936. The Tree of Life, The Branches of HeavenPUBLICATION: Star Trek v.2 #34, DC Comics, August 1992
CREATORS: David de Vries (writer), Jan Duresema and Pablo Marcos (artists)
STARDATE: 8583.7 (follows the last issue)
PLOT: Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to a planet where their imagination becomes reality. Kirk gets trapped in a fantasy in which his son David is alive and serving on the Enterprise. Spock uses his mental control to enter Kirk's reality and remind him that David is dead. Spock's explanation: The planet is concentrated plasma from the Big Bang and thus pliable to creative thoughts. Whatever, let's just make it off-limits.
CONTINUITY: The planet is compared to the ones in Shore Leave and Spectre of the Gun, with illusions then appearing from each one. Shirtless Sulu appears courtesy of The Naked Time. David Marcus of course appeared in ST II and III.
DIVERGENCES: Impossibly occurs in the middle of the Veritas arc (according to the stardate). Despite having been on illusionary worlds many times, everybody goes on about it not being possible.
PANEL OF THE DAY - For the ladies
REVIEW: It's that old nugget with the planet that makes your imagination come alive once again. Even this comics series has used the plot device before. Using it to explore Kirk's grief, leading up to the events of ST VI, is a good twist on it, though there's a lot of time wasted with samurai and dead Sulus before we get into the meat of the matter. Spock's explanation is patently ridiculous and best ignored. At least there's Jan Duursema's expressive art, well suited to the fantasy stuff. The guest artist comes out far ahead of the guest writer in this one.
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