Demon in My View

Fanfiction
Title:	Demon in My View
Author(s):	T'Hera
Date(s):	1998
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
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Demon in My View is a Kirk/Spock story by T'Hera.

It was published in the print zine KaleidoScope #8.

Summary

"While on shoreleave in Scotland, Kirk and Spock end up 500 years in the past."

Reactions and Reviews

Kirk and Spock go with Scotty to his Scottish Highlands' cottage and accidentally travel back in time to the 18th century. They meet with a band of rebels and get taken prisoner by an evil time-traveler who had ensconced himself in that time period as captain of the military, I really like this scenario—the evil time-traveler is such a cool idea—but I would have liked it if this character was developed more. But anyway, the time-traveler, Wentworth. takes a perverted fancy to Spock and rapes and tortures him. Kirk and Spock eventually escape and go to McCoy's home in Georgia. Spock is still dealing with the aftermath of his terrible experience. He and Kirk talk a lot about what occurred. It might have been more effective to have shown the events when they happened instead of having Spock recount it later, except the story was told in Kirk's first person POV which was very limiting, Kirk sees that Spock can't get over it, so with the advice of McCoy and some opium-like drug. Kirk acts out the part of Wentworth and has Spock "rape" him. I don't totally understand how this was supposed to help Spock. but the next morning they talk and Spock tells Kirk he must go to Vulcan to achieve Kolinhar. They say good-bye and Kirk knows they'll meet again. The title comes from a neat Edgar Allan Poe poem. I thought the characters and setting of Scotland in the past was really well portrayed and very atmospheric. And evil time-travelers are one of my favorite things.

Sorry but I don't like this story! It is not that it's badly written, in fact I rather like the first person style, (though it gets lost in places and is dropped at the end), but the plot is just not my thing. Ok, so I guess that I'm bias since I simply don't like rape stories, but even that is not what bothers me about this story.

The problem I have with this is McCoy's idea for a cure and the fact that Kirk actually goes through with it. Surely McCoy would not think that this was a sensible 'cure' for rape victims? Though I guess that feeling anger towards one's attacker is better than feeling guilty, I don't wholly believe that getting one's lover to re-enact the rape is the best way of bringing this about. In fact I feel that it is positively cruel of both Jim and McCoy to do this to Spock. Not only that, but Kirk's motivations for doing it were just not strong enough and it therefor seemed as if the whole story was an excuse to write that scene.

However I know that those are just my personal aesthetics, and there are moments that I do like in this story. I like the early descriptions of Spock with Kirk, where Spock is likened to a Deer. And I like the eventual ending.