Star Trek 794: Passage to Moauv

794. Passage to Moauv

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Passage to Moauv, Power Records, 1975

CREATORS: Alan Dean Foster (writer), Russ Heath, Dick Giordano, Neal Adams (artists)

STARDATE: 5440

PLOT: The Enterprise ferries an ambassador's pet "waul" to the planet Moauv when the creature becomes frightened and starts emitting telepathic energy that makes the crew act like animals. It is finally pacified by Lt. M'Ress who has feline ancestry. The ambassador reveals that his pet is pregnant and M'Ress is to become a mother for the remainder of the trip.

CONTINUITY: Moauv sits on the Federation/Klingon border. Lt. M'Ress from the Animated Series appears.

DIVERGENCES: Uhura is white and blond. Sulu is black. And M'Ress is a generously endowed blue woman with no feline traits.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Alternative casting
REVIEW: Probably because it accompanies a 45 rpm record "word for word", Passage to Moauv very talky. The action is mostly contained on the bridge aside from a few cut-aways, and we don't see the creature until quite late. And despite there being a lot of text, the comic is too light on story to be anything more than fluff. The art, as one can imagine from the list of artists, is among the best yet seen in a Star Trek comic, if slightly uneven. Shame about the miscasting of Uhura, Sulu and M'Ress. I mean, the last one could be forgiven (and it's a much hotter M'Ress than the TAS version), but was there no photo reference for the other two? You'd think at least of the artists had seen an episode of Star Trek before. Moauv is thus more interesting as a curiosity than as a story.

I haven't got the actual records to listen to, but excerpts can be found at Star Trek Story Records. The original actors didn't do the voices, and only Kirk vaguely sounds like himself.