The Explorer

Star Trek TOS Fanfiction
Title:	The Explorer
Author(s):	Eileen Roy
Date(s):	1980
Length:
Genre:	gen, het
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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The Explorer is a Star Trek: TOS story by Eileen Roy.

It was published in Menagerie #16 in January 1980.

Reactions and Reviews

An equally negative and even more bluntly damning view of marriage is to be found in Eileen Roy's "The Explorer." A secondary character, Eli Cormack, has found in Star Fleet, a career and position that are vastly superior to anything available to her as a civilian. During the five-year mission she marries a fellow crewman and is fairly happy with her life. At the conclusion of the ENTERPRISE'S mission, a transfer that would keep them together is no problem, but her husband decides that he wants "a son to carry on his name," which Eli would leave Star Fleet to raise while her husband pursued his career. She is torn between her desire to conform to her husband's demands and thus preserve the marriage, and her own desire for a career and the economic security this would im.ply. When she asks for help to cope with the physical effects of her tension and con fusion, Chapel is sympathetic but Dr. McCoy dismisses her problem as being an example of "female foolishness."

In this issue: 'The Explorer": what would have been a very good story (Uhura wants to know why there are no women captains in Starfleet), was technically damaged by the author's attacking strawpersons and stereotypes instead of grappling with the real emotions behind the issues. It is saved by a strong, tight ending and a reasonable explanation of Starfleet's sexism.