1. Amnesiac Lover Trope – A man wakes up in a hospital with no memories, a broken leg, and dog tags that read James T. Kirk. His physical therapist is a sadist named Leonard, and his only visitor is someone called (quite mysteriously) Spock. Yet James is 200% certain he has met one or both of them before.

2. Mother-in-law Trope – Jim, Leonard, and Spock are ready to tie the knot but that means inviting a soon-to-be mother-in-law to their wedding who doesn’t approve of triad relationships at all.

3. Outlaw Couple Trope – Leonard McCoy and Jim Kirk are the baddest outlaws in the West. They not only rob and murder their victims, they seduce them first. While nearly every bounty hunter has tried his hand at capturing this devious pair, no one has succeeded yet in outwitting them. Spock, a bounty hunter from the East, poses as a shy teller at a bank that he suspects is their next target. He will be the first man to come close to turning game on them. The catch is that he can’t fall in love with Kirk and McCoy like every other victim.

4. Noble Idiot Trope – Leonard is writing the portion of his latest novel in which his main character has nobly sacrificed his own happiness for the safety and well-being of his love interest. What McCoy doesn’t realize is that he has become the biggest Noble Idiot of all noble idiots by avoiding his longtime best friend Jim and new neighbor Spock so that they can live happily-ever-after without him.

5. Prison Trope – Leonard McCoy has the worst job on the planet but he would rather play security guard among a bunch of murderers and lunatics than go back to standing in a line at the Unemployment Office. Then things somehow get worse when he is assigned to the cell block harboring the Kirk gang. Their leader, Jim, takes a liking to Leonard, which is bad news when Jim’s second-in-command clearly wants to break Leonard’s neck for stealing away Jim’s affection. Jim decides Leonard and Spock will have to learn how to share.

6. Made Them Do It Trope – It wasn’t aliens or sex pollen or even the machinations of a well-meaning crew who made them do it. It was their future selves.

7. Little Mermaid Trope – Hans Christian Andersen version, with the twist that only one of mermaids Jim and Leonard can win Prince Spock’s heart and stay human. The unloved one will die.

8. Allergy Trope – Jim is surprisingly not allergic to food. But Spock is. Unfortunately Jim, Leonard, and Spock are celebrating their 100-day anniversary when they discover this fact. Bonus for comfort cuddling afterwards.

9. Body Swap Trope – Leonard looks like Spock, Spock looks like Jim, and Jim is… missing? And supposedly while looking like Leonard. Somewhere. In his new pointy-eared facade, Leonard assumes that he is going to have to strangle Jim for absconding with his precious body. Spock just cocks one of Jim’s eyebrows and suggests that they visit the nearest bar. That’s when Leonard remembers Jim has always had a fantasy of his lovers as male dancers.

10. Cranky Landlord Trope – In order to pay the mortgage on his farm, Leonard has to rent out two spare bedrooms. At first, he is very particular about who he rents to because he’ll be damned if he lets hooligans live in the same house as his seven year-old daughter. But finding the perfect renters turns out to be nearly impossible. When a stranger named Spock comes along with no references but six month’s rent upfront on the condition that no questions be asked, Leonard is desperate enough to accept the deal. The mysterious renter never leaves the house and never speaks to Leonard or his daughter beyond a polite greeting. Then late one summer evening a grinning idiot with a black eye shows up on the McCoy farm porch and, although he looks a hell of a lot like Trouble and Leonard intends to turn him out as soon as the sun rises, watching Jim make pancakes in his kitchen the next morning changes Leonard’s mind. However it doesn’t take long for him to realize that Jim’s arrival is hardly coincidence. Jim knows Spock. Jim, in fact, is Spock’s boyfriend. And somehow Leonard ends up in caught in the middle between them.

11. First Love Trope – Jim Kirk knows what it means to love and lose. After years of mourning his partner, a man comes into Jim’s life who has Jim thinking that he might be able to be happy again. Jim and Spock go away for the weekend together, both committed to their relationship, and all seems right with the world. Until, that is, Jim sees the bartender at their hotel, the exact image of his dead lover. But even with the same name, Leonard has no memory of being together with Jim. Torn between an old love and a new love, Jim feels he must choose which man he wants. It doesn’t help matters that Leonard has taken an interest in Spock.

12. Vulcans Are Not Peace-Loving Trope – The Vulcan Empire has conquered a new world. Commander Spock is in charge of subduing the last of the resistance still hiding out in Earth’s only remaining stronghold. There he is outwitted and captured by a band of humans led by James T. Kirk. Oddly enough, it’s love at first sight for Spock when he meets Jim and Jim’s spirited lover, Leonard McCoy.

13. Operation Jealousy Trope – Jim is a great cop and a better friend. When his partner Spock becomes interested in the hot new recruit to their department, Jim talks him into a genius plan to make Rookie Leonard jealous. The problem is that once they pretend to be dating on the sly, everyone seems to think it’s about damn time. To make matters more confusing, Jim is actually the one feeling jealous as Spock and Leonard slowly become friends—only he cannot decide which man he is jealous of.

14. Alien Abduction Trope – Spock is an innocent, practical-minded accountant on his home world Vulcan. He knows people who believe in UFOs but doesn’t give credence to them himself. Then one night two aliens happen upon Spock and abduct him. Spock finds himself in the middle of a grand space opera adventure—and falling in love.

15. Down the Rabbit Hole Trope – Leonard literally fell down a hole, and now he’s being stalked by a Mad Hatter who hates tea parties but loves apples and a teddy bear with six-inch fangs and a bowl cut. Leonard only wants to get the hell out of Dodge but soon learns that the Mad Hatter—Jim—and the teddy bear—Spock—are more traumatized than he is. There’s a King of Spades named Khan out to destroy everyone.

16. Holodeck Malfunction Trope – The prototype for the first holodeck is installed in the Enterprise. Captain Jim Kirk wants to try it out and his CMO Leonard is of the opinion that when something seems too good to be true, it’s out to kill them all. The computer behind the holodeck, it turns out, is more intelligent than either man expected. It calls itself Spock—and Spock has a fondness for placing Jim and Leonard into dangerous situations from which only it can rescue them. Dealing with Spock is a learning experience all around.

17. Laundromat Liaisons Trope – When businessman Spock’s washer-dryer set inconveniently dies, he makes a trip to the neighborhood laundromat. While his clothes are drying, a blue-eyed stranger hanging out in the facility flirts shamelessly with him. Unable to deny his interest, Spock is about to suggest they grab a cup of coffee together when the stranger’s boyfriend comes stomping in the laundromat to drag “Jim!” out by his ear. Disappointed, Spock retrieves his clothes and leaves. Later he discovers that his cell phone is missing—and to his surprise, the person who answers it when he calls the number is the flirtatious Jim. Jim filched it on purpose in hopes of luring Spock to the apartment he shares with his boyfriend Leonard, an apartment that turns out to be in the same building. Jim knows that Leonard has had a secret crush on their neighbor for a long, long time and, being a man with a plan, intends to do something about it!

18. Sexbot Trope – For his birthday, Jim is gifted with an all-expenses-paid week vacation to a resort planet. The package includes the company of two sexbots. Jim is super-excited… until he turns the sexbots on and realize they hate each other. It’s an entertaining weekend for Jim trying to turn Leonard and Spock’s passionate hate into simple passion.

19. Transporter Malfunction Trope – Somebody broke the transporter again. Leonard is pissed, Spock is resigned to a miserable stay on a cold planet, and Jim is secretly pleased with himself for ‘tweaking’ the ship’s controls so that he ended up stranded with his two best friends. Little do Leonard and Spock know, they are in for a long night of wooing.

20. Masquerade Trope – Viscount McCoy is having an illicit affair with a handsome stable boy named Jim. The upcoming masked ball is the perfect opportunity to enjoy Jim’s company in plain sight. Only Leonard and Jim don’t realize there is a footman who also desires them. Nor do they realize this footman, Spock, plans to court them both during the masquerade.

21. Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor Trope – The patriarch of the McCoy family insists that Leonard must marry before his thirtieth birthday or forfeit his inheritance. Leonard doesn’t care about marriage, however; he just wants to study medicine. That doesn’t stop his meddlesome family from bringing home as many suitors as they can find. They particularly favor a rich, arrogant bastard called Spock. When Leonard escapes Spock’s attentions for a while by hiding in a country village, he meets a local farmer—and the village’s legendary charmer—Jim Kirk. Just as Jim and Leonard begin to fall in love, Spock shows up to take Leonard back to his family. Rivalry shenanigans ensue.

22. Opposites Attract Revenge Trope – Both Leonard and Spock are in love with Jim but Jim isn’t clear on whom he loves back. Trying to prove between themselves who is the best partner for Jim leads to an accident—one from which Jim may never recover. Leonard blames Spock, and Spock blames Leonard. They vow to avenge their beloved Kirk. Chaos ensues. Then Jim wakes up.

23. Your Bad Deed is My Misfortune Trope – A young Leonard McCoy is so spectacularly in debt that he signs up as a proxy to the rich. While being a scapegoat for some privileged brat pays for Leonard’s meals and his education, it comes at a price: every time the brat does something illegal, dangerous or dumb, Leonard is punished for it. It becomes evident very quickly that Leonard has become proxy to a spoiled kid with a penchant for trouble, but having to report in for punishment of a misdemeanor every other week, he figures, isn’t as bad as it could be. Leonard is able to handle it… until the day that he is called in on a murder charge. His kid killed someone and now Leonard is going to spend his life in prison. As he is strapped into a shuttle heading for an inmate camp, he meets someone with a bright blue-eyed stare and a smashed-up face. “Hi,” the guy introduces himself, “I’m Jim.” When Leonard doesn’t reply, the guy adds, “I think you’re my proxy.” Then Jim does something crazy: he crashes the shuttle and drags Leonard into a headlong escape across the country. The Agency governing the proxies sends a contractor killer after Jim and Leonard to eliminate them before they can discover the truth behind the system or, worse yet, join up with revolutionists. When the killer catches them, Jim and Leonard expect him to be the least sympathetic person to their plight—but they are wrong. Spock is actually the Revolution Leader.

24. Bachelor Auction Trope – It’s charity fundraiser time, and Jim has been cajoled into a bachelor auction wherein someone pays lots of money for a good cause to go on a date with him. He is totally okay with that because it suits his lifestyle, which in no way involves settling down with someone. The practice run for the auction, though, presents a bit of a problem when Jim meets another bachelor named Leonard, gets him drunk, and sleeps with him. Jim wakes up the next morning realizing he wants to do it again—but exclusively with Leonard. Unfortunately Leonard isn’t speaking to him, pissed for some reason about their one-night stand. Then on the day of the auction, Jim is forced to watch as an exotic-looking man in an expensive suit wins the bid for Leonard. Only to Jim’s surprise, the same person wins the bid for him too. Jim decides that he has been given a golden opportunity to win Leonard back and coaxes his bidder into taking him and Leonard out at the same time for double the fun.

25. Barred from the Afterlife Trope – Being dead sucks. It sucks worse when you can’t get into Heaven because somebody lost the paperwork on how you died. Stuck in a temporary body on Earth, Jim is told to pretend to be a guy named Kirk until his new paperwork is cleared and he can move on to the afterlife. It turns out that Kirk—who shares the same first name, Jim—was a real douche bag when alive. He was two-timing his boyfriend, embezzling from his firm, and ignoring the phone calls of an ex who wanted Kirk to meet his son. Suffice to say, in sorting out Kirk’s mess, Jim finds a few reasons worth living for—which is a bitch since he is already dead.

26. Shrouded in Myth Trope – A year ago, the DEA lost one of their best agents in an undercover operation to an effort to bring down a drug lord hiding out in Midwest USA. But when a new product hits the streets and begins to destroy what is left of the failing Riverside community, it becomes apparent the drug ring they thought they crushed has been passed on to new management, a ruthless son of a bitch going by the codename of Doctor. Still grieving the loss of their own, agents Kirk and Spock are determined to infiltrate it and take it down once and for all. Jim strong-arms his way into a meeting with the ring leader as a potential supplier party. He goes in ready to bring hell with him but to his shock discovers that Doctor is none other than Leonard McCoy, their MIA undercover agent. With his cold eyes and visible scars, McCoy is a changed man: he remembers nothing of Jim or their code of honor. Jim calls off the bust in an attempt to make sense of what happened—but it costs him. Now a captive of the ruthless McCoy, Jim has to figure out how to survive while trying to save Leonard’s soul at the same time. And will he be able to convince his partner who is chasing them to help him?

27. Small Town Boredom Trope – There are only two things worth doing in a farm town: tipping cows and sex. Jim Kirk’s best bud Gary ran off a month ago so at present Jim is stuck with the cows. Bored out of his mind, he decides to take a much-needed trip to the only gay honky tonk in two hundred miles. On the way, he picks up a pair of squabbling hitchhikers. The three of them don’t make it as far as the bar before things go from heated to blazin’.

28. Back-Alley Doctor Trope – Spock is injured in a firefight but since he’s the enemy, Jim cannot take him to the army doctors unless he wants Spock executed on sight. They limp through the crumbling bazaar together, looking for help, until a dirty kid with a gleam in his eye accepts Jim’s coin and stilted request for help, beckoning the soldiers to follow him down a narrow alleyway. But the kid doesn’t lead them into more trouble, thank god; at least, Jim doesn’t recognize the kind of trouble he and Spock are in until the man stitching Spock up pulls off his mask to demand payment. Leonard “Bones” McCoy is one of the men Jim has been dreaming for years. But how to convince this aid worker gone rogue that they are meant to be? And how can he protect his other soul mate at the same time?

29. The Intern/Stalking is Love Trope – Jim meets an attractive lawyer at a socialite bar (he’s the bartender, not a socialite), has the most charming conversation of his life, and so naturally decides he has to meet the guy again. Finding Spock’s firm is not difficult. Getting an internship at said law firm is not too difficult either, although he thinks posing as a law student might get him in trouble later on. No, the real problem is that Jim can’t get past the cranky secretary guarding Spock’s office door. He tries every trick up his sleeve, yet Leonard cannot be made to see reason, flirted with or bribed. The man is immovable in almost every sense of the word. There’s nothing for it, Jim decides: he will have to seduce the secretary first in order to get to Spock. When Leonard shocks Jim by turning a proposition down, Jim has to investigate. He discovers, more shockingly, is that Leonard is already in a relationship… with his boss, Spock. Jim is then forced to take a step back and consider things. Luckily, he decides he’ll fit into their relationship just fine.

30. Your Parent Killed My Parent Trope – Jim, Spock, and Leonard join the same prestigious fraternity but for vastly different reasons. Spock feels pressured to follow in his father’s footsteps; Leonard wants a circle of friends he can trust, even though his father asked him not to make the same mistakes that he did, whatever that means; and Jim is on the hunt of information about the father he never knew—the father who died in an accident during his final year of college. This is a mystery Jim believes he has to solve to bring his mother closure. He infiltrates the fraternity in search of answers about his father’s past, but to his surprise begins to develop a special camaraderie with two other Brothers he didn’t know could exist. When one night at a keg party leads to a drunken make-out session between himself, Leonard and Spock, Jim realizes he is very close to falling in love. Spending time with them convinces Jim to open up about his motive in joining the fraternity. Leonard and Spock offer to help Jim solve the mystery surrounding George Kirk’s untimely accident. But the mystery from 20 years ago should have stayed buried, they realize too late, because it comes to light that Spock’s father and Leonard’s father were with George on the day of the accident—and were in fact the reason Jim’s father died.

31. Exiled to the Couch Trope – That Place, they call it. That End of Our Relationship Place. Everybody dreads it. Jim is reconciled to the fact that every relationship he’s been in or will be in ends with him on the couch and the other party walking out the door soon after. It is not a happy place for him. So why then, after he starts dating Leonard and Spock, does he find himself waking up in the mornings on the couch? That’s what his partners want to know. Leonard and Spock work together to help Jim realize that the last place they want is for this wonderful partnership to end.

32. Jumping Out of the Corner Trope – There is an ensign with a mean sense of humor aboard the Enterprise. His name may be, possibly, Finnegan. He likes to jump out of corners at random times because he thinks it’s funny scaring other people. Only he’s not stupid enough to do it without a disguise; so it’s doubly frightening when a space suit takes to leaping out of corners at people. One day, this ensign decides on his off-duty hours to don the suit and hide out in the corner of the observation deck where couples are wont to sneak to for some alone time. He waits a long time and just when he’s about to give up of anyone appearing, three figures walk onto the observation deck. They don’t notice him in that poorly lit corner. Their heads are bent together, their shoulders brushing. The ensign takes a moment to wonder why the Captain, First Officer, and CMO are strolling the deck with such companionable ease but soon decides it doesn’t matter. This will be the Ultimate Scare. He’s excited. He’s going to get the captain of the ship! Hahaha! So as the trio approaches the corner slowly, still preoccupied with each other, the not-so-bright ensign prepares himself—and at the perfect moment, he jumps out at them with a roar, arms up in menacing fashion!
Something goes terribly awry with his plan. Instead of the screams he expects, the ensign suddenly finds himself dangling several feet off the floor by his neck looking into the most frightening visage he has ever seen. Then he gets slammed backwards into a wall and knows no more.
Suffice to say, the ensign wakes up in Sickbay hours later and, upon seeing the now-calm Mr. Spock standing over his biobed, promptly shrieks and wets himself. Somebody hypos him into a state of silence and as the ensign’s mind starts to drift into a happier place, he hears, “…can’t say I feel sorry for the little prick,” followed by “Agreed, Bones. I know I have done some dumb things in my life, but pretending to attack the mates of a Vulcan in front of the Vulcan himself is not one of them. Spock, how about looking into a transfer? I want this idiot off my ship.” It has to be Mr. Spock who says, “It will be my pleasure, Captain.” The sedated ensign shivers. There is something troubling in that smooth reply, his fuzzy brain thinks. Something dark and dangerous. Something waiting to get him when he wakes up. In the end, the ensign has learned his lesson. He will never attempt to scare people again.

33. Team Chef Trope – Jim enters his alpha crew into a cake-baking contest against the USS Excalibur. He swears the enemy is going down, because no one can make a better, fluffier, tastier cake than Uhura. At this point, Uhura whacks her idiot captain upside the head and informs him that he’s a 20th century sexist pig and hell no she doesn’t bake! Jim looks at the others on his team, all of which avoid his gaze, and he begins to realize he may have made a serious tactical error. Then Spock steps forward – good, ol’ reliable Spock. He will bake their cake. After all, how hard can it be, so long as someone provides the instructions on cake-baking? At this point Jim imagines cake ingredients in test tubes in a science lab and drops his head in his hands in despair. They are definitely going to lose.
“Oh hell,” grumbles someone. “Fine. Step aside, you ninnies.” It’s Leonard, moving to the front of their clueless group, elbowing Spock aside as he goes. “I’ll bake your damn cake, Jim,” Leonard tells him, “but this doesn’t mean you or any of the rest of you can get out of the hard labor, you hear me? You’re going to be piping.”
“Saved by the Bones!” Jim cries gleefully.
And so as a team, with Leonard in charge, they bake a cake. They bake a cake that no one dared dream was possible, because Leonard only makes the most stylish and elegant of wedding cakes. Uhura cries a little when it’s done, along with Chekov, because it’s so beautiful. Spock offers Leonard his respect. Scotty wants their next cake project to be an Enterprise. Sulu offers to guard it against sabotage (with his life, he insists fervently) until the judging. And Jim—Jim is so proud of his Bones that there really isn’t anything else to do except kiss the man on the mouth. Leonard reacts by sputtering and dumping leftover cake batter on Jim’s head. Then he stomps off. Jim licks at the batter dripping off the end of his nose and decides then and there that a Bones who bakes is definitely worth pursuing. Spock sidles up to Jim and murmurs something about possible mandatory baking classes in the future. Recognizing a similar determination in his First’s eyes, Jim wants to know, “Does this mean we’re going to be rivals, Spock?”
“Perhaps, sir. I would suggest, however, that it increases the likelihood of success if we are partners in this venture.”
And that’s how Leonard gains not one but two suitors in the span of an afternoon. Truly, it was some cake that he made.
Oh, and naturally they beat the pants off the Excalibur and win the contest!

34. Space is Cold Trope – When Jim and Leonard finally begin to pick up on the fact that Spock is nearly always uncomfortable with the temperature on the Enterprise (everywhere except his quarters, that is), they worry constantly. It’s Leonard who sneaks up behind Spock on the bridge and wraps a scarf around his neck. It’s Jim who takes to carrying his favorite leather jacket so he can slip in over Spock’s shoulders during a moment of distraction. They really want to hold his hands to warm them up but know that is taking liberties Spock has not granted them, and so they inundate him with different pairs of mittens instead and look incredibly sad until he caves and puts them on. They try to find reasons for him to stay on the ship during away missions to cold planets. And day by day, the temperature on the Bridge slowly edges upward by one degree until suddenly the rest of the crew realizes it’s a lot hotter than it should be. But despite the sweat on his forehead, Jim ignores the requests to inspect the cooling system for a malfunction; he is too busy smiling at the relaxed line of Spock’s shoulders.

35. Psychic Link Trope – People who are destined to be together can become mentally attuned. In the past, this would happen so suddenly to some individuals that they believed they had lost their minds, or the people around them thought them possessed. Now that the phenomenon has been thoroughly studied and universally acknowledged, everyone grows up hoping for that ‘special connection’ with someone. Jim and Leonard love each other desperately but have never once heard each other’s thoughts. However, in order to appease their families so that their relationship will be accepted, they pretend otherwise, knowing each other well enough that they have been fairly successful in pulling off the ruse. Then one day Jim’s stepfather Pike brings home a colleague for a family dinner—and suddenly Jim has a live connection in his mind to someone. He’s elated but terrified because Spock isn’t Leonard. How could he possibly tell his lover that he has found his soul mate? Jim abandons the dinner, needing time to figure out what needs to be done versus what he truly wants. He texts Leonard, saying that he is going to his grandfather’s farm and will be home the next day. But Jim never comes home. Soon after that, as a frantic Leonard and Jim’s friends and family search for Jim, Spock turns up to help. He claims he has a connection to Jim and can find him. Upon hearing this, Leonard pales. Jim’s family turns to stare at Leonard, perhaps in surprise, perhaps in betrayal—and so does Spock. It’s instantaneous, Leonard’s connection to the stranger, like a starburst of information in his head. Spock declares the event to be fascinating. Leonard shoves his shock aside, then, and demands that Spock find Jim. Spock cocks an eyebrow and replies, “Look for Jim yourself, Leonard.” That’s the moment when Leonard realizes that he has a sense of Jim’s mind. Spock has bridged the gap between them flawlessly. And the rest, as they say, is history!

Related Posts:

None