Author's notes: Stopping 'The Learning Curve' at this point and pursuing the canon line means that most of "ST V: The Final Frontier", and all of "ST VI: The Undiscovered Country", lie ahead. In my opinion, these movies taken together offer curious scenes that would support a longer Kirk/McCoy story, though I'm not going to tell it here (the famous scene not really accommodated by this stopping point is Spock telling Kirk, "Please, Captain, not in front of the Klingons"). In general, in the two movies, I'd point out these things as worth considering when thinking about Kirk/McCoy. -- in the early camping scene in ST V, Kirk and McCoy are generally shown together in a given frame, and Spock is shown by himself. The humans sit on one side of the fire, and watch Spock on the other. The humans exchange looks at various points, but they tend not to do so with Spock, and vice versa. Note, for example, how Shatner delivers the line "I knew I wouldn't die." Strange look he gives McCoy, in my opinion. -- in the scene when Sybok is showing "each man's pain," Kirk darts an odd look at Spock when he (Kirk) says "that I turned left, when I should have turned right?" Similarly, a bit earlier when McCoy interrupts Kirk saying "What do you know! A passionate Vulcan!" Kirk gives McCoy a quite peculiar look. In each case, I find it hard to figure out what the characters were supposed to be thinking, or doing, that wouldn't be highly colored by emotion or an emotional situation. That is, it seems to me that the strange expressions on their faces only make sense if they're seen as resulting from views and experiences we aren't shown in the movies. This story has aimed to show one possible set of events that lie behind the looks, but I think there are others that would be fun to explore also. -- the McCoy/Kirk vs. Spock arrangement is generally repeated at various points in these two movies, beyond just the camping scene. The two humans are, as best I can tell, shown together more often than Spock with either of the other two. This struck me as strange in part because in the episodes, it's mostly Kirk and Spock who wander around together. "Come on, Spock, let's go mind the store." That kind of thing. I saw ST VI before I began reading slash. Even then I was struck by how much Kirk and McCoy seem to be a unit in that movie, as compared to the frequency of Kirk and Spock appearing together in the TV episodes. I imagine one could do something slashy with the scene in which Iman (I forget her character's name -- it's the shapeshifter being) kisses Kirk, and McCoy says, "What is it with you?" Again, in the context of a Kirk/McCoy relationship, that'd be a fun line to work with. ST VI also shows other moments that seem to me dramatically odd but not part of the Kirk/McCoy line (whatever you think their relationship is). The two most obvious ones I imagine are first, when Spock rapes Valeris' mind in public, on the bridge, after Kirk has said nothing to him but "Spock." That is, Kirk doesn't even need to give much of an order for Spock to understand and obey, and to do something we'd be inclined to think is not in keeping with Spock's character. In one of the threads of 'The Learning Curve', I've taken the view that before he ever assaults Valeris, Spock has done this kind of intrusive mind-meld on McCoy. That is, he's a repeat offender when he attacks Valeris, which is why he so easily does what Kirk asks him to do. This isn't exactly canon view on Spock's character, but one could equally say that Spock's conduct with Valeris is shockingly out of character up to that point. The second scene is later yet, when Spock is meditating, in private, and Kirk just strolls on into his room and starts yapping at him about how old they are, etc. In my opinion, that betrays a closer relationship than the one we normally see. In some sense, these scenes are collectively part of the picture I've been trying to draw in 'The Learning Curve' -- here are three friends who know each other extremely well, more so than people who work together normally do. What they do to each other, or with each other (in sexual and nonsexual senses) is. in my opinion, largely a result of chance, of remarks here and there, of events that they can't control. Thanks for reading. raku

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