Slash
Even the most strictly casual Star Trek viewers know that Kirk and Spock are best friends. But fans since the 1960s and '70s have wondered, is there something more going on between these two? Speculation about the precise nature of their relationship has led to an entire fan fiction genre, slash, as well as ambiguous "clarifications" from series' creators, and more than a few raised eyebrows over the decades.
Stirrings. As a TV series airing on one of the "big three" networks (NBC) in the late 1960s, Star Trek had to remain conservative when depicting sex and
sexuality. While William Ware Theiss's costume designs often reveal a lot of flesh, kissing
is as hot as it gets onscreen, and only rarely is more implied to be happening off-screen.
Captain Kirk, supposed space playboy and convenient yardstick, kisses fewer than a dozen women over the 79 original episodes, and gets it on three or four times at best. The other characters - Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Chekov - get even less action. Because most of the series' female characters are "girls of the week", they don't form strong bonds with the men. The exceptions, of course, are the female officers, such as Uhura, Chapel, and Rand, who are usually treated as co-workers. Their own advances - Uhura flirting with Spock, Chapel pining for the Vulcan, and Rand trying to appease Kirk - don't get far.
So because of social norms (not to show too much intimacy between men and women), the series' clearest moments of emotional release include two male characters - most often Kirk and Spock. Witness Kirk and Spock's tear-streaked confrontation in The Naked Time, Kirk's tantrum when Spock takes up with Leila Kalomi in This Side of Paradise, and Spock's jubilation at seeing "Jim" alive in Amok Time. We see Spock and McCoy lash out at one another before reconciling in The Galileo Seven and The Tholian Web. Many moments of male bonding keep viewers emotionally engaged in the story.
For most viewers, these interactions wouldn't seem to go beyond bonding, "bromance" in today's parlance. But fanzine writers in the late 1970s, when the Star Trek fandom had picked up steam thanks to endless reruns and an abundance of tie-in merchandise, saw something more. The writers, mostly heterosexual females, placed Kirk and Spock in smutty stories that ranged from conventional gay encounters to inventing alien genitalia for Spock. "Slash" refers specifically to the forward slash placed between the characters' initials to designate the type of story, as in K/S. Published in hand-made, typed-and-photocopied 'zines, these stories didn't reach a mass audience, but the fandom, being tight-knit, knew what was going down.
Some fans disapproved, others lapped it up, most remained neutral. By the end of the decade, the notion had spread even to The Powers That Be.
Response. The first "official response" to slash came from the creator of Star Trek himself, Gene Roddenberry. Writing the novelization of 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, he seemed to wish to reassure the many fans who didn't view Kirk and Spock as a gay couple (or even consider it) while not alienating the slash readers and writers, loyal fans for sure. He coined a term spoken by Spock in the novel, ty'hy'la - friend, brother, lover - and inserted a footnote to explain it. The footnote continues with "comments" from Kirk:
I was never aware of this 'lovers' rumor, although I have been told that Spock encountered it several times. Apparently, he had always dismissed it with his characteristic lifting of his right eyebrow, which usually connoted some combination of surprise, disbelief, and/or annoyance. As for myself... I have always found my best gratification in that creature called woman. Also, I would not like to be thought of as being so foolish that I would select a love partner who came into sexual heat only once every seven years.
While Star Trek novels are not canon, the stories presented in the first six (canon) Star Trek films deepen the relationship between Kirk and Spock.
In The Motion Picture, Spock is called away from completing a ritual on Vulcan by the presence of V'Ger, a machine being that shows the Vulcan the value of his feelings towards Kirk. In The Wrath of Khan, Spock gives his life to save the Enterprise crew, while in The Search for Spock, Kirk sacrifices his career, his ship, and his son to have Spock back at his side. In The Final Frontier, as Kirk moves to hug his friend, Spock says, " Not in front of the Klingons."
The writers and producers of the films, including Leonard Nimoy, clearly saw Kirk and Spock's relationship as a rich vein to tap. Shatner and Nimoy, while preferring non-explicit interpretations of their characters, have always been well-disposed toward the subculture. When Kirk and Spock last appeared together onscreen, in 1992, the internet was in its technological infancy. A couple years later, the web exploded, and so did slash.
Resurgence. A joke about the early internet, circa 1993, was that it consisted entirely of Star Trek and porn. Fortunately for slash fans, the two could readily be found in combination.
Naturally slash had not abated in the early '80s and '90s, as desktop publishing and improved copying made distribution easier than ever. It had expanded to nearly any series depicting a strong male friendship. (Or female!) But the internet offered instant, worldwide access to material and the privacy to read it. Slash became 'net vernacular by the late '90s and into the 21st century. Once the domain of discreet housewives, every age and demographic now reads and writes the stuff, "slashing" anyone who walks across the screen.
Cultural studies departments in the '90s also legitimatized the genre somewhat, offering slash as a way to challenge the heterosexual norm of North American TV. Science fiction and fantasy series eventually introduced canonical gay characters, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Torchwood.
So where did the inundation of slash leave the original pairing? (Other than forever doing naughty things in people's imaginations?)
Director J.J. Abrams and his writers faced a challenge in creating 2009's Star Trek film: remaining faithful to young Kirk and Spock's burgeoning friendship while also surprising viewers. Abrams introduces a "love triangle" between Kirk, Spock, and Uhura - horn-dog Kirk chasing the stunning linguistics cadet, whom presumably-chaste Spock has been snogging all along. Whether Spock and Uhura's romantic relationship will survive in future films remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, Kirk and Spock engage in the same behaviour as always: showing off, smacking each other, rescuing one another... the basis of love? Chris Pine and Zach Quinto have teased fans more than Shatner and Nimoy ever have. Says Spock Prime in the film (played by Leonard Nimoy) to his younger self (Zach Quinto), " I could not deprive you... of a friendship that will define you both in ways you cannot yet realize."
Kirk and Spock's relationship is best left open-ended and approached with an open mind, in true Star Trek spirit. We return to Roddenberry for the last word:
Yes, there's certainly some of that - certainly with love overtones. Deep love. The only difference being, the Greek ideal - we never suggested in the series - physical love between the two. But it's the - we certainly had the feeling that the affection was sufficient for that, if that were the particular style of the 23rd century.