TrekWorld (Star Trek: TOS story)

Fanfiction
Title:	TrekWorld
Author(s):	Paula Block
Date(s):	August 1976
Length:
Genre(s):	gen
Fandom(s):
Relationship(s):
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TrekWorld is a 1976 Star Trek: TOS story by Paula Block.

It is a parody that skewers what Paula Smith and other fans had dubbed Mary Sue fiction. The story also is an RPF in that Harlan Ellison is also a character.

The fic was printed in Menagerie #10 in 1976.

Some fans said they felt the story was too cruel and vitriolic regarding female fans. The story was part of the discussion regarding literary standards and gatekeeping in the essay I (and Sharon) have been backed into a corner defending a single position over quality controls. Frankly, I rather resent this.

Two Illos

• 

  from issue #10, art from TrekWorld, Martynn is the artist: "Mary Sue's head blew off and her body slumped to the floor; a cloud of smoke rose from her neck, where a few wires dangled forlornly. Even Ellison seemed a bit surprised. "Gosh," he said. "She wasn't real, either." "So it would appear," Spock said, nudging her detached head with the toe of his boot.""

• 

  from issue #10, art from Trekworld, ""Oh, Christ," said the voice in disgust. And the owner of the voice climbed out of the box. He was a little man, littler than anyone on the ship, including Mary Sue herself. Mary Sue did not think she had seen him before, but the regular cast in the Transporter Room with her cowered in recognition."

Excerpts

And then there was TrekWorld. TrekWorld was built out of some crazed Trekkie's dream. In this part of Delos you could actually be a member of the crew of the Enterprise! You could sleep with Captain Kirk. You could sleep with Doctor McCoy. You could even sleep with Mr. Spock, if you had a logical reason. Not to be biased or anything, let me add that you could also sleep with Lt. Uhura or Nurse Chapel, or Yeoman Rand, if you could find her. You could do other things than sleep with the crew. You could be one of them—go with on exploratory missions, help steer the ship. You could be a better than average crewmember, and beat Mr. Spock at chess. You could tell the Captain he made the wrong decision and was a silly overweight fool. And he's probably agree. And Mr. Spock would back you up.

You could be any sort of Mary Sue you liked to be. At least you could for a while. Here is the story of one Mary Sue's visit to TrekWorld. Call her Mary Sue Everyman. Or Mary Sue Everyturd. No difference. Make up your own last name.

"Perhaps I can do a mind meld with the box and thus find out more about this strange being."

"Well, golly," said Mary Sue, "why don't we just open the box?"

Everybody said "Ahh!" in appreciation of Mary Sue's obvious intelligence. Spock gave her a stiff little bow in deference to her superior logic.

So Mr. Scott went and got the laser saw and they cut a big hole in the box. There was a rustling sound within, and finally a voice said, "Well, you sure took your fucking time."

Mary Sue clapped her hands over her ears. "Obscenities! There's not supposed to be any dirty words on the Enterprise!"

Fan Comments

1977

When MEN is good, as in the above stories, it's very good indeed. Unfortunately, when it's bad, it's correspondingly horrid. "Trekworld" is apparently intended to be funny; it isn't only cruel. There's a difference between "humor in a jugular vein" and blood sport. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've never met a Trekfan who deserved the kind of contempt Block pours on her "Lt. Mary Sue." As ego-trip, this piece may be successful; as satire, it goes in the same file as "Tunnel Under the World."

"Trekworld" was concurrently funny and irritating. Funny, because if we don't have a sense of humor about ourselves, then I think we'd better start worrying about little things like schizophrenia and the ever-popular paranoia. And irritating, because some of its underlying premises (ST versus "real" SF, Harlan E. as shafted genius) are persistently lamented in MEN in one guise or another.

...Star Trek effectively employed many traditional, well-respected SF devices and concepts. It also produced its share of turkeys; may I also point out that not all SF is in the enduring lit. category?...Comparing Star Trek with written SF is like comparing one individual's personal version of "reality" to another's and trying to put a value judgment on which is better... ST and written SF are on two different planes of experience or reality. There are things in Trek I can't get from written SF and vice versa. For instance, SF is not noted for its characterizations...I like the Trek characters and their interrelationships, and I like what is commonly known as the "heroic figure" in fiction. On the other hand, the ideas and concepts one finds in written SF are more mind-expanding than Trek presented and that limitation on Trek's part was inherent in the medium in which it existed.

...I hardly think it's very object of you to expect beginning writers to produce works comparable to pro SF writers...Why, I'd like to know, do you and Sharon seem to posture such a defensive animosity in MEN re the relative merits of Trek vs. written SF, with Trek always coming out on the minus scale? Sorry, I like 'em both and don't feel that I have to make a choice between them. Do you feel they're mutually exclusive or what?

It wasn't quite fair, though—saying in one breath you didn't accept MarySue stories and then printing Trekworld on the next page—but Poblocki's MarySue was far outside the norm.

"Trekworld" had a good premise but it tended to meander somewhat. Still, it was well done.

"Trekworld" had a familiar ring — I think I just stepped out of it at Bi-Centannial-10: Kirk shirts, McCoy dolls, Spock ears, "Space Traders," "Cadets"—not to mention the Real Live Genuine Bridge Set, which was absolutely jammed with thrills, I can tell you. The one item lacking, and desperately needed, was a touch of Ellison.