The Vendetta Conspiracy

Keep your eyes open in March for a new, two-issue IDW Star Trek comic that features a Vulcan story arc. It follows the events of Star Trek XI.  Vulcans are dealing with the aftermath of the destruction of their homeworld and apparently, some of them think that revenge is the logical response.

Check back here in March for my review!

Review: Saavik's Story Chapter Two

To read my review of Part One, click here.

Saavik's Story continues in issue #8 from November 1984 in the DC Comics Star Trek series.  It was written by Mike W. Barr with art by Tom Sutton and Ricardo Villagran.  The colourist was Michele Wolfman.

The Enterprise is taking damage from Saavik's phaser fire.  With Scotty's assistance, Kirk manages to make the Enterprise look like it has been severely damaged and is unable to respond.  Having dealt with the potential threat, Saavik moves off into the barrier that surrounds our galaxy.  The Enterprise is able to follow her radiation trail.

Meanwhile, a Romulan vessel is communicating with a Romulan science station which seems to be on a planetoid either in or near to the barrier.  The commander of the ship is Tal (Subcommander Tal was the name of Jack Donner's Romulan character in "The Enterprise Incident".  Presumably this is the same character). Xon has infiltrated the Romulan station posing as a centurion.

It seems the Romulans are conducting genetic experiments and they have created a small group of Romulan "Augments".  A scientist called Lar is using the energy from the barrier to infuse these specimens with some kind of super powers.  One of the Augments is able to sense Saavik's vessel landing nearby and Centurion Xon is sent to investigate.

Xon is shocked to find that it is a Vulcan vessel and that Saavik, his betrothed, is aboard!  The couple kiss passionately and the contact seems to be enough to relieve Saavik's Plak Tow.  The couple plan to take Saavik's ship and warn the Federation about the new Romulan threat but they are stopped by a group of armed Romulan soldiers.  Evidently, Lar has suspected that Xon is a spy and had him followed.

Saavik is able to hide from the soldiers and she uses her communicator to contact the Enterprise in hopes that she left survivors aboard.  Of course, the crew is fine.  They respond to Saavik and beam her aboard.  Sensors indicate that Xon is in the science facility and a great deal of power is being focused on a torture device that Lar hopes will persuade Xon to reveal his secrets.

The Enterprise fires on the station, destroying the systems used to collect energy from the barrier.  Xon is transported to the Enterprise and Commander Tal orders pursuit of the Starfleet vessel.  The Enterprise cannot be allowed to warn the Federation of the Romulan plan.  Kirk and Scotty are able to block the Romulan vessel's sensors.  They can follow the Enterprise only by following its "Identification Beam."  Kirk heads toward the barrier, and the Romulan vessel is so close behind that when Kirk suddenly changes the Enterprise's course, the Romulans cannot stop themselves from entering the barrier at full speed.

Their navigational equipment destroyed, the Romulans will remain stuck in the barrier until they are able to find a way out or they are destroyed.  Dr. McCoy is able to heal Xon's wounds.  Xon and Saavik seem to be quite content with one another and Xon will be able to brief the Federation on the intelligence he gathered.  Finally, the Enterprise heads to rendezvous with the Grissom so David and Saavik can begin to study the Genesis Planet.

Next would come the events of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

I suppose this is a satisfying conclusion to the story begun in the previous issue but the structure and setting are so different that it really feels like a separate entity rather than a continuation.

To me, the most interesting part of this story is the inclusion of the Romulans.  At this point we haven't seen the Romulans since the original series episode "The Enterprise Incident".  I found it interesting to see how the artists evolved the look of the Romulans.  The soldiers wear helmets and armour that is reminiscent of the original series costumes but definitely has a 1980s flavour. The costumes remind me of something one might see in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

Also, the Romulan scientist Lar wears a very Vulcan-looking robe complete with script that is very similar to the Vulcan symbols rata, tafar and tapan. This suggests a much closer link between Vulcan and Romulan cousins than we have previously seen.  I like the idea that some Romulans have respect for their origins even if they differ from Vulcans in philosophy and demeanor.

I'd say this is non-essential reading for most Vulcanologists but it can be diverting for a short while.

Review: The Origin of Saavik!

The Origin of Saavik is issue #7 from August 1984 in the DC Comics Star Trek series.  It was written by Mike W. Barr with art by Eduardo Barreto and Ricardo Villagran.  Michele Wolfman was the colourist. This is the first volume in a two-part story.  It is subtitled "Pon Far!" (incorrectly spelled, it should be Pon Farr).  The second part is called "Plak Tow!"

The story takes place sometime between Star Trek II and Star Trek III.  We are introduced to a very emotional Saavik who is having difficulty controlling her emotions.  Kirk's son David rendezvous with the Enterprise.  Carol Marcus is back at Regula I overseeing repairs to the station after Khan's attack.  At a banquet in David's honour, Kirk makes a very uncharacteristically inappropriate toast ("...Long life to our honoured guest and his friends... and confusion to our enemies, the Klingons and the Romulans!").

Saavik has an outburst of emotion and storms out of the banquet hall.  Kirk and McCoy follow and McCoy explains that he has suspected Saavik might be in the early stages of Pon Farr.  Reluctantly, Saavik explains to the captain and doctor that both male and female Vulcans must go through the Pon Farr.  She then tells the story of how she came to know Spock.

A landing party commanded by Spock, before Kirk came to captain the Enterprise, discovered an abandoned Romulan base.  The only living inhabitant was a a young Vulcan-Romulan girl: Saavik.  She speculates that her "half-breed heritage" may have made her more tenacious and able to survive on her own while her Romulan peers could not.

This is the first time that it's explicitly stated that Saavik is half Vulcan and half Romulan.  Some fans will remember a brief line that McCoy has in Star Trek II.  He says to Kirk after Saavik leaves the turbolift: "Wonderful stuff that Romulan ale."  In the script itself, Saavik was identified as half Vulcan and half Romulan but the scenes where that was discussed were extracted.

Saavik tells Kirk and McCoy that Spock took her to Vulcan to live with his parents, Sarek and Amanda. She was then bonded to a Vulcan boy named Xon (Xon was a Vulcan character who was to appear in Star Trek: Phase II when Leonard Nimoy declined to return for the planned spin-off series).  Saavik says that in her time on Vulcan she began to love and long for Spock.  Saavik requests that she be allowed to leave for Vulcan but Kirk insists on taking her there himself.  This delays the scheduled rendezvous with the USS Grissom which was to take David back to the Genesis planet.

Once on Vulcan, (which is incorrectly depicted as having several moons), Sarek tells Saavik that Xon is off world on a secret mission for his people.  He will not reveal Xon's location but hints that the information might be found in his computer.  He then leaves the room allowing Saavik to locate Xon.  Sarek then speaks with Amanda who begs him to ask Kirk about Spock's katra.  He agrees that he will but Saavik has used the computer to beam to an orbiting ship and leave to seek Xon on her own and Kirk will not wait to speak with Sarek.  He immediately beams to the Enterprise and begins pursuit of Saavik.

The Enterprise follows Saavik to the energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy. Saavik, in the throws of the Plak Tow (blood fever) fires phasers at the Enterprise demanding that they tell her where Xon is.  The issue then ends, to be continued in "Plak Tow!"

I like the idea of a connecting story between Star Trek II and III but I think this one has a few problems.  Kirk has a lot of very uncharacteristic dialogue.  It also seems pretty clear in the films that the Enterprise heads straight home to Earth for repairs after Spock's death.  Sarek then immediately seeks out Kirk on Earth.  I find it difficult to imagine Sarek would wait on Vulcan for an appropriate time to discuss his son's katra.

I think the flashback sequence where Spock finds a young Saavik, and has his family more or less adopt her, is quite strong.  The artists do a good job of recreating the Starfleet uniforms seen in "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before."  For the rest of the art, the panels are dynamically drawn.  The colour is, of course, lacking due to the costs of printing a wider range of colours at the time.  The character likenesses are not especially strong (except for Scotty and Sulu) but you can definitely tell who everyone is and they serve the story well.

Saavik is a unique character in several ways.  She's the first Vulcan female Starfleet officer we see on screen, she's the first Vulcan female to have a name beginning with a letter other than 'T' and she's the first Vulcan-Romulan hybrid ever seen or mentioned in Star Trek.  Her hybrid heritage makes for an interesting inner conflict which could be explored in much more depth.  Her passionate Romulan side allows her to have feelings for David Marcus, Kirk and Spock either in deleted scenes from Star Trek II or in earlier drafts of the script.  The relationship between Saavik and David is especially interesting to me.  It explains this somewhat strange publicity photo.

To read my review of Part Two, click here.

Review: IDW Alien Spotlight: Vulcans

This post has migrated to purplesloth.com