Mark of the Beast (Star Trek: TOS story)
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| Star Trek TOS Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Mark of the Beast |
| Author(s): | Rick Endres (aka Nomad) |
| Date(s): | 1981 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | gen |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: The Original Series |
| External Links: | Mark of the Beast |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Mark of the Beast is a gen Star Trek: TOS story by Rick Endres.
It was printed in Stardate #9.
Summary
Summary: "An inhuman killer stalks the corridors of the Enterprise in search of human prey; can Uhura escape this werewolf?"
Art from the Zine
Rick Endres
Rick Endres
Rick Endres
Reactions and Reviews
Let me begin with the first story [in the zine], which is as good a place as any, I suppose. The overall premise intrigued me, since I am an avid fan of vampire and werewolf movies. My major complaint with this story was its gruesome attention to visceral detail. My opinion is, in a story of this nature, that less is more. One well-crafted sentence can cause more goose-bumps than pages and pages of blood soaked description. Frankly, there were times when I didn't really want to finish the story because I was getting nauseous. A couple of other problems: the way that the werewolf curse got back to its home planet from Earth. If Earth's moon triggered the gland, wouldn't leaving the influence of that moon reduce the gland's function? How then could they infect the inhabitants of their own planet once they returned? Was it a disease or a genetic mutation or what? [Well, I guess I'll use this psychobiology major of mine to explain this. I gathered that it was a psychosomatically induced genetic mutation. This means that the presence of a moon caused the lycanthropic transformation to occur and this led to a genetic mutation. But then again. I'm not positive. I felt that hard-core scientific explanations of the process would bore the readers. It's my fault. Not Rick's. -ED.] I did like the explanation of the diren. Might be interesting to write a story about one of those people who joins Starfleet - an interesting foil for M'ress, no? Another problem I had was dealing with Kirk's reaction when they finally cornered Luka. True, this thing had killed nineteen of his crew, but Trevlek had just explained that this thing was incorrigible, Kirk himself had seen just what he could do, it was either get rid of it or blow up the Enterprise. I really don't think James T. would be in a particularly compassionate mood right then. Rick's illos are getting better and better. I especially liked pgs. 3, 14, 32, and 43. He certainly dose have a boob fetish, and while I may at times wish I ware so well-endowed, the nipples on pg. 26 ware a bit much. Rigor mortis? I think not. [1]
I find so much graphic violence very repulsive, and most of the longer story seemed to consist of flying viscera. While most of the illustrations were technically well-executed, again the gore turned me off. [I'd like to point out that the violence has been curtailed in recent issues quite a bit because of a number of LoCs received about the subject. I personally was not repulsed, but then again, I wasn't repulsed by Alien or Outland either. However, we of STARDATE listen to the readers. The violence will remain as subdued as possible. - Ed.] [2]
Nomad's "Mark of the Beast" contains excessive violence. I've read Rick's stories in other STARDATEs and have noted his "fascination" for bashing in or ripping out throats. He does it with such relish! I got the impression he wrote some of the story "tongue in cheek." For instance, on p. 16, he was discussing the werewolf’s preference for human females as "simply a matter of taste." The werewolf was suitably beastly. Rick obviously chose the first five year mission because of the old-style uniforms. With the sensors in the new ones, Luka would have been quickly detected. I'm afraid it was set in the second mission, not the first. The new perscans are not on every new uniform. - Ed.] There's one scene that still puzzles me. Luka has just killed ten security men. Kirk and Spock come racing around the corner and stop. The werewolf starts to lunge at Spock, but stops when Spock doesn't move. Luka then picks up his original prey and drags it away. Not one word of discussion from Kirk and Spock as to why the werewolf didn't tear them to shreds. It was unquestionably in a killing frenzy. [3]
"Mark of the Beast" by Nomad -- a very well done werewolf adventure story. I especially enjoyed the description and dialogue of Ensign Scott Riggins and Lieutenant Taryn Spring, the unfortunate young lovers. The plot was compelling, the description vivid -- a good story! However, that description was a bit too vivid for my tastes. Those some explicit scenes were necessary, with all that blood and gore, I believe even a real werewolf might've gotten a little queasy! [4]
..."Mark of the Beast," written by Nomad, was a little tacky, but I liked the explanation of Earth's werewolves....[4]