Amok Time

Title:	"Amok Time"
Creator:	Theodore Sturgeon
Date(s):	September 15, 1967
Medium:	television episode
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
Language:	English
External Links:	episode at IMDb episode at Wikipedia
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Amok Time is an episode from the TV show Star Trek: The Original Series that played a significant role in both Star Trek and slash fandom.

the original press release, dated April 1967

Leonard Nimoy described it as: "Excellent script. Very poetic, very dramatic, intense and important I felt immediately – for Spock and Vulcans. [...] And there was that wonderful payoff where I believed I had killed Kirk. Great moment."

Leonard Nimoy said that after "Amok Time" had been aired for the first time, his fan mail jumped from 400 to 10,000 letters a week.

Episode Summary

Gene Roddenberry and Gene Coon originated the concept for this story, which they then assigned to Theodore Sturgeon. Sturgeon then wrote a treatment which was praised by NBC's Stan Robertson, the program director for Star Trek, as "a superior outline and one which should add more to the in-depth audience appeal for Mr. Spock." The entire production team as well as the actors and stage crew worked very hard on this episode to make sure it was, as Roddenberry put it, "one of the best and most carefully thought out scripts of the year."

The episode was screened by Roddenberry at Worldcon two weeks before it aired as the season two premiere in 1967. A detailed summary of the plot can be read here.

Background

The episode is notable in that it introduced fandom to many Vulcan customs and phases, including the concept of the Vulcan mating drive, the pon farr, a biological imperative to return home and take a mate.

Theodore Sturgeon wrote and revised a teleplay using Roddenberry and Coon's original idea. He included numerous details of Vulcan customs and words, even specifying what some of the characters should be wearing. D.C. Fontana said that the ceremony, the formality, and T'Pau herself were all Sturgeon's creation, while the other writers "made it more Star Trek." The writing staff added the wedding party. As always, the actors contributed their own ideas. When Arlene Martel noticed that her metallic wire dress looked like a maternity dress, she reasoned "Maybe they see the character as trying to conceal that she is pregnant," and decided on her own to play T'Pring that way.This is something that some fans explored in fiction.

Fan, Ruth Berman, reviewed a script draft from May 2, 1967 in Babel 3 (October 1972). Her copy had marginal notes from production manager Gregg Peters. The tone of this earlier script was lighter, almost flippant. Instead of "A minute?", Kirk responded to McCoy with "For the Department of Health and Hangnails -- any time, Bones." McCoy reacted to Chapel's dish of soup (as yet unnamed) with "Real Vulcan green soup, hey, Nurse Chapel? Made with your own hands." Later the script has him chortling about Spock having "shore-leave jitters... Once he gets to Vulcan, and into the hands of those wild wonderful Vulcan females..." Whereupon Chapel tells him to cut it out. Peters pointed out that "McCoy should not be cute -- he should be more concerned." Berman also noted that "Sturgeon gave a relatively large amount of background information in this script -- more, in fact, than a television show could present in dramatic terms." For one thing, McCoy gives Kirk a lot more technical information on Spock's condition than is feasible for a one-hour TV show.

This was also the version of the script that established the alleged seven-year cycle. Although cut from the final script, that figure still circulates in fandom. In 1979, D.C. Fontana wrote:

WHO CAME UP WITH THE CONCEPT OF THE VULCAN SEVEN-YEAR MATING CYCLE? I don't remember whether it was Gene Roddenberry, Gene Coon, or Ted, but the way we have established it, most people don't stop and understand this. Vulcans mate nominally anytime they want to. However, every seven years they have to — that's the point. Every seven years you do the ritual, the ceremony, the whole thing. The biological urge. You must, but any other time is any other emotion--humanoid emotion--when you're in love. When you want to, you know, when the sex urge is there, you do it. This every seven years business was taken too literally by too many people who aren't stopping and understanding. We didn't mean only every seven years.

WHICH WOULDN'T MAKE TOO MUCH SENSE IN TERMS OF HUMANOID RELATIONSHIPS, PARTICULARLY IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SAREK AND AMANDA.

Or the extension of the Vulcan race. I mean, every seven years would be a little bad, and it would not explain the Vulcans of many different ages which are not seven years apart.

HENCE THE DEDICATION IN THE RECENT BOOK VULCAN! WHICH CREDITS YOU WITH ELIMINATING THIS MYTH.

Yeah. It just doesn't work. Biologically it's not reasonable that just only every seven years. Vulcans are strong, but not that strong.

Sturgeon created many Vulcan words and phrases which were never used. In fact, most of Sturgeon's Vulcan language was deemed unrealistic and reworked by conlanger Sloman.

Other differences were summarized by a fan who had access to some of the early draft versions of the scripts:

In the first draft of the Star Trek episode "Amok Time" by Theodore Sturgeon, both T'Pring (Spock's fiancée/wife) and Stonn (T'Pring's chosen consort) are stripped of their rights after Spock kills Captain Kirk. Stonn because prior to the fight he flies into rage and attempts to murder Spock and is behaving irrationally and illogically. He is pronounced "not Vulcan" by T'Pau and becomes the property of Mr Spock. In this draft, being Vulcan is not an ethnic/genetic identity, but a citizenship status.

T'Pring becomes Spock's property because she challenged Spock and lost and is now obligated to give him absolute obedience. And then in a twist, Spock gives Stonn back to Vulcan ("it is possible but has never been done before" says T'Pau) and then "gifts" T'Pring to Stonn as his property with the requirement of absolute obedience. "See that you exact what is due to you - as her absolute owner."

Much of this was removed from the aired version. Vulcan is a very harsh patriarchal world. And Vulcans know how to exact their due when their beloved captain is murdered."

And, perhaps most significantly, the original draft did not have Spock grabbing Kirk by the arms and shrieking “JIM!" while broadly grinning, something that is a pivotal moment for fans. Supposedly, Nimoy reportedly hated that and thought Spock would express these feelings alone, in private. Sturgeon's original script concluded with Spock quietly weeping in Sickbay until Nurse Chapel gently turns him to see Kirk nearby. Spock is astonished but doesn't squee. Dr. McCoy prescribes "that awful plomik soup," to which Spock replies quietly "It is not awful plomik soup. It is very good plomik soup," and leaves. This ending was used in James Blish's adaptation for Star Trek 3. In the final draft, Spock wipes his tears on Nurse Chapel's shoulder while Kirk gently chides him: "Come now—we mustn't let our emotions run away with us. Be a man, Mister Spock—be a man."

According to Torie Atkinson in the Star Trek rewatch:

In the original script, Kirk didn’t need T’Pau’s help smoothing things over with Starfleet. Instead, he was friends with the officials on the other planet where the ceremonies were to take place and asked them for a delay; this planet was called "Fontana IV" in homage to Trek writer D.C. Fontana. In this early script, ahn-woon meant "unarmed combat."

From Dorothy Fontana:

When Ted was writing the episode, there were some places where we, as I recall, said to him, “Well, you know McCoy has this role in relationship to Spock, and Kirk has this role,” and Ted just put them together in a really nice blend of relationships, which is, again, what Star Trek is about. Relationships. The stories that didn’t go well were stories that were against objects without human relationships involved somewhere in the story.

Fannish Reactions: General

1967

The very first Star Trek fanzine, Spockanalia, was published while the show was in its first run on the air. In issue one, there was an essay called "Thoughts on Vulcan Culture," written about six months before the episode "Amok Time" aired. Because of this timing, when that essay was reprinted in Vulcan Reflections, some of its speculations were jossed; the zine's editor wrote an addendum which addressed the subject of pon farr:

A number of profound revelations about the culture of Vulcan were made last September 15. Although certain observers were not happy about what was learned, few came to the obvious conclusion that Vulcan simply as not attained the easy, smoothly running, mechanically logical culture and it holds as an ideal. The people have deeply-felt biological needs, and, as with all cultures, this one must find a way to fulfill or sublimate these needs. Until they can be genetically eliminated (if ever), they must be controlled, and this is the part of culture.

[snipped]

It seems clear that there are many complexities as yet undiscovered in the Vulcan culture. The culture which produced Mr. Spock must be good deal more varied and problem-filled than the rather dull stereotype we were led to infer from early information. We hope that future information will bear out our belief that the culture is as alien and interesting as it now seems to be.

1985

Now consider the psychosexual themes of such episodes as "Amok Time", "Metamorphosis," "Elaan of Troyius" and "The Empath". These episodes deal more with human sensuality than with sex, and range from the agonizing, logic-ripping sex drive of the Vulcan pon farr in "Amok Time" to the gentle, very feminine and healing tenderness of Gem in "The Empath". We're not talking about sex here any more than we're talking about sex when describing the shape of the Enterprise... we are talking about that aspect of sensuality that exists in a given episode and which might be speaking directly to our subconscious. Its only relation to sex is as a catalyst that touches or even awakens the deepest, most powerful areas of the human subconscious. Such episodes use sensuality to draw attention to the story and its message -- nothing more. A story like "Amok Time" cuts through the barriers of sexual/emotional taboos by presenting us with a being who is not human and whose sex drive need not be embarrassing to us for that reason. It's damned interesting, but not threatening. So considered, "Amok Time" is probably Star Trek's single most sexually powerful episode, and yet its passionate story is "safe", not an overt threat to a non-Vulcan audience.

2009

This episode, for me, epitomizes what was missing in the Abrams film. Here we see a strikingly different and alien approach to reproduction, but one that shares our deeply held feelings of privacy and intimacy. The specifics are bizarre, but the feelings of sexual shame and taboo are familiar. I was deeply bothered that new!Spock’s Vulcanness is entirely subsumed in his humanness. They gave him an entirely conventional—read: human—sexual relationship. They took away an essential part of what makes him an alien, of what makes him fundamentally different and strange and weird. The point to me was always that those things are okay—friendships transcend that, and we can be close to people who don’t share in our culture or completely understand our rituals. Instead, new!Spock’s alienness is sacrificed on the altar of human hegemony. I’d rather have this Spock any day.

2010

"I don’t find the need to write an entire essay about my feelings toward this episode, as I think I stated them pretty clearly in my review of Season 2. However, I would be remiss in not emphasizing how very important this episode is not just to Spock’s character, but to the other principal characters and how they interact with one another. I love that Spock brings Kirk and McCoy down to Vulcan with him because they’re his friends (his word choice, not mine) despite the criticism he knows he’ll receive for bringing non-Vulcans to his marriage ceremony. I love that his devotion to Kirk, to the Enterprise and her crew is what brings him out of the pon farr trance. I love that Kirk is willing to take the risk of ‘dying’ to ensure that Spock do what needs to be done within the customs of his culture. I love that T’Pring is able to make her own choice as a woman, defying the expectations of the marriage arranged for her."

– graydorians aka. Jenna

2013

The one troublesome factor in this reading for me seems to be T'Pring. Later Star Trek stories dealing with Pon Farr make it clear this is something that happens to all Vulcans equally, but here T'Pring seems unaffected by the mating cycle and her status as the female prize to be fought over, despite her cunning and subversive manipulation of the system, is problematic. Indeed the implication in “Amok Time” is that sexual urges, and according to the episode's internal logic and the reading we've been building, sexuality itself, is something unique to male Vulcans. This gets back to one of the oldest tricks in the patriarchy playboook, the idea all women are by definition passive and asexual, and when this gets written into the concept of breeding seasons, even in real world zoology, unfortunate things happen.

When I worked in Science and Technology Studies and Social Studies of Knowledge, there was a favourite story of mine I used to tell about Gelada Baboons and how this plays out in the scientific community. The society of this particular baboon is organised into reproductive groups, usually involving one male and several females. For a long time, the consensus was that the males held all the power in this structure, and the reproductive groups were described as “harems”. However, this was contested by later groups of scientists (and documented on Chris and Martin Kratt's National Geographic programme Be the Creature in 2003), who observed that what actually happened in these relationships was that the females together govern the group and collectively decide which males to support and allow into their units. Males can challenge other males for seats, but the ultimate decision lies with the females, who make their choices by presenting themselves to him rather than the other way around.

What this proves is that female Geladas are not trophies to be fought over and won by males (as is the language so commonly used in zoology), but rather the males are competing with each other essentially for the privilege of gaining access to an exclusive all-female club, and even then the females are clearly the dominant sexual partners in this arrangement. In other words, what happened in this case was the first group of scientists allowed their patriarchal positionalities to colour the way they describe the Gelada social units, thus missing the unique nuances by which they actually operated. I think a case could be made something similar happened with the creation of Vulcan culture and mating cycles in “Amok Time” and while, as I said, later Star Trek thankfully corrects this, it is something worth noting when we talk about this episode in particular.

As far as I'm concerned the rest of “Amok Time” is basically window dressing for this one elegant statement, but it's a pretty damn beautiful window.

2024

What angle is being used to explore Spock's world, thanks in part to a ton of fan letters? Well, the angle revolves around Spock's hormones of course, because... why not, it's the 1960s, the era of sexual revolution! Wheeee! (No worries, look up some fanfic hand-drawn imagery circa 1972 or so as to what make Vulcans' good parts might look like and wince despite some creativity utilized... yup, fandom was hot to trot back then as well, and it's genuinely amazing what fans of the 70s created, some with actual creativity too!...

...The whole episode really has a tone of maturity that excels, with some honed crafting, and is rarely seen in sci-fi of any sort. That tone and handling alone makes it a 10/10.

...Actually, going back to "the jiggy" aspect, the thoughtfulness, care, and maturity accorded the subject of reproduction is still mind-blowingly mature and impressive. From situational plotting to character moments, this episode I would even deemed "underrated" in terms of strength, and it's incredibly strong.

Fannish Reactions: T'Pring

Arlene Martel spoke of T'Pring as a woman who was intellectually centered, respected herself and considered her decisions logically: "think first and then act upon what you know."

Fan appreciation of T'Pring's actions in the episode is a more recent development. At the time of the episode airing, many fans saw T'Pring in a negative light:

"Fandom at the time mostly wanted Spock for themselves, and didn't entirely appreciate T'Pring choosing otherwise. There was sometimes an awareness that she'd been very Vulcan and Logical and intellectually admirable, but fandom is seldom as objective as it likes to think."

In "What makes a great villain? Part 1: Star Trek’s T’Pring", video blogger Thomas Stockel expresses admiration for T'Pring's extreme intelligence. He notes T'Pring's character and actions as related to the just-beginning Women's Liberation movement (second-wave feminism).

Fannish Reactions: T'Pau

While this episode has a few clear drawbacks from a feminist POV, I greatly appreciate the character of T'Pau, as she is brought to life by Celia Lovsky. I am very glad that Sturgeon included this character, with all the indications of her stature on Vulcan and in the Federation. There’s no need for that character to be female. So Sturgeon gets extra “ahead of his time” points for that. Just consider, if the role of ceremonial presider had been filled by a male–we’d be left with a story where the female characters are coldly manipulative or hopelessly lovelorn, and either way emotionally focused on getting their man. The inclusion of T’Pau makes for a very different overall gender picture.

Never mind age picture. Celia Lovsky's T'Pau remains one of the few elderly women with that much power ever seen in any media. In a television era and a culture and society where the focus was on youth, she had an incredibly resonating presence.

Just how freakin' awesome is T'Pau? I don't mean Kirk and others fawning her excellence. Who we get on screen and how she is presented is never anything less than pure awesome. :luvlove: Even her asking in a rhetorical manner, "Are our ceremonies for outworlders?", just has a level of authority. Plus, the question is only to confirm since there was rare but historical precedent that was generally not allowed but tolerated.

Fannish Reactions: Slash Possibilities

For many slash fans, "Amok Time" was the episode that convinced them that the producers intended viewers to see K/S homosexual encounters as canon. Brittany Diamond's "Analyzation of Amok Time" interprets the nuances of the direction, and the actors' speech, gestures and postures, even camera angles, as an obvious and deliberate portrayal of sexual tension between the two men rather than as Kirk's gradual understanding of Spock's biological imperative to return home. Kirk's wish to help Spock is seen as a "romantic" gesture and the way Shatner speaks the lines "screams inner conflict".

In an interview with Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath for the book Shatner: Where No Man, Leonard Nimoy said:

What I find interesting about this... is that there must have been something that we did in the series that provokes all these questions -- including the erotic questions and the pornographic questions. I understand that there's a whole underground literature of Kirk's and Spock's encounters with all kinds of females. In terms of your questions -- what you saw was what we did. That's the best answer I can give you."

Apart from this, some elements from the plot seem to echo William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Namely, the injection that McCoy uses on Kirk to simulate death is similar to the potion that puts Juliet in a death-like slumber. Spock says he won't neither live long nor prosper, since he killed his Captain. But Kirk wakes up in time, while Romeo kills himself in the play, not knowing soon enough about the subterfuge.

The line "live long and prosper" may have also been taken from this passage (Act 5, scene 3) in the same play: "Live, and be prosperous. and farewell, good fellow."

D.C. Fontana on Canon Slash

In May 2016, D.C. Fontana was asked whether the script for "Amok Time" contained "homosexual double-entendres" and replied as follows:

In answer to your question, NO - there were no homosexual double-entendres in the script - at least none that were deliberate. If some viewers chose to read that into the dialogue, etc. that's their point of view, but certainly not ours. Writer Theodore Sturgeon was trying to reveal Spock's inner human in a struggle with what his culture, his upbringing and his half-human/half-Vulcan heritage had instilled in him about emotion and controlling it in an out-of-control situation. It also was a peek into the Vulcan culture that no one had seen before. That's ALL we were doing. I've heard this nonsense (especially about Kirk/Spock) for years. There is no basis to it. I hope this answer is helpful to you.

In an statement for Inverse, Fontana added: "Some people feel that there’s a romantic connection underlying the relationship between Kirk and Spock. Not true... The producers, writers, directors, and actors played it, or wrote it, or directed it, as a true friendship that was reached through the years and the adventures shared by these characters."

Commenting somewhat tongue in cheek on the plethora of post-Amok Time stories dealing with Kirk struggling with pon farr, Sandy Hereld remarked: "Spock: The whole Amok Time thing - if Spock had only talked to Kirk, he'd've known out there was more to a Vulcan marriage than "I do."

Jennifer Guttridge's The Ring of Soshern, which may be the very first slash story, had to have been inspired by this episode. Privately circulated as early as late 1967, it refers specifically to Pon Farr.

Fannish Reactions: Meta

• W.L. Swarts, Love And Armed Conflict For Spock In "Amok Time," A Perfect Star Trek Episode! Cites excellent writing, first-rate acting by principals and guest cast. "That Nimoy did not win any acting awards for "Amok Time" is a crime against theatrics!"
• In Karla Taylor's "All Vulcan In One Tightly Wrapped Package" she observes that "Amok Time" is a "sly, mordant comment on our own repressed, hedonistic culture". Like M.L. Barnes in her article "The Vulcan Love Myth" (Eridani Triad #3), Taylor argues that the culmination of pon farr is rape, with women as "dutiful, willing participants... pleasure would not be a consideration". She asks what would have happened had Kirk really died. She also explores the idea that pon farr is an allegory of rabies. (1991)
• A Logical Look At Amok Time (2003)
• Kirk and Spock: The Straight Story an essay by Gamin Davis that analyzes, among many other episodes "Amok Time", to argue that Kirk and Spock are not in a sexual or romantic relationship.
• Where No One Had Slashed Before -- an essay by killabeez and posted on Livejournal as a ship manifesto that examines "Amok Time" along with other Star Trek episodes for evidence of a canon slash relationship (2004)
• Amok Time aka The One Where Spock Goes Into Heat, the world’s first Slashiest Episode In History Picspam (2007)
• Amok Time Star Trek Rewatch at Tor.com (2009)
• The Commentary of TOS for KS - Amok Time (2009) In which Ms. Diamond lists a number of episodes D.C. Fontana worked on which are regarded as containing "slash subtext", and concluding that Fontana herself is a "K/S fangirl". See Fontana's comments above.
• Thoughts on Amok Time - an examination of the writings of Theodore Sturgeon (May 19, 2009)
• Amok Time Recap dated December 29, 2009
• ST:TOS Rewatch #29: Amok Time dated November 11, 2011: "pon farr as an example of the annihilating power of compulsory heterosexuality
• Amok Time Rewatch on the Viewscreen: Torie Atkinson and Eugene Myers both give this episode a Warp 6, their highest rating. Eugene says "There are so many excellent things going on in this episode, I hardly know where to begin."

Fanworks

The episode inspired countless fanworks, many taking place after the episode and dealing with the consequences of Kirk's near death and Spock's rejection of his arranged marriage.

Some examples:

Parodies:

• "A-VOCK TIME or PON-FARR FOR FUN AND PROFIT" by Lyn Veryzer, a early parody in script form using the trope of changing character's names to irreverent ones; it stars Captain Quirk, Dr. McCloy, Nurse Scrappel, High Priestess T'Wow, Ting-a-Ling, Stoned, and Science Officer Schmock

Fan Fic:

• Bonds of Love and Hate by Lady Ra in Beyond Dreams #7 (An unusual look at Amok Time. It seems that Spock has bonded with T'Pring and there's been no challenge or fight between Jim and Spock.)
• The Other Man by Dee Beetem in Masiform D #13 (Amok Time from T'Pring's point of view)
• "Amok Time Revisited," by Mary Smith in Galactic Discourse #3, (a look at Spock's Pon Farr as it might have happened if T'Pring had not called for the challenge.)
• "Time before and Time After" by Marianne Hornlien in Mahko Root #1 (according to one reviewer, "a sensitive pre and post-Amok Time story -- sex may be good, but love is better.")
• A Handful of Dust by Dovya Blacque in Daring Attempt #3: ("The author presents a Kirk who is, not very comfortable with the side of Spock he saw on Vulcan, in fact, he's scared to death of his first officer. The results of this fear and how Kirk and Spock come to terms with their new views of one another, and of themselves...")
• The Road Not Taken by Cheree Cargill in Vulcan Sands...Terran Skies # 2 ("An alternate look at the events following "Amok Time." Spock decides to claim what is rightfully his — T'Pring — and brings her back to the Enterprise as his chattel.")
• Rabble Rouser, Sympathy for the Devil. Nov. 13, 2021. The events of "Amok Time" from T'Pring's perspective, showing the reasons behind her choice, and why the secrecy surrounding pon farr must end.archive link
• What a Day for a Daydream by Ariadne in First Time #56 ("Set right after “Amok Time”, this story shifts POV’s between Kirk and Spock as they daydream about each other.")

Vids:

• Closer (Star Trek vid) (based on the episode that asks "What if they hadn't made it to Vulcan in time?")
• Wild Thing (a Kirk/Spock vid from the VR era which left one viewer commenting: "Who would have thought that if you slow down the fight scene from Amok Time and run it backward, you’d actually see the guys thrusting up against each other?")
• An alternate 'Amok Time' Trailer by BrTutty (An AU: "Instead of Spock beaming down to Vulcan, battling Kirk, overcoming his Pon Farr, etc, the Enterprise is unable to temporarily change course to Vulcan. After days of riveting impulses rattling his mind and body, Spock succumbs to his urges and asks of Kirk to act as a temporary manner of relief.") (2012)

Filk:

• Song of the Unwilling Bride by Leslie Fish published in Thrust (One reviewer commented: "...this one should not be missed. It's not the poetry that makes this so compelling, but the story. It is a first person narrative of T'Pring during the ceremony in "Amok Time." It is a wonderful portrait of this character and the reasons for her actions.")

Misc:

• The Amok Time Drinking Game (2013)

Art:

• 

  cover of Enterprise Incidents #1 by Steve Fabian - Spock, gripped by pon farr madness prepares to do battle with Captain Kirk.

• 

  from As I Do Thee #5 by Maureen B. - A pon farr altercation on Vulcan

• 

  inside page from Only Trek #2, by Barbara P. Gordon, showing Spock and Kirk battling, illustration for the story "After Amok Time"

• 

  cover of T-Negative #2, by Tim Courtney (1969), T'Pring as she issues the challenge

• 

  back cover of Plak Tow #6 which shows Spock giving a Vulcan salute. The salute appeared for the first time in the episode

• 

  T'Pau on the front cover of Spectrum #4, by Merrie K.

• 

  The AhnWoon, by Gwenaïlle shows Captain Kirk and Mr Spock kissing during the battle, something that many slash fans imagine as headcanon

• 

  fans will also use carefully selected screengrabs of the Amok Time fight scenes to demonstrate their belief in K/S. Many fans have commented how their wrestling on the ground can look like vigorous foreplay. Screencap Artist: unknown

• 

  a comic style panel that offers three character's reactions to slash fandom's headcanon of Captain Kirk and Mr Spock kissing while fighting. McCoy: "Oh COME On, guys! At least wait until we're back on the ship." T'Pring: "Am I divorced yet?" T'Pau: "Shhh...just let it happen." Art by natnattos. This is a cropped version, the entire comic panel can be seen here.

• 

  fans often have a deep emotional connection to the scene where Spock ends his pon farr, believing he has killed Captain Kirk. This one reads: "Time stops...and a beautiful human teaches me, all we are is not just dust in the wind." Artist: donapeppa

• 

  The same death scene done in chibi style. One reviewer (MidnightTopaz) commented: "The small details make this even better, like the way Kirk's shirt is riding up as he's lowered to the ground. And I *like* the way you drew Spock! He looks good and angsty and tear-filled, like he's about to start sobbing any minute- which, we all know he's feeling inside." Artist: TreeofKnowledge

• 

  Another popular slash fan moment: a screencap of Spock's reaction when he realizes that he has not killed his Captain. The screencap appeared on bigmamag's tumblr in 2012 with the following quote: ""Just reminding the world that James T. Kirk is the only person who has made Spock smile without being drugged or controlled by some omnipotent being"

Additional Reading

• Marc Cushman, Excerpt from "The Writing of 'Amok Time'" from These Are The Voyages, Vol. 2.
• Darren, Star Trek - Amok Time (Review) at The Movie Blog, 2014-12-05. Detailed analysis of the episode from an outsider. Among other things, briefly analyzes why fans began fantasizing about Kirk and Spock as homosexual lovers.
• Amok Time wiki entry at Memory Alpha
• Legality Issues in Amok Time, TrekBBS forum thread dated Jan 5, 2009
• The Amok Time Opera by Steven Clark. Performers stand in front of a projection of the TV show and sing, synchronized to the dialogue. Original music mixed with the soundtrack. The six part opera can be seen here (YouTube link).