1247. Worlds CollidePUBLICATION: Star Trek: Untold Voyages #2, Marvel Comics, April 1998
CREATORS: Glenn Greenberg (writer), Michael Collins and Keith Williams (artists)
STARDATE: 7521.4 (a year after the last issue)
PLOT: The Enterprise studies a saurian quadrupedal life-form with some manner of sentience on a planet doomed to soon be hit by a metor. McCoy advocates breaking the Prime Directive to save this species, and eventually Kirk relents. But just as they're about to intervene, the creatures do so themselves with a shared telekinetic effort. Meanwhile, Spock is on Vulcan checking on Saavik, about a year after he brought her back orphaned from a Romulan colony. She is having trouble containing her emotions and he mindmelds with her to give her stability and delivers her to his parents for proper rearing.
CONTINUITY: Saavik's origin from the first DC Comics series (vol1. #7) is mostly respected, though details are added and the timeline changed. She decides here to one day join Starfleet (The Wrath of Khan). Sarek and Amanda also appear. McCoy uses Miramanee's World as a precedent for saving a world from an asteroid (The Paradise Syndrome). The Rhaandarite seen in the background in The Motion Picture is given dialog and a name - Omal. McCoy jokes that he can't think of anything worse than hearing Spock's voice in his head (foreshadowing The Search for Spock).
DIVERGENCES: The novel Ex Machina renamed Omal, Vaylin Zaand. The DC series #7 had Spock find Saavik while he served on Captain Pike's Enterprise.
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REVIEW: Two completely different threads, but united under the same relevant title. The Enterprise A-story features some distinctive aliens and a sense of wonder often missing from these tales (or Star Trek in general), and I think is worthy in that it shows Kirk being swayed by emotion in the absence of Spock. Greenberg plays well on the psychological triad these characters usually form. As for the Spock story, it took me a minute to realize it contradicted the DC series because it follows much the same beats, though positioned later in the timeline. Not a big deal, though Saavik seems kind of young to me here (how far away is The Wrath of Khan?). Still, it fits in well with the mission of Untold Voyages of creating links between TMP and ST II. Spock's bond to Saavik is explained efficiently, and the whole is told with humor and very good art.
Comments
Though I have some MAJOR quibbles with the official STAR TREK CHRONOLOGY developed by Michael and Denise Okuda, it was, at the time of UNTOLD VOYAGES, pretty much the ultimate authority when it came to the Star Trek timeline. The Official Chronology established that TWOK took place about 14 years after TMP (despite both Khan and Kirk saying in TWOK that 15 years had passed since "Space Seed.")
Going with that 14-year gap, and figuring that Saavik was around 23 or 24 in TWOK, it made sense to have Spock find her some time during Year One of the second five-year mission, a short time after the V'Ger Incident.
In UNTOLD VOYAGES #2, we are in Year Two of the second five-year mission, which would mean Saavik is around 11 years old.
Personally, I feel that no more than 7 or 8 years could have passed between TMP and TWOK. If everything we see on screen is canon, as Paramount has always said, then how can the 15-year gap established by both Khan AND Kirk in TWOK be disregarded?
Paramount seems to have loosened up a little bit lately when it comes to the chronology. I still like the idea of Spock finding Saavik AFTER TMP, since we'd never seen or heard of her during the TV series or the first film.
If we go with my preferred gap of 7 or 8 years between TMP and TWOK, then we can assume that Saavik is around 14 in UNTOLD VOYAGES #2 (and small for her age, no doubt due to years of malnutrition on the Romulan colony world), which would make her 22 in TWOK. I can live with that! :-)
So each issue of Untold Voyages is set in a different year? That's interesting!
For example, in issue #2, Spock mentions that it's been a year since he found Saavik. Well, as we all know, prior to TMP, Spock was on Vulcan devoting himself solely to studying Kolinahr (and letting his hair grow long). He would not have had the opportunity to find Saavik during that timeframe.
Also, McCoy mentions early in issue #2 that he's back on the Enterprise for over a year.