Fear No Evil (Star Trek: TOS zine)

Also see Fear No Evil.

Zine
Title:	Fear No Evil
Publisher:	Odyssey Press
Editor:
Author(s):	Sue Keenan
Cover Artist(s):	Suzan Lovett
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	March 1984
Series?:	No
Medium:	print zine
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
Language:	English
External Links:
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cover by Suzan Lovett

Fear No Evil is a gen Star Trek: TOS fanzine. It is a 56 page McCoy-centric novel by Sue Keenan in which McCoy is captured by Klingons.

It was edited by Ingrid Cross and Joyce Tullock. The cover and interior art is by Suzan Lovett.

Its Relationship to "Valley of Shadow"

From the editor's notes in Valley of Shadow:

This was one of Sue Keenan's earliest submissions to Odyssey Press... and the beginning of a long association. It is a delight to work with her in all stages of a story's development. This expanded version is no exception. After "Valley" was published in Odyssey 6, we had hinted to Sue that it was set up for a sequel. A couple of years of protest later, Fear No Evil appeared in the mailbox [as a submission]. When Odyssey 6 sold out, and "Fear" had been printed, we approached Sue with the idea of reprinting "Valley" as a companion piece for the benefit of those readers who hadn't had a chance to read it in #6.

She lept at the chance. Seems there was some material she wanted to add back in to tie subplots together as a way of bringing "Valley" and "Fear" together. And this version is the result. We're certain you will enjoy it! Sue's artwork is reprinted from Odyssey 6, with some new pieces. Suzan Lovett's haunting cover adds to the crowning touch. Our thanks to both of them, fine artists in their own right!

We've hear recent murmurings from Sue that "Fear No Evil" just might be set up for a sequel...

Summaries

A hard-hitting novella. A self-contained sequel to the popular 'Valley of Shadow' in Odyssey #6. In the aftermath of the abuse suffered at the hands of the Klingons, his friendship with Spock grows stronger, while events cause a riff between Kirk and McCoy. A story of loyalty, betrayal, and human strength.

Odyssey Press brought out a novel-length McCoy story, Fear No Evil, in March. This ran 56 pages, and was written by Sue Keenan. The basic plot here is that McCoy is captured by Klingons and tortured. The Enterprise rescues McCoy and takes the Klingons prisoner. One Klingon is injured, and McCoy must treat the Klingon for the injuries. Then the Klingon dies, and McCoy is blamed.

SPOILER SUMMARY: McCoy is slowly and painfully recovering from having been tortured to near-death by Klingons, and from the resulting drastic surgery as M'Benga raced to save his life. Along with the pain, the post-traumatic horror, and his drug-dependence, McCoy is struggling with guilt over having broken under torture - with the rest of the landing party dead, the only reason he had not revealed Spock's presence on the planet was that the torturers had been enjoying their game too much, and he physically hadn't been able to get the words out. Meanwhile, Starfleet diplomats arrange to exchange the Klingons that Enterprise has captured for a party of Andorian ambassadors. This angers many of the crew, who want to avenge McCoy. It also alarms the primary villain, Keck, who prefers Federation prison to returning home as a failed warrior.

Scott loses control during an interrogation and attacks Keck. Keck winds up in critical condition and in need of brain surgery which only McCoy can perform. McCoy refuses with an uncharacteristic, "Let him die!" Spock recognizes that McCoy must now perform the surgery or on he will torture himself over Keck's death for the rest of his life. McCoy finally agrees, on condition that all charges against Scott are dropped, whatever the outcome of the operation. With M'Benga's assistance - and under his slightly suspicious eye - McCoy manages to pull Keck through before he himself collapses from exhaustion and pain.

The Klingon leader, Kopel, persuades Kirk to let him see Keck alone; when he learns that Keck plans to barter information to the Feds to keep from being sent home, Kopel stabs him with one of McCoy's antique scalpels. McCoy enters from the adjoining room just in time to try unsuccessfully to save Keck once again, get the scalpel from Kopel, and suffer a memory blackout from his pain drugs, so that when help arrives and Kopel accuses him of killing Keck, he becomes the prime suspect. When McCoy recovers his memory of what happened, he remains the prime suspect; only Spock is steadfast in his conviction that McCoy could not have killed Keck.

The exchange takes place as planned, but (in a settlement arranged by a bureaucrat with a grudge against our red-tape-ignoring rogue McCoy) only on condition that McCoy will be properly punished. McCoy is arrested, the results of his trial pre-determined. The injustice is finally prevented by Kopel who, on his way home and suffering regrets over his culpability in the mistreatment of a healer, sends a message explaining his execution of Keck.

Gallery

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  inside art, Suzan Lovett

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  inside art, Suzan Lovett

Reactions and Reviews

An excellent tale for us McCoy devotees - though the doctor's suffering does get a bit overheated. Spock here is delightfully compassionate and loyal to the doctor, without going out of character. A minor annoyance is the Klingon tradition of holding healers as sacred and off-limits; it seems to be a common fan-fic convention, but has never seemed to me to be consistent with Klingon culture.

This novella is a sequel to a story in ODYSSEY 6 titled "Valley of Shadow," but there's enough explanation in FEAR NO EVIL so that a reader who hasn't seen the background story will be able to follow the events. The situation is that McCoy is recovering from being tortured by a group of Klingons, who are now on the Enterprise as prisoners. McCoy's main source of moral support is Spock, who found McCoy after he was injured and stayed with him until the Enterprise rescued them. Complicating matters is that the Klingon prisoners, originally presumed by the crew to be tried for abusing McCoy, are instead scheduled to be set free as part of a Federation-Klingon prisoner exchange. Further difficulties surface when Scotty flattens the Klingon, Keck, who was chiefly responsible for torturing McCoy, and McCoy is asked to operate to save Keck's life. However, before Keck recovers, he is killed by another Klingon (who rightly believes that Keck is about to confess to the Federation), and the blame for the murder falls on McCoy. The strength of this novella is that it has an interesting plot idea. The situations are well-written and well-developed. There are a lot of nice incidental touches, too, such as the description of Kirk's reaction to feeling the sun on his back after a long time on the ship. Scotty and M'Benga, in particular, are well-characterized and add a lot to the story. The main drawback of the story is that the conflicts are resolved too easily. There are enough plot and character conflicts to fill a publication twice this size, and I'm sorry that the writer did not do so. To take one example, McCoy is angry at Kirk for believing him guilty of killing Keck. Kirk feels guilty, on his part, both for the fact that, despite his friendship with McCoy, he thinks the evidence points to the doctor's guilt and for his feeling that he can't discuss the situation with McCoy lest he prejudice the case. However, these major conflicts are resolved by three lines. That's too easy and too vague a resolution for a complicated matter that the author took pages to develop; she should have spent an equal amount of time resolving it. In addition, I had a couple of minor criticisms on characterization. Though, on the whole, the characterizations are done well, there is more shouting going on in some scenes that I would expect from the regulars. Further, though the author makes a ease for McCoy's expressed wish that Keck should die, and though she shows later that McCoy feels ambivalent about that wish, I still found it hard to swallow. Granted, McCoy is no saint, and is as capable as anyone of feeling resentment towards anyone who would hurt him, but I still felt his reaction was extreme.

[both "Fear No Evil" and "Valley of Shadow"]: 43pp and 56pp respectively, offset. 'Valley of Shadow', A McCoy and Spock story - quite different in tone and content to others I have read. Every person has a breaking point: McCoy's cones via torture, Kek's by fear, and each pays a price. We do know that the doctor is very vulnerable but he hides it well! When the break comes, it will be under extreme circumstances - these occur on Vogel. Spock unvittingly absent, finds hintself bound and nearer death than either of then had ever faced. In Part 2 - 'Fear No Evil', McCoy has to face two trials: Spock, who now knows his inner torment and an injured Lt. Kek, his torturer, who later dies at the hands of his conmander - for a Klingon cannot be a traitor. In these two stories, Sue Keenan explores the Spock/McCoy relationship with great skill. She has managed to give both characters depth and compassion: Spock receives a shock for McCoy's plight pierces his normally aloof exterior; Leonard McCoy questions himself and his beliefs. These two works could be published as one volume as they follow so neatly in story line. Sue keeps ail characters under control plus giving Dr. M'Benga a leading role. Not before time either. Highly recommended if you can find a copy or two.