The Disaffirmed

Star Trek TOS Fanfiction
Title:	The Disaffirmed
Author(s):	Ruth Berman
Date(s):	1972
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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The Disaffirmed is a Star Trek: TOS story by Ruth Berman.

It was published in T-Negative #15 (1972) and Kraith Collected #1 (1973).

It is a Kraith story. A Vulcan scout who missed the Affirmation, and is now a non-person on his home world. Realizing he will never be a true Vulcan again, and prepares to lead a uniquely separate life. Uhura contemplates marrying him.

1974: A Fan's Comparisons

The best and most Star Trek of all the entries is A Matter of Priority. It reads well, smoothly, no jarring character inconsistencies (Strekfen will likely be disgruntled at the unbelievable insensitivity, ignorance, and superficiality of all the human characters as handled by Lichtenberg and also Doris Beteem) a quirk not shared by Ann Mary Hall, the author of A Matter of Priority). It exemplifies what Star Trek could have and should have been on all levels, not just the treatment of the Vulcan Culture. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the crew interact as they should; a fine, tense, articulate, if not particularly heavy story.

A Matter of Priority ties with The Disaffirmed, by Ruth Berman. It is also STAR TREK — she was closely associated with the show — and it shares with A Matter of Priority the characteristic of making the human beings human beings, not just foils to the Vulcans. In fact, you might end up disliking the Kraith Spock a trace from this episode, which was written by Berman as a fictional refutation of some of the ideas in Kraith (as a result, Lichtenberg made some amendments, apparently; that's how I know she's open-minded).

There is a marked difference between the way Berman and Hall write and Lichtenberg's approach, even though all three use the same basic narrative form — third person omniscient, subjective, Berman writes sympathetically, as does Hall, with a sharp understanding of how her characters think. Her portrayal of Lieutenant Uhura is of a woman who is firm, intelligent, responsible, responsive, and human. Lichtenberg's Christine Chapel, in contrast, is horribly shallow and unmotivated in her behavior, almost, like Kirk and McCoy, right out of the Star Trek format. In Spock's Affirmation she stoops to the I-Love-Lucy level of being jealous of Spock's attentions to T'Rruel and even goes so far as to try to squelch the Vulcan woman by telling her Spock is half human. It's true that the aired Star Trek itself shared this deficiency, but kindly remember that in 1966 when it was first put on the air the producers were fighting for even THAT much from NBC executives who thought television programs should he written on the level of lobotomized Rhesus monkeys and that Star Trek novelists, as Jacqueline herself pointed out, shouldn't have to put up with this attitude in fens and can write intelligently. It's great to make Spock capable of doing the innumerable things he did in Kraith, especially if it's supported, as it was. But why only expand Spock's capabilities? Lichtenberg writes about humans as though she were observing them with no knowledge of what they were like, not only when she writes from the viewpoint of a Vulcan, but always.

Reactions and Reviews

The Disaffirmed / Nice adjunct to Kraith. Enterprise rescues a young Vulcan who missed the Affirmation and is now an outcast - and proposes to Uhura, who promises to be there for his time if necessary.