Only Human (Star Trek: TOS zine)
- You might be looking for Only Human (Revolution vid).
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Only Human |
| Publisher: | Orion Press |
| Editor: | |
| Author(s): | Holly Trueblood |
| Cover Artist(s): | Chris Myers |
| Illustrator(s): | |
| Date(s): | 1996 |
| Medium: | print zine |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | Orion Press |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Only Human is a het Star Trek: TOS 176-page novel by Holly Trueblood. Cover by Chris Myers.
Summary
Assigned to work undercover in a Federation political campaign in order to gain personal access to the candidate, Spock must live convincingly as a Human. As he is becoming more and more comfortable in that role in spite of himself, a catastrophe in his own family life shakes his faith in the Vulcan way of life to the core. Author Holly Trueblood shows us a Spock questioning his identity, torn between the sweet seduction of romance, and violent tempests of emotion, while his friends can only watch from afar. [1]
Spock: His cool, logical demeanor the result of the strength of his Vulcan character subduing the other side of his nature; the Human side. But what if circumstances conspired to make him choose to live out the other half of his nature? Has he made the right choice? How can he know for sure? How can any of us know for sure that the decisions we make are the right ones? After all, we are, all of us ... Only Human. [2]
Excerpt
He stared at his hand as the blood ran across his palm and down toward his sleeve. Squeamish at the sight of blood? No, never before at the sight of his own or anyone else's, except in the respect that spilled blood indicated pain or loss of life. But his own blood had never been red before! He understood in the abstract what McCoy had done. Could see it in his complexion in the mirror. But the reality of it had never been brought home quite so graphically before. He was Human. Not just his clothes, not just his cover identity, not just his rounded ears, or the facial expressions he was working consciously to mimic. But in this visceral and most basic of ways. His blood. His heart began hammering in his side at the thought. The beating against his lower ribs reminded him that the transformation was not complete. Parts of him were still where they belonged. The thought began to quiet him. His heart had not migrated up behind his breastbone. It was still a Vulcan heart. but the blood that even now pulsed through it-was RED!
Reactions and Reviews
Lovely color cover Spock portrait by Christine Meyers.Nice explanation of Spock's motivation for going off to kohlinar - in this one, he explores his human side, falls rather in love with it as he falls in love with his colleague Lauren, and ultimately becomes thoroughly disillusioned with it and determined to eliminate it. Spock's increasing humanness is not really adequately explained in a physiological sense, but very nicely portrayed. He cottons on rather later than we do, of course. Basic plotline: Spock goes undercover working on the campaign of the Unity (as opposed to the human-centrist Separationist) party candidate to see if there is something amiss about him. He needs to look human but be Vulcan to get an impression from his handshake. Meanwhile he finds himself enjoying his human side and exploring it even to the extent of hangovers and dreams. In a nicely done subplot, he is furious with Sarek for impregnating Amanda and endangering her life. His newly found beloved, unfortunately (and rather predictably, I thought), turns out to be violently anti-alien from a childhood incident.
Very well written and enjoyable, if a bit long on introspection about Spock's romance, even though the Federation political arena is not one I would normally take much interest in. [3]
References
- ^ from Agent With Style
- ^ from Orion Press
- ^ from Karen Halliday's Zinedex