History HoYay / StarTrek

* "Amok Time" is an incredibly subversive episode of television. I will describe the plot in brief:

** It should also be noted that Andrew Robinson, the actor who portrayed Garak, has [[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Elim_Garak#Background explicitly stated]] that he chose to portray Garak as a sexually ambiguous character, yet, to his chagrin, the series' writers chose to make Garak explicitly straight by the time the character gained some relevance.

** Special mention must go to the episode in which Garak leaves for an incredibly dangerous mission to find his former mentor, and Bashir sees him off. He asks if he can handle any business while Garak is gone, and Garak proceeds to tell him of a very special Cardassian data rod that Bashir should ''eat'' if Garak doesn't return. Bashir responds by giving Garak a going-away gift of exotic space chocolates. As one of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2q2ySAOyqo&lc=z23etde4tqantrzseacdp431h0r13mjvh1oxqosggq5w03c010c YouTube]] comments puts it:

* ''Deep Space Nine'' hinted at LesYay in the MirrorUniverse episodes. Also in the episode "Rejoined", although that wasn't supposed to be about gender.

** Kirk/Spock is in fact [[https://fanlore.org/wiki/Slash#History_of_the_Term where the term "slash" comes from]] and one of the most famous examples of SlashFic. They didn't really start the whole thing -- Holmes and Watson have been slashed for decades, and Dr. Fredric Wertham confirmed he'd interviewed gay men who took it for granted that [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bruce and Dick]] were intended as a gay couple. Creator/RobertCrumb's brother Charles used to create gay fantasy illustrations based on ''Film/TreasureIsland1950''. Such stories were likely written about [[Series/TheManFromUncle Napoleon and Ilya]] and [[Series/TheWildWildWest Artemus & James]], among others. But they were clandestine -- what's known as "drawerfic", at best mailed privately to a handful of friends. Kirk/Spock slash stories were the first to be circulated among fans in actual fanzines. They were taking a huge risk by doing so, since in the [=1960s=] homosexuality in fiction was considered "pornographic" in most states even if nothing explicit happened, and using the U.S. Mail to distribute pornography is still, even in the [=21st=] century, a federal crime.

* Amok Time is an incredibly subversive episode of television. I will describe the plot in brief:

* In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E10JourneyToBabel}} Journey to Babel]]", we meet Spock's parents. Amanda and Sarek touch the tips of their index and middle fingers together several times. As they do this in public, three times in front of Kirk and others, this gesture is more likely to be Vulcan hand-holding, but slash fans like to assume this is how Vulcans kiss, which may change the way you view certain scenes.
* Even the Klingons could see it. In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS1E26ErrandOfMercy}} Errand of Mercy]]", Commander Kor seems to figure out PDQ that threatening Spock is one way lean on Kirk. Spock would always remain conscious of this even decades later.

* In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS3E19RequiemForMethuselah}} Requiem for Methuselah]]", [=McCoy=] tells Spock:

* In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS1E28TheCityOnTheEdgeOfForever}} The City on the Edge of Forever]]", Kirk and the love interest, Edith Keeler, have a conversation:

* In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E25BreadAndCircuses}} Bread and Circuses]]", [=McCoy=] accuses Spock of being afraid of his own emotions, which leads to this exchange:

* The end of the “Wolf In The Fold” has Spock display no interest in whatever the women at the cafe do that Kirk talks about, and for his part, Kirk gets pouty at the possibility of going to see pretty ladies alone.
* In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS3E12TheEmpath}} The Empath]]", Kirk, Spock, and Bones are taken captive by aliens, along with Gem, a woman from [[TheEmpath a species with empathetic abilities.]] At one point, Kirk is lying down, and Spock sits next to him. Gem was walking away, but something about Spock's action makes her stop in her tracks. She looks at them curiously. Spock is [[LongingLook too busy watching over Kirk as he sleeps]] to notice her at first. When he catches her watching him watch Kirk, he becomes flustered, looks away, and fiddles with his tricorder. Intrigued, Gem goes over to Spock and touches his shoulder to feel his feelings. At first she looks confused--but then she realizes something, [[EveryoneCanSeeIt and smiles--softly, knowingly]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9XxtD2WYZY See for yourself.]] Note the music. [[SarcasmMode What could this possibly mean?]]
* "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS1E25TheDevilInTheDark}} The Devil in the Dark]]", Kirk and Spock argue about killing the Horta, Spock doesn't approve of the idea because he believes it is the only Horta left. But when Kirk tells Spock over communicator that the Horta is in the room with him Spock insists Kirk kill it immediately.
* Then there's the turbolift scene in [[{{Recap/StarTrekS3E4AndTheChildrenShallLead}} And the Children Shall Lead]].
* And then there's the novelization of ''[[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture The Motion Picture]]'' (written by Gene Roddenberry himself), where Spock refers to Kirk as his "t'hy'la" - a Vulcan word that can mean "friend", or "brother", or "''[[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers lover]]''"...

* Hoshi and T'Pol in the episode "Sleeping Dogs" Hoshi says she wishes she could ignore her emotions. T'Pol walks over, kneels and takes Hoshi's hands in hers; Hoshi seemed to enjoy it as well (Friendly reminder that the Vulcan kiss (or at least the Vulcan hand-holding or embrace) is two fingers touching two fingers, stroking fingers and hands seems analogous to a significantly deeper kiss, and that Vulcans as a rule [[HatesBeingTouched tend not to engage in physical contact]] because of their TouchTelepathy, feeding back into the "touching hands is a gesture of intimacy" thing). The implication of the scene is that she touches Hoshi's mind briefly and teaches her to meditate on and control her fear. Which, you know... isn't intimate ''at all.''
* Before the writers started setting up a "thing" between her and Doctor Phlox (tragically cut short by the death of the actress), Cutler sure does seem to want T'Pol to pay attention to her in "[[{{Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS01E04StrangeNewWorld}} Strange New World]]"
* Hoshi and [[{{Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E04Rajiin}} Rajiin]]. It is basically impossible to see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qYXtYq5K5k this scene]] between them as anything ''other'' than lesbian flirtation.

*** In 2016, [[https://fanlore.org/wiki/Amok_Time#D.C._Fontana_on_Canon_Slash D.C. Fontana, who edited the script, denied that gay subtext]] had been deliberately written into "Amok Time", and said such an idea was "nonsense".

* In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E10JourneyToBabel}} Journey to Babel]]", we meet Spock's parents. Amanda and Sarek touch the tips of their index and middle fingers together several times. As they do this in public, three times in front of Kirk and others, this gesture is more likely to be Vulcan hand-holding, but slash fans like to assume this is how Vulcans kiss, which may [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar change the way you view certain scenes.]]

* Bashir and O'Brien in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' ("I like you just a little bit more") have this.
** O'Brien told Bashir he wishes Keiko was "more like a man". If that pairing isn't canon, nothing is.

** "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E22TheWire}} The Wire]]", in which Bashir helps Garak through a near-suicidal drug addiction, is pretty much a forty-five minute canon HurtComfortFic. It culminates with Bashir going alone into Cardassian space to meet the former head of the Cardassian secret police in order to save Garak's life.

--> '''QUARK:''' Such as, 'Goodbye, you certainly were a worthy adversary.' Or maybe something with the words mutual respect in it.

* Hoshi and T'Pol in the episode "Sleeping Dogs" Hoshi says she wishes she could ignore her emotions. T'Pol walks over, kneels and takes Hoshi's hands in hers; Hoshi seemed to enjoy it as well (Friendly reminder that the Vulcan kiss (or at least the Vulcan hand-holding or embrace) is two fingers touching two fingers, stroking fingers and hands seems analogous to a significantly deeper kiss, and that Vulcans as a rule [[HatesBeingTouched tend not to engage in physical contact]] because of their TouchTelepathy, feeding back into the "touching hands is a gesture of intimacy" thing).

* Shran and Archer's vitriolic relationship hit this note for some who noticed that Shran inevitably keeps volunteering to run into Archer in spite of all danger. And then there's the inevitable parallels present between Amok Time and United.