Nearly 50k words of notes and several hours of filming and editing later, it’s finally done! I really enjoyed getting to dive into the text, and discussing a good book (as opposed to Spock, Messiah!) presented a whole new set of challenges. Still, I’m glad I had an opportunity to discuss such a compelling and—to coin a term—fascinating book.

I don't know if I'll ever do it for any of my other Spirk fics, for the simple reason that fic about two men, one of whom is famously pretty deep-voiced, is about the worst thing for a soprano to have to narrate 😅 But I might try it with one of my f/f fics.

Anyway feel free to listen to Spock and Kirk becoming girl dads to a bitey 10yo.

Oh my god so many you don’t understand. I’m working on a fic where Spock & Jim raise her in San Francisco after the second five year mission. I LOVE thinking about Saavik as an orphan/adoption narrative.

My headcanons/thoughts/scenarios:

- When she’s young, Jim tries to get her to read some of his old Terran literature & she gets really into it. Her favorite book is, oddly, Anne of Green Gables. As an adult, she quotes Shakespeare like a Kirk.

- As a preteen she is totally unfamiliar with water & swimming (having grown up on Hellguard, Dantria, and Vulcan). While she is still becoming accustomed to San Francisco, she falls into the bay and nearly drowns. Afterward, Spock (who loves swimming) and Jim (who knows swimming is a necessary skill for Starfleet officers to have) decide to teach her. She is super hesitant at first but once she gets the hang of it she loves it as much as Spock & finds it meditative.

- As a teen, while she’s living with Jim & Spock, Spock brings Valeris home for dinner since he’s sponsoring her in the academy. Jim isn’t too fond of Valeris, especially when she and Saavik start a relationship. Valeris is already a little radicalized in secret and doesn’t have a lot of patience for Saavik’s Romulan volatility (but she’s so, so beautiful). The relationship ends disasterously & it becomes a point of contention in the household since Jim & Saavik are against her but Spock is still quite invested in her education.

- She straightens her hair to appear more Vulcan up until Spock’s death in TWOK, then decides to embrace her curls. He used to brush them when she was little, after all.

- After The Voyage Home, Jim introduces Saavik to Gillian Taylor & they have a brief relationship that turns into a close friendship. Saavik meets George and Gracie & gains an appreciation for the diversity of animal life which she didn’t have before.

- In line with a lot of supplementary Trek material (novels & comics), Saavik becomes Enterprise helms-person in the time between The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Country. During this time, (my head canon), Joanna McCoy is stationed as a doctor in her father’s sickbay. Saavik and Jo get to know each other on the Enterprise and become very close. I imagine they have Spock/Bones level bickering with Spock/Jim level pining added on.

- When she rises to the rank of Captain, she appoints Joanna McCoy as her CMO and Demora Sulu as her First Officer.

- As Captain, Saavik learns to use her leverage as half-Romulan to her advantage, particularly in encounters with the Empire. What was once a deeply shameful part of her existence (citation: Wrath of Khan novelization) is something she accepts and even enjoys.

- Lowkey? If she and Jo had a son they’d call him David. After David McCoy and David Marcus. And he’d be very loved…