Dragon-Meld

Fanfiction
Title:	Dragon-Meld
Author(s):	Matthew James and Elizabeth Leicester
Date(s):	1986
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:	Side by Side Collection on AO3
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Dragon-Meld is a K/S story by Matthew James and Elizabeth Leicester.

It was published in the print zine Daring Attempt #4 and subsequently online in Side by Side #19.

Reactions and Reviews

1986

"Dragon-Meld" is objectionable to me because it presents Kirk as stupid and uninsightful. Apparently, McCoy has the brains and sensitivity for both of them in this story. Why would Kirk order phasers on kill when he knew that Spock had been in a meld with the creature? It doesn' t take much to deduce that this would be dangerous to Spock. I also object to evil destructive dragons who aren't properly motivated on principle. And why is it that McCoy has to figure out that Spock needs a Vulcan healer? I would think that it's obvious that human medical techniques probably wouldn't be effective in dealing with a condition caused by a mind meld that went awry. You' re saying that Kirk didn't know this. How come? Is he mentally incapacitated in some way? I don't think that Kirk is that slow on the uptake. He knows what a meld is and that Spock was in one with this dragon. I mean let's get real now. The Vulcan Stacon and the temple to which he is attatched are interesting. The temple acolytes are called Barzeti. What does this mean? Why couldn't the authors show more of what the temple stands for? It would have been fascinating if we could have seen the process by which Spock is healed. Sigh. This is a story that doesn't develop the elements in it that have "the most potential.

DRAGON MELD by Matthew James and Elizabeth Leicester: a story of an alien mind meld that leaves Spock cut off from his bond with Kirk. A good idea, but much too quickly done, and should have been expanded.

DRAGON MELD by Matthew James and Elizabeth Leicester really found the right zine. This is a bizzare, at times hard, at times gentle, difficult story of Spock's reaction to a meld with an unscrupulous, brutal creature which he encounters while on a landing party. It is perhaps a measure of the authors' ability that so many diverse emotions were invoked in me while I read this story.

1992

"Dragon-Meld," by Matthew Janes and Elizabeth Leicester, was refreshing in that it had some action/adventure flavor to it. There is a flaw in that McCoy takes a mentally-injured Spock to a Vulcan healer-friend of his, and it is not very well explained how McCoy and the healer became such good friends in the past. Otherwise, the story is enjoyable.

1999

Expecting a some lighthearted Berengaria encounter with “Puff the Magic Dragon”, imagine my surprise and shock when this particular beast turns incredibly deadly while Spock is attempting to meld with it. Several of the landing party are either incinerated or eaten alive by the dinosaur-sized creature and Spock is left almost catatonic.

The terrible truth is learned back in sickbay. Spock has observed the killings through the eyes of the killer. He has seen himself brutally dismember a living being, a fellow crew member. He has seen himself lash out with fiery breath to burn the skin from the other victims.

Being the sensitive soul we all know him to be, Spock cannot handle this trauma alone. What does not work for me is that he is sent to a renegade Vulcan healer by McCoy and the move is readily agreed to by his bondmate. It would have been so much more effective to have witnessed the healing power of Kirk’s love for his mate that to have left him to the hands of strangers. This method left the reader with no involvement in Spock’s recovery and with an unfinished feeling to the story.