so I might even be a rare member of the red-shirt-survivor club 😏 Kirk, Spock, or McCoy?: Captain Kirk my beloved <3 Favorite OTHER Star Trek character: Chekov for the bridge crew, but I'm also obsessed with Vanna from The Cloundminders! Favorite episode: Operation: Annihilate! for sure. I love Shatner's acting in this episode, and Spock going blind for just long enough for McCoy and Kirk to be sick with guilt only to be like, "oh yeah, I have a second eyelid" is 10/10 writing. Philosophical dilemmas, silly props, shooting on location… Spock being in pain and trying to hide it the whole time... "Let me help" ... what’s not to love?! Least favorite episode: Elaan of Troyius, Wolf in the Fold, and Miri are honestly a three-way tie.  Favorite movie: For Star Trek movies, TMP all the way! For regular movies it has to be Forrest Gump. I've seen it over 100 times and can quote most of it from memory 🙃 Favorite fanfic trope: I love anything soft and full of whimsy. My favorite spirk-specific trope is probably accidental bonding! Anything else we should know? I've traveled a lot (25 countries, 30 states), I went to university in Scotland, I have 24 tattoos (including 2 Star Trek ones), my favorite color is yellow, and I have a history degree!

Pronouns: she/they, but it doesn't matter much to me Socials: ao3 booksrule123, tumblr @margottrek, youtube margot-forgot Starfleet Division: Probably engineering, or just chilling at a starbase somewhere. Kirk, Spock, or McCoy?: Kirk, but McCoy's a very close second. Favorite OTHER Star Trek character: Saavik! I also got very immediately attached to Tasha Yar while watching TNG. Favorite episode: The Empath is the easy answer, but I also love The Changeling a lot. Least favorite episode: The Omega Glory gave me such intense secondhand embarrassment for some reason lol Favorite movie: The Final Frontier is my favorite Trek movie. For a non-Trek answer, that'd probably be the Truman Show. Or one of the animated Barbie movies, for nostalgia's sake. Favorite fanfic trope: I'm a sucker for soulmate AUs, especially platonic soulmates. Anything else we should know? I'm a very tactile person. I like having physical things. so I'm really excited to work on a physical zine project like this! ❤️

Pronouns: ze/zir (or any pronouns) Socials: @self-made-purgatories on tumblr, simtrek on bluesky and selfmadepurgatories on ao3 Starfleet Division: Command gold for me! I would make an excellent helmsman. I am always the driver on road trips! I am planning to pull up a chair between Sulu and Chekov on the helm console and together we can exchange sassy comments about the romantic shenanigans of the captain and the first officer. (I also have a Doylist answer; when my t'hy'la and I cosplay as Kirk and Spock, I am the Kirk. Naturally, I have two Command Gold uniforms: an intact one and a lirpa-sliced one.) Kirk, Spock, or McCoy?: Oh WHY would you ever make me choose? That's just cruel. I'll take all three please preferably in those cutoff crop-tops from Bread and Circuses. If I REALLY had to pick just one, I suppose it would be Spock. He and I are kindred spirits. (Although, if Kirk's shirt is off, so are all the bets.) Favorite other Star Trek character: I adore Lt. Uhura. She is the smartest person on that whole ship. I absolutely love when a fanfic author sneaks in a little incidental "Uhura, you have the conn," as a treat. I also love Scotty, as well as Dr. Miranda Jones from "Is There In Truth No Beauty?" Favorite episode: The Devil in the Dark. It has everything! Big questions about who our enemies are and why. A philosophical exploration of what counts as "life." Protective Spirk! A very intense mind meld. Crying Spock. "By golly Jim, I'm beginning to think I can cure a rainy day!" THE HORTA. (Wait, maybe I will change my answer for "Favorite other Star Trek character" to Mother Horta.) Least favorite episode: Hard to say; maybe The Alternative Factor. The color trickery and the overlaid nebula and the spinning the camera upside-down are interesting effects for the 60s, but aside from Lt. Masters there is very little else happening in that episode. Favorite movie: TMP. It is a BEAUTIFUL film and I will die on this hill. (I am always saying that in order to fully appreciate this film you have to either ship Spirk or be in love with Spock, so either way I'm covered.) Favorite fanfic trope: Old Married Spirk! Vulcan hand kissing!! And Canon Compliant -- I love when authors find a clever way to retcon something that is canon but doesn't make too much sense, like continuity errors or weird dialogue. Anything else we should know? One of my favorite things about this fandom is its extremely rich and long history of fanworks. It's a genuine privilege to become a part of this legacy and help continue this tradition.

[mentallyillmindmeld]

Regular person: yeah so that’s basically the premise of th-

Guy with crippling Star Trek brainrot: hey yknow what else was called “the premise”

[hayzeydayzey]

coming back to him

[niche-pastiche]

Every time I go through old archived Star Trek fanzines I end up on the verge of tears because of how much love and history this fandom has. We're still having the same conversations, experiencing the same joy, exploring the same concepts in the same strange new worlds they were. It's beautiful.

[betty-fran]

S01E25  “This Side of Paradise” or one of the K/S talks

I've read at least a few good analyses of this episode, which I don't want to repeat, but I also have a few thoughts on the subject.

I'm sharing Star Trek run right now with N, my sister, which is entirely justified by my tendency to hyper-fixate and her love of old movies, but what always surprises me is that when we look at the same things, we see something completely different. After all, we see the world not as it is, but as we are.

And then I ask myself, is K/S so obvious to me just because of who I am?

N liked Spock/Uhura since we first watched AOS about 6 years ago, which is still one of the main reasons we argue when we watch TOS today. My sister is an HSP, she enjoys reading Zweig and Maurois, unlike me (I was only able to read his history of France), and is a romantic, in the true Ivanhoe way. And while, in my opinion, Spock is objectively difficult to read in the light of a classic heterosexual hero, N somehow manages to do it, and I have to leave room for that because she's my sister. After all, he's so different from other male characters on screen, so noble and reserved that you really know - when he will fall in love, he will love only one person and be faithful to them all his life. Perceiving it this way, it's indeed possible to imagine him caring for the woman next to him, treating her with respect, but such a reading of his character is, at the same time, a complete disregard for his internal conflict, a rejection of even the possibility of this conflict existing.

The problem with TOS is that it's actually hard to tell what was planned from the beginning and what came out of reading between the lines. TOS is incredibly multi-layered, and it can be taken either completely literally or delved into the most subtle philosophical space, depending on the depth of the viewer's thought and their own life experience, but even in a literal reading, it always remains quite ambiguous.

It's obvious that Spock's conflict over his own otherness, his inability to feel that he belongs, is fundamental. This is exposed starting with S1EP3 "Charlie X", and only intensifies as the plot progresses. This may not be related to his sexual orientation, given his pronounced neurodivergence in the first place (read: Vulcans), but I believe it can explain a lot more things about him. There's a great analysis of the K/S dynamic and especially Spock, in his repressed homosexuality, here by @anghraine, which reminds me why Spock is a more difficult character for me to read than Kirk. Even with a literal reading of TOS, Kirk's character remains clearly bi/pan - despite existing objections from both sides. The experience of accepting my own homosexuality, its catharsis, was completely unknown to me. My orientation was never a difficult moment for me; my "something wrong with me" didn't depend on it, and couldn't be solved by it. I loved the women in my life just as the men, but as an autistic person, I saw in the eyes of both women and men the same inability to accept me for who I am, the fear of it. It's hard to erase from your own memories the moment of understanding that the only option to be with another person is to change your very essence. S01E25 “This Side of Paradise” certainly brings this to mind. Leila's declaration of love is both selfish and completely hopeless because it's also her realization of the impossibility of accepting Spock for who he is. The happiness she speaks of could only exist because Spock was a different person all this time, and this scene strikes me with its cruelty:

LEILA: I love you. I said that six years ago, and I can’t seem to stop repeating myself. On Earth, you couldn’t give anything of yourself. You couldn’t even put your arms around me. We couldn’t have anything together there. We couldn’t have anything together anyplace else. We’re happy here.

But more important to me is the scene on the bridge before this, when Spock is about to go to the transporter room to talk to Leila:

KIRK: Mister Spock, Miss Kalomi is strictly your concern, but should you talk to her while she's still under the influence of the spores? SPOCK: I'll be back shortly, Captain.

It's not particularly interesting in terms of dialogue, but it's incredibly valuable in the way it's played. It's a quiet, chamber theater scene of almost intimate realization - for Kirk, that Spock can leave him, and he can't hold him back because he has no right to; and for Spock, that he can never leave him, even if he wanted to. Spock's response is incredibly soft, almost reassuring; it comes easily because he's already accepted it. He means it. He will return, he always will. But Kirk, left alone in the semi-darkness of the studio set, must embrace his own zugzwang. This isn't the most revealing scene of jealousy on his part, but it's probably the first one so clearly realized. That's why I find this episode so important, not only for revealing the internal conflict of both Spock and Kirk, but for defining this unspoken tension between them.

Among all of Roddenberry's quotes, there is one that is not usually mentioned, but which is actually the most profound in explaining his attitude towards K/S:

Oh, I think for the same reason that most heterosexual relationships are not so much for the purpose of sex as many of us — many of the people even who are involved in them assume they are. Most of us go through life trying to find someone — trying to make contact with some of these strange aliens on this planet. . .on this precipice — seeking some assurance that we are not alone. That we are not just "bags of skin." That our consciousness will not just be snuffed out and forgotten — all too soon. Sex is — a great part of sex has nothing to do with the physical — the physical act is not so important — unless it affects the other person — but the real reason for touching a person is just to make this contact. To hold each other.

For me, Roddenberry remains a very controversial figure, because he is the reason for this Schrödinger's Cat, when K/S is at the same time the only objective canon, and can never be in the classical perception of it. He created a story about love, but he left no room for its physical expression. And I understand him better than I would like to - his desire to show that real things, the most important things, are above the physical. This is actually talked about often in TOS - in S1EP19 “Arena” Kirk, after defeating the Gorn and refusing to kill him, receives approval from Metrons, a much more spiritually advanced race, the inhabitants of this system where they were stopped for showing aggression, and who expresses hope that one day humans will evolve enough to make contact with them. Likewise, in S1EP27 “Errand of Mercy,” the Organians, who imitate a simple medieval life, are actually such a highly evolved race that they have long since ceased to be attached to a physical body, having only a spiritual one. This idea of ​​a higher form of existence that transcends the standard physical body is one of the core and often repeated ideas in TOS, and is a beautiful idea that, unfortunately, so far doesn't connect well with our mortal, physical world. Wanting a body does not mean wanting a soul. But, unfortunately, it also works the other way around. Would it be enough to have only one thing? What's worse - being physically close to someone who can never fully accept you, or loving someone you can't touch? Unfortunately, this is what makes people who easily read the depth of love between K/C on screen, freaks in the eyes of people unable to see it. They love each other, but it's still not enough for any average viewer to believe. That's what Roddenberry left us with, out of his good intentions. They never kissed, never really touched each other, not like lovers do, and this is the truest and most insidious proof that we are wrong. This makes K/S an almost Shakespearean tragedy in modern reality, a tragedy for people who can understand them, to see themselves in them, for people who don't fit into the accepted idea of ​​what love should be, whose love will always be wrong, insufficient, too much, strange, and frightening.

And while we're free to ignore it, it's still something that emotionally compromises me. For some reason, for reasons I don't understand, it feels like if they can't have this happy ending the way they are, I, as I am, can't either.

[shapelytimber]

Space, the final frontier

It's up as a print on my inprint <3

[COMMISSIONS] - [PRINT]

They really think they're being sly

Process below vvv

Not really sure I like the final colors, but I can't keep looking at this fjkfnfkf I'm proud of the big hands tho !

[null-doesnothing]

[wwillywonka]

hey so what the actual fuck

edit: that's the link to the video btw^^

[crownanother]

Apparently, back in the day, there was a really notorious tie in novel for Star Trek that had a lot of slash elements called Killing Time

The slash elements were requested to be removed by Paramount, and they were, BUT due to a mistake, the original was sent to print without the edits

When it was caught, they’d printed 250k of this “first edition” which subsequently became collectors items for Kirk/Spock fans, since later editions DID include the edits censoring the slash

NOW, I bring this up because my friend who’s into the original Star Trek found and was reading the first edition at the desk at the library we work at, cause we’re slow on weekends and we’re the only ones here. She laughs at it, so I ask and she tells me about the general backstory of the book, and that she laughed because (among other things) Kirk, who doesn’t get mad in the og series really, was being described as hot headed and apparently just getting into fights left and right

So I’m looking over her shoulder at the scene, commenting on the character changes that resemble modern fic-degradation of characterization for the sake of a shipping dynamic, when I realize something

Now, my only interaction with the Star Trek series directly was the 2009 reboot, and my friends hasn’t seen those and is only interested in the originals. As I’m looking at this scene, and my friend is pointing out the character changes to Kirk, I realize that this is the fucking premise of the reboot, down to the fucking alternative timeline shenanigans, the rank swap, and Kirk being a hotheaded fuck up

The 2009 film was literally based on this slash fiction misprint they tried to bury!

Im reeling.

I can’t be the only one who made this connection.

So I google to see if anyone else has, and oh yes, good, there was someone

The fucking author of Killing Time

…I feel like I’ve uncovered a conspiracy. I’ve still got 3 hours left in my shift and I can’t focus. The world must know.

[delirious-arts]

”C’mon Mr. Spock!”

IT’S DONEEEEE RAAAHHHH i’m actually really happy with it 🤭🤭🤭 Some things were a little rushed (I need to learn how to properly draw the enterprise, girly is suffering 😭) but STILL!!!!

[the-zine-directive]

Welcoming the newest member of our crew...

Sim (@self-made-purgatories) !

We are so lucky to have not one, not two, but now THREE amazing editors to lead this project. Sim, a fellow fanzine enthusiast, was exactly who we needed to complete our command team.

A few months ago, Kat reblogged a post about the bygone days of fandom when fans rushed to their mailboxes looking for their next K/S fix in a mustard yellow envelope with floral stamps. "I was born in the wrong generation," Kat lamented in the tags. Sim has often felt the same. So, in a fit of nostalgia, Sim sent Kat an original Trek mini-zine in a mustard yellow envelope with several vintage stamps (one of which was floral). Although Sim is fairly new to the Star Trek fandom, ze is not new to the world of zines. Back in high school, Sim used to use the big copy machine in the school library to make poetry zines to swap by mail. These days, ze makes magazines professionally as a graphic designer and copy editor. We are so excited to announce that Sim is the newest addition to the editorial team of The Zine Directive!  Sim has a typewriter named Ursula (in honor of legendary science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin, a fellow Trek fan), over 100 Star Trek books, and a fascination with Kirk's green wraparound shirt.

~ Welcome aboard, Sim! ~

[self-made-purgatories]

I mean that's basically the plot of Shore Leave, right?

[starberry-cupcake]

THIS WAS INTENSE IN MANY WAYS

congrats to jim kirk for surfing through a panic attack and also wow