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!

Throwing It Out There

I started this blog ten years ago. I never intended it to go past the initial King's Highway project, but it was easy enough to switch from there to the Captain's Log and then all points beyond. 

I've revisited both Stephen King (initial favorites aforelinked, revised in 2016, and 2019 favorites here) unless you're looking for the movies, ranked here and here, or the mini-series, ranked here. Phwew.) and Star Trek (ongoing) many times since 2011. This year will be the last. All things must end, yadda yadda, I'll put together a more comprehensive "closing statement" when the time comes. I'm finishing up the projects in queue which will take me through the end of the year.

Why we're here today with me beaming these words through the computer screen and into your head: on my desktop is a folder entitled Comic Book Projects I'll Likely Never Do. An aptly named folder! Here are the current contents:

Hope you can read that. The "1967..." ones are for Spider-Man. These were meant to be Scenic Route selections but just never got there. Anything there anyone's got an especial interest in seeing? If so, let me know, and I'll add it to the queue. It's never a big deal to flip through comics and screencap illustrations I like. (If anything, I get carried away. I've never been able to tell if the comics posts I did for the blog are good or painful examples of bloat and overkill. Posterity - or the more ephemeral kind that exists at the behest of free blog housing like blogger, I guess - will decide on that one.) Anyway, want more bloat/ overkill? Point to the folder of choice, and I'll see what I can do.

The current queue looks like this:

- finish Tour of Duty (my favorites from seasons two and three)

- An Enterprise post (I was going to give each season the ranked treatment, but that seems like a lot of time and effort. It'd be worth if it I wasn't on a timetable - both the completist and the symmetrist within me would prefer to do it that way. But truthfully I just don't have that much to say about it all, and a catch-all post with my twenty favorites will do fine.)

- A few more book reviews 

- One, possibly two "Stuff I Watched Recently" posts.

- One last From Novel to Film post, Starship Troopers. I didn't get to four or five of the ones listed in there. As with Enterprise, I'd like to, but looks like it won't happen. And Starship Troopers isn't even on there! I remind myself of the band New Order sometimes. They routinely each chose a different color for anything involving the album cover, and when their manager would be called for a tiebreaker, he'd choose a different color altogether. That's how I roll sometimes. Any enterprising readers out there who want to tackle any of the ones I didn't get to, send me a link, I'd love to check out your work. You see Lord of the Flies in there; that's one I regret not giving the FNTF treatment. But there's an excellent breakdown of it over here, if you're looking for one. 

- the last two bits of the "These Were the Voyages" series (DC's Trek, v1)

- probably a "look back at some favorites" sort of post, probably a "so long and thanks for all the fish" sort of post. 

and

- Billy Summers. Only fitting the blog should end with one last King. (For me, not - heaven forbid - for him.)

As I write these words, it is 6:17 in the ante meridiem and the mercury is climbing again in the thermometer. Been so damn hot lately. We have ACs only in the bedrooms, so my office where I type these words has been brutal. What's weird is - and it's really not weird, for Chicago; this is just how they do things up here - the temp recorded throughout the day is never the one they tell you at night or the day after. So we've had several days of 114 degree "heat index" weather even if the temp. is only ever recorded as anywhere between 84 degrees and 91 but then suddenly - and randomly - I'll see graphs of Illinois swathed in red/ orange with "ONE HUNDRED TEN DEGREES IN CHICAGO!" written over it. Then you go to any Chicago weather site and you see completely different temps./ graphics The contempt for precision, coordination, sense, competence, and so much more that everyone involved in Chicago operations so diligently pursues never stops impressing me. 

Meanwhile, it feels like whatever-temp-you-imagine-paintings-melt at and sounds like this. 

Anyway, my point is: who knows how hot it's been, what the actual humidity counter has been - I have a Casio that is supposed to measure these things but, I've discovered, it simply connects to whatever agency is recording these things and relays me the info, it is not sensitive to actual changes in temp. or humidity - but sitting at my computer is a pain in the ass. I have to momentarily switch over to the work computer, where I'll be entering DIVs and handling other aspects of dental network management all day. Fingers crossed for a break in this damn weather sooner or later. 

Urban Heat Wave by Ally White.

On This Day: An Enigma

Facebook tells me on twelve years ago today there was this exchange between Aharon Klum and myself:

I wish I knew what these jokes were referring to. I LOL'd at the weirdness/ juxtaposition of these things, and it has the general feel and tone of one of our (usually alcohol-fueled) escalating jokes that had a lot of backstory. Often said backstory will hit me in a flash and I'll LOL again at things that could never be explained or recreated but allow me a nice moment of memory. 

On other occasions, though, one of these will come around on Facebook and baffle me, as is the case here.

These Were the Voyages, pt. 9: Len Wein and Mike Carlin

Today's post covers issues 34 through 47 of DC's Star Trek, v1.

34 thru 36. The Excelsior answers the distress call from the Surak that signaled the return to normalcy at the end of issue 33. When it arrives it discovers the ship racing on a collison course with the nearest star, its captain, Spock, near death, whispering cryptic phrases of “universe destroyed… must plunge into sun” and such, and its entire crew seemingly dead.

A flashback reveals the Surak came into contact with an alien virus that kills totally, instantly. Only Spock’s half-Vulcan/half-human biology, as it often does, kept him alive.

As I read on from this point I kept waiting for someone to revive the crew of the Surak. As it dawned on me that the characters I’d grown to like over their several appearances were dispatched in a single page –

and were in fact staying dead, I lost total interest in anything else going on (twists and turns with the Romulans and Admiral Stiles being sent after Kirk.) Speaking of, this happens.

Unbelievable. Bad that it happens even once (l), worse that they bring it back next issue (r).

What an unimaginative and wasteful way of wiping the slate clean prior to Star Trek IV. As I’ve mentioned several times the new characters created for Kirk’s crew (Konom, Bearclaw, Bryce, and the rest) are okay but nothing special. Whereas the Surak characters had real personalities.

That’s comics, I guess. And you know: they immediately start putting Bryce in skimpier and skimpier things, so I bet the decision was keep the sex appeal (such as it is) and ditch the others. Spock has to get back on the Enterprise, so clean slate. Still. Why not just shuffle them off somewhere? I suppose no one in comics – or Trek – stays dead, really, if anyone really wants to use them. That would be a hell of an Easter egg in any of the new Treks. If the West Wing crew can get namechecked back in VOY, why not a small memorial for Brinks, Dr. R and the rest somewhere in Lower Decks or wherever?

Next up: STAR TREK IV: THE NOVELIZATION

Told in an unsparing 9-grid-per page style, giving it a sort of Silver Age feel and pace: one part Superman, two parts other Schwartz sci-fi. It’s a good way to cover a lot of ground and pack a lot of detail onto a page. (Which makes such things kind of hard to blog up, by the by; I picked out twenty or thirty Silver Age Superman stories I wanted to cover for the blog, but the project never went anywhere because each page in those things is like diagramming a novel. Too much work for my lazy unpaid ass.)

It's mostly the same as the book but this joke is a little different:

37. Starts off with each member of the crew getting one to two pages to talk aloud to themselves and catch the reader up on how they feel at this juncture of their lives. Interspersed with this is the running journal of a rabidly anti-Genesis saboteur (later referred to as a religious zealot) who booby-traps the engines. Sulu and Morelli break up, and Lts. Arex and M’ress join the crew. Not that they have much to do.

That doesn't change until Peter David arrives. (Next post)

Guest pencils by the legendary Curt Swan, though not one of his more inspired jobs. The still above is from TAS, obviously, not Swan's handiwork. I didn't grab any pics from this one. 

38. While chasing Argon pirates, Kirk is separated from Spock amidst the Kundiawaq Ruins, where he meets Connie McQueen, a renegade from Argon Pirate Justice. Is she that, though, or an Argonian spy?

Couple notes on this one. At the beginning, the Enterprise fires back on the Argonians who have attacked them. This cutaway to the interior of the ship as they take damage is an odd choice, no? Doesn't it seem with the looks of horror and exaggerated poses that the reader is meant to feel badly for these pirates - who are only receiving returned fire for attacking the Enterprise? 

And illustrated by Adam Kubert. Without looking, this has to be one of the earlier credits in his career, no?

39. The Enterprise is seized by an unknown force and brought to an uncharted M-class planet. Kirk, Spock, Scotty, M’Ress, and Bones are brought to the surface. They meet two irritants, first this asshole:

Then Harry Mudd, who we know we were going to run into sooner or later, unfortunately, from the cover.

You said it, Captain.

40. The “I, Mudd” sequel continues. Alien intelligence that thinks it’s humanity’s mother, yadda yadda. Which at the end is put at the disposal of the Wish Upon a Star Foundation. (Was the Space Salvation Army not available? This seems horribly anachronistic.) 

Sure are a lot of these lonely intelligent energy clouds out there, just drifting through the galaxy looking to space-nurture someone. 

And that wraps up Len Wein’s run. Which I didn’t think too terribly much of, I’m afraid. Len was and is a part of comics history, all the appropriate chapeaus, and I love that he got to be part of Trek comics history twice, however slight his contributions here. The best of his first Trek-comics run, the Gold Keys, have a zany lunacy and historical value that neutralizes their less agreeable aspects. They exist at that same sideways-timeline juncture that's such a fascinating context to DC's Trek, v1, where so much of the subsequent Trekverse was unwritten at the time, so you get crazy explanations for things and other oddities. Unfortunately, at DC, I don’t think Wein’s run ever really came alive. 

And starting it off by flushing the Surak crew was a bad move. 

On to the Mike Carlin Era. Perhaps better known as editor, Carlin garnered (I should say "has garnered," as he's still kicking, but not sure how active he still is) an impressive list of credits over his decades in the industry. 

41. Bearclaw’s impudence nearly gets Scotty killed. Scotty punches him, eventually.

Okay, this is getting stupid.

For these jerks, we lost the Surak crew? This is forever going to stick in my craw. I try to remember the era, when annoyingly angry anti-heroes were sort of the norm, or something to one-up or aspire to. At least very much part of the equation, story-wise, wherever you looked. It’s kind of weird how things like Morton Downey Jr. or Marion Cobretti or 90s extreeeeeeme-ness became normalized, but the irony that once accompanied them seems not to have been. (It's hard to see irony in things like Cobra or Morton Downey, Jr. but it's there. Different topic.) Either way, who the hell cares. It was a mistake to keep these guys around at the expense of the Surak crew for this long with these awful dynamics. I mean we're years deep in the series now, and the first thing Bearclaw did in the first issue was slap Bryce, now he's doing the above to her boyfriend. This should've been taken care of by issue twelve, tops. 

42. I don’t even know what to tell you about this one, except:

That's gremlins, he's saying. In case you're not the pop-out-the-pic-to-read-the-text type. Gremlins. 

Also: is it just me or does Omega Shift look a little… non-Terran? 

Maybe it makes sense if they’re still on a diurnal Sol-3 schedule, but… I mean, are they, is that the reason?

43. 44. 45. A three-parter sequel to “The Apple”. With a little “Spock’s Brain” thrown in. And "Return to Tomorrow" even.

Makora (David Saul) has become a cult leader of the post-Vaal order. He captures the crew and selects Bryce for his harem. The former Feeder of Vaal (Akuta) has penetrated deeper into the mysteries of Vaal and even learned how to harness some of its powers. Spock, after mind-melding with Vaal, restores a status quo of sorts, and the Enterprise warps away. Kirk broods over what he hath wrought; Arex saves a sick mantor. 

That last part (not Arex but Kirk's angst) gets a lot of airtime. Way too much if you ask me, but again, I'll chalk this up to the era, when explicitly putting the subtext into words was just part of doing business.

Not bad but not particularly good, this revisit to Gamma Trianguli VI. I don't see why it had to be three issues. If they'd followed the nine-panel per page format of the movie adaptation they could have wiped it out in one with room for a couple of big splashes, even. That said, it's important to remember the era and that there weren't a million deconstructions of "The Apple" (surely one of the more popular to do so) out there to choose from. It's a sequel in spirit with both the 80s and with the 60s, if that makes any sense.

Bryce is chosen to be part of Makora's harem. Would've been more interesting had it been M'ress. Or again, any member of the Surak crew, even the John Byrne lookalike. Maybe especially him.

46. Here’s a kinda-sorta sequel to “Shore Leave” and (by way of having the now-bureaucratized grown-up Tongo Rad, sort of a commentary on the radicals of the 60s like Jerry Rubin becoming stockbrokers in the 80s) “The Way To Eden.” 

Annoying character and his whole chasing Kirk around equally so. That's Sherwood, all dolled up. They must've had some directive to put Bryce and Sherwood in sexy get-ups.

I should mention: I’m not really interested in Konom anymore or any of this to-Klingon-or-not-to-Klingon stuff, so I'm skipping it. It's left to Peter David (next and penultimate post in this series) to bring out anything from the characters to care about.

47. A Kirk-obsessed commander leads a renegade attack against the Romulans. 

Another faux-Western. I am sure there is this exact same story minus a transporter or two in an episode of The Rifleman or Gunsmoke. Hopefully with a less horribly one-note-ish antagonist.

So ends the Mike Carlin era. Happily for me – these issues are not particularly good, and they did not hit the most Trek-sensible notes. 

Here's some leftover pics to take us out. See you next time.

I see the Saratoga got someone new at the science station.