Star Trek RPF

Star Trek RPF is RPF (Real Person Fiction) which centers around the lives of actors who appeared in the original series (TOS) or the reboot films (aka Star Trek XI, AOS, Kelvin timeline, etc.). RPF stories about actors from other Star Trek shows do exist, but do not appear to be as numerous (at least on the AO3 archive, which does have a recentism bias).For example, on the AO3 the most popular ship outside of TOS or AOS in the Star Trek RPF tag was Robert Beltran/Kate Mulgrew with 22 fanworks.
 
The TOS RPF fandom has its basis in the very close friendship shared by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy that has spanned more than 40 years.Interview with Shatner in which he describes his 'great' friendship with Nimoy as something he 'cherishes'. 
===TOS===
The most common type of RPF for the original series tended to center on various cast members being beamed aboard the Enterprise, and the characters being transported to the Trek movie set. These fics did not imply or feature any sort of a sexual relationship between the actors. One example of this is "The Sun Plays Tricks," 1977, in the zine Diplomacy. 
One of the very first pieces of Star Trek fan fic to appear in a fanzine was actually RPF -- "Visit to a Weird Planet", written by Jean Lorrah and Willard F. Hunt From Spockanalia 3, ed. by Devra Langsam and published in 1968. In it, we follow the characters from Star Trek when they are swapped with their real life actor counterparts; as Kathy L. remembers, "There were also cameos by 'Gene' (Roddenberry) and 'Fred' (Phillips, the make-up man.)" A sequel, "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited" by Ruth Berman, took place at the same time but followed the actors, who suddenly find themselves on the real Enterprise. This story was later reprinted in the professional anthology Star Trek: The New Voyages #1 (Bantam, 1976). Kathy L. notes: "As was the case with many early ST zines, the issues of 'Spockanalia' were sent to Gene Roddenberry's office, to be shared with cast and crew (some of who sent back LoCs). Plus, since Ruth's story was approved for printing in a professional anthology (with a foreword by Roddenberry and a story intro by Majel), it's reasonable to assume that this early version of RPF was not looked at askance by TPTB. What Shatner and company thought is not known, but I'd be surprised if they cared, as the story was quite harmless." 
RPF for the original series that had a sexual component is much rarer. One fan reports that while RPF in Star Trek TOS mostly centered on Shatner/Nimoy and has been around as long as TOS slash, it has been a largely niche section of Star Trek slash fandom that remained underground until the early 2000s. Kristina. Real People Fiction, Fanfic Symposium, 10/30/05. 
An example of a sort of meta-y-Star Trek RPF is the 1995 story Stranger Than Fiction. It is a K/S story by Shelley Butler and Kathy Stanis. In it, two crewwomen share a passion for watching Kirk and Spock and are so sure that they are lovers, they begin writing stories about them. 
 
In 2014, a fan commented on a mailing list that the only people she remembered in slash fandom back in the day who literally met in secrecy were fans of RPS, and they literally had passwords or "coded buttons" they wore at conventions. MPH, paraphrasing a comment from KirkSpockCentral. 
A fan in 2005 wrote: 
In 1987, the Star Trek: TOS zine, Shadows in the Rain published an RPS story, something that caused a huge amount of fannish discussion: 
Another early example of RPS Star Trek fiction, published in 1988, was Sojourns. In 1989, a fan expresses her discomfort, and fear, of the author's use of the Star Trek creators in a slash novel, despite the fact that it was only a brief mention: 
A fan in 2005 commented on the scarceness of this genre: 
A note about terminology in the TOS fandom:actorfic was the term in the late 1990s. "Circa 1998 to 2002, most mailing lists I was on actively stated NO ACTORFIC BASED ON STAR TREK ACTORS." -- May 5, 2005, Laura Hale, Star Trek Actorfic, at alt.startrek.creative "RPS" was specifically mentioned in 2003 by a slash fan who distanced herself from RPS, but did not specifically refer to that genre in Star Trek: "I don't want to rain on anyone's writing parade
and I certainly make no judgement [sic] on idividual [sic] tastes, but to weigh in on someone who has spoken to a number of actors on the subject of slash in general and RPS in particular, I have distanced myself from the latter in a big way. I've found that actors that shrug at or even are amused by slash do get offended by RPS. It's an issue of folks reading something on the net and thinking it's true and in some cases, an issue of stalking." Trekkies And RPS, NovaD, April 16, 2003 
Also see Shatnoy.
Also see Spirk.
 
====Early TOS Examples====
* Visit to a Weird Planet, the original RPF Trek story, the actors exchange places with the crew, no sexual component (1968) 
* Tomorrow is Yesterday by Dorothy Jones and Astrid Anderson. In a mission involving time travel, various crew members find themselves attending a Star Trek convention on 20th century Earth. There are many characters at the con including numerous BNF science fiction writers, Bjo Trimble, the evil Harlan Ellison. This is a Dorothy and Myfanwy story. (1970)
* Dream House by Steve Lampen (1974)
* Karen & Leonard: A Monochromatic Romance, a het self-insertion story starring the author and Leonard Nimoy (1975)
 
* "Do-WHAT??" by Jenny Elson, a story in STAG #34, the crew and the actors switch places, no sexual component (1979)
* "The Sun Plays Tricks," Star Trek RPF in the zine Diplomacy, a Shatner finds himself aboard the Enterprise, mentions his then-wife Marcy (1977)
* Doppleganger by Sonni Cooper (1981)
* "Star Trek: 1982" by Ruth Ann Hepner in Doctor McCoy's Medical Log #5. In this story, DeForest Kelley is framed for selling drugs to Shatner's daughters and goes to jail. Shatner is very mean, and Nimoy is very kind. Marcy Shatner makes a lot of meals. There's crying. Turns out it was all a plot by Paramount. (1982)
* A Shadow Not His Own, RPF fiction by Kate Lach (about Nimoy being offered and talked into by Roddenberry to take the role of Spock, the story includes Nimoy's wife and children) (printed in Leonard Nimoy Compendium #1) (1982) 
* Mr. Spock's Quiet Read, RPF fiction by Barbara Ellams (includes Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Sandi Nimoy, Teresa Victor, William Shatner, Fred Phillips -- in this story, Nimoy goes to sleep in his dressing room and wakes up as Spock; Sandi is called into help) (printed in Leonard Nimoy Compendium #1)(1982)
* Shadows in the Rain, in this story, Spockʼs life becomes intertwined with the actor who portrays him in another reality as they “visit” each other over the years, contains suggestive/mild Shatner/Nimoy (1986)
* Sojourns, another "Spock and Kirk know each other through time," includes a passage which includes Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner and suggestive K/S, as includes Gene Roddenberry in a non-sexual way (1989)
===TNG===
* Revisiting a Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited, or: "Patrick, I Don't Think We're In L.A. Anymore..." by Melanie Miller-Fletcher (1994)
===AOS===
It was with the release of the reboot movie that Star Trek RPF really took off9 RPF communities were created on Livejournal in 2009 following the release of the reboot movie. The most popular pairing is, by far, Pine/Quinto (widely known by their portmanteau Pinto), who are the RPS counterpart of the very popular reboot Kirk/Spockstartrek_rps tag page as of July 2010 indicates 336 uses of the Pine/Quinto tag. The second and third most popular tags are Pine/Urban and Urban/Yelchin with only 51 uses each, while Shatner/Nimoy trail in at fourth place with only 40 uses of that tag.The Pinto pairing has two dedicated LJ groups, pinto_fic with over 1600 members and ontd_pinto, with over 800 members, compared to pinecity, the Pine/Urban community, which has less than 300 members (figures as of July 2010) . 
The popularity of Pinto is likely fueled by the fact that Zachary Quinto has gone on record as saying that he and Chris Pine have become close off-cameraInterview in which Quinto describes his friendship with Pine as 'close'. This is attested by the fact that the pair have been seen socializing together both in Los Angeles Pine and Quinto leaving a winter party in Los Angeles and New York Pine and Quinto strolling and chatting on a New York streetPine and Quinto attending the premier of a Broadway play. Further speculation by Pinto fans dwells on the fact that both actors live near each other in the same neighborhood of Los AngelesPine's home in Silver Lake, CAQuinto walking his dog near his home in Silver Lake and neither actor appears to have a partner - all the women linked to Pine since the release of the movie have been transient and Quinto was widely rumored to be gayGossip columnist, Perez Hilton, describes Quinto as supporting 'his fellow gays' (publicly supporting gay rightsIn support of same-sex marriage, Quinto acted in a one-night production of "Standing on Ceremony" at the El Portal Theatre, and in October 2011, Quinto officially came out as gayWhat's Up, Spock? article in New York magazine, 16 Oct 2011 (Accessed 25 Nov 2011).).
While less common, other favored RPS pairings continue to include Shatner/Nimoy, as well as Urban/Yelchin and Pine/Urban. Given the enormous popularity of the Kirk/McCoy pairing in reboot fandom -- in no small part due the fans' admiration of the actors themselves -- the RPS fandom for the two actors is surprisingly far less widely supported. Possible reasons may be that Karl Urban is married with children, and also when not filming, continues to live in his native New Zealand.
Very few threesome stories have been written -- the most popular is Pine/Urban/Quinto.20 Stories are listed in startrek_rps for this threesome, as of July 2010.
Het stories that include Zoe Saldana are exceedingly rare.Only 3 stories of 486 listed on startrek_rps involve Saldana, twice paired with Pine and once with Quinto and 3 threesomes listed between Saldana/Pine/Quinto, as of July 2010.
==RPF AU==
In a curious twist, there have been a number of RPF AU stories written in reboot fandom, in which the actors are placed in different settings, leading different lives, but are still recognizable as far as their public persona allowsStory in which Pine & Quinto are members of a bandStory in which Pine & Quinto are school teachersStory in which Pine & Quinto are relief workers in post-earthquake-torn Haiti The novella-length story was removed from the author's LJ journal after a story in another fandom, also set in Haiti, received considerable criticism for its inappropriate setting for a fandom 'love story' and for racial stereotyping. The link is to the author's explanation as to why it's no longer available. . This is distinct from one particular genre of reboot AU stories in which members of the crew are removed from the Star Trek universe and placed in a contemporary setting, leading 'normal' -- and for Spock, human -- livesEducated Diferences, a story set at a 21st century college in which Kirk and a human Spock share a dorm..
===Other Treks===
A fan in 2001 asked other fans about some Star Trek: VOY fic featuring two of the actors"...recently [sic] I read an actorfic tittled [sic] Turning Point by lzclotho. It was about a love affair between Kate/Jeri on the Voyager set. If anyone knows of any stories of this kind, please let me know." Lois, Newbie, October 26, 2001 
==Fandom Communities==
* kirk_mccoyThe kirk_mccoy LJ community allows Pine/Urban RPS to be posted. (Primarily Kirk/McCoy, but also some Pine/Urban)
* pinecity (Pine/Urban)
* pinto_fic (Pine/Quinto)
* ontd_pinto (Pine/Quinto
* shatnoy_rpf (Shatner/Nimoy)
* st_rpf_marysue (Actors/Mary Sue OFC)
* startrek_rps
* trek_rpf_kink meme
* trekrpfmeta
* trekrpfnews
==Archives==
* Star Trek RPF fanworks on Archive of Our Own
* Delicious bookmarks of stories posted to trek_rpf_kink
==Notable Fanworks==
===TOS cast===
* Any Way You Want Me by obstinatrix. locked. (Shatner/Nimoy)
* It's All There If You Read The Fine Print by irrelevant on livejournal (13th-Oct-2009) (Shatner/Nimoy)
===AOS cast===
* The Adventures of the Amazing Pinto Stoner Dudes by beedlebarg on livejournal. offline. (Pine/Quinto)
* We Don't Talk About Love by 1297 on livejournal. offline. (Pine/Urban)
* Captain Spanky by medea-fic on livejournal. locked. (Pine/Quinto)
* You Know I Don't Ask For Much by winterlive on livejournal. (2009-05-17) (Pine/Quinto)
* Inhabiting by gigantic on livejournal. (2009-06-14) (Pine/Quinto)
* Take Me Out by winterlive on livejournal. 2009-06-23. (Pine/Quinto/Saldana, Pine/Quinto)
* Baby We'll Be Fine by traveller on livejournal. 2009-06-23. (Quinto/Saldana)
* D: by rageprufrock and leupagus. Jul. 5th, 2009. (Pine/Quinto)
* L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux by formerlydf on livejournal. Jul. 23rd, 2009. (Pine/Quinto)
* Let Your Dreams Run Free by hily & telesilla on dreamwidth. 2009-10-24. (Pine/Yelchin)
* Hot Flash by ewinfic. 29 November 2009. (Pine/Cho - AU)
* Shiny, Shiny by sanguefic on livejournal. Feb. 11th, 2010. (Pine/Urban)
* Just Right by htebazytook on livejournal. 09 March 2010. (Pine/Quinto)
* A Passage That Sings by dorkorific on livejournal. 2010-05-25. (Pine/Quinto)
* New York Renaissance by pirateyes on livejournal. May 29th, 2010. (Quinto/Cho)
* 46th and Pine: A West Philadelphia Love Story by therumjournals on livejournal. Jul. 7th, 2010 (Pine/Quinto)
==Meta/Further Reading==
* Trekkies And RPS (2003)
* Is RPS allowed? (2003)
==References==
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