The Weight Collected
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Weight Collected |
| Publisher: | T'Kuhtian Press |
| Editor(s): | |
| Date(s): | 1988 (collecting chapters published in Warped Space between 1976-1979) |
| Series?: | |
| Medium: | |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | The Weight Collected series at AO3 The Weight Collected at archive.org |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Weight Collected is a gen and het (with hints of slash) 520-page perfect bound Star Trek: TOS anthology. It has the subtitle, And Other Stories. It consists of three stories written and illustrated by Leslie Fish and one by Ed Zdrojewski, to which the others are sequels.
The zine is a collection of the "The Weight" which was serialized in eleven issues of Warped Space between 1976-79. The art by Leslie Fish from the "Warped Space" serialization is included in "The Weight Collected."
It was added to AO3 in 2022, as part of the Open Doors Fan Culture Preservation Project.
front cover by Leslie Fish
back cover by Leslie Fish
A 1979 flyer advertising "The Weight" in collected form, something that didn't happen for another eleven years; there's a reason fans called it "The Wait."
Fish won the first FanQ best author award in 1977 for first part of this story.
The main story first appeared in serial form in Warped Space between 1976 and 1979. It was then collected and published as a standalone in 1988.
Some fans referred to "The Weight" series as "The Wait" in reference to the time it took for this story to be finished (3 years) and then to be collected in one publication (11 years). [1]
Contents of "The Weight Collected":
- "The Sixth Year" by Ed Zdrojewski (1)
- "The Weight" by Leslie Fish, illustrated by Leslie Fish (18)
- "A Brief Encounter in a Timeless War" by James Van Hise, illustrated by Michael Verina (reprinted from Enterprise Incidents #7) (491)
- "Invaders Great and Small" by Leslie Fish, Joanne Agostino, and James Van Hise, illustrated by Martin Cannon (reprinted from Enterprise Incidents #8) (507)
About
[from a 1987 catalog]:This is a message for the world calling itself Earth! We wish to contact you for the purpose of verifying historical research. If you have a civilization capable of it, we request that you send a starship to the city of Chicago located at the point of origin of this signal." The sub-space signal had originated 6,259.71 light years beyond the periphery of the galaxy. Rear Admiral Neuman of Starfleet Command authorizes the Enterprise to go back in time prior to the year 2000 to the city of Chicago to find out why it is so important to beings from another galaxy. While Kirk, Spock, and McCoy team down to Chicago, a mutiny involving recent Starfleet Academy graduates just transferred to the Enterprise occurs on board the ship. The mutineers are members of People for Temporal Control, anarchists who want to change time so that the human race will be returned to the simple state of the 21st Century on Earth. Would they succeed?
The paragraph you just read describes "The Sixth Year," by Ed Zdrojewski. This short story, and Leslie Fish's legendary and massive reply, "The Weight," as well as two stories inspired by "The Weight" are now available in THE WEIGHT COLLECTED. "The Weight" is the story of Kirk's struggle to regain not only his crew, but their respect as well, after a time-displacement accident which left Spock and McCoy dead, and the entire crew of the Enterprise stranded in an alternate time line, unable to get back to their own universe. In brief, the crew deserts Kirk and sets up camp on the Earth of 200 years from now--the Earth which should have been the Earth of the Federation, but which... isn't. Kirk feels that if he could somehow get back to his own time line, there would be at least a possibility of setting things straight again... For any newcomer to fan fiction, "The Weight" is recommended reading, as it is not only an action/adventure story, but it also has all the elements of a psychological thriller, not to mention being probably the best character study of Kirk ever to be done. Leslie's accompanying artwork is also to be highly complimented on its mood-setting qualities as well as fine technique. About ten years in production, THE WEIGHT COLLECTED weighs in at about three pounds and 520 pages! Other contributors include James Van Hise, Joanne Agostino, Michael Verina, and Martin Cannon, collecting stories and artwork which originally appeared in WARPED SPACE and ENTERPRISE INCIDENTS, revised for this collection, with new artwork by Leslie Fish.
The Delay in Publication
After the series was completed in installments, fans had to wait again for the entire story to be published in one piece as the zine The Weight Collected. Joan Verba wrote:
The volume was in high demand because Leslie had won a Fan Q for the series. Would-be readers were asked to send in a deposit plus an SASE for notification of the additional final cost. (This was not an unusual request for fanzine editors who needed to raise funds prior to publishing.) Unfortunately, there were a number of unexpected and unforeseen delays. As a result, The Weight Collected, was not ready for distribution for another seven years. [2]
The zine had at least three different typists, Joyce E through May 1984, Karolyn through Datazine, and later, Bill Hupe. From Datazine #42 in July 1986: "I am now responsible for the typing of The Weight Collected so there will be a delay in Abode of Strife #6 and #7. I haven't received the text, however I hope to get this out with as little weight as possible... Fandom has been waiting too long for this zine."
In 1984 typist Joyce penned a long apology in the Mediawest Program Guide after suffering devastating personal health and family losses:
When I originally agreed to type THE WEIGHT COLLECTED for Lori and T'Kuhtian Press, I set out a schedule for the typing which would have had the completed zine ready for Media West. However, as of this date (May 14, 1984) it is clear to me that there is no way this self-imposed deadline can be met, and I deeply regret this. Had I known that I would be unable to keep the schedule I had set for myself, I would never have agreed to take on the monumental (and it IS H-U-G-E!!!) task in the first place. Isn't 20-20 hindsight wonderful?
She officially resigned in the 1986 MediaWest 2nd Progress Report: "I wish to thank everyone for kindness and compassion over the past couple of years; they have made a difficult time easier to deal with; my only regret is that these personal and family considerations have forced me to leave the task I undertook still unfinished. "
From the Editorial
Leslie Fish began "The Weight" back in 1976, when it appeared in Warped Space #17. It was her response to Zdrojewski's "The Sixth Year,' which had appeared in WARPED SPACE 3, and was her first piece of Star Trek fiction to be published. Leslie originally intended "The Weight" to end with Part 1, but it grew and grew, and eventually was serialized in WARPED SPACE over a three year period, in WARPED SPACE 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26/27, 29/30, 35/36, 39, 41, and 42. Two related articles were printed in WARPED SPACE 23. And the readers' lettercolumns comprise a fascinating response to this monumental work.
For this collection, I did not include the two articles by Leslie in WARPED SPACE 23, nor have I reproduced the letters that ran in WARPED SPACE that commented on the serial. Although "The Weight" was originally broken down into parts and sections, I have only retained the headers (where they existed), and they can be considered as chapters.
And to those of you who haven't read "The Weight" before -- enjoy!
Thanks to the interest of and with the perlission of James Van Hise, I have included two reprinted stories and accompanying artwork from his ENTERPRISE INCIDENTS I's 7 and B. As Jil said in his magazine, "The Weight' described nothing of the actual Romulan invasion of Earth beyond the first paragraph in his story, "A Brief Encounter In A Timeless War,' Leslie had invited others to write about it while she continued the rest of the story. Thus, the two concluding stories in this collection are the tales of the Romulan invasion of Earth in a timeline that never should have been.
With the above information out of the way, I'd like to say, as briefly as possible, that I do lost sincerely apologize for the length of time it took to get this mammoth 'zine printed and distributed. l owe and acknowledge a depth of gratitude to Bill Hupe for finishing the typing, mollifying and reassuring angry subscribers, and for his constant help and encouragement. Still, this volume is not as polished as I had hoped. "The Weight" spans the time when T'Kuhtian Press rented a primitive electric typewriter to the ongoing computer/desktop publishing revolution. and we're still in the throes of familiarizing ourselves with the possibilities. Despite the best efforts of our cadre of typists, I was still finding typos even as the camera-ready copy was left at the printers. And Leslie never did get the chance to go over the final layout and make any desired corrections. I'm sorry, Leslie!
Having said all that, I can't wait for this to come back from the printer, who assures me that perfect glue binding will hold this 520 page monster together, because while I was doing the layout, I was scanning the pages, and began hearing the music of Steeleye Span and other quoted musicians running through my head. I can't wait to find the time to sit down and read this from cover to cover, as if for the first time, marvelling again at Leslie's masterful prose and wonderful artwork. I don't think I realized what I had at the time when "The Weight" was being serialized, and Leslie, I thank you for asking WARPED SPACE to publish it!
To those of you who have waited with varying degrees of patience, thank you. I think you're going to enjoy this.
Sample Pages from "The Weight Collected"
Two sample pages from "The Weight" as it appeared as a standalone zine: shows some of the varying font and type used, as well as art placement on page, as well as art reproduction.
Sample Pages from "A Brief Encounter in a Timeless War"
artist is Leslie Fish
artist is Leslie Fish
Sample Pages from "Invaders Great and Small"
artist is Martin Cannon
artist is Martin Cannon
Reactions and Reviews
Specifically for "The Weight Collected"
[Invaders Great and Small]: "A tale of Roantree's Earth" - a McCoy story from 'The Weight' universe. McCoy is a country doctor on an Earth that has renounced high technology. When the Romulans invade, McCoy is abducted to help them combat a plethora of Earth diseases ravaging their troops. Fine writing, a sensible scenario, and good dilemmas for the doctor called upon to aid the enemy. [3]
"The Sixth Year" sets the stage for Ms Fish's fabulous ST adventure. In this story, Kirk takes the Enterprise back to 1990 to examine the fabled "lost city of Chicago". At that time, Chicago was a dead city wiped out by a biological weapon during the Malthusian Disaster of 1987. While in the past a member of the landing party, Pennington, disappears taking with her the plans for a crude phaser, and Spock and McCoy are apparently killed when a flash flood wipes out Chicago. Being short on dilithium crystals, Kirk is forced to return to the future, where he finds that the theft of the phaser plans has changed history. The Earth he finds has a medieval level of technology and is steeped in anarchy. With no power to go anywhere, the crew deserts and starts a new life on Earth, leaving Kirk alone on the Enterprise to await the Klingons or the Romulans. The Weight begins approximately three months after the disaster. Kirk is alone on the Enterprise and slowly going mad when there is a knock on the door. He comes across the Sunfire, a primitive chemical powered rocket headed for the Moon. He makes contact with it, and it was sent by a pocket of science lovers in High Harbor, Michigan. The crew is the most unbelievable collection of longhaired, bearded, tattoed, free-living, independent, devout practicing anarchists led by Coordinator Jenneth Roantree. Eager for company, Kirk brings them aboard the Enterprise. While visiting, they find out why he is there, and High Harbor is attacked by anti-science neighbors. Kirk is barely able to save the town. The Anarchists are depressed by their losses and start to think about the alternate universe Kirk comes from. It sounds like paradise. (Kirk neglected to mention that there were laws and governments, that Star Fleet was a military organization, and a few other things. Keeping "The Awful Truth" a secret will become a big problem.) Kirk explains that he could restore the universe if only he had enough dilithium crystals to power the ship for a trip to the Guardian of Forever. One of the Anarchists points out that that would be an easy problem to solve. The crystals had been found on the Moon in Kirk's universe, and the Sunfire was going there full of mining equipment. If he could prove that alternate universes exist, they might help him. Proof is soon found when Jenneth Roantree is shown to be Kirk's alternate universe counterpart. Kirk persuades part of the Enterprise crew to beam up, and, together with the Anarchists, they set off on a mission to restore time. They mine the crystals on the Moon, and start on the long journey to the Guardian just as the Romulans attack Earth. Will they be able to cross Romulan dominated space safely to the Guardian? Who will go through the Guardian? Will they be able to stop Pennington? Who will come back through the Guardian? What kind of universe will result? Most authors would be satisfied just to dream up such a splendid action/adventure story, but not Ms Fish. There is much more. Among the goodies are love affair between Kirk and one of the Anarchists, a feminist plot against Star Fleet by Uhura and Chapel, numerous personal identity crises, and all the social and political satire that can be mined from a cultural clash between two such different cultures as the Anarchists and the Federation. How to get: Publication is expected in the next six months. Reserve your copy with a deposit of $10[4] and a SASE for notification of final cost and postage. [5]
Special mention to The Weight, Collected: This was a story originally serialized in the pages of Warped Space and later reprinted in a stand-alone volume. The story was written and illustrated by Leslie Fish. The formidable talent of Leslie is a force to behold whenever and wherever she brings it to bear. Leslie is known as a writer, artist, and filker. She is one of the earliest K/S writers and in 1977 won the first FanQ Award ever presented for fiction, for "The Weight" (which still was being serialized at the time). That story took Kirk's life and psyche apart and put them back together again. An AU to end AUs. [6]
For the Fiction Overall
See The Weight#Reactions and Reviews.
References
- ^ ""The Weight" -- This heavy piece should better be retitled: "The Wait," 'cause that's what you do... wait for the next installment." -- from a fan's letter of comment in Warped Space #28 (August 1977)
- ^ from Boldly Writing
- ^ Halliday’s Star Trek Zinedex (TOS) - Title Index, Archived version (2000s)
- ^ $10 in 1979 is the equivalent of over $40 in 2022.
- ^ from a 1979 review in TREKisM #9 (1979)
- ^ comment by kslangley at What was your first fandom?, August 28, 2016