Executive Privilege

Star Trek TOS Fanfiction
Title:	Executive Privilege
Author(s):	Mary Lee Caisco and Lois Welling
Date(s):	1980
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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Excectutive Privilege is a gen Star Trek: TOS story by Mary Lee Cascio and Lois Welling.

It was the winner of a 1980 Fan Q Award.

The story was printed in Rigel #4/5/6 (with Alice Jones as the illustrator) and reprinted in Archives #7 (with Suzan Lovett as the illustrator).

Summary

"A plot to oust Kirk and Spock from the fleet sends them to months of duty to the outer rim worlds."

Sample Gallery: Alice Jones

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  Alice Jones, art from "Rigel" #4/5/6

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  art from issue #4/5/6, Alice Jones

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  art from issue #4/5/6, Alice Jones

Sample Gallery: Suzan Lovett

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  inside "Archives" #7, Suzan Lovett

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  inside "Archives" #7, Suzan Lovett

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  inside "Archives" #7, Suzan Lovett

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  inside "Archives" #7, Suzan Lovett

Reactions and Reviews

1979

Several of the stories match their illos' quality. 'Executive Privilege' is a craft-worthy spy spic starring Kirk and Spock, with overtones of J. Vance's The Rack, and the AU4 series.

2002

...there's corruption in Starfleet and the corrupt individuals conspire to get Kirk and Spock out of their way (K&S have begun to uncover some of the scheming, apparently) initially by sowing the rumor that K & S are lovers. Now, I don't really see what the author(s) were achieving by putting that last bit in -- other than a soapbox for their anti-K/S sentiments -- but in the story, the assumption people make in shunning Kirk & Spock is that because they're lovers, Spock has a personal loyalty to *Kirk* alone when his loyalty should be to the Fleet and his duty. So they're not being team players; they're running their own little fiefdom out in space.

Many of the crew of the Enterprise apparently also feel this way about Kirk, so the Admiralty starts transferring them off the ship by the dozens. (I note that none of the males in that group is accused of being Kirk's homosexual lover--therefore the authors' argument on that score makes no sense.)

[snipped]

There's a difference between homophobia and an anti-K/S position! David Gerrold, who is gay, definitely had an anti-K/S position, for example (I have no idea whether he still does). In reading this story, I got the impression that the authors were anti-K/S -- in the sense that they didn't believe in such a relationship between these characters, and they wanted to make that position extremely clear. I got that impression because the story itself doesn't offer enough justification for even mentioning the "homosexual rumors" angle. It's a piece that doesn't fit into the puzzle.

I could write a non-K/S story, and make the point if necessary, and for purposes integral to that story, that K&S aren't lovers, but I'd never try to head readers off at the pass and *prevent* them from seeing K/S in my characters by ridiculing -- having the characters themselves ridicule! -- the idea. (And I wouldn't bring the idea up at all--in a genzine, no less! -- if it wasn't important to the story.)

But these authors did just that. They have Kirk finding out about the rumor that he and Spock are lovers and breaking into astonished laughter. "He has lousy legs...they're all hairy," is one of the things Kirk says. Then he realizes that the rumor could have serious consequences for him and Spock, and he goes to confer with Spock on the subject at a very early hour of the morning. He wakes Spock up and Spock opens his door (they're in a Starbase hotel) dressed in his uniform pants and nothing else. Um, this is the action of a man seriously worried about those rumors? And there's a *gorgeous* Alice Jones illo on the facing page of the bare-chested Spock and the fully dressed Kirk--this doesn't help convince me of the authors' position, BTW <G> . If it's a nonissue...it should be a nonissue. Of course, I'm certainly grateful for the terrific art!

I think Judith's right. The corruption-in-Starfleet idea isn't handled well at all. It's a pretty thin premise, and the authors didn't make a good case for it. It's completely unconvincing that corruption could run that deep without a lot of people noticing. It doesn't help that the authors present Kirk's and Spock's discovery of the corruption as an afterthought, not in a scene but in a bit of after-the-fact exposition, a "by the way." So the whole thing really needed to be rethought.

But the anti-K/S position seems very clear to me. If the authors didn't really feel that way, why would they mention it at all; it doesn't affect the story that much, and it wasn't necessary in order to make the plot move along. And why would they have Kirk *ridicule* the idea in the way he did: "How could anyone possibly think I'd be attracted to you, or you to me?" he says to the half-naked Spock in the hotel doorway.... (Um, gee, I don't know....)