Boy Scout

Zine
Title:	Boy Scout
Publisher:	Orion Press
Editor:	Randall Landers
Author(s):	Ann Zewen
Cover Artist(s):	Zaquia Tarhuntassa
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	1997
Series?:	no
Medium:	print zine, online
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
Language:	English
External Links:	online here
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Boy Scout is a gen or het Star Trek: TOS novel by Ann Zewen.

It was reprinted in Orion Archives: 2229-2265 The Beginnings 1.

Summary

Fom the online version:

After the events on the Shenandoah, James T. Kirk has returned to Carol Marcus with one goal in mind: he wants to get to know his son. He's considering leaving Starfleet altogether, and wants to pick up the pieces of their relationship if Carol will let him.

Author's Notes

Readers often ask writers where they get ideas for stories. Many writers simply shrug and say they really don't know. But, personally, I suspect they’re not being entirely truthful. Either they don't want to let the secret of their creativity out of the bag, or they just don't want to admit the utter simplicity of the inspiration of much of their work. Well, I can’t speak for all writers; but for me, most stories grow out of a sentence or even a sentence fragment. It might be the line from a song, or a sound-bite on the evening news or a bit of dialogue from a television show or a movie.

As for Boy Scout, if you haven't already guessed what inspired this novella, just take a look at the next page. (No peeking yet; first you have to finish reading this note.) I suspect you won't have to look, though, as most true Classic Trek fans will be able to deduce its genesis (pun entirely intended) from the title.

Beyond that bit of dialogue, however, the novella was yet another attempt on my part to explore the character of Jim Kirk and to fill in one of the few remaining chronological holes in the Orion Universe. Originally, it was supposed to be just a short story, about thirty pages long, intended for publication in Antares 1. But, like Topsy, it just grew .. . and grew and grew and . ..

Well, you get the picture. Randy decided that Boy Scout was both long enough and interesting enough to publish as a separate novella. After a little thought, I decided to yield to his ... er, wisdom? Well, at least his long experience of editing, publishing and writing for fanzines. (Do you realize that it's been almost twenty years now, Randy?)

Anyway, I hope you'll agree with him and find Boy Scout as much fun to read as I did to write. For it was fun. I promise. Scout’s honor.

This one's for you, Randy.

Reactions and Reviews

Nice job on the background of Kirk & Carol Marcus. After a disastrous tour on the Pegasus, in which Lt. Commander Kirk became a hero by getting everyone home after the entire bridge crew was wiped out, Kirk is being pushed into early promotion and captaincy of the Enterprise. He wavers, wanting to take a ground assignment to have Carol and David back in his life, and slowly wins over David. Things go awry when Kirk accompanies David on an introductory boy-scout camping trip that goes all wrong. Though he's the hero again, and discovers that command comes naturally to him, Carol is unwilling to ever face that kind of worry again. Very nice set-up for the movies.

Just read Ann Zewen's Boy Scout story. I really liked it. It had me wanting Kirk to work things out with Carol and be with her and their son, even though I knew something had to happen so that he would go off and command the Enterprise. I especially liked it in the Beginnings section, right after Randy Landers' "The Spider's Lair" so that I knew what had happened on the Shenandoah.

Carol Marcus certainly comes off the bad guy here. Very self-centered, overly protective to the point of smothering. Interesting that you have her using proto-matter in her equations to get the grants years before David actually employs it. I keep wondering why Kirk never took her to court to get visitation rights, but then this is how The Powers That Be set it up, with David never knowing Jim Kirk is his father until Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.

One of my "picky buts" (this is picky, but...) is that I was quite surprised to see that the group of campers were so upset by the rain and hadn't brought tents. I was always taught that anytime you go camping in the mountains you plan for rain. In fact in the Rockies in the summer, it's a given that it rains every afternoon! I've hiked a lot in rain over the years and I've never encountered a trail that became all that muddy and treacherous that quickly. I know you do say it is raining really hard, and you do need a crisis at that point...  :-)

But anyway, really enjoyed the story!

I would like to comment on Ann Zewen's excellent novella Boy Scout, and if you could pass my comments on to Ann, I would be most grateful. Ann's writing has been a favorite of mine for a long time, and I think she is truly a wonderful writer as well as a skilled editor. My favorite elements of Boy Scout have to do with the overall tone of the novella and how well Ann captures the tone of the relationship between Kirk and Carol. The dialogue is perfect, sounding to my ears just as it would really be spoken between them. I forgot I was reading a story (the highest praise I can think of for a writer) and felt as if I was watching everything unfold before me. I loved the scenes showing David's growing trust of Kirk. And, I loved the careful coming together of Carol and Jim as they explored whether their youthful love was still strong enough to carry though ten years later. I loved Carol's cooking scenes in the novella, and the remembrance of her "cooking" in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. These small bits are what really make fan fiction special, and this novella in particular ring true to me. Carol's fears for Jim, and down the line someday for David rang true to me too, I think they would ring true for any mother who loves her child and wants the best for him, whether it is possible, logical, or not. As parents we want that safe world, safe situation, the best of all possible scenarios for our children. Carol takes this to an extreme partly because of her need to be in control. The scenes in the novella involving Carol and her work make this really clear. In Star Trek: The Search for Spock, Saavik chides David for his use of protomatter in creating Genesis, and the movie intends this scene to be an indicator of how David is like Jim Kirk, but I always felt that scene rang false, and was more of an indicator of the relationship between David and his mother. Ann's scenes in the novella involving Carol with using protomatter make more sense to me. Bravo! I really thought that Carol's passionate need for Jim, her desire to "absorb his entire being into herself" before she parts from him for the final time, was a sensitive and accurate observation of human nature that is familiar to any woman who has loved someone to distraction, but knows in her deepest heart, that it will not work. Bravo Ann, you are right on, and this honesty in your writing makes the novel true and compelling, making the reader turn the page even though anyone who loves TOS knows the final outcome for Jim, Carol and David. The only thing in this novella that did not ring true for me was the character of Dick Sylvan, who seemed too obviously incompetent to be leading any group of children and adults doing anything. This character was too much of a set up for Jim Kirk to once again save the world, or in this case, the scouts! However, as a character study of Carol Marcus and Jim Kirk, Boy Scout was very well done, and a great read. This novel can't be beat--and I thank you so much Ann for writing it, and all the writing and editing you have done for Orion Press! I remain a very loyal fan of your work, who only needs to see your name on the cover to know I will want to read what's inside!!