Where Are They Now: Eileen Roy

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Title:	Where Are They Now: Eileen Roy
Creator:	Linda Frankel
Date(s):	August 1989
Medium:	print
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
Topic:
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Where Are They Now: Eileen Roy is a 1989 essay by Linda Frankel. The subject is fan Eileen Roy.

It was published in On the Double #12 and is part of a series "of articles about people who used to be prominent in K/S fandom, but are no longer active." The very short-lived series was popular. One fan said: "I loved the "Where Are They Now" article. MORE, MORE, MORE! If they know we miss them, maybe they'll come back!"

NOTE: It is sometimes difficult to determine with some comments with are Roy's opinions and which are the sometimes heavy-handed opinions inserted into the essay by Frankel.

Introduction

Eileen Roy wrote both gen Trek and K/S in the '70's. Some of you may recall her story Circle of Fire in THE PRICE AND THE PRIZE. I've decided to write about her, not because she has ever been very prominent K/S, but because I thought that she has an interesting and unique perspective.

Some Topics Discussed

• Classic Trek and Kirk/Spock (TOS)
• her then-current work for the comic book series "Assassin Spy"
• her then-current work on a pro novel that was "distinctly based" on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (her then current fandom focus)
• Roy published the MUNCLE zine Paladin's Affair, and hoped to put out an Illya/Napoleon and Arthur/Lancelot crossover novel zine in which these four men team up to find the Holy Grail. She was planning on two versions of this story: slash and non-slash
• the Man from U.N.C.L.E. fandom
• what Roy felt to be the limitations of writing fiction set in the future as opposed to the present
• the dullness of too much sex, themes Roy found objectionable
• Roy's observation that "In early K/S, the preponderance of stories showed Kirk in the dominant role. Now most of K/S seems to show Spock as the dominant partner."

The Essay

Eileen says that she prefers to write about Napoleon and Illya because she feels so much closer to them than she ever did to Kirk and Spock. It is easier for her to get beyond the surface stereotypes in Napoleon/Illya stories. She can then "use them to showcase the story, rather than the story to showcase them." This is an interesting point. Many K/S stories do seem to be out of context. The characters aren't really integrated into a plot and the relationship is "showcased" without there being any other focus to the story.

Eileen also says that she prefers the MUNCLE milieu of espionage. The excitement of spies and assassinations can be found in Trek, but mainly in the Mirror universe. Perhaps this accounts for the current resurgence of interest in Mirror K/S. Eileen relates to the espionage theme on a more personal 1evel, however. Other people may think in terms of their lives being a play, a movie, or even a rock video, but Eileen Roy feels that her life is "an undercover role". Writers have always been observers. To conceptualize what writers do as spying adds a fillip of the illicit to the activity. This approach to 1ife makes it apparent why she finds MUNCLE so congenial.

Another reason why Eileen prefers MUNCLE is that she feels that it's more flexible than most universes. Because it takes place in the '60's to the present, she can deal with current real life concerns in her fiction. She can use more of her own experience in these stories. It is my contention that K/S writers can and should use contemporary problems and their experiences in their fiction but in order to do this convincingly, it is true that the contemporary must be disguised, or else current trends must be extrapolated into the future. That is what science fiction writers generally do. You cannot take, the Salman Rushdie incident, for example, and transfer it directly into K/S (unless you intend to write a time travel story). Instead you must find 23rd century equivalents, find if you want to translate your dispute with your boss into a K/S story, you must think about how something similar might happen aboard a starship. Eileen says that she can use science fiction and fantasy devices in MUNCLE without being confined to them as she would be in K/S. It's also very easy for her to cross over into other shows with a contemporary background.

When I asked Eileen how she feels about current K/S, she said that she'd recently picked up three K/S zines for a friend at a con and "test-read" them. She said that there were some well-written stories in these zines but that there were others of the type that caused her to lose interest in K/S so long ago — slave stories, rape stories and stories that are totally focused on sex. She was surprised to find that Kirk and Spock seemed to have switched roles since she left. In early K/S, the preponderance of stories showed Kirk in the dominant role. Now most of K/S seems to show Spock as the dominant partner. It might be interesting for K/S fans to discuss why this change has occurred.