From Whatever Distant Hill

Star Trek TOS Fanfiction
Title:	From Whatever Distant Hill
Author(s):	Judith Brownlee
Date(s):	1971
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

From Whatever Distant Hill is a 1971 Star Trek: TOS story by Judith Brownlee.

It was printed in Eridani Triad #2.

This story was mentioned in Star Trek Lives!.

Part of a Series

• To Seek Thee Out (The Enterprise takes on the newly-appointed Vulcan captain T'Pelle to assume command of the starship Saratoga, which has been damaged in an alien attack. T'Pelle and Spock decide that they are suitable mates for each other, and their matrimonial bonding is described. (Eridani Triad #1, 1970)
• From Whatever Distant Hill (Another story of T'Pelle, Vulcan captain of the Saratoga and Spock's bondmate, takes place six months after previous story.) (Eridani Triad #2, 1971).

Birthplace of a Term

This story is very likely the birthplace of the fanon word: bond-mate.

In an October 1971 letter to another fan, Brownlee wrote:

I got a loc on ET II which complemented me on inventing the word "bond-mate". Well, now, I am not aware that I invented it. Gail and Dee say that we just started using it one day in our conversations. I know that I did not use it in my second draft of "From Whatever Distant Hill," because I added it when I typed the stencil for ET II. I'm still not sure we didn't pick it up from somebody else. You come up with things that fit so well into your conceptions and you adopt them until they seem like rock-bound fact.

Fan Comments

Unknown Date:

Vulcan captain of the Saratoga and Spock's bondmate. I couldn't work up enough interest to read this one, but she ends up in deep doo-doo on a planet and is saved by holding her IDIC and sending a telepathic message to Spock, who - rather illogically - commits a court-martial offense to send aid, rather than just telling the Captain what was going on. He figures it out; no court-martial needed.

1986

Featured [in this zine] are T'Pelle, Sarek, Amanda, Tribbes, and Soap Opera!! In retrospect, these early zine stories show a great deal of depth to the character, with few overtones of hero worship which feature in later zine stories. I liked T'Pelle; in her Spock has chosen well but does he keep her? Do future stories culminate in marriage? I don't know, not having read later issues, but I hope so.

[...]

Sarek and Amanda and early misunderstandings in the circumstances depicted here are resolved amicably. But why wait so long - T'lan should stay out but her maternal concern won. These are Very Enjoyable stories, quite relaxing highly recommended for Trek zine historians - for the quality of the early writings.