A Child Shall Lead

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	A Child Shall Lead
Author(s):	Billie Phillips
Date(s):	1982
Length:
Genre:
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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A Child Shall Lead is a Star Trek: TOS story by Billie Phillips.

It was published in the print zine Cheap Thrills #3.

Sequel: Call Home The Child.

Summary

"Jimʼs mind is damaged during an experiment in brain research and itʼs up to Spock to help the now child-like Kirk regain his memories and mental faculties."

Reactions and Reviews

1982

The zine is rounded off with 'A Child Shall Lead' by [Billie Phillips]. This is beautifully written in the author's complex and sophisticated style but, in the U.K. at least, the "reversion to childishness" theme has been well explored and it seems a waste that the author felt compelled to recap, albeit in a mature study.

1994

[Billie Phillips] wrote a Kirk/regression story that was printed in Cheap Thrills #3. Kirk got an accidental overdose of a brainwave experiment and gets blasted back to a state of near catatonia, then he goes through a two-year-old make-a-mess get-into-everything stage. All of this was Cute with a capital "C" and had Kirk fans going "ahhhhh".

[...]

[Billie] , even though her Kirk was rediscovering the outside sensory world in much the same way a child would, kept kirk an adult -- at least in McCoy's mind. SPOCK, though treats him like a child -- giving him warm milk to drink instead of coffee -- and when he responds to Kirk sexually is horrified at what he considers a near molestation.

So, Kirk fans got to see the little dickens as a little dickens but the story wasn't an insult to your intelligence.