A Question of Sanity
| Star Trek TOS Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Last Survivor |
| Author(s): | Rick Endres (aka Nomad) |
| Date(s): | 1980 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | gen |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: The Original Series |
| External Links: | |
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A Question of Sanity is a gen Star Trek: TOS story by Rick Endres.
It was printed in Stardate #4.
Summary: "Kirk and the captain of the U.S.S. Mediator are en route to a distant star. But has Jonathan Spencer gone mad? - Some mature scenes." Lander's comments: "It's the tale of a man who becomes convinced that his wife is dying while he's having sex with another woman. Not explicitly written, of course. After all, this is s genzine. But I'm sure that you'll find it interesting, and a little like "One Step Beyond."
Reactions and Reviews
"A Question of Sanity" — it is by all means McCoy-ish for the good doctor to chase women, but in a "drunken stupor?" The only situation in which I could imagine McCoy really getting drunk would be after some terrible crisis, the loss of a loved one, perhaps. For such a brilliant medical practitioner to abuse his body in that way is completely out of character. Spock was a little out of character in not double checking the notification of the starbase of the warp sled's departure, but not much. He probably needed a rest like the remainder of the crew. Otherwise, the story was good and made enjoyable reading; the illos
were a little small to justify full pages. [I assign all illos to full pages as a courtesy to the artists. Just policy on my part. - Ed] [1]
"A Question of Sanity," the last story, showed an improvement of the author's style. There are still weaknesses, but these are minimal if the story is appreciated in the light of ST gratia ST. I assume the comic pages, "Star Trip," were written for fun, and as such, they are fine. [Yes, they were written by about five people in our senior year at high school. - Ed.] [2]
"A Question of Sanity" could use a better placement of the illos (nag, nag, nag). I detest "swimming" illos that float in the center of an otherwise blank page. The prose is choppy, and too abrupt. We needed to be shown the madness in little ways, personality quirks observable, etc. I liked the story premise well enough and feel it should be expanded, and the characters, especially Spencer, explored more fully. "Having sex" - irk, picky, picky, though I suppose the term is properly applied when there is no real love or commitment involved. [3]