Date: 19 Jul 2014 01:28 Title: For the First Time
Ah, this explains some things. I always thought Leila and Spock belonged together after seeing the episode 'The Menagerie'. Great character exploration and add on to the episode. I could clearly see the emotions displayed in this. How they became closer and closer to each other during those two weeks its clear how he shows his feelins for Leila in his own way. I really like this.
Thanks for sharing and I look forward to reading more of your work. Keep writing.
Author's Response:
Thanks, zeusfluff. I know you're not a TOS girl, so knowing this resonated for you means a lot. I, too always wondered about the history between the two. When I was an exchange student, Salzburg was my favorite city I visited in Europe, so it felt right to set their story there - it's a lovely, romantic place.
Date: 15 Oct 2013 03:23 Title: For the First Time
You know what I think. It's not sappy, it's brilliant. The likes of Diane Duane, DC Fontana and the late AC Crispin would've approved. It's more of Spock's background. You don't think of Spock having loves but he did and this illustrates it perfectly.
Author's Response:
Again, profuse thanks for linking my name with such stellar authors. Debatable whether that praise is deserved or not...
Ever since I saw that episode for the first time, I wanted to know about that meeting between Spock and Leila on Earth, and why she felt she could tell a logical, unemotional Vulcan that she was in love with him. I figured he had to have done something to precipitate it, and this is my answer to that. ;-)
Date: 04 Oct 2013 01:36 Title: For the First Time
I always enjoy your Spock stories, LBD. I love how it illustrates that Spock has a human half that he can't ignore no matter how much he tries to. Throughout the narrative, Spock does develop an attachment to Leila which he is very much aware of. Yet, when she puts that attachment into words, those emotional barriers go right back up and he is looking for excuses to avoid reciprocating--his betrothal to T'Pring, offending his father with whom he is not on speaking terms at this time. It's quite the never-ending dilemma Spock faces.
Author's Response:
Thank you, E1981. The duality of Spock and the difficulties he must have endured trying to get those two oh-so-different sides of his psyche to coexist peacefully is one of the major themes that drew me to TOS in the first place.
This theme permeated TOS as well as the movies, and I was searching for a way to reconcile the more emotional Spock we saw in 'The Menagerie' with the man who had totally walled off his human half at the beginning of TOS. We saw that wall crumble a bit as Kirk and McCoy chipped away at it, only to be built up stronger than ever by the time TMP rolled around. I wanted to explore these aspects of Spock's personality, and find a plausible way to justify the waxing and waning of his emotional human half.
Date: 24 Sep 2013 15:17 Title: For the First Time
WOW!
That was pretty well done. I'm not completely knowledgeable of TOS, but this was very easy to follow along, and you developed the character of Leila very naturally and believably. Characterization for Spock was spot on as well; definitely could hear Nimoy in this (older Nimoy, but I'll explain) versus Quinto, who I seem to have stuck in my head thanks to the movies. *sigh*
Heart breaking that, after the two weeks, even Spock didn't notice and realize what was happening around him, or willing to admit in the end how he did feel for her. And the pain and heart break it caused not just Leila, but also him, was fascinating to see.
You and Jespah must be swapping notes about the touch telepathy, lol. Good to see it here as well, and used in the manner it was.
And, like I said, I could hear older Nimoy speaking as Spock in this very easily, and it's because this WAS a Spock who was much more in tune with his emotions. He wasn't master over them, or accepting of them as part of who he was necessarily, but he was aware of them and allowed them to work in him. Younger-Nimoy Spock is a much more...well, emotionless character (and, since I'm not a big TOS guy, a voice I have a hard time hearing, thus my fallback on Quinto) that you give such an incredible, heart wrenchingly depressing, but completely in-character and believable reason for being that way. Absolutely magnificent way to evolve "Menagerie" Spock into the TOS Spock that was introduced to the world - intentionally isolating his human half for the sake of keeping those around him - and himself - safe from this happening ever again. For as sad as it was...I loved that. An awesome addition to the character, for sure.
Author's Response:
Thank you, TS. As I've said below, this does tie into my later personal canon regarding the character, and why when he allowed himself to become emotionally attached to Jim--not in a romantic manner, which he mistakenly assumed would not lead to these kinds of issues--it still ultimately backfired and he felt the need to purge all emotions through Kolinahr. Again, not all solely my ideas, but I do like to find ways to tie all the loose threads together into one strong, unbreakable rope. ;-)
That Spock was a touch telepath was canon, and seen in numerous episodes of TOS. I just took that idea and ran with it.
And yes, I agree, this is the much younger version of the Nimoy-Spock we saw in the later movies--one who still hadn't learned to deal with and manage his human half yet, unlike his older counterpart.
Date: 19 Sep 2013 05:25 Title: For the First Time
You did a great job making Leila genuinely likable. In the episode, she was given the short end of the writing stick and here, she comes across as fully realized. Spock, too. It's refreshing to see him falling in love and also doing a less than perfect job of dealing with it. Very, very well done.
Author's Response:
Thank you, Steff. Yes, Leila did come off as just a bit of fluff in the episode. I wanted to make her real, and have people see why Spock could (and did) fall in love with her.
Date: 18 Sep 2013 03:39 Title: For the First Time
This is a great rear-view-mirror look at Spock, and especially how being half-human is something with which he is constantly having to cope with in a wide variety of ways (some of them super unhelpful).
I especially liked the scene of him with Pike; it's kind of an interesting juxtaposition, Pike's exasperation with Spock's Vulcan-ness, and then later Spock's human-ness creating a whole different problem for Leila and ultimately Spock himself. I think you characterize Spock and Pike so well that you could even remove some of the exposition around their exchange. Their interaction says a good deal all on its own.
Also, I was classmates with a botanist from U of Hawai'i so I selfishly liked that bit too. ;)
Author's Response:
Thanks, Niobium. I'm sure there was quite a bit of culture shock when Spock left Vulcan to attend the Academy, and living almost exclusively among humans must have presented some interesting pitfalls for him. By the time we see him and the beginning of the 5-yr mission he seems to have taken them in hand, but I'm sure it was a bit of a learning curve along the way.
The Pike/Spock dynamic is an interesting one, quite different from how he interacts with Kirk, but we know from canon that he had quite a strong connection to his former captain, even if it was based on respect as opposed to friendship.
LOL! MA says Leila was born in Hawaii, and with her being a botanist it just seemed like a natural progression. Glad it rang true.
Date: 18 Sep 2013 00:57 Title: For the First Time
A very good expansion of your original WFW and a beautiful well crafted story as well. From the start of that little mystery of the Menagerie scenes with Spock and Leila. You’ve manage to write an excellent story full of wonderful little scenes, from which we can watch Spock sub-conscious infatuation with Leila blossoming into a proper relationship, as demonstrated by his lack of focus in none-shared lectures. Then to see how Spock shoots it down and ends it badly despite not wanting to hurt another for the shake of being true to his Vulcan nature. Then the painful final soul searching that he does after-wards is so true to the character. Perhaps this is the real reason he doesn’t want to take shore leave in future. The final link to the I’m sorry line to Nurse chapel was a inspired ending line
Author's Response:
Thanks, FB. I suspect this is was turned him off to all shore leaves in the future. ;-) And yes, I was hoping people would see the connection to Chapel. I always wondered why he felt the need to apologize to her because she loved him. For Spock, it was the incident with Leila all over again, and even though he didn't invite the infatuation in Chapel's case, as he was wont to do, he put the blame squarely on himself.
Date: 18 Sep 2013 00:14 Title: For the First Time
What I thought was the most interesting line was how he had experimented with emotions, and that almost feels like experimenting with drugs, or with different types of sexuality. That it was a kind of youthful indiscretion on his part, and now he's older and he's got another indiscretion under his belt, but this one's worse, because he (unintentionally) hurt someone else.
I recall the character of Leila Kalomi as being a little bit of a hippie chick, but that seems to go along with botanist characters, that there is something radically different about people who are interested in soil and rain but are also on spaceships.
Spock holding back for T'Pring's sake is especially effective (and heartbreaking when you know the remainder of canon, that the holding back is, unfortunately, rather one-sided) and it also works in this context. Spock pulls back and it makes sense, but it's also a rather convenient move for him to make. He gets to tell himself that he doesn't really care and it doesn't really matter to him and that he can pull away and not feel pain - because he's doing it all for T'Pring.
Keep lyin' to yourself, pal.
Well done.
Author's Response:
Yes. Like the Spock in AOS has been experimenting - well, at least as far as Uhura's concerned ;) - I thought it only right that our Spock did as well. Besides, it explains to more emotional man (youth) we saw in 'The Menagerie.'
I didn't see it so much as him pulling back for T'Pring's sake, but rather as more of a convenient excuse, as were the other ones he gave. It was okay for him to pine for Leila from afar, but when she indicated she felt the same he realized he was in over his head - wasn't equipped emotionally or mentally to handle that - and it sent him fleeing in the other direction. This actually sets things up for my story 'Six Degrees of Separation,' where his emotional attachment to Jim and the potential problems it can cause for each of them sends him to Gol with the mission of purging his human half once and for all, cause, y'know, I do like finding the answers for how all the stories in canon interconnect. ;-)