The Marriage (Star Trek: TOS story)

Fanfiction
Title:	The Marriage
Author(s):	Gena Moretti & Anna Parrish
Date(s):	1991
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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The Marriage is a Kirk/Spock story by Gena Moretti and Anna Parrish.

It was published in the print zine Naked Times #26.

Summary

"Spock decides to buy MʼBengaʼs help as a witch doctor to make Kirk fall in love with him, unaware that Kirk already is."

Excerpt

"The sound of drums, and of low, almost inaudible chanting, filled the room. The Vulcan caught a slight movement out the corner of his eye and pivoted rapidly. It was M'Benga -- an almost totally nude M'Benga. He wore feathers over his genitals and that was all. His dark face was painted white and there were red and blue stripes on his cheekbones. He carried a deformed rattle of snake skin and bits of bone. The Vulcan shuddered but he began to disrobe. In the dimness, the darkening of his flesh did not show. When he was unclothed, he held his pants in front of his genitals. M'Benga jerked them out of his hand and threw them in the corner as the ritual began. Now the love potion could be made."

Reactions and Reviews

1991

I didn't care for the humorous element in this story. A great deal of it was very belittling toward Kirk and some of it was belittling toward Voodoo. It's actually called Vodun, and is a real African religion that deserves respect. The caricature that the authors made of it in this story encourages prejudicial attitudes. I also wondered what happened to the mission they'd been on. It's never mentioned after the beginning of the story as if it had no importance. I don't think that Kirk and Spock would dismiss the results of a mission from their minds so completely. The authors also had Spock leave the bridge abruptly without mentioning anyone replacing Spock at his station. Then Spock diverts the ship to Vulcan and Kirk says that "it won't interfere with anything'. How could it not? What are they doing? Wandering at random through space? Don't they have any Fleet assignment? In the series, diverting a starsbip is considered a really big deal. In 'Conscience of the King' Kirk called diversion of a starship a serious crime. Even in "Amok Time' when Spock's life was at stake T'Pau had to intercede to convince Fleet to overlook the diversion of the ship to Vulcan. The combination of forgetting about the mission, not replacing Spock at the science station and casual diversion of the ship leads me to the conclusion that the authors forgot why our heroes are aboard the Enterprise when they wrote this story.

As the subtitle warned, this story was indeed "something completely different". While I was able to appreciate some of the humor, I found most of the characters McCoy. Spock had no morals or dignity, Kirk was simple-minded and real slow on the uptake, and M'Benga was outright cruel. (In the latter case, I was very disappointed that no disciplinary action had been determined by the end of the story. Kirk's verbal sort-of reprimand -- "I'll have to look up a few regulations first" -- was so weak that I wondered how he ever earned his captains' stripes.) Perhaps this story would have worked for me if the voodoo hadn't been taken seriously and/or been performed by someone else (say, Lt. Riley instead of a supposed professional M.D. like M'Benga. (For that matter, for the story to be believable, it would have to be a character other than the Spock I know who resorts to the voodoo.) I know this story was just for fun, but some parts of it, like the rooster being slaughtered, were downright upsetting.

2000

It is a long time ago that I read such a funny story!

It starts when Kirk tries desperately to prevent his marriage with a son of a ruler of some obscure planet. To do so, he says he is already married -- to Spock. Spock sees no other way to confirm that to rescue Kirk and so does McCoy as a witness. Then they are free to go.

Back on the ship Spock explains that according to Starfleet regulations they now are legally married, and Kirk is shocked, mostly for Spock's sake, of course. He promised ASAP to get a divorce, because he is absolutely sure that Spock wants it that way.

So the papers for the divorce come through and Kirk signs them and sends them to Spock to sign also and to send back to Starfleet administration.

Spock, however, doesn't want a divorce, and without Kirk knowing of it, he erases the papers, so they stillstay legally married.

Kirk hopes that this affair has not troubled his friendship with Spock and continues as if nothing ever happened, bringing Spock to despair.

What to do to win a love? Desperate, Spock turns to M'Benga. M'Benga is a voodoo priest.

What follows I will not tell here, read for your self! But I can think you can imagine what occurs!

Spock tries everything, from a love potion till secret rituals, and finally, indeed, Kirk opens his eyes for their love. But is that due to the voodoo rituals or to something else...?

So they can finally enjoy their honeymoon night, can they?

I laughed a lot while reading this story. The use of words and phrases is just right to make it a hilarious and serious story,with unexpected events. You just are waiting on an uneventful happy end, but....

M'Benga is just great as a voodoo priest, and the things Spock does to win his love...he is very Spockian determined to get to his target.

I just have to mention at least one surprise...can you imagine Spock, naked, his heart and genitals painted with the blood of a chicken (not what you think!), dancing a ritual voodoo dance and drinking some awful stuff? How deep must be his love for Kirk!

I never could see Spock as a comedian, but here he does a good job although not entirely voluntary.