Solstice (Star Trek: TOS story by Gaylen Reiss)

Star Trek TOS Fanfiction
Title:	Solstice
Author(s):	Gaylen Reiss
Date(s):	1979
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
External Links:
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Solstice is a Star Trek: TOS story by Gaylen Reiss.

first page

It was published in Masiform D #8. From the editorial in Masiform D: "Gay!en Reiss wishes to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to the Kraith Universe, and the writers of Kraith, who inspired her charming story, "Solstice"."

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  sample page, art by MRO Ludwig

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  sample page, art by MRO Ludwig

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  sample page, art by MRO Ludwig

Reactions and Reviews

'Solstice' is a seasonal 'Christmas aboard the Big E' story. Although the tale has been done before, it has seldom done this well. We get a clear picture of the Enterprise as an inter-racial, inter-species vessel. Moreover, the problems encountered by Mr. Spock in relating to and accepting the strange seasonal customs fo the emotional beings he is traveling with are handled realistically and delicately. There is a 'relationship' here, but it doesn't not stand in the way of the story. And this is a story, even down to change and development within the protagonists.

'Solstice' is a Christmas/Holiday story, thoughtfully written wherein Spock discovers the season of brotherhood is for him, too.

It's a relaxed, fannish-feeling zine with a tendency toward light humor and a rather unquestioning admiration of things Vulcan. The latter trait informs Gaylen Reiss' "Solstice", yet another tale of Christmas on the Big E. There's a twist, though. While the humans on board have been going about their Yuletide occasions, Spock has quietly been observing the Vulcan winter solstice, a time of intense meditation and personal re-evaluation which would, on Vulcan, culminate in a period of dancing and celebration. This fact comes to the attention of the Captain and the good Doctor, who then persuade Spock to contribute something of his own culture to the Terran seasonal observances. Which is basically good clean fun and could provide an insight or two. It doesn't. The trouble with this story, and with other faintly Kraith-flavored tales like it, lies in the assumption that humans know little of Vulcan civilization and, backward chauvinists that they are, are not particularly eager to learn, "Spock realized that he would always have difficulty melding the definitive Vulcan way with a human way that was illogical and even self-contradictory at times. Humans only understood the tip of the IDIC ideal of beauty in diversification;... " Et nauseam cetera. Homo sap cetainly has his faults, but I'm personally a bit tired of seeing the species sold short in this fashion. One of the clearer implications of both Amok Time and Journey to Babel is an ingrained Vulcan reluctance to share their culture and social institutions with—gawd forbid—outworlders. The xenophobic shoe is on the wrong foot here, methinketh.