Night Creatures
| Star Trek TOS Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Night Creatures |
| Author(s): | Mandi Schultz |
| Date(s): | 1976 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | gen |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: The Original Series |
| External Links: | Night Creatures |
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Night Creatures is a Star Trek: TOS story by Mandi Schultz.
It was published in the print zine Alpha Continuum #1 (1976) and Rising Star (1978).
In this story, Kodos spares Jim and Sam Kirk's life in return for sex with Jim Kirk.
The editor of "Rising Sun" says it was "offered as part of a 'sort of alternate universe' story" in the Diamonds and Rust series.
In Implosion #6, Schultz wrote that this story was retro-fitted for the series.
The Diamonds and Rust Series Series
See the story order as they were published, and as they took place at Diamonds and Rust Series.
Reactions and Reviews: "Night Creatures"
Unknown Date
Seems to be part of Diamonds and Rust series, or at least related. Chantal, who is not explained here, is sleeping with Kirk, who is reliving his days on Tarsus IV in his dreams. Kodos spared 14-year-old cadet Jim Kirk and his younger brother Sam in return for the boy's sexual favors. Not as interesting and nearly as salacious as the later stories. [1]
1977
NIGHT CREATURES was the first thing of the series I read, and it had a good, chilling edge to it. That may be another part of the problem, tho. Starting with that story as I, and a lot of others did, one already knows that, sooner or later, Kirk and Chantal are going to wind up in the sack together, which takes out a lot from the verbal fencing that goes on in some of the other stories, and the "should I or shouldn't I" business.
- I know I wrote you this in a personal letter but I thought I ought to present it in IMP for everyone else to see. As to the genesis of NIGHT CREATURES, that was a before-story I wrote sometime back and was altered to fit into D&R since I felt it fitted in, I know that it wasn't convenient for those following to start with chapter 9, but we fast reached a point where there was no way we could coordinate the way they were coming out. [2]
I was struck, when I read NIGHT CREATURES, by the very plausibility of your interpretation of the Kirk/Kodos saga. One thing that always had bothered mo in the telescript of CONSCIENCE OF THE KING was the way the writer portrayed Kirk. Here we've been given a strong, almost martinet figure of authority and rigid (sometimes obsessive) adherence to some private code of macho-honor, etc., and suddenly in this script Kirk's characterization fell apart. This was the one story in which Kirk, as a character, would have been justified in taking matters into his own hands and administering justice - and what do we get? A man who exhibits FEAR in front of Kodos/Karidian, who refuses to pursue the question of identity. It was a very bizarre turn of character that the scriptwriter never explained. Why would Kirk shy away from making a positive identification - even in the one scene where he goes to Karidian's cabin, he is more fearful of Karidian than one should expect. It reminds me of stories of survivors from German concentration camps - tho they had every right to confront the monsters who mutilated them, in many cases (at Nurenburg and elsewhere), survivors showed great reluctance to testify and confront their persecutors - instead of being contemptuous of them, they were afraid to face them! In some cases it turned out that these people felt such great guilt just from the fact that they survived when so many millions of others were killed, they almost felt as tho they had, in some way, collaborated with the Nazis. This is on the subconscious level, of course.
[...]
All of this is just going to reinforce your story NIGHT CREATURES. It makes sense to have Kirk react with fear and not wanting to pursue the matter if he felt guilt for whatever reason (the one you provide is one that was what happened in fact to many Jewish youngsters of both sexes - they were used sexually by the camp soldiers and later felt such guilt and disgust, they couldn't adjust to reality) - and lets Spock be the one to do the investigation. The reaction of Kevin Reilly, is the opposite: having done nothing he considers wrong, he is mentally free to seek revenge on Kodos. Actually, COTK only made sense to me after I read NIGHT CREATURES - whether your interpretation of the homosexual relationship would bo true or false, it did get me to thinking about Kirk abnormal reactions to Kodos - his fear even after 20 years just isn’t in character with the macho Captain the scriptwriters had drawn for the previous episodes. It would have been nicer if the writer of that script had tried to explain Kirk’s behavior a bit - it could have given the "perfect" stereotyped Kirk the depth he never achieved as a character on the aired series - you are so right - perfection is a smashing bore.
- *sigh* It’s so nice to be understood. That was precisely why I wrote it. COTK had always bothered me, too - I could never understand Kirk’s behavior within the realm of his established characterization. Kirk who always bravely goes where no man has gone before seemed to be working very hard on not caring at all about Karidian. It’s difficult to assume that he was so preoccupied with the seduction of Karidian’s daughter than ho just didn’t have much time to think of the old man, particularly since bodies were started to drop rather suddenly and mysteriously over it all. He truly seemed to genuinely loathe getting involved - and no matter how disenchanted he may be with his job in D&R's universe, COTK was a first season show, theoretically the first year of the mission, during which time being the Captain was still a lot of fun for him. So one night I watched it for the god-only-knows-how-many times and got so obsessed by the feeling of incompleteness it portrayed that NIGHT CREATURES was the product of a furious night’s typing and chain-smoking and coffee-drinking. It has been revised^ somewhat to fit in D&R for a reason besides the fact that I think it adds some interesting insight into our Kirk’s character, but the other reason will have to be seen in the collected volume since that story hasn't been previously circulated.[3]