Last time we looked at the first four issues of DC’s 1st go at a Star Trek series. This time: issues 5 and 6, two standalone stories that serve as a coda to the Excalibans/ Organians story.
In issue 5 ("Mortal Gods," written by Mike W. Barr, illustrated by Tom Sutton and Sal Amendola) the Enterprise is dispatched to look for the USS Valor, believed to have been destroyed in the recent hostilities with the Klingons. They follow the trail of clues to a world of feudal rat-people, where the Valor’s former Captain, Hodges, rules as a god.
But the Prime Directive! (And didn't this just happen, like, last week?) His arrival planetside was taken as an omen and avoided a devastating civil war. He married the daughter of one general (Lorac) and made the other (Ballor) his top man. Rat-man. Whatever. Ballor, however, is biding his time and awaiting for more visitors from beyond so he can arm his side with phasers and renew the war. The ruse is discovered, but not before Hodges’ wife, Lylla, gets the old intercepted dagger through the chest.
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| Arm, excuse me. She loses a lot of blood either way. |
McCoy saves Lylla by taking her back to the ship, and Konom – with some help from the Enterprise – pretends to be a god calling his child home, and Hodges (along with Lyla) leave.
The end. It’s okay, not bad, nothing to write home about. Some of the illustration felt a little rushed, or that the colors (by Michele Wolfman) were covering for unfinished breakdowns.
Issue 6 ("Who is... Enigma?" written by Mike W. Barr, illustrated by Tom Sutton and Ricardo Vilagran) starts off interesting, as the Enterprise is ferrying none other than Robert Fox (that popinjay, you remember him) to the peace conference on the planet Babel with the Klingons. Complications quickly arise: (1) the ambassador’s estranged daughter is some kind of revolutionary for one of the factions, and (2) Enigma, a shape-shifting assassin working for the Orion Victory League, (a Rigellian decapod, according to McCoy, but it's unclear if that's just one of the forms taken or the original one. Either way he learned his cellular metamorphosis from the natives of Antos IV, just like Garth of Izar) has infiltrated first the Enterprise and then the site of the negotiations. Mission? Kill Robert Fox. Problem? See title. It could be anyone!
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| Kirk employ some Magnum P.I. style logic here... |
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| Oh, uh, never mind. "Carry on, Mr. Saavik." Also: foreshadowing...! |
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| We know there's only one real way to suss out alien imposters on Kirk's watch. (Incidentally, the fold of the comic makes this look like some kind of slurpee collector's cup or something. Alas.) |
Ultimately, after obligatory Kirk vs. Kirk fisticuffs, the accords are signed, and father are daughter are reunited to try and work things out.
Like issue #5, it’s okay. The renegade Starfleet captain who marries the general’s daughter trope is made somewhat more interesting by her being a rat princess, I suppose, but neither Hodges’ story nor Robert Fox’s last (perhaps) diplomatic triumph is anything to really write him about. On the last page Kirk pushes for a reconciliation between Hanoi Fox and her father, which is nice, I guess, but it's all fairly underdeveloped/ too crammed.
That said, both would have been better than average TOS Season Three episodes, perhaps.
LEFTOVER SCREENCAPS
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| Konom continues to be used pretty well. |
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| That awkward moment in any marriage. I like McCoy looking on, too, rocking that crazy collar. |
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| Can't recall if I brought up Sherwood or not; she's another of the new cast members. They seem to keep bringing her up, so I'd better mention her. You'd figure I'd do so with a screencap of her and not Saavik. Nope! |
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| I can completely hear this screencap. #TOS4EVA |
NEXT TIME:
The Origin of Saavik!
"Hanoi Fox"! lol
ReplyDelete"That said, both would have been better than average TOS Season Three episodes, perhaps." -- Or if not, certainly better than "Discovery" or "Picard." That's not a high bar to clear, granted.
"I can completely hear this screencap." -- And the music sting to go with it!
These don't sound like they're anything great, but they do seem as if they scratch that particular itch labeled "Star Trek," and that's good enough for me.
They do definitely strike me as more than respectable attempts at nailing "Trek" as it existed in 1984. More than many a Pocket Book anyway.
DeleteThe tie-in stuff from that era occupies a fairly large portion of my Trek-loving brain. Not the actual contents (which I remember only dimly) so much as the iconography, and the novels moreso than the comics; but still, all that stuff was a pretty big deal to me back then.
DeleteI hear that. My parents got me one of a TOS or TNG tie-in book as a stocking stuffer every Christmas til like 1995. Just thinking of them makes me hear sleigh bells and see the world as if through a frosted snowy window by the glowlight of a phaser.
DeleteThat might mean you are in the Nexus.
DeleteI've been fairly sure of that one for years.
DeleteNote: my nexus apparently has a pandemic and terrible Presidents. Sorry, everyone.
Hi, sorry I'm late. Here are some basic thoughts.
DeleteThe first story looks interesting. It almost sounds as if, with just a bit more tweaks to the writing, it could have been a more or less solid entry.
For instance, why not put more focus on the captain who got caught up in the whole affair. Make it more of an individual character study as the guy struggles to hold a tense situation together while trying to not fail either prime directive, or a woman who looks at with the kind of awe he was never really expecting. It's a basic enough premise with a lot of promise to it.
I think congratulations are more or less in order. It's the first time I've seen or read anything that makes me wish this could be a legit TV episode. Maybe this comic is just a clue from some alternate Tower level.
As for the second, the idea of a Spy Hunt episode is solid enough. The trouble is it reuses to many previous ideas to not much of a good effect. The final product doesn't have to be original. All that's asked for is a little bit of effort. That said, there's nothing here as bad as...I can think of a lot of current trends here, so I'll just say this is ironically still a lot better than what we've got.
"Strange days, indeed".
ChrisC.
Definitely ways both stories could be improved, for sure.
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