Menage a Trois (Star Trek: TOS zine)
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Menage a Trois |
| Publisher: | BaReMi Press |
| Editor(s): | Michael Rightor, Rena Leith/Weber, and Barbara Setzer |
| Date(s): | May 1981 |
| Series?: | |
| Medium: | print zine |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | adult het |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Menage a Trois is an adult het Star Trek: TOS anthology edited by Michael Rightor. It was published in May 1981 and contains 56 pages. There were 300 copies printed.
The front cover is by Rebecca Barnes. Interior art by Rebecca Barnes, B.A. Clark, Janice Liedl, Rena Leith, and Barbara Setzer.
Despite the title of the zine and the front cover portraying Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov in an intimate pose, there is no threesome fiction content of any sort.
From the Editorial
[by Rightor]:Well, here we are: six months late, a lot of embarrassed faces (mostly from our preview audiences), and just a little bit of work (HAH!). Manage A Trois has been in the planning stages for over a year, and in that time we've run into a ton of hassles, none of which could ever have been anticipated.
We shifted the editorial reins for a couple reasons. I personally wanted to play a somewhat stronger role in the BaReMi Press line than contributor and occasional typist. But since other plans also precluded my being an executive editor on a regular basis (which is something I would not have asked for, anyway), we (Rena, Barbara, and Myself) decided I could have the special editions, i.e., those that would be published annually or less often.
[much snipped]
As for this issue of Menage, we seem to have successfully incorporated three major types of story, all developed independently and without any knowledge of what the other were doing. Barb's story ("Just Another Shore Leave") is an adventure tale with lots of action, and sex thrown in to keep your interest. Rena's story ("A Night Out With the Boys") is also full of action and sex, but takes a comedic angle that really makes her contribution a delight to read. My story ("All In the Line of Duty") started out to be an endless series of sexual encounters of one type or ano ther, but I got hung up devising a plot to tie them all together, and wound up with a story that has as much action as it does "action." I (we) hope you like it and would appreciate your comments on this issue.
Finally, there are several in-jokes (for ST fans) and puns herein, some intended and some not. The title itself is supposed to be funny because we originally planned to have only three contributors: Barbara, Rena, and myself, and we are all verrry good friends! Unfortunately, I do not draw (except stick figures, and even they are badly done), so we had to call in "outside talent"—hired giins, youmight say. There are also some internal puns which could have sexual connotations if you're a pervert like me. Oh well, this has already gone on far longer than it should have, so I'll wish you 1) the best; 2) my condolences; 3) happy reading on those cold, lonely nights; 4) were a mule; 5) all of the above. Just thank someone it's all over.
Contents
- Just Another Shore Leave by Barbara Setzer ("Uhura's shore leave takes a turn when she meets a Vulcan merchant, or is he?") (1)
- A Night Out With the Boys by Rena Leith ("Molly Santana, a shipping magnate's daughter, takes Daddy's starcruiser for a joy ride. When she captures Spock and several others aboard a Star Fleet shuttle, things will never be the same again.") (20)
- All in the Line of Duty by Michael Rightor ("Sulu and Chekov are stranded on a backwater planet run by women. Their only means of survival is to 'work their way' toward the capital city, the site of the only space port. They find that they must allow themselves to be captured and bartered and used and abused.") (29)
Gallery
interior art by B.A. Clark
interior art by Barbara Setzer
interior art by Barbara Setzer
interior art by Rebecca Barnes
interior art by Barbara Setzer
interior art by Rene Leith
interior art by Rebecca Barnes
A Fan Remembers This Zine, and A Dramatic Reading by Walter Koenig
Kandy Fong remembers Walter Koenig running across this zine for sale at a convention.
Kandy Fong: ... it had a picture on the front cover, very well drawn, of Uhura being hugged by Sulu, but then reaching out past him to Walter, implying that it was going to be a three-way. Well—
Marnie S: Oh, I know that zine.. I think I have that zine out in my garage.
KF: —Walter's coming around through, and he goes, "Oh, you've got slash. You got any, listen— Kandy, why is it can I never find any slash that has Koenig it in?" I mean, Walter in it. I mean— (laughter)
MS: Yes, yes.
KF: He wanted to know why his character wasn't being slashed. I'm kinda going—
MS: He was not—
KF: Eeeee
MS: —deterred by it. In fact, he used to tease George about it.
KF: Yes. (laughter) So, anyhow, he goes up and he sees this story, and I said, "And these stories are terrible." And he rolls it up and he decides to give a dramatic reading.
MS: Oh, god! Oh god!
KF: About how the two guys had to go down to a planet and seduce the court of the queen, so they'd give them dilithium crystals, for the ship is trapped in orbit and can't get out. And so these two young men had to go down there and please the ladies of the— So, he's reading this thing out loud, very dramatically, and just enjoying the heck out of it. So—
MS: He got a huge kick out of things like that.
KF: —that's when I got to know, and, a little bit, and we see each other at conventions and we'd hang a little bit. Because, he found me amusing, I found him amusing, and it was interesting. So he knew me as a slasher from the beginning. I mean, I was out there, I'm sorry. (laughter)
MS: Once he found it, he— And somebody asked him, at one of the conventions, he was looking at a slash zine. And, somebody came up and thought he didn't know, or pointed it out on the table, and he said, "Hey, if I could look like that, I think that's fine." (laughter) [1]
Reactions and Reviews
'Menage a Trois' is made up of three stories, one by each of the three editors. In the ad in Forum it says, 'An adult zine with an emphasis on adventure.' Also in that same ad, it gives a little tease from each story... Unfortunately, the teasers are probably the most adventurous things about the zine. I've read very few zines that went into as much explicit detailed sex as this one. While hopping from one sexual encounter to the next one, there is a plot of a sort included in each story. All the sex scenes are well written, even erotic, but as a whole, I found much of it vaguely boring. There just wasn't enough meat to the stories to sink your teeth into. The artwork is uneven to the extreme. In the same story, it can go from very good to ba-a-ad. For those of you who enjoy a little more 'action' in their adventure, this is for you (I mean, MY husband has been trying to get me to read it again). However, for those of you who like more adventure in your action, approach with caution.[2]
I was there at Babelcon, and I was at the art auction, and I saw that zine. A one-word review of that little epic?: UGH! [3]
- Just Another Shore Leave / Barbara Setzer, A Klingon/Romulan half-breed on the run and posing as a Vulcan meets and falls for Uhura, who helps out when his pursuers catch up.
- A Night Out With the Boys / Rena Leith, Silly little Mary Sue - a shipping magnate's daughter runs off with her father's yacht, makes love slaves of the occupants of a shuttle in distress (Scotty, McCoy, Spock, and an overweight historian), then gets captured by real pirates, forcing the gang to rescue her.
- All in the Line of Duty / Michael Rightor, Chekov and Sulu, in testing a new long-distance transporter (a la Dr. Who), end up captured by warrior women who keep them as sex slaves until they escape under cover of battle confusion. Lots of boobs.[4]