Blame It on the Computer

Fanfiction
Title:	Blame It on the Computer
Author(s):	Jimmi Folger
Date(s):	2006
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
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Blame It on the Computer is a Kirk/Spock story by Jimmi Folger.

It was published in the print zine First Time #60.

Summary

"Too often trouble on the Enterprise seems to have a computer at its core."

Reactions and Reviews

This is another story which is full of good ideas. I have always wanted to hear the briefing after the Galileo 7 and I like the version this writer gave. She (I assume, its not someone I know) handled Spock’s discomfort at being under Kirks somewhat critical scrutiny well. ‘Spock swallowed, licked his dry lips and straightened his slumping posture’ is an very vivid and descriptive image which I think does a lovely job of telling the reader a lot in just a few words. Dialogue here on the whole seems good, at times very good, I can ‘hear’ these characters voices and for the most part it’s just like Kirk and Spock. This story has so many good points I am hard put to say why it didn’t quite work for me. But in the spirit of offering genuinely constructive criticism I’ll try. I think it might be because the different parts of the story don’t quite hang together? We start with the Galileo 7 mission and I became quite involved in that plot with Ferris et al, but then we are taken on to several more missions in ever less detail I found it hard to ‘jump’ from place to place – each time I got involved in that small internal story arc, I was taken somewhere else. I think there are too many separate mini subplots – the ‘blame it on the computer’ theme, the Ferris plot, the smoke inhalation idea, the Spock cutting his finger idea, the promised kisses idea – so many ideas that no single one of them stands out to unify the story and each could have been made into something stronger on its own. I kind of wished the story had stayed with its original Galileo 7 time line, though I can see that the author wanted to show the relationship developing over time, perhaps if the same ideas had been used as a linking thread rather than new ideas for each new section it might have built more power?? However lots of nice images in the final scenes – Spock’s Alien finger prints, a small detail but a neat one! And Spock’s words slightly unsure of his ability to please Jim... nice, well I will always like a slightly unsure Spock!