A Beach to Walk On (Professionals zine)

You may be looking for the Star Trek: TOS zine No Beach to Walk On.

Zine
Title:	A Beach to Walk On
Publisher:	Gryphon Press
Editor:
Author(s):	E.T.
Cover Artist(s):	Evelyn
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	July 1997, but appears to have been a circuit story long before
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	The Professionals
Language:	English
External Links:
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A Beach to Walk On is a 127-page (80,873 words) slash Professionals novel by E.T. Cover by Evelyn.

The flyer states that "this zine will remain in print." The publisher of this zine passed away in 2017.

Birthplace as a Circuit Story

Like many Pros fics, this story was first distributed on the circuit.

Fans in a 1990 letterzine were anxious to see this story completed, and another fan replied:

...Just Another Jungle and "A Beach to Walk On," my copies are unfinished too, and I'm fairly certain that's because neither story was ever finished by the writers. "Just Another Jungle" will almost certainly never be completed, writer having moved on to other things, but I did hear recently that the other of "A Beach to Walk On" was thinking of trying to complete some of her stories. Let's hope she does and that this is one of them.

Summary

After the Parsali Op Doyle is confused and depressed. The last thing he wants is a clichéd holiday on the south coast with his partner! Yet this is where Bodie, at his most irritating, is determined to whisk him, confident that a simple change of scene, not to mention female companionship, is just what they both need. But Doyle's emotions are deeper and darker than either of them suspect and in the effort to help his partner, Bodie finds himself revealing far more than he ever intended, while their friendship becomes laced with new meanings and new dangers.

Reactions and Reviews

Unknown Date

Eyes not quite focused, he gazed out over the rooftops again. Between two chimney stacks to his left, he could see tiny blinking colors -- the traffic lights out on the main road, street lamps and house lights. People. People were out there, but in here he felt as alone as if he were standing on the moon.

Suffering from nervous exhaustion following the events of Mixed Doubles, Doyle is coaxed by Bodie into taking a fortnight holiday at the seaside.

E.T. does an excellent job capturing Doyle's physical and mental fatigue; his confusion and sense of isolation is very well done. Equally well-done is Bodie's understated concern and stubborn protectiveness. He won't be shut out, regardless of Doyle's efforts to push him back. The dialog is good, the banter familiar and genuinely amusing. Both characters ring true -- believably masculine as they fence uncomfortably with their growing realization of how attracted to each other they really are.

Equally well-drawn is Bexington by the Sea. E.T. ably captures the feel of a holiday resort -- the sun, sand and sea -- and the restless laziness of these two men of action prowling the hotel bar or a seafront Dolphinarium for something -- or someone -- to amuse them.

"Bloody hell, mate --" Sharply evolved destructive worry clawed at Bodie. All the risks, the dangers they took every day on duty and here was Doyle, throwing his life around on some bloody stupid fairground ride. Incredulous blue eyes bored into green.

It's funny, it's sweet, and it feels real. The scenes of hurt/comfort are plentiful and well-handled -- as are the scenes of dawning sexual awareness. E.T. builds a convincing case for an intense and established friendship turning to something more.

Rising from the nipples that were revealed by the tautly drawn silk, Bodie's eyes charted the soft skin of throat and cheeks, took in the full shape of the sensual mouth. Deliberately capturing the reflected green eyes once more, he let his mouth soften and part a fraction.

In fact, until almost exactly the halfway point, A Beach to Walk On is probably one of my very favorite Pros novels. But midway through, the quietly intelligent plot suddenly slips a gear and veers off into contrived angst. There's a bit of miscommunication, a bit of convoluted thinking, and too much tiresome discussion in what should be a climactic scene. E.T. does manage to pull it back, but the pacing is lost, and sadly, the story never quite recovers. In the end it just sort of peters out. Still, while it doesn't quite live up to its initial promise, this is very pleasant reading and highly recommended it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Bodie and Doyle are nicely written, recognisably "the lads", and their relationship rings true. I was with them all the way here, emotionally involved with the fic, which is one of my criteria for a wonderful read! Scads of hurt/comfort and great banter all through!

1997

Well I don't do reviews. But I did read it and liked it . No great amounts of angst or kink (which did disappoint one friend of mine).

The plot is nothing new either -- first timers go the beach and discover each other. Doyle feels bad about his job, gets depressed and Bodie helps him come to terms with their life of violence and death. They find comfort in each others arms.

That's like describing a triple chocolate sundae as a dessert. Or the Grand Canyon as this big hole in the ground.

I think what really appealed to me was the slow build-up of B&D's relationship. Finally, someone who takes time to walk them through the days and events leading up to their Big Moment. Weaving into those days is humour, pain, insecurity, good dialogue, and good fellowship. Oh and the moment by moment build-up of love.

Some stories can be summarized (The Full Monty is a movie about these unemployed depressed steelwokers who decide to become Chippendale dancers). Others, like ET, what makes their work "work" is the way they express themselves. And that's very hard to capture in a soundbite.

2019

A Beach to Walk On by ET is one of my favourite zines for re-reading, and is really a bit of a comfort read. It's absolutely, perfectly slash, and it's angst and partner-worry and partner-comfort and most importantly just the right amount of those things rather than tipping into soppiness and unlikelihood!

It's set after Mixed Doubles, and the lads are actually given the two weeks off that Cowley has promised them. Bodie decides that what they need - what Doyle needs, but what he needs too - is some time away from the job together, where they can just be themselves with someone else who understands them. So he hijacks Doyle, who's having trouble coming to terms with those dum-dums, and they head off down to the Dorset coast.

They both try to get over the whole Parsali affair in their own ways - Bodie by being as normal as he can be, and Doyle by struggling through, but they both come apart in their own ways. And of course they come together too, and that's the other part of the story. *g* Spoilers below, if you don't want to read any more...

Much as I love the rest of it, the ending bugs me every time, because it makes me think the author was just trying to string things out to make a longer zine. She has an excellent resolution, but instead of finishing perfectly there, there's suddenly a whole series of doubts and misunderstandings about sleeping together and the frankly bizarre worry that one of them is going to "rape" the other one. It's that whole what-if-you-change-your-mind-in-the-middle-and-I-can't-stop thing, and okay I get there might be an element of a bloke changing his mind when it comes to same-sex sex for the first time, and the whole physical thing of fucking, but when there's been such a perfect build-up of love and lust between them, it just feels tacked-on and forced...

So it's about a dozen pages too long - but apart from that it's fab, and I hope you get a chance to read it! It's a paper zine, and as far as I know it's not online anywhere, and not likely to be, sadly - and now the publisher is no more, either.

I've got the ET story in zine form but I don't think I've ever read it and not sure if I will now because it sounds a bit samey. I think I'm tiring of stories where you get the sex thing thrown in at the end for no better reason than to fill out a story that bit more. Summer's End sounds more my cup of tea with a mystery/case story running in parallel to their relationship.

But do read A Walk on the Beach, because up to the last dozen pages it's not same-y at all, and I think you'd really like it. I wonder if ET's publisher said "It's not long enough" and got her to add the ending - or some beta said "But we want to see them when they get together!" and so it was added on, because the end does feel tacked on. The story up until then is really well thought out, and a good exploration of the effect that the Parsali op might have had on them.

So sad to think of the amazing Pros stories that are paper only, now that the Paper Circuit is properly gone, and no one seems to want paper zines any more.

The end definitely seemed alien to the rest of the story, but apart from those 12 pages, it's great!

I have that zine... I remember reading it and being a bit meh about it, although I did enjoy the moody atmosphere. It could be because I bought it at the same time as Redemption which really blew me away. Perhaps I'm due a re-read of A Beach to Walk On, to see if my opinion has changed.

Oh that's a shame! I can see that reading after Redemption might have that effect though, not because A Walk on the Beach isn't enjoyable in its own right, but just because Redemption is pretty amazing, and a whole different scale of story, really! I'd be interested to hear if you like it this time!