I used to be a Spock fan, and I used to only imagine him in heterosexual relationships. I made a changeover about 5 years ago. I don't remember when it happened or why, but the idea of Spock and Kirk as lovers suddenly hit me full force, and it really took hold.
Here is the reason I think this particular pairing is so magical (for me, anyway): Kirk and Spock are iconic figures. Each represents something. We could go on all day listing all the things they are supposed to represent, I'm not going to do that. What they mean to other people is for them to say. To me, Kirk represents the ego, the self. Your ego is on an adventure, and it's the story of your life. But it doesn't go alone... the Ego is supported and sometimes opposed by the rational Superego, and the bestial but powerful Id.
I'm not going all Freudian on you. Another way to say this is we have a two-sided brain. One side is logical, one is emotional. We also have a primitive lower brain that regulates our most basic survival functions. A healthy mind (the ego) harmonizes all three.
Kirk, in charge and at the center of everything, represents us, the star of the show. On his left we have the relentlessly querulous Doctor McCoy, who pretty obviously is supposed to represent the emotional mind. Spock on the right is ostensibly the logical one. Kirk is supposed to always mediate between these two, allowing himself to be influenced, but not dominated by them. He's supposed to also keep one from overwhelming the other. Scotty can be seen as the one who represents the powerful lower brain.
That was what Roddenberry intended. Then something unexpected happened: Spock was revealed to be a deeply complicated fellow who could represent many things, often more than one at once. When the public caught on to how interesting Spock was, it almost became the Spock in Space show. It was decided by Roddenberry to ramp up the "friendship" between Kirk and Spock, in a conscious attempt to manage and manipulate the audience's fascination with Spock. Kirk, as a friend, was privy to more secrets and could take more liberties with Spock, and that cut both ways.
What they were trying to do has been explained. What they (subconsciously) accomplished is much more interesting. With Spock revealed to be both cerebral-alien-other and at times bestial-alien-other, he became a character that could play both the Superego and Id to Kirk's Ego. Then Kirk started playing Superego for Spock when Spock the Ego/Id was having a bad day. Then Spock would be the conciliatory and reasonable Ego, coping with Kirk's childish Id.
This grew, and in modern-day fanfic has become over-blown, overgrown, and damn near out of control. The purple prose could use some pruning, my friends, but you sure can't deny the fantasy is thriving.
What could be better for a fiction writer who is in a hurry to make a point about the nature of being and the human condition? To play with any problem of being, all you really need is these two guys. They are like Jack Sprat and his wife. Between the two of them, they can cover everything. Kirk and Spock alone in a room can recreate the universe.
Look at ST 2. In this movie we see that Kirk's fathered a son, and Kirk's former lady love, the mother, is no ordinary dame! Neither is the son, natch! Mother and son created a device that creates life out of lifelessness. Kirk is the fulcrum, keystone and catalyst for a sequence of events that ultimately leads to him shooting Spock's body into the center of a newly forming world. Oh, gee! Subtle, huh!?
Why do you think they had Kirk saying Spock's soul was human at the funeral? To officially dissolve his otherness, that's why. Now when Spock gets shot off, he is going as one of us, and Kirk is sending him.
It is not much of a leap for fans to say that Kirk and Spock are one in the flesh as well as the spirit. They ARE married, and not by us, but by Roddenberry. We just ran with it. I feel duty bound to do my part to make sure their marriage is a happy and fruitful one. While these guys are living in my head, they are going to be living good! Forget about anybody else: I feel I owe that much to myself!
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