Birthright (Star Trek: TOS story)

Fanfiction
Title:	Birthright
Author(s):	Mildred Manhill
Date(s):	1993
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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Birthright is a Kirk/Spock story by Mildred Manhill.

It was published in the print zine Counterpoint #9.

Summary

"Kirk and Spock decide to have a child by genetic engineering when they are assigned to Vulcan after the second 5 year mission."

Reactions and Reviews

1993

This is a 46-page alternate universe story where it's possible to create a baby from two males. This is the story of the creation of Spock and Kirk's son. It goes from planning stage to a christening reception which is marred by Winona Kirk. The story abounds with details and background information. It's fairly realistic. McCoy is a big part of this family, so McCoy fans will enjoy this story.

The serpent in the Eden is Winona. She is prejudiced and perhaps mentally unbalanced. Soaehow I never felt she fit in well with the story. Maybe this was intentionally done? She didn't come across as "real" the way the other characters did. Maybe this is my problem in that I don't want to accept her?

I recommend this story. It's very detailed (we even know the color of the napkins at the reception), but it's never boring.

The prologue to this story is Spock's birth and also Kirk as a baby. Than, Kirk and Spock have a son. Nice...

Kirk, Spock and McCoy live on Vulcan. Male-mate genetic procedure (well done techno-detail) is not approved by many. Kirk's mother is quite loony, vary prejudiced; doesn't know about her son's relationship with a man, with an alien man yet, let alone that they would dare have a child. Everyone attends the naming ceremony. Winona Kirk is a total bitch. Amanda and T'Vass talk to her; as if they could change a lifetime of bigotry with a few logical words. It does seem Kirk is too well adjusted to have grown up with a mother like that; I can't accept that character.

Vulcans have cultural restriction against masturbation? The scene of Kirk talking Spock through masturbating is a lovely idea but in this case not quite erotic. Sex decently explicit, but not transcendent, not very satisfying to me.

Some conversation is stilted. Having Kirk and Spock say things for the reader's benefit doesn't work well. These are things they know so well they simply would not say to each other In words. Would be better to just give us this background information in narrative.

A casual, odd POV. In narrative, one cannot say "you" unless identifying the teller of the story as "I." (I'm sure there is proper terminology for POV rules, but I don't know it.)

Lots of nice domestic detail. Baby boy born; McCoy lives with them in big newly-built house. I love the idea of Spock fixing up T'Vass and McCoy and that they would all live together.

How could Mrs. Kirk have raised James to be the man he was and be so biased? It would have been better to have her simply afraid of genetic engineering because of the eugenics wars. Then her acceptance would have been believable.

That glitch was the only off note of the story. This was well written and the characters sounded true throughout.

After reading this story, I was so happy for our three guys! I often thought 'What would they do after their time on the Enterprise?' This is a beautiful answer! I enjoyed reading it very much.

"Birthright" is a long short story that answers the question "What would happen if Kirk and Spock could have a child together, and decided to do so?"

There is a lot about this story to like. The premise, in my opinion,is a very challenging one, and I applaud the courage and obvious effort that went into this work. The various sections of the story flow smoothly, and each scene is nicely realized. The reader is never left wondering what is realty going on.

But it is that same clarity that prevents this story from being anything more than a simple, pleasurable reading experience that begs for a suspension of belief. And it is the complexity of the subject chosen for the story that begs for a much more serious approach than "Birthright" provides.

Basically, I think "Birthright" fails to deliver on its promise to the reader because of two problems: oversimplification and exaggeration. This story could have been much, much more than a pleasant, easily-forgotten read if a little more attention had been paid to emotional nuances and characterization.

This story raises serous questions. The author introduces four important issues: 1) radical changes in life-style (after a bonding of many years standing, Kirk and Spock must first make the decision of whether or not to have a child, and then live through the long months white the child is gestated in a lab), 2) deception within a marriage (although they've been bonded for many years, Kirk has never told Spock of his mother's prejudices, or of her mental condition), 3) bigotry (Kirk's mother is incredibly prejudiced not only against his child but against his bondmate), and 4) the problem of how a child is going to be integrated into Kirk and Spock's existing relationship.

All of these are marvelous, real issues that deserve careful examination and could have ted to a though-provoking, serious story. But "Birthright" refuses to take itself seriously. In every instance, each one of these major life problems in answered in a "pat" way. The story always takes the easy way out, robbing the reader of conflict that would pull her through the story and cheating our characters of any character development.

For example, Kirk is initially dubious of parenthood with Spock. He says, "I'm not at all sure that I could share your love." And yet, not three pages later, after only one week of silent contemplation, when he doesnt speak with Spock on the subject at all, he declares "We're going to have a baby."

This story could have been much richer if a real examination of Kirk's thoughts on the subject had been provided. But there are no doubts, no second thoughts, and no time during the months that follow does he look at Spock and wonder if they've done the right thing, at no time after the child is born does he experience a flare of jealousy because of the attention that has been transferred from himself to the baby. Anyone who has ever had a child knows how real any of these reactions would be, and yet Kirk is robbed of them. Instead, we are treated to a fairy tale, and an extremely brief resolution ofa conflict that wasn't a conflict at all. The author has failed to give us a glimpse of Kirk as a real person; we are treated to an over-simplified cut-out instead.

Other serious issues are treated in the same way. Spock is incredibly understanding of the situation with Kirk's mother, both men become instant and wonderful, accomplished fathers who know exactly how to deal with their new son, and Winona Kirk's rampant xenophobia is blunted by one one! conversation with Amanda and a Vulcan woman.

The worst case of oversimplification occurs within the character of McCoy. "Birthright" robs the physician of his individuality, never allows his own complexity to emerge, and makes him an extension of Kirk and Spock and their relationship in a subtly emasculating way. Consider the following examples:

1. McCoy does not live on Vulcan in his own quarters, but is provided with space in the mansion Kirk and Spock are building for themselves.

2. Kirk plots to marry Bones off to a Vulcan woman, thus making another human/Vulcan pairing that would mimic his own.

3. After Khan killed Spock, its seems Kirk went into a depression and sold all the antiques he'd spent years collecting. McCoy bought them all and hid them away in storage to be brought out at just the right moment. "He'd had to borrow the money to do it, and the loan payments nearly bankrupted him."

4. McCoy conveniently forgets his own birthday, and is surprised to realize that his friends have picked that day for their baby to be born to honor him.

By exaggerating McCoy's actions (who forgets his own birthday? who would nearly bankrupt himself for a grieving friend and then hide the objects he bought foryears?), and by consequently over-simplifying McCoy's character, the author robs the physician of validity. He becomes simply another worshipper at Kirk's altar. McCoy is bigger than that, and I think he deserves much more than "Birthright" gives him.

The story suffers from a few technical problems. The dialogue is frequently stilted, with few pointers to help the reader determine emotional state or inner thoughts. The long section on pages 34 and 35 where Kirk explains, for the first time, to Spock and McCoy about his mother's attitudes towards non-humans desperately cries out to be integrated into the flow and plot of the story, as does Winona's own lecture on page 64. These are revelations that should have each been handled with their own separate scene, so that the reader is pulled into the action of the story instead of being pulled out of it by being lectured to by a character.

One possibility would have been a flashback while Kirk is trying to make up his mind about having a child; his own upbringing with an unbalanced mother and his mother's reaction to a mixed race grandchild could certainly have been factors a mature, sophisticated Kirk would consider while resolving his doubts. Wouldn't it have been neat to have gotten into the mind of ten-year-old Jimmy Kirk, get to see big brother Sam through his eyes, and then see their bigoted mother through the eyes of an impressionable child? A scene like that would have added tremendous flavor, would have made both Kirk and his mother seem much more "real,' and would have smoothed the entrance of Winona into the story later. This would have been "showing" instead of "telling", which unfortunately is what happens instead.

ft is entirely possible to enjoy this story in a very surface level, suspend your belief in a complete, mature outlook for the characters, accept the simple approach and go with the flow. But I couldn't do that, mainly because of what I perceive as a mismatch between the subject matter and the style with which it was presented. There were the seeds of a truly thoughtful, serious work by a talented writer in "Birthright." and I got very frustrated when those seeds fell on bare rock. I never got to see beyond the shells of Kirk, Spock and McCoy, and I have the feeling that this author, given the right story, is perfectly capable of revealing the real people beneath the fairy tale facades. I hope to see that sort of story in the future from Mildred Manhill.