I don't know how topical this is, but it sure is interesting...
the "fiction based on characters" of Star Trek was discussed in an
underground paper here in Richmond. Specific in the article was mention
of a series of gay "romance" novellas involving Spock and Kirk. I'm
not making this up. The article noted that most were written by lesbian
fans of the show, and are not intended as parodies at all, but rather new
twists on what some fans think was latent in the orginial (ie, Spock and
Kirk had something unsaid going on). My favorite part is that there are
two kinds of these books, referred to by authors and fans as "with
plumbing" or "without plumbing" depending on the explicitness.
I wonder how the industry feels about that, eh? Gotta love it...
M o R