The Trolian Bridge

Fanfiction
Title:	The Trolian Bridge
Author(s):	Anna Parrish
Date(s):	1990
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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The Trolian Bridge is a Kirk/Spock story by Anna Parrish.

It was published in the print zine Otherwhere/Otherwhen #1.

Reactions and Reviews

1990

I like this story. I found the interplay and conflict between the real Kirk and the mirror Kirk compelling. And our "boys" find wonderful romance (and Kirk even cries with joy!)

This was an original, poignant little story, and I’m impressed that what could have been very confusing narration was told very clearly; I'm not sure the use of italics was even necessary to distinguish our Kirk from the other. I did find myself questioning if a James Kirk of any universe would do something as unethical as this alternate Kirk did, but since he made it right at the end I found it easy to forgive him.

I also questioned that if the alternate Spock's katra appeared at the end in Kirk's mind, then why didn't Kirk know it was there before? But that's a minor quibble in what was otherwise an excellent, moving story.

Is the consistent replacement of "Tholian" with "Trolian" something that the author did deliberately? If so, does she mean to say that both the universes described were alternates in which the Enterprise encountered Trolians rather than Tholians? This doesn't seem likely because neither Tholians or Trolians ever appeared in the story. Nevertheless, we are confronted with the same situation that occurred in the episode "The Tholian Web". The idea that the dimensional interphase in that episode connected the mainline universe to another one that contained an alternate Kirk is interesting, but the connecting interphase should only have been able to occur in Tholian or Trolian space, as happened in the episode. Once the Enterprise had left the area of that particular space anomaly no connection between the universes should have been possible. It is not reasonable to posit that tranquilizers alone can transport someone into another universe. If that were so, then Kirk would be universe hopping every time he used such drugs. The basic concept of this story makes no sense.