These Were the Voyages: Coda

DC’s first foray into Trek comics ended with issue 56, as we saw last time. A year after that Peter David was hired (with a new art team – adios, Ricardo Villagran and Tum Sutton, and gracias for the muy bueno picturemaking) for DC’s Trek, v2.

I liked David’s work at the end of Star Trek v1 enough where I considered picking up a stretch of his V2 work. But this would be contrary to my original mission statement for this series of posts, i.e. the idea was less, not more, Trek comics. David wrote a bunch of Trek novels, though (here is an enthused recommendation for five of them) and I may have to pick one or two up. 

Let's wrap up These Were The Voyages with two last PAD productions, starting with:

How's the adaptation? It's good, but I mean it's still Star Trek V.  It doesn’t get any better in comics form.

Although I don’t hate Star Trek V, which I rank the eighth best/ sixth worst, depending which side you start counting from. Its crimes are of an entirely more forgivable nature than something like Generations or Picard or What We Left Behind. (Speaking of PAD's Trek v2, it's my understanding that the Klingon villains from The Final Frontier are recurring characters within it; good. The actors who played those parts were quite likeable in the STV DVD extras, hope it resulted in an autograph or two for them.)

Here’s some nostalgia: I rode my bicycle to the Williams Five and Ten in Slatersville Plaza, RI the week this came out – not knowing it was out, just it was my habit to bike up to the plaza and buy a comic (and a Charleston Chew) from the Five and Ten. You walked in where the ladies at the counter would clock you, scowling, the entire time you were in the store. (This was the case even when I was an adult and shopping there, before it closed sometime in the late 90s.) I picked this adaptation up from the spinner and flipped through it. I don’t remember buying it, but I remember – and have brought up this panel anytime the movie’s come up since, practically – this very well:

See, in the movie, he doesn't mention Sam (Jim's actual brother; see "Operation Freaking Annihilate!" for more) at all. How on earth could they have made this movie and done this scene and not remembered Sam Kirk? How does this happen? Is no one on set, in the writing room, etc. a goddamn Trekkie? I got my answer a few years later when Generations came out. Clearly the people in charge of Kirk’s timeline/ Captain Kirk were high on their own farts, something Shatner alludes to in his Movie Memories re: his time on set for Generations. I don't have it handy, but read it if you haven't. 

Anyway, all the kudos to Peter David, putting this in there. For all I know it was in the original script and was changed because they thought it’d dilute the impact of Kirk’s statement. That’s dumb, if so. Ergo it’s likely what happened.  ("Who in the audience is going to know who Sam Kirk is?" Hello! Have you met Trek audiences? Maybe not true in 2021, definitely true in 1989.)

The art is by James Fry. It’s okay. I think he was the main artist on v2, or at least PAD's portion. All that great Sutton and Villagran art spoiled me, I guess. Comparisons are odious, but I can’t think of any other comics-Trek that looks as distinctive as theirs. The consistency of effort and quality on their and editor Robert Greenberger's part throughout v1 is my big takeaway (besides PAD's stellar work at the end of it) of this project.

Onto Annual 3, a Pinter-esque affair that came out chronologically just before the Finnegan two-parter discussed last time.  

With some lovely Curt Swan pencils throughout.

Happily for me - I felt bad more or less skipping over Curt's pencils in that one issue he did, but  it was a weakly written issue, unworthy of the legend illustrating it. Not this. 

It starts with Scotty in his quarters sharing the unhappy news with Kirk and Bones that his wife has died while he was on exile on Vulcan. (Thus setting up a little guilt for Kirk; good character motivation, I wonder if they ever did anything with it. The Scotty/ Kirk relationship could have used a mature element like this, in later-era stories.) Understandably startled by the news – he never mentioned being married before – they learn Scotty and Glynnis married “just prior to that business with Khan”. Kirk recognizes her as someone from Beta Nairobi II (“you’ve got a good memory for women, Captain” "Call it a knack") and as they leave, Scotty takes us back through his memories, first to Peter Preston’s funeral (where he gets a slap from his sister, to whom he vowed to look after his nephew) and then Glynnis, telling him it’s over. From there it goes back in reverse chronology through the peaks and valleys of a lifetime of knowing another person. 

I’m normally resistant enough to this sort of thing (some wife/family member never mentioned before being introduced this late in a franchise) that whatever charms result bounce off me. Not so here. This isn’t a standard love story; it’s got a lot of pain and a lot of real, beating heart. Some of the details cut to the quick: the scene Kirk remembers on Beta Nairobi II starts with this:

At this point, he hasn't seen Glynnis in quite some time and this is an impulsive action on Monty's part. Too impulsive for her husband, Angus, who is the third point in the love triangle, as we see from all the flashbacks, going back to the three characters' childhood. As Scotty tries to explain his behavior to Kirk, he overhears what he thinks is the sound of Angus beating her and rushes off to save her, only to discover those weren’t quite the sounds he thought he was hearing. (“She’s always been passionate” or whatever the line is. Ugh! Awkward.)

It’s not too much to say that there isn’t a single in-canon story that endears Scotty to the audience as much as this one. (Which means that DC’s Trek gave Scotty, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura each the best stories I’ve personally seen for them. For that alone, I am grateful the series existed.) It’s a shame it wasn’t filmed when Doohan was alive, and it’d be a real treat if Simon Pegg found out about it. I hope someone gets it to him.

It’s a sad tale and I’ll cop to tearing up in a few places. It made me think of (no joke) the power of romantic love in our lives; what does it mean when it takes non-traditional shape like it does here? It amplifies it, changes it, stifles it, in no ways robs it of power. A million books will attest to that, and a million more slow nods and deep chambers of the heart. What’s wrong with us? What fools these mortals be.

It also got me thinking of the meaning of “one lifetime.” As Scotty says at the beginning, “losing a loved one and getting a wee whiff of your mortality at the same time.” These are powerful things, so powerful we take them granted as just the stuff (and maybe even the cliched stuff) of genre fiction. Done right, they remind us why these things have the power they have, how they become tools of storytelling in the first place. Scotty's love story is not the kind we think of as "happy" - really, so few are - but whatever the ones we get in this lifetime, they mean everything to us, just the same.

A really fine and appreciated addition to the mythos of Montgomery Scott. Thanks, PAD.

~

Thanks for reading. Here’s some screencaps to close us out.

Captain, Captain. Always with the rock monsters.

The Things We Carry.

These Were the Voyages, pt. 10: Peter David

Goodness, this is the penultimate post in our series! That went relatively quickly. And DC's Trek, v1 wraps up with a stint of issues by Peter David. 

You know that scene in Casino where Sam tells Nicky, hey, you don't want them (the feds) to write your name in their book because they only have two names in that book and the other one is Al Capone? This has always reminded me of the list of "favorite writers" I kept on the inside cover of an 8th grade notebook. That list was Stephen King and Peter David (on account of his then-stint on Hulk). It's actually surprising to discover I've never blogged up David's Hulk (especially considering I spent so much time with later and earlier eras of the character) since it's in that Goldilocks Zone of blogging/personal preoccupations i.e. things I loved between the ages of ten and sixteen. 

David only stayed at the top for a year or two as I moved on to other things, but for awhile he was in there with Al Capone. These issues are only the beginning of PAD (as he's known these days - here's his Patreon)'s long association with Star Trek. He wrote some of the earliest TNG novels, one of which was given to me as a Christmas present and confused me for years by spelling DATA in all-caps everywhere it appeared. I asked him about this on Twitter ten years ago or so and he replied that it must have been the style book at the time but agreed it was tough to read over and over again. 

The difference in character dynamics, dialogue, structure, detail, and overall Trekkiness between these issues and the ones coming before them is profound. It's unfortunate the series didn't have him from the beginning. Fifty-plus issues of David, Sutton, and Villagran would have been wonderful. Let's dive in.

48. The crew throws Konom a bachelor party. Kirk says no booze, but Chekov, Bones, and Scotty spike the ritualistic punch bowl. Captain Kirk is hit in the head with a bottle, and Sulu hooks up with M’ress. 

Meanwhile, a renegade Federation vessel destroys a Klingon science colony, leaving only one survivor. More on him next time.

David achieves his first miracle is getting me to care about Konom, Bryce, and all the rest. Pursuant to my theory of why they killed off the much more interesting Surak crew while keeping these losers around, it's because two of them you can put into skimpy outfits. Well, technically, you could put all of them into skimpy outfits. I'm just trying to think like a publisher of yesteryear. That's Bryce as the "girl in the cake," which Konom instantly groks.

Klingon sensitivity, or something.

I believe the trope of the bride-to-be popping out of the wedding cake at the bachelor party usually spells doom. I can't remember if that's the case in Bachelor Party, despite watching it maybe two or three years ago. There's a Cheers episode where Diane is persuaded to jump out of the wedding cake at Sam's bachelor party and anyone of a certain age knows how that went. But I feel like in the space since I read this issue and when I am typing these words (perhaps a month) I saw something somewhere that broke the trend and I meant to mention it here. I have zero recall of what it was alas, but perhaps the trope is not as predisposed to break in only the one direction as I imagine.

Will it be bad joss for Konom and Bryce? We shall see. For any who ask why or how this sexist ritual persists to the twenty-third century:

49. The Enterprise investigates the destruction of the Klingon base and take aboard the sole survivor: “Moron,” a half-human, half-Klingon space urchin, untouchable in Klingon caste, interplanetary breeding akin more or less to bestiality. The crews scuffle briefly, long enough for Kirk to realize they have some unexplained, superior weaponry when they make their escape. 

First off, did I hear that right?

Yes I did.

The Bryce/Konom/Moron family unit is cute, and cutely explored. The big thing that happens this issue is Kirk tells Bearclaw he's had enough and he's transferred. He'd hoped he's grow into the role, but he was wrong and his mind is made up. 

The bad news is: he doesn't leave. It's good to see Kirk telling him what the rest of us outside the comic want to hear. But somewhat diminished by knowing he'll be here through the damn end of the series. Silver lining: it doesn't look like anyone did anything with the character after v1 ended. It's barely enough to cover the tab, but at least he goes out on a somewhat redemptive note (as we see in subsequent issues.) 

50. First Kirk on this cover:

WTF.

Kirk is ordered to work with the Klingons to bring the renegade ship to heel. Kirk sends one team to Omicron Cetti IV to follow some clues, where they find the dead body of Captain Zair, aka the renegade Captain. Who, then, is out in space, raiding colonies? And who is his mysterious benefactor, arming him with futuristic tech? Neither mystery is solved, but the crew and ship are captured, even though Zair escapes. 

"Moron" and the entire issue of half-Klingon/half-human offspring issue causes issues for Konom and Nancy’s wedding. (Do the Anniversary Issue meta-gaming: will it end with a wedding… or death?)

Obviously from the very first, Trek explored the implications of such things. "Half-breeds" have a colorful history in the world, but it is solely through the lens of late-20th-century black/white, or perhaps interfaith, couplings that we view things here. David handles it all pretty well. At the time of this writing I don't think there was any precedent for Klingon/human hybrids of any kind. 

51. and 52. The Enterprise goes to Hell – Dante’s Inferno, specifically. Courtesy of Lt. Castille, a telepath suffering from LeGuin’s Disease, a rare disease causing him to warp everyone’s reality to smithereens. Konom and Bryce enjoy their honeymoon.

M'Ress can't figure out why Sulu isn't into pussycats. (I'm sorry.)
Extra points for the inscrutable line.

Before Kirk realizes what's going on, he hallucinates something very interesting.

M'Ress' affections come in handy during the medusas attack.

Very nicely illustrated sequence by Sutton and Villagran.

Also, this Captain's Log sounds like a great cut-back-from-commercial. 

 I can totally hear all this in Shatner's voice.

53. At the end of the last issue, Bearclaw (or was it really him?) stabs Captain Kirk. This is the post-stabbing episode where his soul and mind wander while his body wavers between life and death.

My original summary referred to it as an 80s-tv-trope, but I don’t think that’s quite accurate. That’s just where I came across it first. (St. Elsewhere, Magnum PI, elsewhere. There's a memorable BSG episode more recently where it happens to Roslin.) It’s the sort of thing you’ve seen in a lot of places across a lot of mediums, the friends gathered round the body in Sick Bay or wherever, directly addressing the comatose body, arguing with each other, sleepless nights looking for a cure, etc. And it’s used effectively here. 

Actually, I guess we say pretty definitively now unless there's some complete surprise waiting for us in the next year or two that this is unquestionably the best Kirk-death meditation in the entire franchise. So hey, that’s something worth noting. This bit with Sam and Peter Kirk, and Spock, who has mind-melded with the Captain in a last-ditch effort to save him, really chokes me up.

54. and 55. The Return of Finnegan and Garth.

LORD Garth!

Spoiler alert! The renegade captain is actually Garth of Izar, returned to his old shapeshifting ways and wreaking havoc on the Federation and eager to avenge himself on Captain Kirk. Starfleet sends Finnegan – yes, that Finnegan – first to investigate some of the damage we saw in issues 48-49 and then to meet up with the Enterprise, where Kirk learns he’s both grown up a bit and still something of the same old Finnegan.

Except that’s not quite true. Hats off to Peter David for rehabilitating freaking Finnegan; the character here is pretty great. From the moment he appears, investigating the goings-on at Omicron Cetti IV and throughout the two issues, he comes across not as the annoying prankster from "Shore Leave" but more like The World's Most Interesting Man from the Dos Equis commercials. You get the sense that here's a guy who has seen and done it all. 

And the above bit/ set-up comes back in a nice Chekov's Phaser fashion, as Kirk has rigged his door for this revenge gag but it ends up saving his life as Garth has taken Finnegan's form:

Kirk thinks he's warning the real Finnegan here. I'm overexplaining this.

The best comes at the end, though, which was too much to try and screencap, but as Finnegan is leaving, he agrees to a no-hard-feelings-Kirk arm wrestling match which he appears to lose after a valiant struggle. After a little backslapping, everyone now friends, he's about to make his exit when Scotty says not so fast, you still have to arm wrestle me, too, you know, I've got more records than the Captain himself (there's all this arm-wrestling-at-the-Academy talk, you know how it goes). Finnegan says well sure, okay, sits down, and after one-two-three-go he immediately slams Scotty's arm to the table. Everyone is startled. Big grin then hey-whoah-look-at-the-time-must-go-toodle-oo-my-new-friends. 

Finnegan! You old so-and-so.

Did I mention Finnegan was married? I like this bit between her and Spock. As well as Arex:

Good stuff. These three issues (the two-parter plus the Kirk's death meditation) are my favorite stuff of the series. I can't say enough about how the entire cast springs to life under his watch; there's no other way to put it. What a damn shame they didn't tap him to write Generations. 

As for Bearclaw’s trial, well right, it was Garth, not Bearclaw. Either way it's unfortunate it did not end with his death.

Given the proliferation of shapeshifters and illusionists in Starfleet alone, not just the Trekverse, not to mention the psycho tricorder and telepaths and whatever else, the standard legal set-up seems a little silly, doesn’t it? Nobody tell Samuel T. Cogley. 

56. A mystic takes over the Enterprise to bring him and his followers to a planet where he promises death and healing. Bones reunites with an old flame (Tonia Barrows). Written by Martin Pasko and illustrated by Gray Morrow.

There is no indication that this is the end for the series - in fact the lettercol hints at a future issue 100 in November 1992 - but here we are. Too bad we didn’t get a proper farewell from the usual art team (and we should pause to consider practically the entire series was illustrated by a single art team, which is rare) or from Peter David. Gray Morrow and Marty Pasko are certainly legends in their own right, but this issue feels like filler. Especially after the last three. DC's Trek, v1, comes to an indifferent close. It will be relaunched one year after issue 56 with a longer run by Peter David. But that is a tale for another day, and another blog. 

We'll return for one last Trek v1 post to look at Annual #3 and PAD's adaptation of Star Trek V. Until then here are the Leftover Screencaps from all the above. 

This is the best goodbye note ever.
I have adopted this as my new "note for the missus" whenever I go anywhere.

Until next time, friends and neighbors!