908. Trial and Error!PUBLICATION: Star Trek v.2 #12, DC Comics, September 1990
CREATORS: Peter David (writer), Gordon Purcell and Arne Starr (artists)
STARDATE: 8498.1 (follows the last issue)
PLOT: Ensign Fouton admits to infecting Prefect Witten with the plague, clearing Kirk of those charges, but being ejected from Starfleet as a result. When Sulu asked the two girls in his romantic triangle to resolve things, he didn't expect them to both leave the ship. Meanwhile, the Klingon Emperor comes to Earth to make sure Kirk is found guilty and handed over to them. After a lot of talking, the Nasgul Salla leaves the room, making Kirk suspicious. He discovers a bomb has been planted on the Klingon Emperor, so he saves his life. The Klingons drop the charges THIS time, though they do ask their spy, Admiral Tomlinson, to try to get Kirk in trouble with the Empire again.
CONTINUITY: In addition to the characters already appearing in The Trial of James T. Kirk (Fed Prez, Kling Amb, Kahless IV, Sarek, Cogsley, Shaw and Admiral Nogura), the Klingons invite Maltz (ST III) to testify and make sure General Korrd (ST V) cannot.
DIVERGENCES: I'm not sure having the Klingon Emperor on Earth fits in too well with the events and attitudes seen in ST VI.
PANEL OF THE DAY - The Kirk Paradox
REVIEW: A disappointing finale. Everyone makes long and not particularly interesting speeches, and there's not even a verdict. Further, I have to wonder why so many of the characters Peter David introduced are being tossed aside all at the same time. Was he asked to by Paramount? Did he want to retire them before leaving the book (he starts sharing the by-line next issue)? In any case, it seems like a waste. Their subplots end with a whimper. Amusingly, in M'yra and Li's case, but still disappointing. At least R.J. Blaise sticks around as that particular romantic comedy proceeds apace. Tomlinson turning out to be a spy just because he's a jerk is a bit obvious.
Comments
Here's a quote from Mr. David about their hostile relationship:
The fact is that Richard Arnold’s notes became increasingly ludicrous, such as shutting down a romantic interest for Kirk by asserting that Kirk was no longer interested in women. We were reaching the point where it was becoming impossible to get stories approved. Richard rejected one story with the assertion that there was “too much violence,” even though the violence consisted of a sustained fist fight scene with Kirk (as if they never had those in Trek). As a test, I submitted a script under a fake name which sailed through the approvals process even though it had far more violence than the previous script which was rejected for that reason. When that was approved, I knew that it had nothing to do with the stories and everything to do with Richard’s enmity toward me (a far longer story to go into.) At which point I resigned from the book since I felt I could no longer do the job I was hired to do, namely provide stories for DC.
Final kicker: The fake name under which I submitted the story that was approved? “Robert Bruce Banner.”