#Leila McCoy | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ihopethturok · 9 months

Text

Off Duty Model Lookbook 💼 [ft. Leila McCoy]

*Unable to find link to item

Thanks to all creators♡ @simcelebrity00 @b0t0xbrat @bergdorfverse @christopher067 @madlensims @serenity-cc @nickname-sims4 @gorillax3-cc @candysims4 @seoulsoul-sims @jius-sims @arethabee @caio-cc @divinecap @cocoelleansims @solistair @hardswae @helgatisha @fukkiemon @charonlee @okruee

Instagram| Pinterest| Youtube| TikTok| Tumblr

-ihopethturok

#sims #sims 4 cas #sims 4 custom content #sims 4 edit #sims 4 cc #sims 4 maxis match #sims 4 #ts4 cc female #sims 4 screenshots #sims 4 simblr #thesims4 #ts4 #thesims4cc #sims 4 lookbook #Leila McCoy

255 notes · View notes

basmathgirl · 3 months

Note

who is your second favourite companion?

Hello kind Anon!

Oooooh, now you're asking.

Let's consider the candidates:

My first love, Jamie McCrimmon

2. Leela, the first female companion I really liked because she didn't do all that 'falling over and twisting her ankle while screaming' crap they made others do in the 70s

3. Martha Jones, so many good qualities, and I rooted for her to thump the Doctor on several occassions

4. Nardole, because he's funny, and I adore Matt Lucas

4. Bill Potts. She was a breath of fresh air (and an inspiration to those seeking higher education without formal qualifications).

..

Kind Anon, you are really putting me on the spot here. Do you know that?!

Purely because I instantly burst into tears when I saw this

youtube

I'm going to choose my first love: Jamie McCrimmon ❤️

#kind Anon #Jamie McCrimmon #Leila #Martha Jones #Nardole #Bill Potts #Tales of the TARDIS #YouTube #video #I've hardly watched any Classic!Who since it was first broadcast #so those Tales are a joy #heck. Sylvester McCoy was in Father Brown #this afternoon #and I wanted to squee loudly #like you do

6 notes · View notes

electronickingdomfox · 7 months

Text

"The New Voyages" review

This one is actually a collection of short stories by fan authors, which makes the stories seem more like episodes of the series. It has also the distinct honor of being introduced by Roddenberry and most members of the cast. The stories are generally well-written and in character.

Some spoilers ahead:

Ni Var (by Claire Gabriel; intro by Nimoy) takes the plot of "The Enemy Within", but applied to Spock and the division between his Vulcan rational part, and his human emotional part. Besides the fact that I'm not sure such division works at that biological level, the two Spocks aren't all that different really. And it's not a very novel concept, specially right after a similar plot in previous book "Spock must die". But bonus points for Kirk giving the middle finger to his own reflection.

Intersection Point (by Juanita Coulson; intro by Doohan) is one of the best stories. The Enterprise is seriously crippled while navigating through an anomaly cloud, which is quickly contracting and threatens to crush the entire ship. Anyone who enters the cloud to retrieve a crucial component of the ship, is mentally destroyed by its eldritch qualities. Great tension and difficult choices.

The Enchanted Pool (by Marcia Ericson; intro by Nichols) is an attempt to write a fairy tale with Spock thrown in the middle for good measure. A bit of purple prose, and doesn't quite work. The resolution of the mistery is ingenous, even when convoluted.

Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited (by Ruth Berman; intro by Barrett) is actually the other half of a fanfic (Visit to a Weird Planet, not published here) where Kirk, Spock and Bones end up in the real world, right in the studio where they're filming Star Trek. Here instead, we follow the actors, who appear in the Enterprise and have to improvise to avert a danger. The other story was more fun, since Kirk and co. are more clumsy and hilarious in our world (being even "attacked" by fans), while the actors are just slightly less competent than their counterparts.

The Face on the Barroom Floor (by Eleanor Arnason and Ruth Berman; intro by Takei) is a really fun story. Kirk gets into a fight in a bar while in shore leave, is detained, teams up with a ratty thief, and crashes a party, while his crew search for him frantically. In the line of TOS best comedy-adventure episodes.

The Hunting (by Doris Beetem; intro by the editors) is a bit "meh". Spock goes into a Vulcan ritual which requires to mind-meld with a wild beast, and McCoy accompanies him. When Spock goes wild in the process, the good doctor has to hunt him and give him back his sanity. There could have been a more homoerotic fight between them, as in "Amok Time".

The Winged Dreamers (by Jennifer Guttridge; intro by Kelley) is another high point. The Enterprise crew falls under the influence of some creatures that make their fantasies seem real. So real that people can actually die if imagining the wrong thing. Spock is less affected, but slowly begins to hallucinate too, and the triumvirate fall into paranoia as neither they (nor the reader) can tell what's real and what's not anymore.

Mind-Sifter (by Shirley Maiewski; intro by Shatner) drags a bit at the beginning, when Kirk wakes up in a sanatory, his mind almost destroyed. It gets more interesting once Spock and McCoy start a quest to search for him. Great interactions between these two, reminiscent of "The Tholian Web".

After the eight stories there's still a little poem about Spock and Leila.

Spirk Meter: 10/10*. Not all stories are equally slashy, but the parts which do, are slashy in spades.

Ni Var has Kirk worrying about Spock all the time, and "human Spock" wondering if what he feels for the Captain is friendship... or love (something which happens too in one of Roddenberry's story concepts for a movie, around this time).

Intersection Point has a clear parallel between the anguish of a female crewmember, after a man (obviously her boyfriend) loses his mind in the anomaly, and Kirk agonizing once Spock has to enter the same anomaly.

The Enchanted Pool, where Spock refuses to kiss a beautiful female time and time again. Even when the woman assures him it's the only way to break a spell and escape. Even when Spock is doing far more dangerous things ALL THE TIME to solve problems. Of course, he considers the kiss a total waste of time once it doesn't work.

The Face on the Barroom Floor: Kirk is invited to a bar by McCoy and Sulu, who have found three women to pass the time, one for each. What does Kirk do? He gets out the bar two seconds later, puts on a samurai costume, and goes instead to a bar full of muscular, rowdy men, to get thrashed by them. Of course.

The Winged Dreamers has Spock wishing to stay on a planet with Kirk, just the two of them, for ever and ever. McCoy totally gets what's going on.

And I thought that Mind-Sifter would be about the love between a (quite unproffesional) nurse, and her mentally unstable patient, Kirk. But oh man, where do I even begin!? For starters, we have Kirk using his mind link with Spock to cry for help, across the galaxy and several centuries. And later he's concerned about how much can Spock read into his mind. Then we have McCoy informing the nurse that no, Kirk can't stay with her, because his love is his career and his... (trails off, having said too much). Gallant Spock carries an unconscious Kirk in his arms, and tells the nurse that, no matter how much she loves him, Kirk DOES NOT love her back (bitch!). If that wasn't enough, there's a lenghty conversation at the end, where Kirk almost melts in love and appreciation for Spock, and the Vulcan blushes at his own emotional display.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

#star trek tos #star trek #k/s #spirk #star trek novels #novel review

148 notes · View notes

multirptrash · 1 year

Text

Where My Heart Belongs

Spock’s Pon Farr was over - even though Christine had been ushered out of the room, she had been able to put the pieces of information she had together…Spock had had to mate to save his life, but he went down on the planet, Kirk faked his death, and now Spock was single and alive…her favorite things for him to be.

It might very well have been in her imagination, but it seemed to the infatuated head nurse that in the last few days since pon farr, Spock had been...looking at her more. After he very nearly propositioned her in his cabin (which she was still proud of herself for turning down) she would have expected him to ignore her existence and never speak to her again out of embarrassment.

Not that she was complaining, but her confusion still lingered in the back of her mind every time his eyes landed on her and stayed for that extra second, or when he would come to deliver something to the lab.

Don’t get your hopes up, Chris, she told herself every single morning. Just because he was now single (as was she after she had found that her fiancé had died in that cave) didn’t mean that he would be interested in her, or even anyone. Then again, the incident with Leila burned in her memory.

Christine shook her head and headed to the bridge to deliver something from McCoy to him.

@comdrspock

#The name is lame you can change it if you want lol #Finished lab so I just wrote it #Where my heart belongs

400 notes · View notes

ensign-cadet · 2 years

Text

I think Journey to Babel is an interesting episode for a lot of reasons, though a big part of that is that it explores Spock's relationships with not just the people around him, but also with rules.

If this was someone's first episode of TOS, but they were familiar with more recent material, this iteration of Spock's character would be familiar. He's sticking by rules, to the detriment of both himself and others. And all other characters in this episode, as well as most fans, accept that as Spock's motivations throughout the episode.

But looking at Spock's stated rationale closer, it's clear that that's not what's going on.

[ID: Two gifs from Star Trek: The Original Series. The first gif shows Spock in a blue Starfleet uniform. He is standing in a green room in front of a red-lit glass cupboard that has a vase inside. Spock is captioned saying "My first responsibility is to the ship." The second gif continues Spock's speech, but he is no longer visible, with the shot instead panning to the ship's Doctor (Dr. McCoy) and then to Spock's mom (Amanda). Spock's words are captioned as, "[Our passenger safety is by Starfleet order]". End ID]

Here, Spock's first defense of not going into surgery to save his father's life is over regulations. However, in previous episodes, it's clear that Spock is comfortable disobeying rules for his benefit. In The Menagerie, he commits mutiny to bring Captain Pike to Talos IV, and risks the death penalty by doing so. In The Devil in the Dark, he openly overrides Jim's orders, initially to protect an unknown species, then later to protect Jim. If Spock and Jim weren't so close, both of these instances could likely lead to criminal charges.

And yet, he gets cold feet here. Even if a regulation existed that prevented Spock from temporarily stepping down (which I highly doubt), he's not one to shy away from breaking regulations when he sees fit.

(Also, does the verbiage in that first gif sound familiar to anyone? That's almost word-for-word what he said to Leila when he was letting her down in This Side of Paradise; I half-expected him to finish with "to that man on the bridge". Perhaps that's a subtle indication of where Spock really feels his responsibility lies.)

He then gets a bit more specific, in saying he doesn't want to hand over command in such a stressful situation.

[ID: Two gifs of Spock in his room, in front of an intersection between a white and green wall. He is making eye contact with and speaking to Amanda offscreen. Over the two gifs, his words are captioned: "Any competent officer can command the ship under normal circumstances. / The circumstances are NOT normal." The word "normal" in the first gif is underlined. End ID]

Oddly, that's a completely different defense. And not a logical one, since Scotty has been at the helm in equally stressful situations, like in A Taste of Armageddon, or The Apple, for example. It would even be a reasonable argument that Scotty is better in command than Spock, considering how stressed Spock got in The Galileo Seven. Also, because Spock is in his room here, someone else who's capable of command must be at the helm already, so why don't they just stay there? As much as I hate to admit it, Amanda was right-- before she went on her racist and manipulative tirade-- in that Spock should be able to hand over command to someone else.

He also talks to his mom about Vulcan philosophies, but given how it doesn't benefit anyone to have an acting captain who's so keenly distracted, it's not a logical argument to stick with.

[ID: A set of three gifs from the same scene as above, where Spock is talking to his mother. They are standing in front of a white wall with red lighting. He paces around her such that his face is only visible in the second and third gif. Amanda's expressions are never shown to camera. He is captioned saying, "It means to adopt a philosophy, a way of life, / Which is logical and beneficial / We cannot disregard that philosophy merely for personal gain." End ID]

So, what's making Spock behave like this? I don't think his sudden inflexibility here is because he cares for Sarek less than Jim and Captain Pike. That may be true, but Spock was the one who suggested the experimental procedure, and already volunteered as a donor before Kirk got injured. It's also not to impress his dad with Vulcan stoicism, since Sarek wouldn't live to see that play out.

In answer to that question, the episode posits that Spock's distress over his dad's critical condition makes him unable to think clearly. Though, Spock wasn't contradicting himself like this until Kirk got hurt. Before Jim's injury, he was following a coherent thought and behavior pattern (as in: dad is injured -> research ways to help -> talk to the doctor about it). But afterwards, his level-headedness went out the window, to the extent that when he went into the surgery (only after being led to believe Kirk was okay), he was restless and asking for Jim, despite the fact that he should have been unconscious from medication.

[ID: A gif of an operation from the same episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. In it, Dr. McCoy and Nurse Chapel are standing over an unconscious Sarek. He is wearing a green surgical blanket and his chest is underneath an angular grey medical device. Spock is laying in a different bed, and between them is a wall mount that connects four tubes; the two coming from Spock's side have a light green liquid, and the two going to Sarek have dark green liquid, to indicate the filtering of Vulcan blood. Spock is awake, sat up in bed, when Bones asks, "Where do you think you're going?" and Spock replies, "I must see the captain." Nurse Chapel reaches for a syringe. End ID]

I'd be willing to buy that both his dad and Jim's injuries causes Spock to be stressed out of his mind. However, the pacing of the episode shows that it's Jim's less severe stab wound that pushes him over the edge, to the point where he's forgetting things and not able to justify himself. I even believe Spock thought his actions were logical, he just lacked the self-awareness to realize he was incapacitated.

[ID: A set of two gifs, where Spock is lying upright in a sick patient bed. He's wearing an outpatient robe, and behind him is a red pillow and grey metallic headboard. Spock is staring at the floor until partway through the second gif, until he looks up to make eye contact with Kirk offscreen. Over the two gifs, his words are captioned: "The thing I don't understand / Is why I didn't think of it earlier." End ID]

I don't have a good conclusion here, other than that his actions make no sense unless he was worried sick (about Jim, specifically), which destroyed his rationality, objectiveness, and reverted him to Vulcan emotional barriers in a situation where it's illogical to have them. It's baffling to me that no one in the episode questioned Spock's logic, since his sudden adherence to rules is inconsistent with how he behaves normally, but it does fit in with his tendency to get agitated when Jim is injured.

#I don't know if anyone wanted an ungodly long post about this but #Spock's decisions bothered me a bit because on the surface level they make sense #but then if you think about it further it doesn't #so then you have to think about it even more to justify his character motivations #and I may not be looking but I haven't seen anyone try #also this took so much effort that at some point I just have to let it go akjsdfhlkdsjh #journey to babel #tracking tag #rambling #spirk #k/s #star trek tos #long post #<- I don't think it's that bad if you don't include image descriptions but still

74 notes · View notes

ao3feed-spirk · 5 months

Text

A Vulcan Discovery

read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/52262089 by atomic_jellyfish "So, let me get this straight. Under the influence of the spores, you felt feelings for Leila, but you're now realizing you truly have affections for Jim?" Spock nodded, visibly swallowing the bile in his throat. McCoy grinned, that cheshire smile with underlying intentions.. "Well Spock, I don't see what the big deal is, Jim is quite the ladie's man. He has his.. charms." McCoy rested a hand on Spock's shoulder. Spock felt a strong urge to pull away before he received another "birds and the bees" talk. ________________ Spock begins to question his "logical mind" after exposure to Omicron 3's spores, even after they left his system. Is he so different from being human after all? Words: 2194, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: James T. Kirk, Spock (Star Trek), Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Nyota Uhura, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Leila Kalomi Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock Additional Tags: Not Canon Compliant, This Side of Paradise comes after Amok Time, Obligatory sex pollen fic, Spock discovers.. feelings?, Fluff and Angst, Tags May Change, Leonard "Bones" McCoy & Spock Friendship, McCoy still has a southern accent read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/52262089

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #spock/kirk #kirk/spock #spirk #spockxkirk #kirkxspock

5 notes · View notes

lenievi · 7 months

Note

001 - la'an/jim

001 | send me a ship and I will tell you:

when I started shipping it if I did: Funny story. When they announced the characters for SNW, I haven't watched TWOK yet, and for some reason I thought that the connection Khan has is with Spock. (STID made me think that, but idk if it's actually accurate, I've seen it only once). And so even though I expected Spock to be paired with either Chapel, Uhura, or Leila, I was also wondering if they wouldn't pair him with La'an because of that Khan connection (and it's not like there weren't scenes in season one supporting that). Basically ever since them announcing La'an, I expected her to be a love interest. Then I saw the finale of s1 and La'an served with Kirk, and I went !!, and around this time I also understood that the Khan connection is actually to Kirk, and I also finally watched the TOS movies a bit later. And to kind of prepare myself for a Kirk romance (even though I hoped for Kirk/Carol so much), I was like, ok, Kirk/La'an, I'm gonna commit (I even created a whole AU where Kirk just stays the Farragut captain, and McCoy and T'Pring are there too. The only fic I've written for it is mckirk-ish tho). It was all for fun, because tbh, I thought it was silly to create a character just to romance her with Kirk because "haha Khan funny". Well........ well, then the first trailer for season 2 dropped and I was like kshfjsdhfjdhsjgkhsdjkhgjk so uhm, yeah. I already went into s2 being deeply into Kirk/La'an, and it just delivered.

my thoughts: <3<3<3

What makes me happy about them: They can both be vulnerable with each other.

What makes me sad about them: The future, mainly.

things done in fanfic that annoys me: I don't really read fics for them... but what annoys me is how people treat Carol (or rather Kirk’s thoughts toward her)

things I look for in fanfic: Things I would look for would be how the two of them slowly change each other, how La'an would become more relaxed and open, and how Kirk would also learn to be without his mask and pretenses and bravado more often.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: tbh? anyone who isn't Spock LMAO for both, yes

My happily ever after for them: the Farragut AU. Would take a bit of convincing for them to date as a captain and his FO, but it'd happen (in my 'verse anyway)

who is the big spoon/little spoon: Kirk/La'an

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: this is something I need to think about. I haven't come up with something "them" to do in their free time, except stuff related to their duty lol

[ask meme]

#leni answes memes #thank you!!!#idk what it says about me that my first thought about la'an was basically just she's gonna get a romance with a tos character #snw is predictable tbh

3 notes · View notes

secretgarden · 2 years

Text

#wild things #wild things 2 #wild things: diamonds in the rough #wild things: foursome #denise richards #neve campbell #kevin bacon #matt dillon #susan ward #leila arcieri #sandra mccoy #sarah laine #jillian murphy #marnette patterson #ashley parker angel

19 notes · View notes

pinkdogplushie · 3 years

Text

Star Trek movie plots based on TOS episodes we could have gotten instead of Into Darkness.

Because today I feel like roasting JJ Abrams and his basic white boy interpretation of Khan.

The Enterprise is tasked with rescuing Nurse Christine Chapel's fianceé, Roger Korby, a scientist investigating cybernetic augmentation of the human body in the previously unexplored planet Exo III, who has stopped reporting to the Federation. Unbeknownst to all of them, Korby has managed to develop androids, has killed all his staff and replaced them with them and pretends to climb to the top of the Federation by replacing key members of the Fleet and the Admiralty with his creations. He replaces Kirk, Uhura, McCoy and Scotty, as well as Gaila and even Chapel, and covertly takes over the Enteeprise. The movie would chronicle the attempts at sabotage by the androids, Spock and Chekov working together to uncover the truth without sounding the alarm, some androids becoming confused as to whether they're human or machine, some androids rebelling, embracing humanity and even sacrificing themselves to thwart Korby, and the captive officers attempting to escape Exo III. Tarsus IV is mentioned as part of Kirk's backstory that his android takes from him. The Deneva Massacre occurs at the beginning of the movie, which means that Jim loses his brother and debates on whether to take a short leave to grieve. He bonds with Spock over the loss of a family member, and later Spock uses it against android!Kirk to give him humanity. Christine is the one to knock her former fianceé out in a fight after his betrayal and megalomaniac crusade against the Federation. She is aided by her android counterpart. android!McCoy experiences confusion over his status as a machine after bonding with Leonard's daughter, Joanna. Scotty's love for the Enterprise leads android!Scotty to rebel rather than damage the ship as Korby orders him. Featuring Emily Blunt as Christine Chapel and Cillian Murphy as Roger Korby (Based on TOS "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", with dashes of "By Any Other Name").

The Federation investigates a terrorist attack and discovers that the target was a meeting of Tarsus IV survivors. Not only that, but it matches seemingly random murders throughout several Federation colonies, all survivors of Governor Kodos's massacre. Captain Kirk is forced to confront a part of his past he would rather forget as he transports official investigators to the planet where the killings began. Soon, they uncover an entire organization of followers of Kodos, hellbent on killing the survivors to finish their idol's job. Jim fears that his past tormentor might still be alive and deals with several assasination attempts. He also discovers, however, that he's not the only one tied to Tarsus IV: Chekov's older brother, Piotr, was killed in the first culling, and the young ensign wants to get more involved to know more about him. As a humorous side plot, the ship deals with an infestation of tribbles. Leila Kalomi is mentioned as Spock's ex. Kirk jokes about a dream he had where he recited the US Constitution to a group of aliens. Featuring Ben Foster as Piotr Chekov and Holland Roden as Lenore Karidian (Based on TOS "Conscience of the King", though Chekov's brother Piotr comes from "Day of the Dove").

51 notes · View notes

trek-tracks · 4 years

Photo

Star Trek + @captaincrusher‘s Ao3 Tag Generator

465 notes · View notes

ihopethturok · 6 months

Text

Photoshoot Day✨📷

[From Leila's Simstagram]

Instagram| Pinterest| Youtube| TikTok| Tumblr

#sims #simstagram #sims 4 cas #sims 4 custom content #sims 4 edit #sims 4 cc #sims 4 maxis match #sims 4 #ts4cc female #sims 4 screenshots #sims 4 simblr #thesims4 #ts4 #thesims4cc #my sims #Leila McCoy #Backfrommyhiatus

10 notes · View notes

comdrspock · 3 years

Text

Just Shy of Paradise

Spock was puzzled. No one on the Omricon Ceti III colony should be alive. If the landing party had planned to spend more than a couple of hours on the surface, they might have donned protective gear themselves, but it wouldn’t take long to gather enough readings and make the necessary observations for a full report. Their plans for a quick, safe visit had been upended, however, when the colony’s leader had emerged with a handful of his people, all of them quite whole and—as Doctor McCoy was discovering—in perfect health. The whole situation defied logic, and Spock wanted to know why.

He also hadn’t expected the appearance of Leila Kalomi. The way she looked at him made him want to take a step back, though a table had already separated them. It was an irrational reaction, of course. When they’d been acquainted on Earth six years ago, Spock had known Leila was attracted to him. He suspected many people had known, in fact, since humans tended towards gossip. Apart from an occasional longing look or accidental touch, however, Leila never acted on her feelings, for which Spock was grateful. He respected her as a fellow scientist and wasn’t surprised she’d been chosen for a mission like this one...

But how had she managed to survive here? How had any of them survived?

And something was different about her now. She had lost all the quiet reserve she’d once showed in his presence, but that wasn’t what struck him. It was a totally unscientific observation, based on nothing beyond mere instinct, and the Vulcan half of his mind railed against it as baseless and emotional. Yet he couldn’t deny being unnerved by the expression in Leila’s blue eyes. It had seemed both self-assured and almost...predatory. The blatant hunger in her gaze stood in stark contrast to the resolute professionalism displayed by Christine Chapel. She was also in love with Spock, as he was all too aware, but she never let her emotions interfere with her duties as the Enterprise’s head nurse. She certainly never stared at him as if he was a delectable dish that she was about to devour.

Despite his misgivings, Spock found himself one-on-one with Leila as he tried to work out the mystery of this colony’s continued existence. Her company was proving useless to him apart from making him vaguely uneasy. The woman refused to give him a direct answer. Though a botanist by training, she offered him nothing besides platitudes.

Finally, tired of wandering behind her and waiting in vain for any piece of meaningful information, Spock stopped walking. They’d come up alongside what looked to be an entire meadow of pale pink flowers atop long, thick stalks that somewhat resembled Earth lilies. He paid no attention to them, turning instead to face Leila.

“I fail to understand why you cannot explain this plainly,” he said.

“The properties of it aren’t important,” she told him in the same evasive, rather dreamy voice. “Just that it gives us life and peace...” Her lips curled up. “Love.”

“Leila.” Spock raised one of his slanted brows. “You’re a scientist. You know that what you’ve described to me is not possible.”

She kept smiling and reached for his arm. “Come. Look.” She was leading him to the edge of the little meadow, which swayed a little in the gentle breeze. “I was one of the first of us to find them, you know. The spores.”

“Spores?” he echoed.

As he glanced from the flowers to Leila again, one of the them forcefully expelled a white pollen-like substance. It covered half of Spock’s face and the front of his uniform—and then all he could feel was pain. Blinding, white-hot agony that made him clutch his temples and drop, gasping, to his knees. He tried to reach for his tried-and-true Vulcan methods of diminishing the sensation. Pain is in the mind—the mind can be— Except his neat, orderly, logical mind was…changing. He found that he couldn’t control it after all. And that was the source of the pain: it was mental anguish rather than physical.

“No,” he groaned. He was crouching on the ground now, desperate. Even as he grasped at a lifetime’s worth of carefully cultivated mental discipline, it all slipped away from him as though it had never been. “No, I can’t…please…”

“It shouldn’t hurt...it didn’t hurt any of us…” Leila’s voice faltered.

Spock choked out: “I am not like you!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the pain ebbed—then disappeared. He lifted his head. What had he just said? I am not like you. But wasn’t he? A thousand thoughts and sensations flew through his brain at once as he knelt there, trying to make sense of them, trying to catch his breath.

Then Leila knelt beside him, touched his face, stroked it. The caress of her soft hand was comforting. He blinked. She was saying something about belonging.

“You don’t need to hide your true self anymore, you know. We understand,” she murmured.

Spock met her calm blue gaze. He felt the truth of her words as much as he comprehended it. It felt as gentle and reassuring as her cool palm against his cheek. Lifting his hand, he grasped hers tightly. A warm, pleasant sensation began to wash over him. She was quite beautiful. How could he ever have thought of her as predatory when her eyes were so tender?

“I...I love you.” They seemed like the right words for this feeling, and he tried them out without stopping to really think about them.

Leila smiled. They leaned into one another for a kiss they both wanted—Leila because she’d been dreaming of it for years, Spock because she was lovely and she wanted him and most of all because he could. When he thought of it later, his momentary pain and that kiss seemed to go on forever, the memories of each experience tangled inseparably together, at once unbearable and blissful and utterly indisguishable.

• • •

Jim had confronted him twice. Almost the entire crew of the Enterprise had beamed down by now, eager to join the colony’s ranks, but the spores had evidently not affected its captain. Spock wasn’t worried, though he wondered, albeit with only the faintest trace of his earlier burning curiosity, whether Jim had some kind of biological immunity to the spores’ effects. He hoped not. He understood that his friend couldn’t live down here beneath the berthold rays without the protection the spores provided. Nor could he survive aboard the Enterprise alone. Neither thought was a pleasant one.

“He’ll come around,” Spock said to himself.

He had changed from his obsolete Starfleet uniform into the colony’s olive-green coveralls. They were less practical but more comfortable, and they served as a visual representation of his newfound belonging. That was a novelty. Growing up on Vulcan, Spock had had to work harder than his peers to fit in, to prove himself in spite of his human blood. Later, he’d always been an outlier in Starfleet regardless of his accomplishments. His own colleagues often considered him alien, suspicious. He’d never let it bother him.

Not here, though. Not in paradise. Here, he truly belonged.

Descending the steps of Elias Sandoval’s house, Spock found Leila waiting for him. He caught her outstretched hand and squeezed it. Hand-in-hand and smiling, they wandered off in the direction of the small grove where they’d watched clouds together earlier. He noticed many members of the Enterprise crew milling about, conspicuous in their brightly-colored uniforms. A few of them waved at the couple and called Spock’s name.

“I only wish I had my lyre,” he told Leila with a wistful smile.

“The captain’s coming back. You could ask him to bring it. I’d like to hear you play.”

“An excellent suggestion. In the meantime, I suppose I can sing for you even without accompaniment.”

Spock did sing—or rather, he could—but he’d never serenaded a woman before. The way Leila blushed and lowered her eyes told him that she found the idea highly romantic. Fascinating.

He and Leila settled onto the grass, his arm slung around her shoulders, she leaning into his chest. He began to hum an old Earth song he’d occasionally heard his mother sing as a child. The words came back to him a little later than the tune: “Remember me to one who lives there...”

The afternoon, while still bright and pleasant, had turned a bit cool. Spock usually found the bridge of the Enterprise too chilly for his liking, and he thought that this breeze had a definite bite to it.

“She once was a true love of mine…”

He could imagine things he would much rather do with Leila than this, things that generated a great deal more body heat. With those more physical, amorous activities in mind, he pulled her closer and indulged his desire for another kiss, bringing the song to an abrupt end.

It never occurred to him to worry about who might see. To remember that there was now another woman somewhere nearby, a woman he respected and who loved him just as much as Leila Kalomi.

#hope his is okay and I am ofc happy to tweak! ♥♥♥ just let me know #didn't want to go any farther & put words in your/christine's mouth #I paraphrased that whole scene from the episode so it seemed a little more organic heh #nuschapel #*paradise

331 notes · View notes

qaraxuanzenith · 2 years

Text

okay but i’m not awake enough to give it a full proper analysis but this side of paradise is such a gay allegory it practically isn’t subtle. it isn’t even an allegory it’s like.

[spoilers for star trek TOS this side of paradise, which aired like 50-60 years ago, below?]

okay. listen. six years ago leila had a one-sided crush on spock which he was not capable of reciprocating (BECAUSE HE’S GAY).

spock always feels like an outsider (both because he’s half-human half-Vulcan and seen as Other by both, and because he’s gay and it’s the [twenty-two-]sixties).

spock gets DRUGGED by the spores and suddenly he reciprocates / believes he reciprocates leila’s feelings. (this could be a conversion therapy analogy or any sort of brainwashing, really.) note the unrealistic quickness with which he’s abruptly like “actually i love you” and what thrills him, more than anything about her personally (does he even say anything about her personally?) is that for the first time he feels like he belongs. he doesn’t feel Othered. he feels “normal.” (need i say more?)

kirk takes spock’s joining the spore people as a deep personal betrayal. obviously, because they are dating. it pains him to insult spock to the point of breaking him out of it but it also pains him when spock says “i don’t belong anywhere anymore” just look at kirk’s troubled expression when he says that bc he’s thinking “excuse me, you belong HERE. you belong WITH ME.” but spock has a lot more internalized homophobia than kirk ever did and he can’t express that.

and then. and then. when he beams leila up and she tries to manipulate him to re-brainwash himself by being like “you can belong again” (honestly her entire MO this episode is just... awful, i don’t like her) spock, despite being tempted due to his personal insecurities, says “but i have a duty to this ship. and to that man on the bridge.” (if i misheard that line, don’t correct me, because i am in love with it.)

and then the piece de resistance, the little kirk-spock-mccoy exchange on the bridge that’s standard for every episode, kirk’s speech is just - chef’s kiss.

“maybe we weren’t meant to just waltz into paradise. maybe we were meant to scratch and claw our way up.” i just. i just. we all know who the “we” are here and it’s us. i’m not saying this is the gayest star trek episode bc they’re all gay but oh my god i was afraid to rewatch this one bc i just vaguely remembered “spock said he loves this random girl does this episode mess with my ship” but no it’s the opposite. oh my god it’s breathtaking the beautiful gay message of this episode.

thank you for coming to my ted talk.

#star trek the original series #star trek #star trek tos #this side of paradise #kirk/spock/mccoy #kirk/spock

49 notes · View notes

spockshocked · 3 years

Text

On “This Side of Paradise”

Watching the original Star Trek many decades after it aired, I cannot help but feel as though the conclusions I draw from certain lines, scenes, and even entire episodes must not be exactly as initially intended. Despite the caginess, both in canon and in external commentary, that Roddenberry and others employ in their discussions of the nature of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock’s relationship, and the subtext often burgeoning on text especially to a gay viewer, Spock’s perceived gayness extends beyond his ambiguous relationship with his Captain. Many of the cues that might cause a gay viewer to feel reflected by Spock come via the quirks of his Vulcan nature.

One episode which deals particularly with Spock’s internal conflict vis a vis his mixed heritage is “This Side of Paradise,” the 24th episode of the first season. Spock falls under the influence of alien spores that cause him to break down in what appears to be immense pain, before he confesses his love to a woman named Leila Kalomi, whose love for him had been unrequited for six years. Spock spends the majority of the episode under the influence of these spores, canoodling with Kalomi and giggling while hanging from a tree branch, until Kirk roughly snaps him out of it and the stoic science officer returns to himself. The spores appear to render their hosts relaxed, blissful, and dazed, an effect which can be undone through displays of strong negative emotion.

The most striking result of his time spent under the influence is the melancholy that seems to overtake him once the effect is broken. Once he has his bearings and realizes that Kirk has intentionally riled him so that the spores lose their hold, the first thing he says is:

SPOCK: The spores. They're gone. I don't belong anymore.

In the context of the episode, “belonging” is the eerie, almost cult-like description for one under the influence of the spores. Taken at face value, Spock’s comment is merely an observation that he is no longer being affected by them; Spock often makes somewhat banal comments seemingly for the benefit of the audience’s comprehension. However, this one seems to carry a double meaning. Consider Spock’s heritage: half-human and half-Vulcan, Spock constantly finds himself torn between two clashing cultures, truly “belonging” to neither. A substance that enables his full emotionality, effectively tipping the delicately balanced scales of his identity, provides a sort of relief. With the negation of its effects comes a return to the inner turmoil he experiences every moment of every day.

Spock felt like he belonged when he was able to feel and express romantic love for a woman. A simple reading of this might be that the ability to process emotion gave Spock a sense of belonging, but there is once again another, deeper analysis to be made. The assumption that gay couples would likely be commonplace by the 23rd century aside, the fact remains that the show was produced in the 1960s and there are no canon gay couples to be found. Therefore, it is possible to work within a metric where one might have a reason to remain closeted. If we approach Spock as a closeted gay man, then the female object of his affections becomes a key element in his feeling of “belonging.”

In typical Star Trek fashion, the exact effect produced by the spores is never elucidated. The implication seems to be that it provides some lowering of inhibitions and propensity for leisure. However, the spores could also be seen as pushing their hosts to pursue their ideal lives. Doctor McCoy gets notably more Southern, his accent thickening as he walks around singing the praises of the mint julep. It seems as though, while under the influence, he pursues things that remind him of the comforts of home.

Spock, however, has no such comforts. Instead, he becomes something he could never be: able to reciprocate the feelings of a beautiful young woman who has pined after him for years. Once the effect of the spores is broken, he must then break the news to her:

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. [crying] I can't lose you now, Mister Spock. I can't.

SPOCK: I have a responsibility to this ship, to that man on the Bridge. I am what I am, Leila, and if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else's.

Spock’s response is cool, as we have come to expect from him, but notably more candid that most of his observations about his own experiences. He starts by claiming a responsibility to not only the Enterprise, but to Kirk himself. This could be a simple declaration of loyalty to his captain, as it would almost certainly appear to Kalomi, or an allusion to some repressed feelings that would only register to him. His next line, however, carries some serious weight. “I am what I am” refers to his Vulcan heritage, but as is often the case, it could also easily be in reference to his own homosexuality. Either way, he is explaining why he is incapable of loving Kalomi; the difference is whether he is incapable of love at all, or of love for a woman. His “self-made purgatory” is both his entrapment between his Vulcan and human halves, and his repression of his sexuality.

Spock rarely speaks about his mixed heritage and the internal conflict it causes him, just as he rarely speaks of his own emotions at all, but it takes its toll on him. Briefly finding relief from this conflict only makes the return to it that much more difficult, causing him to be even more terse than usual. Kirk even points out that Spock has been quiet about the experience:

KIRK: We haven't heard much from you about Omicron Ceti III, Mr. Spock.

SPOCK: I have little to say about it, Captain, except that for the first time in my life I was happy.

Spock has spent his entire life trying and failing to completely repress his human emotions in an attempt to become fully Vulcan. When he finally has the chance to experience them in full, he breaks down in pain at the wave of repressed emotions before he finally experiences untainted joy “for the first time.” However, that is not his authentic self either. Neither a logical Vulcan nor an emotional human, he is eternally trapped between worlds, and was only able to find joy in a brief and unattainable fantasy. He is so discontent with his own nature that he cannot be happy as he is.

To a closeted viewer, this final line of the episode, delivered as dryly as always, is heartbreaking. The first time in Spock’s life that he was happy was when he ignored an integral part of himself that brought him pain in order to live a moment of a life that he could never have. To those who have repressed their sexuality, convincing themselves that they felt attraction to those of another sex because it was what would make them belong, watching Spock find joy in this fantasy only to be crushed when he must return to reality is painfully familiar.

Analysis of Spock and Kirk’s relationship is generally sufficient to read them as a gay couple. When Spock is viewed in isolation, however, he still comes across as gay to many viewers. Spock’s innate perceived gayness relies not on his attraction to men, but on his repression of his true self and of the emotions that he cannot bring himself to face. While chalked up by the show to his half-Vulcan heritage, it still strikes a chord in a very human gay viewer.

#star trek #tos #this side of paradise #analysis #spock #gay spock #spirk #mine #yes this is a paper i wrote for fun

275 notes · View notes

ao3feed-spirk · 2 years

Text

It's Such a Feeling

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/41152752

by CampySpaceSlime

An exploration of the chrysalis transformation of intimacy, the way it slips, always in a transitional state, backwards and forwards. Creatures caught in the depth perception play of deepening bonds, time, and space.

Or, Vulcans hide their thoughts from outworlders through stifling their touch telepathy with gloves. Kirk and Spock's relationship blossoms in the scenes caught in Spock's dressed or exposed hands.

Words: 8308, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Star Trek: The Original Series

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Nyota Uhura, Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Sarek (Star Trek), Amanda Grayson

Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock

Additional Tags: very brief mentions of the following:, kirk/ruth, kirk/carol marcus - Freeform, kirk/gary mitchell, kirk/leonard "bones" mccoy, spock/leila, and spock/pike if you REALLY squint, explores tos eps:, This Side of Paradise, Amok Time, Journey to Babel, Plato's Stepchildren, lots of vulcan hand stuff, a little bit of angst but its happy and romantic in the end, I swear, AU where vulcans wear gloves

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/41152752

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #spirk

9 notes · View notes

rssspockuhura · 2 years

Text

[FANVID] So Emotional

Warning: Some M/M works might show up here because the Spock/Uhura tag is used in ref to S/U as a side pairing, past pairing, etc. Currently there is no way to filter and exclude feeds on Ao3 to get only S/U F/M works.Solution. Read at your own risk.

by Emcee1138 (Emcee)

A tribute to Spock and all of the people who love him, set to "So Emotional" by Whitney Houston.

Words: 0, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, M/M

Characters: Spock (Star Trek), Spock Prime, Nyota Uhura, James T. Kirk, Leonard "Bones" McCoy, T'Pring (Star Trek), Leila Kalomi, Romulan Commander, Zarabeth (Star Trek), Christine Chapel, Number One (Star Trek)

Relationships: Spock/Nyota Uhura, James T. Kirk/Spock, Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Spock, Spock/T'Pring (Star Trek), Leila Kalomi/Spock, Spock/Romulan Commander, Spock/Zarabeth (Star Trek), Christine Chapel/Spock, Number One/Spock

Additional Tags: Fanvids, Embedded Video, Romance, Desire, Vulcan Kisses, Vulcan Mind Melds, Pon Farr

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/38645781 via AO3 works tagged 'Spock/Nyota Uhura' https://archiveofourown.org/works/38645781

Need an Ao3 invite? Don't want to wait? Get one via LiveJournal or Dreamwidth. Remember to check out the Spuhura fanworks community on livejournal. Follow rssspockuhura for Spock/Uhura fanworks from around the web.

#spock #uhura #spuhura #star trek #stxi #stxii #stid #nutrek #ao3feed #star trek into darkness #star

2 notes · View notes