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K/S, then and now: nature or nurture?

  • May. 13th, 2009 at 9:03 PM
crypto: Amy Pond (Default)
I'd been idly speculating about how long I could keep my journal a Star Trek XI-free zone, sort of like when you see how long you can hold your breath. And then I saw [personal profile] laurashapiro 's post linking to an SF Chronicle piece celebrating not the slashiness but rather the bromance of Kirk and Spock, and it got me thinking.

Here's my question:

Did the new movie's Kirk and Spock simply inherit the original series' slashiness as part of Star Trek's DNA, so that they don't even need to generate their own subtext or UST and can just live off of the legacy of the original characters' aura, like the slash pairing version of a trust fund kid?

Or did Chris Pine's Kirk and Zachary Quinto's Spock go out and earn their slashiness the old-fashioned way, refusing to ride on the slashy coattails of Shatner & Nimoy?

Maybe a little of each? Or do you see the slashiness of Pine!Kirk and Quinto!Spock as different than that of Shatner!Kirk and Nimoy!Spock -- a K/S 2.0, maybe?

I'm asking because I can't tell -- I don't actually remember whether there was any dialogue, any moments, any lingering glances or "weird about each other"-ness between Kirk and Spock that an ST:TOS-naive baby slasher or proto-slasher would pick up on if they were discovering slash for the first time.

Though hey, who knows what goes on with kids these days! Maybe slashiness itself is just different now than it was 40 years ago?

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Comments

crypto: Amy Pond (Default)
[personal profile] crypto wrote:
May. 14th, 2009 02:20 am (UTC)
Very true; I guess their "meet cute" would then be the whole Kobayashi Maru test and disciplinary hearing.

Though now I'm thinking that they also maybe could be read as having a bit of a sibling rivalry vibe -- not exactly Sam and Dean, but not entirely rom com either. Maybe?
musesfool: eucalyptus by stephen meyers (we've come to hug)
[personal profile] musesfool wrote:
May. 14th, 2009 02:30 am (UTC)
They didn't really strike me as siblingy, though I suppose it could be read that way, if you look at Pike as the 'dad' in the equation. It really did strike me as rom-commy though. There's the Kirk/McCoy BFF-ness, which should also launch some shipping, and of course, the lovely canon het of Spock/Uhura (and the inevitable Spock/Uhura/Kirk).
crypto: Amy Pond (Default)
[personal profile] crypto wrote:
May. 14th, 2009 02:49 am (UTC)
I'd personally love to get a bittersweet Spock/Uhura/Kirk love triangle that plays out over years without ever quite resolving into a threesome.
princessofgeeks: Shane and Ilya looking at each other in the living room of the cottage (Default)
[personal profile] princessofgeeks wrote:
May. 14th, 2009 12:43 pm (UTC)
ooo grabbyhandsmine