DC Comics's Star Trek Overview Part 5: Star Trek (1989-1996)

 Hey everyone! How are you doing? Did you all have a good weekend? I did. I started watching season 1 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on Sunday and I'm halfway through the season now, so that review will be up sooner than I thought it would be. As you know, I planned on reviewing three movies, to get them out of the way before I dove into Power Rangers, but I felt like watching Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on Sunday morning, just before lunchtime, and that was that. I've been binging a disc a day, which for the season 1 DVDs, is ten episodes per disc, so now I'm halfway through. Today though I'm back for my next DC Comics's Star Trek Overview part where we'll dive into the original TV series comics that ran from 1989 until DC's license for Star Trek comics ran out in 1996. I got a bunch to cover so let's get right into it.

As mentioned in previous installments of this overview, DC decided to cancel it's first run of Star Trek comics, which was based on the post-Wrath of Khan movie era, in 1988 in order to restructure the series to streamline it. That meant removing characters that were created specifically for the comics, such as Konom, the first Klingon to join Starfleet, only a few years before Worf was created for Star Trek: The Next Generation. DC relaunched both the TOS comic book series, and the TNG series, which I'll be covering in part 8 of this overview, with a brand new issue #1 in 1989. By this point Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) had just come out, and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) had just started it's third season under it's new showrunner, Michael Piller, who replaced Matt Wagner, who had briefly taken over at the beginning of the third season after Maurice Hurley abandoned ship at the end of the second season. This made TNG season 3 a major turning point for not only TNG, but for Star Trek as a franchise. I'll cover that more when I review TNG at some point. 

This first issue picked up where Star Trek V: The Final Frontier left off, with the Klingons angry with Kirk for killing the Klingon crew of the Bird of Prey he and the crew of the Enterprise had commandeered following the Enterprise's destruction at the end of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). Disturbed by this, Kirk and McCoy head up to the Enterprise-A, which was in spacedock following the events of Star Trek V. I missed this issue when I was a kid, since it came out in 1989 and I only began reading comic books in 1992, and it was never in the back issue bins either. I got a copy at a convention a few years ago. It's a pretty good start to the series.

Issue #5, which introduced us to the character of RJ Blaise, who is an antagonist/love interest for Kirk in this early run of the series, is an issue I got as a teenager from my sister, who bought it for me for my birthday, along with a few issues of the 1980 Marvel Comics series, and an issue of the 1984 DC series. Of course I knew who RJ was because she appeared in the first story of Star Trek Special #1 (1994), which I'll be discussing in part 7 of this overview.

Issue #10 kicked off a three issue story arc called "The Trial of James T. Kirk" where Kirk is finally put on trial by the Federation Council, the Klingon Empire, and a race known as the Nasgul, who never show up again after issue #24. I really like this three-parter as it brought back characters that were one offs from TOS, such as Leonard James Akaar, the Capellan leader from the season 2 episode, "Friday's Child", who was, well, a child in that episode, and Bela Okmyx, one of the Bosses of Sigma Iotia II from the season 2 episode, "A Piece of the Action". It was also the first story arc of the series, except that it actually wasn't.

While the first TOS series that DC had story arcs throughout it's run, the second series actually did something a little bit different. The first 24 issues of the series was actually one long story arc, with sub-arcs like "The Trial of James T. Kirk" placing Kirk and the crew on various missions with the underlining story of the Klingons and the Nasgul wanting Kirk dead and Admiral Tomlinson's crusade to make sure they get what they want, because...I won't spoil it for you, but there's something not quite right about Tomlinson and I'll leave it at that.

There have been a few creative teams on this book over it's 80 issue run. Peter David wrote the first twelve issues and then co-wrote issues 13-15 with Bill Mumy, who played Will Robinson on Lost in Space (1965-1968), which was the other big Sci-Fi series on network television in the '60s alongside Star Trek (1966-1969), and he also played Lennier on Babylon 5 (1993-1998) starting in season 2 in 1994, and then wrote one more issue with #19. After that the creator of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski (JMS for short), wrote an issue. The writer with the most credits on this Star Trek comic book series was Howard Weinstein, who wrote the book fairly consistently from issue #17 until #75, with guest writers coming on to write an issue here and there, with then editor of the Star Trek Pocket Books novel line, Kevin J. Ryan, writing the final five issues of the series.

While many artists worked on the book, the team of Rod Whigham and Arne Starr, as well as Gordon Purcell, worked on the vast majority of the series as penciler and inker, with guest artists coming in to work on the issues where they weren't available.

As I mentioned in the intro to this overview, I started reading this series with issue #31, which was part two of a four part arc called "Veritas", which had Sulu and Uhura as the focus of the arc. Around this time Batman Returns (1992) was about to come out and it was heavily being advertised everywhere. Including on the back covers of many comic books being published in 1992. Particularly those published by DC Comics. 

With a single standalone issue between the end of "Veritas" and issue #35, this series did a five part story arc called "The Tabukan Syndrome". This arc is one of my favourites because it features Sulu in a pretty significant role. The story opens where "Veritas" ended, with Sulu taking command of the USS Excelsior NCC-2000, now complete with a standard warp drive system, rather than the experimental Transwarp Drive system that Scotty sabotaged in Star Trek III. With Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) having come out the year before, DC decided to tell the story of how Sulu got command of the ship since there was about six years's difference between Star Trek V and Star Trek VI. Plus, this is probably the biggest story arc that this series did. Unlike the TNG series, which was being published at the same time as this series, the TOS series seemed to play it a bit safe with it's storylines. Sure they brought back Harry Mudd from "Mudd's Women" and "I, Mudd", Trelane from "The Squire of Gothos", Gary Seven from "Assignment: Earth", and Captain Klaa and Vixis from Star Trek V, but they didn't do anything too big with this series, at least, not in comparison to the stuff the TNG series was doing at the time. Though issue #35 did bring back Saavik to replace Sulu as the helmsman of the Enterprise-A, which is cool, since Saavik disappeared from the movies after Star Trek IV and had been a main character in DC's first series for most of it.

The next, and last, major story arc was a five issue one called "Time Crime" where renegade Klingons and some Romulans go back in time to prevent the Klingon Empire from coming to fruition, being replaced by the Klingon Confederation, with the Klingons being a much more peaceful race, and the Romulan Star Empire was wiped out in the Earth-Romulan Wars. In the timeline that results, Sulu never took command of the Excelsior, the Enterprise was never destroyed at the Genesis Planet because there were no Klingons attempting to take it for the information on the Genesis Device, which means the Enterprise-A was never commissioned, Spock took a year to work at Starfleet Command, the Klingons never murdered David Marcus, and a young Klingon by the name of Worf is the science officer on the Enterprise. Not the Lieutenant Worf from TNG, but his great grandfather, Colonel Worf, who represented Kirk and McCoy at their trial for the murder of Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI. In this timeline he's a Lieutenant, the same rank as Worf in TNG. They fix the problem by going back into Klingon history, but that's all I'll say about it here.

The next arc that I want to talk about is a loose one. It's a three part arc chronicling Kirk's relationship with Carol Marcus years before they reunite in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). Issue #73 shows the beginning of their relationship while Kirk is the first officer of the USS Eagle, a Constitution class starship, like the Enterprise, under the command of Captain Botwin. Carol decides to leave Starfleet when she discovers she's pregnant with Kirk's son. I used to own this issue but I don't anymore.

Issue #74 takes place a few years later when Kirk is recalled to Earth by Starfleet Command. While he waits to find out why Starfleet recalled him, Kirk reunites with Carol and finds out about David. After a visit at home with his mom, brother, and nephews, Kirk gets a promotion to Captain and takes command of the light cruiser, USS Oxford. These first two parts of the story feature Gary Mitchell before he got turned into a god and then killed by Kirk in "Where No Man Has Gone Before". 

The final issue of the arc, issue #75, is also the final new issue of this series I ever got. By this point comic books were getting more expensive, particularly since my dad was buying two issues for me a month, in addition to the occasional issue of The Batman Adventures and Batman & Robin Adventures that my mom was buying me at the CHEO gift shop. The issue takes place at the end of Kirk's five year mission as Captain of the Enterprise, where Kirk reunites with Carol once again, deciding to take the promotion to Admiral so he can stay on Earth and finally be with Carol, though that doesn't work out for them in the end. I have this issue in my collection again thanks to a comic book sale that Brad and I went to a few years ago. From what I gathered from the end of the issue, this is the last time that Kirk and Carol see each other until The Wrath of Khan.

The remaining five issues all take place during the time of TOS, during the five year mission. I don't know if that's because Paramount had closed the books on the TOS movie era with Star Trek Generations in 1994 or what the thought process was. As I stated above, I've never owned any of the TOS comics beyond #75. So I missed the remaining issues of the series. And I'm perfectly fine with that since I wasn't as big of a fan of the TOS comics as I was the TNG ones. This series is nostalgic for me now, but at the time I preferred TNG. Especially because I didn't watch the TOS movies as much since we didn't own them on home video until 1993 or 1994 when my dad got the six movie VHS boxset, with the exception of Star Trek VI as a nurse recorded it off the TV for me at some point. 

If I'm being perfectly honest, I've never been a huge TOS fan. I watched it in reruns when I was a kid, and I can appreciate the fact that it not only started the Star Trek franchise, but it did alot for people of colour on TV at a time when they weren't represented very well thanks to Nichelle Nichols as Uhura and George Takei as Sulu. But later series did the same things that TOS did, but better, even if it was only by a little. Don't get me wrong, I like TOS, it's just not a show that I like as much as later Star Trek shows. Which is why it surprised me so much when I fell in love with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022-) as hard as I did.

 TOS Volume 2 had a few trade paperback collections. The first was The Best of Star Trek, which I talked about in my volume 1 segment. This volume collects the three part "The Trial of James T. Kirk" storyline and that's it.

The first trade paperback collection for TOS Volume 2 was Star Trek: Tests of Courage that was published in 1994. It collects " The Tabukan Syndrome" from issues 35-40. I remember seeing this trade advertised in Star Trek: The Next Generation #63 but I've never owned it since I had, and still have, all the issues in single form. 

The second trade, published in 1995, collected the Harry Mudd arc from Star Trek #'s 22, 23, and 24, and the Gary Seven arc from Star Trek #'s 49 and 50. I had both Gary Seven issues when I was a kid, but I only had #24 from the Harry Mudd arc, where we discover something very interesting about Admiral Tomlinson. And no, I still won't reveal what that something is, if you've read the series, you know, and if you're interested in it, well, I hope you find either this trade, or the issues yourself.

Then finally in 2006, for the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek, Titan Books, a British publishing company, published a trade paperback collection of "The Trial of James T. Kirk", collecting Star Trek #'s 7-12, which is the last several issues of Peter David's solo run on the series before he was joined by Bill Mumy for issues 13-15. I don't know if this trade ever got published in North America, I doubt it because I actually never saw it on shelves and online shopping was just starting to become a thing at that point, but then again, it just might not have made it here to Ottawa. 

And that my friends is it for this part of my DC Comics's Star Trek Overview. Next week I'll be covering the annuals that DC published for this series from 1990-1996 and there were six of them so I'll have quite a bit to cover. So join me in a week's time for the next part of this overview.

In the meantime, I'm halfway through season 1 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, though I'm taking a break from it tonight, so look for my review of it to come out on Sunday. So until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.