Heart Treks
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Heart Treks |
| Publisher: | JM Lane |
| Editor(s): | |
| Date(s): | 1993-2000 |
| Series?: | |
| Medium: | fanzine, print |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | JM Lane's Zine Site (offline) & Trek Tales |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Heart Treks is a gen and het Star Trek: TOS anthology.
"Author's Note: These stories are set in a parallel universe very similar to the real Trek universe where Spock is more open with his feelings - at least in privacy. Publicly he is all Vulcan."
The art is by Gamin Davis (mainly), JM Lane, and D.M. Anderson (Lane's nephew). The fiction is by JM Lane.
Issue 1
Heart Treks 1 was published in 1993 and contains 171 pages.
The cover is by Gamin Davis; written and illustrated by JM Lane and D.M. Anderson.
The stories delve into the feelings of love and friendship between Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Christine Chapel & Uhura.
- Historic Occasions ("A 4-part novella of love & friendship.")
- First Love, Last Love ("Spock marries, but loses Christine to death shortly after a daughter is born to them.")
- Christine Nightingale ("Christine journeys to the 19th century via the Guardian to research her family background.")
- The Party ("The Enterprise crew holds a Halloween party to mark the holiday, where everyone comes in costume. Three guesses how Christine Chapel will be dressed!")
Issue 2
Heart Treks 2 was published in 1994 and contains 250 pages.
It is another collection of stories centering on the love and friendship between Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Chapel and Uhura.
- The Right Decision ("A novella featuring an alternate ending to "For the World is Hollow" in which McCoy decides to remain on Yonada.")
- That's a Switch ("A gender switch involving Spock and Christine.")
- Love at First Sight ("The first meeting between Spock and Christine after she joins the crew.")
- A Dream Shattered, A Dream Fulfilled ("Alternate version of "First Love, Last Love" where Spock shows up at Christine's door shortly after the death of his pregnant young wife.")
- Outside Help ("Superman comes to the 23rd century on a time-travel mission and encounters the Enterprise.")
Issue 3
Heart Treks 3 was published in 1995 and contains 180 pages.
- Good of the Many ("A sequel to the second and third films, a novella which begins shortly before Spock's death and ends shortly before the events of "The Voyage Home". It features the reaction of the Vulcan's friends and shipmates to his selfless actions and how they deal with their grief at his passing, then how they help him adjust to his rebirth after the events on Genesis.")
- Puppy Love ("Spock and Christine meet as children on Vulcan when her father is assigned as an assistant to his father, Sarek. The children eventually become close friends and Spock wants to bond with her, but Sarek refuses, having already chosen T'Pring. This cases sorrow and hard feelings and the Chapels transfer off Vulcan, causing Spock to vow that he will find "Chrissy" again some day and that when he does, they will never be apart again.")
- Star Crossed ("Christine is reunited with Spock aboard ship shortly after he resumes his career following his death and rebirth. Upon learning that his Time of Mating is approaching, Dr. M'Benga helps her to win him over.")
- A Valentine for Christine ("Valentine's Day on the Enterprise. Christine sets out to win Spock and eventually does so, but not without sorrow and hardship. Uhura helps her friend through her situation even as she becomes enmeshed in a romance of her own.")
- (You Are) Nothing But A Sehlat (filk)
- Pon Farr Hotel (filk)
- Do You Know Me?/Do You? (The Answer) (filk)
- Sweet Vulcan/Why Pretend? (filk)
- M'Chejan (My Chosen) (filk or vignette)
- Spock's Lament (filk or vignette)
Reactions and Reviews: Issue 3
See Reactions and Reviews: Issue 3 and 4.
Issue 4
Heart Treks 4 was published in 1995 and contains 90 pages.
From an ad: "The fourth and most risque (adult-themed) collection of stories by JM Lane featuring the relationships and feelings between the Big Three, Spock and Christine, and Christine and Uhura."
- Great Experiment ("Christine and Uhura experiment with lesbianism after the female doctor's last traumatic confrontation with Spock, which forces her to leave the ship. But in the end it is Uhura who is the catalyst that brings Christine together with the Vulcan after sending him a love letter the latter wrote.")
- Late Night Workout ("Christine has had it with Spock keeping her at arm's length and is determined to seduce him once and for all ... and gets her chance when they happen to be working out in the ship's gym late at night, around 0200 hours. But in the end she wonders just who seduced who!")
- Sweet Revenge ("What happens when Christine learns that Kirk and Spock are lovers, men her reaction when McCoy tellsher thatthe Vulcan will still need a wife because he wants children.")
- The Package ("What happens when Spock receives a large, mysterious package ... and Christine discovers what it contains.")
- Thank You, Mr. Spock ("Uhura has an erotic dream about the Vulcan which disturbs her so much that she is unable to tell anyone but McCoy about it, even though both Spock and Christine suspect that something is bothering her.")
- McCoy to Spock/A Sad Song (Hey Spock) (filk or vignette)
- Longing (filk or vignette)
- Flames of Love (filk or vignette)
- A Sharing of Consciousness ("An adaptation of the TV episode "Return to Tomorrow" and how Christine deals with the advances of Henoch while he occupies Spock's body ... as well as what happens when she tells Spock about it once the incident is behind them. (Not to mention how she feels about their having shared consciousnesses!)")
Reactions and Reviews: Issue 4
See Reactions and Reviews: Issue 3 and 4.
Issue 5
Heart Treks 5 was published in May 1996.
- Love in Star Flight - Christine decides to make Spock jealous by ignoring him in favor of two new crewmen.")
- Stranger Than Fiction ("A collaboration of JM Lane and her nephew, DM Anderson, depicting the adventures of our heroes when they are accidentally transported back through time and space to a 20th-century parallel universe, where they are befriended by two residents of that universe. The story covers 25 years of their lives, depicting their adventures, marriages and children, as well as the lives of the Enterprise command crew, including Christine Chapel, who eventually marries a Vulcan healer while serving on Altair VI in the main hospital as a Chief Surgeon.")
Issue 6
Heart Treks 6 was published in 1997 and contains 275 pages. Color cover by Gamin Davis; interior art by Gamin Davis and JM Lane.
- Of Vulcan Bondage ("How Spock, Christine and their friends deal with their mission and experiences on a planet run by hedonistic women.")
- Old Friends ("Sequel to "Puppy Love" (Hearts Trek #3) where Spock and Chris meet on the Enterprise as adults and fight a growing love for one another even as they attempt to renew their childhood friendship.
- Star Flight II ("Sequel to "Love in Star Flight" (Hearts Trek #5) the continuing sage of Spock and Christine's marriage and children, Scott and his son, as well as McCoy's new marriage and child; their lives aboard ship.")
- Holiday Surprise ("Christmas and New Year's aboard the Enterprise. Christine gets the wrong idea when she sees Spock and Uhura together (and ignoring her) for two weeks... but is in for a wonderful surprise during the shipboard Christmas party.")
- My Love (Song for Christine) (filk or vignette)
- The Waiting is Over (filk or vignette)
- All the Time (filk or vignette)
- Please Wait for Me (filk or vignette)
- Always... (filk or vignette)
- Story of My Love (by Spock) (filk or vignette)
- Why Can't I? (Christine's Lament) (illustrated, filk or vignette)
- This is Loneliness (A Song for Christine, from Spock) (illustrated, filk or vignette)
- ...And You Never Will (filk or vignette)
- ...And I Am Yours (filk or vignette)
- Entreaty (Spock to Christine) (filk or vignette)
- Once Upon A Time (filk or vignette)
- I Am Sorry (filk or vignette)
- (My Love is) Like A Silver Bird (filk or vignette)
- When Love Came (Christine's Dream) (illustrated, filk or vignette)
Issue 7
Heart Treks 7 was published in 2000 and contains 175 pages. All of the stories are by JM Lane. The color cover and interior art is by Gamin Davis.
- Paradise Rediscovered ("Alternate vision of "This Side of Paradise" with Christine in place of McCoy on landing party and with Spock.")
- Hostage Situation ("Kirk, Spock and Chapel are taken prisoner by Romulans.")
- Memories ("After having outlived his Human friends, wife and parents, Spock looks back on his life.")
- My Impossible Dream, filk (Christine to Spock)
- Thoughts During Kolinahr, filk
- My Heart Belongs to the Enterprise, filk (Kirk's song)
- We Are Brothers, filk (Kirk & Spock)
- Please Believe Me, filk (Spock to Christine)
- Destiny, filk (Christine to Spock)
- Spock's Personal Log, vignette
- Such is the Life of a Fool, vignette ("Christine's heartbreak")
Issue 8
Heart Treks 8 was published in 2005. All of the stories are by JM Lane. The color cover and interior art is by Gamin Davis. The author note it is their first fanfic since 2002.
... I managed to finish three stories, ne fairly long, being a holiday one called "Unexpected Gifts" (aka "Cheesecake" story, because the alternate name is "Two Slices of Cheesecake, Please"). It is an adult-oriented Christmas story where Spock and Christine each give each other sexy holographs for Christmas, copies of which inadvertently fall into the hands of a disgruntled young crewmember, who intends to use them for blackmail purposes.
The second one is another holiday story, which has been published before, but the zine is it's in is likely to be out of print by now, so I'm putting it in this one for those who might have missed it the first time around. It is set shortly after the V'ger incident and Christine is convinced that Spock and Uhura are romantically involved, while in reality the two are working on a special gift for Christine... hence the name, "Holiday Surprise."
The third one is one of the new ones, featuring our favorite antagonists, Spock and McCoy, having a knock-down, drag-out [fight] and not speaking to each other except on business. As a result, their friends (and bondmate, in Spock's case) almost literally knock themselves out trying to help them reconcile. In the end, however, they do it on their own. Just how they do it, of course, you must find out for yourselves, Dear Readers. It is called, for (hopefully) obvious reason, "Cementing Relationships."
Finally, there is a story which features an alternative ending to [the episode] "All Our Yesterdays." This is where Spock decides to stay with Zarabeth in the past despite his recent bonding to Christine -- and upon finding this out, she is determined to find out why, whatever she has to do to accomplish it.
- Unexpected Gifts, or Two Slices of Cheesecake, Please
- Holiday Surprise (written in 1999)
- Cementing Relationships
- Confrontation
Reactions and Reviews: Issue 3 and 4
The combination of the sometimes unpopular of subject matter (Spock/Christine), Gamin's writing and unusual art style led to criticism of the series.
The review zine Psst... Hey Kid, Wanna Buy a Fanzine? was well known for its frank and often blunt reviews. However in 1997, the Heart Trek series received a particularly harsh and mocking review. The reviewer, Berkeley Hunt, gave these The Rating System: Trees| two issues not just a single tree, but a dead one.
Heart Treks...oh, iiiiiick.
Every zine produced implies that its contributors want their work to be seen, and may even be proud of it. If that’s the case with Heart Treks' "artists," J.M. Lane and Gamin Davis, then, Boys and Girls, it’s time to be afraid. When a toddler demands praise for making it into the potty instead of soiling her diaper, we’re perfectly ready to bill and coo and tell her what a clever girlie she is. Now, imagine a grownup who tugs at your sleeve and crows over the same accomplishment.
J.M. Lane is also (God and his host of angels help us all) the editor. She likes to label her art: "Christine Writing Amanda," or "Christine Talking to Uhura." A good thing, too; otherwise it’d be mighty hard to tell just who all these stacked, bouffant-headed ladies are supposed to be. Absolutely without exaggeration, I can say that some of the doting mommies among you will find better art taped to your refrigerators. Of course, I doubt that your fifth- and sixth-graders are into drawing Spock bare-assed.
To put it another way: If stick figures are the primordial ooze from which all higher art evolves, then J.M.’s work is just more of that ooze, piled a little higher.
Gamin Davis: Hmmmm, I don’t know. Could she be working from the assumption that fans can be fooled into mistaking lack of skill for personal style? I ask because she’s the only artist I’ve ever seen draw Spock squishy and chubby-cheeked. I wonder.... When Leonard Nimoy declined to pose, did she decide that one of those naked little troll dolls would be the next best thing?
The covers for both Heart Treks 3 and 4 are rendered in abrasive color. Since these woman so obviously grudge the amount of work that it takes to turn out art that’s less hard on the eyes (yes, ladies, art is work), I suggest that in future they save themselves the trouble and sell each issue with a square of sandpaper and the instructions: "Apply to corneas and rub vigorously."
Now, on to the rest of Heart Treks' contents. Getta load a this:
A Sad Song (Hey, Spock) (sung to music of "Hey Jude" by the Beatles)
- Hey, Spock, don't be so sad
- Take a sad song, and make it better
- Remember to let Christine into your heart
- Don't be afraid
- You were made to go out and get her
- The minute you let her under your skin
- You'll begin to make your life better.
There’s more, but promise to be nice and I’ll only take your lunch money and stuff grass down your shirt; I won’t make you listen to "You Are Nothing But A Sehlat," or "Pon Farr Hotel" (sung to a couple of vintage Elvis Presley tunes, if you really want to know what a narrow escape you had).
A brief note on the zine’s layout: it is surprisingly clean. Some care was taken here. It would have been even better if J.M. had picked the cat hairs out of the scotch tape when she tacked that addendum onto her Author’s Preface. While fine art loses detail in the photocopying process, lint and animal hair, tend to gain definition.
Yes, J.M. is also the sole author. Each of Heart Treks' stories is dedicated to the love between Spock and Christine Chapel. I sympathize with Christine. She desperately needs a fan in her corner, someone who watched the original episodes and saw more than a twenty-third century Baywatch babe mooning over a certain Vulcan.
Unfortunately, J.M. is not that fan:
- [Christine's] hands closed in tight fists. "Dammit, Ny! Why do I have to love him so much when he doesn't give a damn about me?"
- "Chris, don't! You promised you wouldn't mention anything having to do with Spock."
- Christine lay her stylus on her writing pad, flexing her sore fingers with a sad sigh. "You're right, Ny. I mustn't think of him. It only gets me upset. But God help me, I can't help it! I love him!"
In this particular story, entitled "The Great Experiment," this worldly and enlightened version of Chapel wishes she could become a lesbian. As she explains to Captain Kirk, "then I wouldn’t have to endure the torture of a hopeless love!"
Those lesbos...how I envy them their carefree existence. Love that never goes wrong, and all the fried chicken and watermelon they can eat. Let us all vow to put pen to paper sometime in the near future, and send J.M. a heartfelt thanks for doing so much to correct the widespread misconception that homosexuals are people, too.
Getting back to the story: Apparently, Uhura has had her eye on Nurse Chapel for some time, and asks her to become her lover. J.M. tells us that "Christine was understandably startled at her friend’s unorthodox proposal, but surprisingly enough felt no revulsion...and when Nyota said it would help her to win Spock over, she had seriously considered it. She really didn’t see how, but at this point was willing to try anything...and the way Ny phrased it almost made it seem normal."
As we all know, Vulcans operate on a higher spiritual plane than do mere humans. Naturally, Spock is shocked. In J.M’s words: "He was sickened at the thought of such a totally feminine woman making love to another woman. To think that he had driven her to that...."
Now, there’s a fella that takes IDIC to heart. A dirty shame J.M. doesn’t let us in on how he feels about a nice white girl messin’ around with one a’ them thar coloreds. Anyway, the ucky girl-girl stuff has the desired effect, Spock is appalled into declaring his love for Christine, and they all live happily ever after.
Other than comparing their voluptuous, naked bodies, J.M. apparently cannot imagine how two women make love, and that part of "The Great Experiment" is correspondingly vague. Interestingly—very interestingly, given the author’s protestations of revulsion—the story, "Sweet Revenge," features a lovingly detailed, literally blow- by-blow account of what Kirk and Spock do in bed together. As the Vulcan himself might say, "Hmmm... fascinating."
Christine has secreted herself in Spock’s quarters for the express purpose of spying on him and Kirk. Amazingly, the shadows she is lurking in keep her completely hidden while giving her a telescopic view of the action. After she has confirmed, to her horror, that the hideous rumors about her captain and first officer are true, she does what any enlightened Starfleet officer, trained to represent the Federation in its dealings with a myriad of non-Terran cultures would do. She throws up.
Afterward, she throws herself at McCoy. "‘Love me, Leonard. Make me forget," she entreats him. He declines to fuck her, but points out that, since Spock wants children, he must have a wife. Christine protests that the idea of sharing him with Kirk is sick, obscene...but, what the heck; it could work.
She screws Spock; he admits that a part of him cares for her. She decides to settle for having him only half the time, and they get married with the understanding that he will devote himself to her until he gets what he really wants out of the arrangement: a child. Kirk and Spock’s dear friend, McCoy, has no problem gleefully reporting to Chapel that the captain and first officer are fighting over how much time Spock spends with her.
J.M.’s interpretations of our Trek folk heroes are happily unfettered by any terribly high standards of behavior. Carrying tales, spying on someone in the privacy of his own bedroom, trading one’s own and other people’s bodies like Monopoly money—the end always justifies the sleaze, as long as that end is Spock. Like the carefree lesbians referred to earlier, no one stays disgusted for long, and Christine always gets her Vulcan. Sometimes in as little as a page or two. In the opening paragraph of "Late Night Workout," Christine decides that Enough is Enough! Why put up with Spock’s keeping her at arms’ length, when the solution is as plain as the ridges on a Klingon’s face? She’ll just seduce him and be done with it.
Shortly after this aha! of inspiration, she goes to the ship’s gym to work off all of her animal frustration. Why, what d’you know? Spock’s decided on a workout for the very same reason! Not only that, but he’s getting a hard on just looking in her direction. So they lock the gym doors and Just Do It. And to think of all the time I wasted fretting, just because I limited myself to Roddenberry’s version of the characters.
I suppose I owe it to Marty’s readership to comment on the rest of the stories. But then, you see, I’d have to read them, and I’ve had about all the enlightenment I can stand, thank you. Having been exposed to J.M.’s views on homosexuality, I don’t want to risk stumbling across her attitudes toward women or people of other races. I’m afraid that if she raises my consciousness any higher, I may have to find a tire iron and go looking for someone to beat on.