Revolution (multifandom zine)

Zine
Title:	Revolution
Publisher:	Madelein Lee
Editor(s):	Pamela Rose
Date(s):	1995
Series?:
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS, multimedia, crossover
Language:	English
External Links:	Read on AO3
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

In this front cover, by Suzan Lovett, more attention has been paid to Mirror Spock and Kirk, presumably as they are the central characters. The other three pairings in the story receive less details and are placed in the borders: in the upper right are an AU Starsky (Starn) & Hutch (Halan). In the upper left corner are Bodi and Doyl, also wearing non-20th century clothing. And to the bottom right are Tris (Tris) and Alex (Alyx). In the upper left corner there is also a symbolic fleur de lys which upon closer examination reveals the naked bodies of 4 pairs of men, intertwined. The use of border portraits and symbolic designs are part of Lovett's characteristic signature. Click to see a larger version of the image and these details.

In contrast to the front, the back cover by Susan Lovett has a more simple design. Bodi and Doyl are in the upper half with Tris and Alyx in the lower half. Again, the use of non-period clothing and, in the case of Bodie and Doyle the long hair, signals to the viewer that these are AU versions of familiar characters. In spite of the relative simplicity of the back cover, the artist has spent considerable effort shading the blue background to include stars, planets and interstellar dust. Click for a larger version to appreciate the details.

Revolution is a slash 191-page novel by Madelein Lee that takes place in the universe of the Star Trek:TOS episode, "Mirror, Mirror."

Pairings in the novel include Tris/Alex (coded Led Zeppelin RPS), Bodie/Doyle, Starsky/Hutch and Kirk/Spock.

The novel's front and back cover is by Suzan Lovett. There is no interior art.

The con skit by Paula Smith, Revolution 9 from Outer Space is a parody of this zine. It was performed at ZebraCon in 1997.

Summaries

From the flyer:

In the mirror universe, Kirk and Spock resolve to join together in an attempt to defeat the Empire. They discover willing allies in the Antosians, a race of shape-changers that have resisted the Empire for years. Along with a few trusted members of the crew, Kirk and Spock steal the Enterprise and unite to overthrow the Emperor. Their first course of action, however, must be to to obtain weapons to arm the growing rebel forces. On the Rimworlds, where the Empire's strength is the weakest, they locate a band of gunrunners traveling under the cover of musicians, 'rimrockers,' playing a type of feral, uninhibited music banned by the Empire in the late 20th Century for its ability to rouse the passions of the masses. Convincing them to trust a renegade starship captain and his Vulcan partner in full-fledged revolt is anything but simple. Compounding the other difficulties is an ever-deepening personal relationship between Kirk and Spock; neither of whom had ever dared trust another so totally and completely in the cut-throat world of Starfleet. Learning to trust is not easy, discovering where that trust will lead is stunning.

Summary from Gilda F:

After the transference on Halka, Kirk is persuaded to join the Rebellion, but needs the help of a gun-runner for his and Spockʼs plan to work.

From the Editorial

To be logical, I should start by thanking Ye Olde Zined for taking time from her own busy schedule to publish this novel, so first off, my heartfelt gratitude goes to Pamela Rose.

I also need to thank Pam and Nancy Arena for their wonderful novel For All the Gods Departed. Without Tris and Alex I might never have conceived the idea of the rimrockers. Who knows what direction the last two chapters would have taken, or if they would have everoeen finished, without their inspiration?

Next, much appreciation is directed at the Houston crowd who have heen reading and commenting on rough drafts for about seven years or longer. Thanks Lezlie, Pam (again), Cynthia, and Katharine for both the encouragement and all the "B & Ds By the Sea." I mean, I recommenced writing this thing just so I'd have something to contribute to the beach parties!

Special remembrance must also go to Laurie Huff for accepting and editing "Raison d'Etre" and "Fait Accompli" years ago. Both stories originally appeared in her zines, Galactic Discourse 5 and 4.

Chapters

• Raison d'Etre
• Fait Accompli
• La Quête
• Coup d'etat

Gallery

• 

  a 1995 flyer

Reactions and Reviews

1995

The front & back covers of Madelen Lee's (I think that's her name) mirror universe K/S + B/D + T/A novel REVOLUTION caught my eye in the Dealer's Room. They are copies of Suzan Lovett's originals that were in the Art Show to enjoy and bid on. K & S etc mutiny & run off with the Enterprise. I skipped ahead to read some of their meeting with one of the "rimrocker" bands. Spectrum, whose artists and singers are Doyle, Tris & Alex with Bodie as their drummer. The four aren't Terrans; they're Antosians who have the weirdest ability to literally physically meld while making love. Seems that the subversive & banned 20th century Rock n Roll has been rediscovered & is once again used to rabble-rouse out on the galaxy's rim along with gunrunning to cover their operating expenses.

I managed to borrow a copy of the novel REVOLUTION from Mysti and having read it, I wanted to know other people's thoughts on it. First of all this is the "Mirror Universe" novel by Madeline Lee, which had the gorgeous Suzi Lovett cover. It had not only Mirror K/S, but also aus of Bodie and Doyle, Tris and Alyx, and Starsky and Hutch.

I personally had several problems with the zine. I wasn't happy that S&H disappear after the first part of the story, but what upset me more was that there really wasn't a reason given as to why. They just weren't there anymore. Actually, this is my main problem with the entire story.

I am assuming that this is intended to be just the first in a series of zines considering the ambiguous ending, but I felt almost as if the whole thing just stopped. Not just before the storyline is completed, but before the last *scene* was finished.

I also felt like I was just barely missing something. I don't think this is so much a problem with the story as with my reading of it. I also got the impression that quite a few people really liked it at Z-Con. I'd be very interested in hearing other people's thoughts on the zine.

In other words, review, review!"

The front & back covers of Madelen [sic] Lee's (I think that's her name) mirror universe K/S + B/D + T/A novel REVOLUTION caught my eye in the Dealer's Room. They are copies of Suzan Lovett's originals that were in the Art Show to enjoy and bid on. K & S etc mutiny & run off with the Enterprise. I skipped ahead to read some of their meeting witti one of the "rimrocker" bands. Spectrum, whose tarists and singers are Doyle, Tris & Alex with Bodie as their drummer. The four aren't Terrans; they're Antosians who have the weirdest ability to literally physically meld while making love. Seems that the subversive & banned 20th century Rock n Roll has been rediscovered & is once again used to rabble-rouse out on the galaxy's rim along with gunrunning to cover their operating expenses.

2008

I finished reading Revolution, the Star Trek/Pros/Starsky & Hutch zine. The primary characters are based in the Star Trek alternative universe explored in "Mirror Mirror". The story picks up after the militant members of the I.S.S. Enterprise beam back to their ship. After discussing impressions of the U.S.S. Enterprise crew and their beliefs, this reality's Kirk & Spock decide they're tired of acting the Emperor's bully boys and revolt.

The first act of defiance is to rescue citizens of Antos IV being transported to Space Station 9. Hutch portrays the Antosian ambassador, with Starsky as his companion. Kirk & Spock figure out a way to save them, giving the Enterprise crew access to a planet of rebels in need of a military leader. Starsky & Hutch have only a brief appearance.

Needing weapons, Kirk & Spock begin searching for two Antosians gunrunners. On a rim world, they discover a band of rimrockers, playing rock music, something not common in this present time. The four members are portrayed by Doyle, bassist, Bodie, drummer, and two characters who I think are Jimmy Page, guitar and Robert Plant, singer. The author has made up names for these guys, so I'm making an assumption, but I'm pretty sure about this. <g>

Anyway, they're plotting the demise of the Emperor, with plenty of personal problems between the Antosians and Kirk and Spock, after Spock claims his captain by mentally bonding with him - without asking. <g> They eventually work things out.

All in all, it was a pretty good storyline, the plot held together with plenty of angst spread through all the characters carrying the plot. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying the read.

2013

I watched Star Trek but am not fannish about it; I just grew up with it, so to speak. I never watched S&H. Pros we know about :) And ooh, I like Led Zep, and have seen Robert Plant live a few times. I have read quite a bit of Madelein Lee's Pros fic (list and links here) and particularly enjoyed the Carnal Interests sequence and Dancing in the Dark, which are CI5-based and very grim. So that's what I knew when starting out.

This story starts after the events of the Star Trek episode known to me as That One Where They're In An Alternative Universe With Evil Kirk And Spock Which I Saw Once When I Was About Nine (which apparently is called Mirror, Mirror). I have pretty much no recollection of the events in that episode beyond that, though!

And given my complete lack of knowledge on it, I really enjoyed this. Kirk-from-the-evil-universe has returned back to it after being in our happy good one, and Kirk is turning into a good Kirk and realising how bad his universe is and how bad the Federation in it is. There is on-board intrigue and power-games, some of which I think is to do with dealing with events in the episode (there's a planet to wipe out - or not - and McCoy is on drugs, and Kirk apparently killed Pike, and so on) and eventually Kirk and Spock have to make a break for it. There is no relationship between them at this stage.

Early on in the story, they encounter two aliens who can do some weird form of bonding and merging of bodies, an ability that becomes important in the plot later. I would not have realised without the aid of the cover art, but these two aliens - under different names - are an AU Starsky and Hutch. They fade out very fast, so I can imagine people who bought this for the S&H might have felt slighted.

Subsequently Kirk decides the universe needs a revolution and that that he needs to make contact with gun-runners and revolutionaries, and sets off to find the only ones he knows of: a band who perform 'rimrock', a band composed of Tris, Alyx, Bodi and Doyl. (Yes, spellings slightly different.) Then he has to persuade them he's serious. This is all complicated by the fact that he wants the emotional closeness he's seen in other people (particularly the Starsky and Hutch characters) and that Tris and Alyx and Bodie and Doyl are couples, although not at all exclusive. They're also not human, and there is a continual issue to do with the ability of the Antosians to meld both bodies and minds, which requires very high levels of trust. Because Bodi has to do this with Kirk, Kirk realises Bodi might be interested in him (Kirk), and both Spock and Doyl spot this, and react very badly, for reasons of their own (Doyl has his own fears and Spock is angry and possessive) and they're on a very small space vessel when all of this happens, and then it all gets even more complicated. Oh, and there is that revolution to set up, too!

I really really enjoyed this story. I don't read much in Star Trek at all, and only barely more in S&H. I would love to read more Tris and Alex - so far I have a grand total of one other story about them. And despite that, I really got into all the different characters and their different points of view. None of the couples act as units (ie, 'we think this'); they all have differences and disagreements and concerns. As I write this I realise you could say it's three different ways of dealing with problems.

There is a heap of space 'dialect' - the band play 'tars, not guitars, and are occasionally frade and refer to other people as taja and other things - t'hy'la crops up, too, and I know that one (*looks proud*) so perhaps all the others are Trek terms too?

One element I haven't mentioned yet is that Doyl's green eyes are actually a plot point: Antosians with green eyes lack the ability to do some of the bonding and 'oneing' that is characteristic, and Doyl is extremely conscious of this and there is more angst about this too. While S&H fall out of the plot early on, there is certainly plenty of B/D and Tris/Alex to go along with the main Kirk/Spock relationship.

AU, space, three fandoms I don't know, songfic (the lyrics to various songs are used as the revolutionary medium)... this is everything I reckon to dislike.

I love it :)

2014

I read this zine before I even knew who Bodie and Doyle were. I'd bought it as a K/S zine, since at the time it was my only slash fandom. So I went into it not knowing anything about them or the Tris and Alyx characters (I knew about Starsky and Hutch, at least! *g*) Actually, I thought Tris and Alyx were from yet another unknown program, so thanks for straightening me out about that.

As far as the zine itself, it's been awhile, but I think I remember enjoying it. Mirror stories can be dicey, as the characters are often portrayed as extremely violent, especially Kirk. To the point that you wonder how Kirk manages the discipline needed to be a starship captain. Anyway, I'll have to pull it out and reread it. Thanks for bringing it to mind. :-)

Oh, and the other terms aren't exactly Trek. But there is a tendency in K/S to "futurize" or "alienize" words, so that's what is going on with that. :-)