DC's Star Trek Overview Part 6: Star Trek Annuals (1990-1995)

 Hey everyone! How's it going? Are you all having a good week so far? It's Wednesday yet again, which means it's time for another installment of my overview of the Star Trek comic book line published by DC Comics in the '80s and '90s. Today I'll be looking at the annuals for Star Trek (1989-1996) which came out between 1990 and 1995. Like with the annuals from the '80s I'll also be taking a look at the stories done in other comics, and in novels, that cover the same time periods that two of these annuals cover. So let's get into it.

Star Trek Annual #1 was published in 1990. However, I've never owned this issue and there's no synopsis for it on Memory Alpha, so I have no idea what it's actually about. All I can tell you is that George Takei, the first actor to play Sulu, cowrote it with Peter David and Gray Morrow and Tom McCraw are the artists on this issue.

A year later, in 1991, Star Trek Annual #2 was published. Unlike with the first annual, this issue's cover tells you exactly what the issue is about. Kirk's time as a cadet at Starfleet Academy. Like with the previous issue I talked about, I also have never owned this issue, so I don't know what the details of the story are, just that it's about Kirk's time at Starfleet Academy, which is something comics and novels love to cover. Peter David is the writer on this issue while James W. Fry and Curt Swan are the pencilers on it with Arne Starr on ink duty. Yes, it's that Curt Swan, the artist whose work on Superman and Action Comics in the '50s and '60s defined Superman for more than 20 years. 

Annual #3 came out in 1992 and this was the first annual for the TOS series I ever owned. It's your typical Star Trek story where the Enterprise-A transports Spock's father, Ambassador Sarek, to a planet that is in the process of joining the Federation. But, Sarek, McCoy and the planet's leader are kidnapped by a faction who wish to prevent the whole thing and take claim to the leadership of the planet. It's a weird one from what I remember as I don't own it anymore and haven't read it in about ten years. 

Star Trek Annual #4, which came out in 1993, is probably my favourite of all the ones I owned. In this issue Spock is a Lieutenant who has recently been assigned to the Enterprise, commanded by Captain Christopher Pike. The crew is exactly the same as in the original pilot episode "The Cage", though Scotty is also added as a junior engineer. Which is cool. The Enterprise receives a distress call from a nearby Federation mining colony. People are having the same nightmares and are acting strange, so Pike, Spock, and the rest of the senior staff, except for Number One and Scotty, beam down to investigate. Yeah, the version of Pike from "The Cage" wasn't exactly known for being smart when it came to taking the entire senior staff on away missions. Also, for whatever reason, Pike has a moustache, which he's never had on the show. Aside from Anson Mount's beard at the beginning of the series premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds anyway. Michael Jan Friedman is the writer on this issue with Gordon Purcell as the penciller and Pablo Marcos as the inker. 

Star Trek Annual #5 came out in 1995 and it's another one I've never read, because I've never owned it. The one sentence description on Memory Alpha says that the crew of the Enterprise starts having daydreams of past missions. That's all I have to go on as there's no further description than that. I do remember seeing an ad for this issue in an issue of Star Trek: The Next Generation or Star Trek, but I don't remember which since it's been many years since I read issues from around the time that this annual was published.

 The final annual issue was published in 1995 and was the first part in a two issue crossover with Star Trek: The Next Generation Annual #6 called "Convergence". Basically Gary Seven and his group are involved and other one off characters like Captain Harriman, the commanding officer of the Enterprise-B in Star Trek Generations (1994), make an appearance as well. Other than that I couldn't tell you what it's about because I never owned it and haven't read it since it's not collected in any collected edition that I could afford. Now let's talk about a few other stories that cover the periods covered in Star Trek Annual #2 and Star Trek Annual #4. 

First up is Vulcan's Glory by Dorothy Fontana and published by Pocket Books in 1989. This novel covers Spock's first mission onboard the Enterprise, during Captain Pike's tenure as the ship's commanding officer. It's also the first time where Number One is called Una, the first name given to her in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Then there's Star Trek: Early Voyages, which was a comic book series published by Marvel Comics. It only ran for 17 issues from 1997 until 1998, but it was one of Marvel's more popular Star Trek comic book series in the '90s. It's also the series that has the most influence on the tone and style of Strange New Worlds as, while none of the show's producers have come out and said it, I'm pretty sure that they take inspiration for SNW from this comic book series. Mainly because it's the one piece of Star Trek material where we spend the most time with Pike and his crew prior to SNW being a thing. Plus there's elements from these comics that are included in the TV series. As for comics and novels that cover Kirk's time at Starfleet Academy, there are several to choose from.

First up is The Kobayashi Maru by Julia Ecklar, which was published by Pocket Books on December 1st, 1989, only three days before my third birthday. The whole novel doesn't take place during Kirk's time at the Academy, but a chunk of it takes on a version of Kirk's solution to the Kobayashi Maru scenario, which was originally hinted at in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). 

Next was Star Trek #73, published in 1995. The issue opens with another version of Kirk's final run through the Kobayashi Maru, this time with Gary Mitchell and Carol Marcus alongside him. The issue doesn't stay in this period, but it covers it nonetheless.

Next is the Star Trek: The Original Series: Starfleet Academy YA published by Minstrel Books in 1996. The first book focuses on Cadet Spock, the second focuses on Cadet McCoy, with Kirk being mentioned in it, and the third book is called Cadet Kirk as it focuses on Kirk, though Spock and McCoy do appear. Unlike the previous excursions into Kirk's Starfleet Academy career, this one doesn't touch upon the Kobayashi Maru simulation at all. I've never owned this series, but I did own the Star Trek: The Next Generation: Starfleet Academy series, which was the first series in this set of YA books.

Finally we have Star Trek: Academy: Collision Course by William Shatner and Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens and published by Pocket Books on October 16th 2007 in hardcover and on October 28th, 2008 in paperback. This novel took place in the Shatnerverse, which was a series that mainly takes place after Kirk's resurrection following his death in Star Trek Generations (1994), and serves as a prequel. This is the story of Kirk enrolling in Starfleet Academy and meeting Spock for the first time. According to Memory Alpha this novel was supposed to be the first in a new Shatnerverse series, but that never came to fruition. It's never been specified why, but this book came out in 2007, while Star Trek (2009) was in development and production, and because that movie covers the canon, alternate reality version of the events published in this book, I'd say Paramount simply nixed that idea since the second book most likely would've come out in late 2008 or early 2009, close to when the movie was due to come out. But that's just speculation on my part.

And that my friends is it for me for today. I'll be back on Sunday for my review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 2 (1994-1995) and then on Monday for my review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), and then on the next DC Comics's Star Trek Overview installment, I'll be talking about the Star Trek Specials which were giant-sized issues containing two or three stories per issue. So until then have a wonderful rest of your week and I will talk to you all later. Take care.