4.15.2021

These Were the Voyages, pt. 4

Let's have a look at the adaptation of the DC comics adaptation of:



I won't bother recounting the plot - y'all know the plot - so let's just riff on some things. I love Search for Spock, still, after all these years. If you don't, this adaptation likely won't sway you in any one direction. Unless comics adaptations annoy you, in which case, likely negatively. 

The DC gang were working from the shooting script, so several scenes that were ad-libbed or added during production don't make it into the adaptation, such as during the McCoy jailbreak scene, where Uhura turns the tables on Mr. Adventure (Joysticks' Scott McGinnis) or when Sulu manhandles the security guy ("Don't call me Tiny.") 

In general, the secondary cast has been underutilized in the DC series so far.


A couple of scenes related to David's death are different. In the film, Kirk stumbles upon learning the news and falls out of his chair. The stumble was not planned, but Nimoy thought it worked well so they kept it in. And on the surface, 
Kirk silently walks to his son's corpse and removes his coat to drape it over him, especially dramatic with the crackling flames and shadows of the disintegrating Genesis planet and silent close-ups from friends. 

The comic adds all this other stuff.


The movie ends with "The Adventure Continues," the comic:



That's close, but what Edith Keeler said was "You? At his side, as if you've always been there and always will." Hey, it was both a pre-internet age and a pre-easy-home-collection-of-Trek-tapes age, so let's be forgiving. Still, was this in the script? I can't imagine it was. Someone ask Marv Wolfman or Mike Barr someday if you see either of them. At a convention of course, not while they're out eating dinner or going to the bathroom or anything please.


No Miguel Ferrer for that matter. Captain Styles will return as a foil for Kirk in issues to come.


Oh and one more, there's no "Good Morning, Captain" when the Excelsior breaks down. I always loved that.

That's all she wrote, pretty much. At the ending Fal-Tor-Pan ceremony, though, there's a conspicuous close-up of some young Vulcan who speaks to Spock as he's carried by her. 




I sense this was something meant to be followed up on, whether in the movies or comic I don't know, although I guess if it comes up in the comic I'll find out sooner or later, but never was. I watched the sequence in Search for Spock, and if this was following a storyboard, I don't think I saw a corresponding shot. Possibly on the cutting room floor. Or possibly I just missed something somewhere in the comic. (One more thing to bug Marv or Mike about at a convention! Tell them Dog Star Omnibus sent you.

Some Leftover
Screencaps:

Me so, so logical, Saavik.
Oh and say hello to Robin Curtis' likeness, now taking over in the comics. 


Next: the series swerves to align with the events of TSFS, pt. III with a multi-part mirror universe saga. 

3 comments:

  1. (1) I've been working on getting all the Treks from the eighties DC and Marvel runs, and had failed to realize there were movie adaptations other than TMP. So thanks for the heads up! Apparently there wasn't one for The Wrath of Khan, which seems odd.

    (2) A few oddities in there, but overall, this looks solid! I like the art; it seems more ambitious than in most comics of this sort. Feels more like a labor of love than a labor of labor, which helps.

    (3) The young Vulcan in that one panel is clearly the child of Michael Burnham, returned from the far future to pay her respects to her uncle. Right? Hey, why do have a knife? What's with that knife, eh, haha? Huh? Why are you walking over here with that knife, man?!? Aieeeeeee!

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    Replies
    1. (1) I believe DC only got the license after TWOK, is why.

      (2) A lot more cross-hatching and pencil-shading and what not with Sutton's art than a lot of other comic book art of the period.

      (3) Man, I would actually love it/ forgive everything if someone stood up and tied Discovery to the 80s DC Trek comics. Especially this panel.

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    2. (3)EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

      (4) "Search" is one of those films that is okay. It has a legit reason to exist. That is enough. I will say the scene between Saavik and Spock is perhaps the standout moment. Well, that and, let's face it, Christopher Loyd has ways of making most films he's in enjoyable on some level.

      ChrisC

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