The End of the Old

Fanfiction
Title:	The End of the Old
Author(s):	Donna Vanderlaan
Date(s):	1985
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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The End of the Old is a K/S story by Donna Vanderlaan.

It was first published in the print zine Act 5 #1.

Reactions and Reviews

1986

It has to do with a type of New Year's Eve party on the Enterprise. Donna's sensitive style and imagery are moving throughout. Something occurs at this party that makes everyone curious. One charade/suggestion card is being refused by all. Spock and Kirk wonder. Later Spock discovers what it was, and is hurt by it. He feels suddenly very alien again. Kirk helps him. It is a wonderful, warm first time story for the more romantic fans.

1989

It is the "metaphysical" aspect that I love best in this story. For the New Year, Spock links himself to Kirk so he can share a special meditation— and it is very special. Donna makes references to specific concepts in Eastern philosophy such as the need to keep the spine straight so that the kundalini energy can travel its path from the base of the spine to the brain, or Spock touching Kirk between his eyebrows at the place where the "third eye" is located. I really appreciate it when someone writing about "metaphysical" subjects in K/S has background in them, and knows what she is talking about. Aside from mystical matters, "The End of the Old" is also a sweet and loving story that best represents Donna's feelings about K/S.

2001

This is one of the very first K/S stories I ever read, so of course it really stuck with me. The crew of the Enterprise are celebrating New Year's Eve, and that celebration includes a party for those off duty and gifts exchanged privately among friends. One of the games at the party where Kirk and Spock are each putting in an appearance requires a player to pull a challenge from a box and perform it or be compelled to pay a penalty. If a challenge is refused three times, it's removed from the box. Well, the very first person is McCoy and he flatly refuses the challenge he draws. Then a junior crewmember does the same, and finally Chapel does. All this happens during the rest of the activity taking place at the party, including comments about mistletoe, etc.

Later in the story Kirk is given a gift by the crew, a sort of lounging robe in some special fabric. And Spock invites Kirk for his gift, which turns out to be a session of meditation shared through their linked minds in the meld. Kirk is tremendously touched.

Kirk's gift to the crew is that he'll clean up from the party once it's over. (I found this one to be stretching it a bit. After all, he is the captain, and this gift would primarily be for maintenance, but what the heck.) Through the residue of the link he still shares with Spock from their meld, he awakens early in the morning to a sense of genuine sadness. He traces Spock down and finds that he is doing the cleaning up, and that's he has read the challenge that no one would accept. It required the drawer to "Go and tell Mister Spock that you love him." Kirk hastens to reassure Spock, telling him McCoy could never have fulfilled that command and maintained the friendly/unfriendly relationship between CMO and Exec, that the junior officer had a few of his seniors, that Chapel would never expose her soul to such ridicule because her words would be true. Spock seems to accept the comfort Kirk's words offer, but by the end of their quick clean-up, Kirk realizes something more is needed. So he takes on the challenge, as he has taken on so many in the past, and he tells Spock that he loves him.

This author has written several interesting K/S stories, some with special intriguing twists.This one is perhaps her simplest story, and I find it her most successful and compelling. I really like her rendering of the party on board the Enterprise; you can just see how she's drawing it from her own experience of similar parties. Spock's gift to Kirk is unique and pretty dam perfect given the circumstances. And while I would have wished to find out what happens in their quarters after Kirk makes his big declaration and realizes it is true, the story is just right the way it is, really. Happy New Year for both of them, indeed.

2008

The End of The Old by Donna Vanderlaan is a story I immediately recognized when I began reading it, even though I‘d forgotten the title. This is just one of those remarkable moments that ingrains itself into your memories of TOS as if you‘d seen it on that old snowy television set. It‘s New Year‘s Eve, the big holiday of the year for the Starship Enterprise. The crew has bought Kirk an extravagant gift, Kirk has bought Spock an extravagant gift and an even more extravagant party is underway in the rec room. The command team is obliged to attend, and while it‘s no sacrifice for Kirk, who loves parties, it‘s a different story for Spock. One reason I recall this so vividly is because of the portrayal of Spock, which seems dead-on to me. Spock stands on the sidelines, watching a game where the losers must perform humiliating acts and questioning why humans allow themselves to be belittled in such a way. The 'punishments' drawn by the losers are written on a slip of paper and each person has the right to discard his first draw. Whatever is written on the first slip drawn must be horrible, because everyone discards it until it is taken out of play.

Kirk and Spock stay awhile, but Spock has promised he has something for his captain and leads him to the observation deck, locking the door behind them. What he proceeds to do is not what you may have imagined, but it is ever so beautiful. He melds with Kirk, taking him along on a journey of deep meditation, where they expand and become a part of the universe. Exhausted, profoundly happy and reveling in the feel of the slight link that remains with Spock, Kirk retires to his cabin to get a bit of rest before cleaning up the rec room – his usual NY gift to the crew.

At 4:30 Kirk wakes, almost overcome by an awful feeling of loneliness, sadness and painful alienation that he senses must be coming from Spock. It seems Spock has taken on the cleaning chore to spare his friend the duty and has, out of pure Vulcan curiosity, found and read the penalty that everyone at the party rejected as if burned. Kirk takes it from him and reads, 'Go and tell Mr. Spock that you love him.' Oh, how that makes my heart ache. It has the same effect on Kirk, who tries to explain the stupidity of humans to little avail. He has no trouble, though, in making the declaration: 'I love you...I love you, Spock. If you only knew how much I love you.' See why I could never forget this story?