Kirk/Spock

In the science fiction TV series "Star Trek" (1966-1969), the characters of Captain James T. Kirk and his Vulcan science officer Mr. Spock share a close friendship, although both characters have relationships and sexual liaisons with women. Early on, a few fan writers started speculating about the possibility of a sexual relationship between Kirk and Spock. The Kirk/Spock phenomenon eventually took on a life of its own, and became one of the driving forces in Star Trek fanzines during their heyday.

"Kirk/Spock", also commonly referred to as "K/S", was the first prominent slash pairing to appear in English-language fan fiction. In fact, the term "slash" (as in slash fiction) comes from the expression "Kirk slash Spock"--as distinguished from "Kirk and Spock" (K&S), stories about the friendship between Kirk and Spock with no sexual component. The term was shortly thereafter applied to depictions of homosexuality in media fandom at large.

Origins

Many believe that the origins of Kirk/Spock lie in deliberate homosexual subtext in the "Star Trek" episode "Amok Time" (1967), written by noted science-fiction author Ted Sturgeon. There is good reason to believe Sturgeon's part in this is deliberate; Sturgeon was known for introducing homosexual themes to science fiction during the homophobic 1950s. He also wrote a scene in an earlier "Star Trek" episode, "Shore Leave" (1966), in which Captain Kirk apparently believes that Mr. Spock is giving him a backrub. [

Creators' responses

Kirk/Spock is a non-canon interpretation of Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry, Leonard Nimoy, and William Shatner have been asked many times over the years for their opinions on K/S. They have made it clear that while it was not their intention to imply a sexual relationship between Kirk and Spock, they don't object to the Kirk/Spock subculture.Fact|date=February 2007

At times, however, Roddenberry seemed concerned—as were many fans—that exposing K/S to the mainstream could hurt the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry is reported to have remarked that there would be trouble if "the mothers of America" were to discover the existence of sexually explicit K/S zines, evidently not realizing that slash zines were primarily women's fiction, written, published and enjoyed by that very demographic. Oddly, this was during the period when Phyllis Schlafly's and Anita Bryant's anti-homosexual campaigns were at their height.

Gene Roddenberry on K/S:

:"Yes, there's certainly some of that—certainly with love overtones. Deep love. The only difference being, the Greek ideal—we never suggested in the series—physical love between the two. But it's the—we certainly had the feeling that the affection was sufficient for that, if that were the particular style of the 23rd century." [ Shatner, William, et al. "Where No Man... The Authorized Biography of William Shatner" (ISBN 0-441-88975-1), Ace Books, 1979, pp. 147-8)]

Timeline of Kirk/Spock fan fiction

* 1974: "A Fragment Out Of Time" is the first known Star Trek slash to be published in fanzine. The author was Diane Marchant. The vignette was published in Grup #3. The language was highly coded and did not refer to Spock and Kirk by name but rather referred to them as "he" and "him".Boyd, Kelly (2001) [http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/dspace/handle/1892/8734 "One index finger on the mouse scroll bar and the other on my clit" : slash writers' views on pornography, censorship, feminism and risk] ] [Jenna Sinclair, [http://www.beyonddreamspress.com/history.htm Short History of Kirk/Spock Slash] , retrieved 2008-06-30.]
* 1974: Mary Manchester outlined her "Continuity Theory" of Kirk/Spock.
* 1975: Star Trek Lives!, edited and written by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Sondra Marshak and Joan Winston, was published. This book contained a chapter at the end of the book which examines Star Trek fan fiction and the Kirk/Spock relationship in fan fiction. This book is important because that last chapter helped form a lot of the modern thought on slash fan fiction communities. Scholars still cite this source today.
* 1975: While the first Kirk/Spock story may have been published the previous year, more material was out there and not getting published. The general community did not seem overly receptive to romance and in particular, that pairing. Diane Marchant would address this pairing in an essay in Grup #4. There was a follow-up discussion to this essay in the Star Trek letterzine, Halkan Council. This did not lead to a glut of these stories being privately circulated being published in fanzines. Rather, many would continue their trips underground, in some cases not being published for another ten to fifteen years.
* 1976: In June, "Alternative: Epilog to Orion" is written by G. Downes and published in a fanzine. It was the second piece of Kirk/Spock slash to appear and the first Kirk/Spock dedicated fanzine.
* 1976: Leslie Fish's [http://www.foresmutters.org/fspadult.html Shelter] is one of the first fully-developed K/S short stories that is published. It was published in Warped Space 20.
* 1978: Between January and March, Thrust, is the first Star Trek anthology fanzine published to contain only Kirk/Spock slash in the early part of this year.
* 1978: There began to be a drop off in the number of Star Trek fanzines being published as some were leaving the fan fiction community because of the prevalence of Kirk/Spock material.
* 1984: The convention of using both K&S and K/S to designate a story featuring the Kirk/Spock relation was still in use; the use of just the slash had not yet been standardized.
* 1987: An examination of Datazine 48 looking at Star Trek fanzines published this year shows that there were 47 non-Kirk/Spock zines compared to 30 Kirk/Spock zines. Universal Translator, looking at the same year, lists 144 non-Kirk/Spock zines to 58 Kirk/Spock fanzines.
* 1995: In January, the unattributed K/S story " [http://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/celebrity/job-for-the-young A Job For The Young] " is posted to the Usenet group alt.sex.fetish.startrek, after reportedly having been discovered in an ftp archive. In December, Laura Goodwin posts K/S limericks to alt.startrek.creative [http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.startrek.creative/msg/ed7f5610224ea5f4?dmode=source&hl=en] .
* 1996: In January, Killashandra finishes posting " [http://seacouver.slashcity.net/killa/turnpt.html Turning Point] ", the first attributed K/S story to be published on the internet, to the Usenet group alt.startrek.creative.
* 2000: K/S fiction, which has blossomed online after Sci Fi Channel's decision to rerun the series in the late 1990's, peaks at nearly 900 story posts. (Some stories were posted in multiple parts, so the total number of individual stories is somewhat lower.)

Notes

References

* Alexander , A., & Harris, C. (Eds.). (1998). "Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture and Identity." Hampton: Hampton Press.
* Bacon-Smith, C. (1992). "Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth." Pittsburg: University of Pennsylvania Press.
* Byrd, Patricia. "Star Trek Lives: Trekker Slang." "American Speech", Vol. 53, No. 1 (Spring, 1978) , pp. 52-58.
* Cherny, L., & Weise, E. R. (Eds.). (1996). "Wired women : gender and new realities in cyberspace." Seattle: Seal press.
* Curtin, Mary Ellen. A Bibliography of Early K/S. Foresmutters Project. Copyright 2000. Bp http://www.eclipse.net/~mecurtin//au/earlyKS.htm
* Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers Television Fans & Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge, 1992.
* Russ, J. (n.d.). Another Addict Raves About K/S. Nome, 8.

External links

* [http://www.foresmutters.org/ Foresmutters Slash History Project]
* [http://beyonddreamspress.com/history.htm Short History of Kirk/Spock in Zines]
* [http://www.alternateuniverses.com/judygran/footnote.txt Dissecting The Footnote]
* [http://www.thyla.com/ All-Ages Kirk/Spock fiction and art archive]
* [http://cosmicduckling.com/spirk/stories.htm Yet more Kirk/Spock slash fiction]
* [http://www.kardasi.com/SBS/ Side by Side, a Kirk/Spock e-zine]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uxTpyCdriY Music video] featuring Kirk/Spock footage from Amok Time and Nine Inch Nails' song "Closer"