1314. The Order of ThingsPUBLICATION: Star Trek: Klingons - Blood Will Tell #3, IDW Comics, July 2007
CREATORS: Scott Tipton and David Tipton (writers), David Messina (artist)
STARDATE: 4211.4 (framing story during The Undiscovered Country; actual story during A Private Little War)
PLOT: Kahnrah reviews the story of his kinsman Krell, who armed the natives of Neural to undermine the Organian treaty without actually breaking it. We see how he seduced Apalla and how he was forced to leave when Kirk intervened. Returning a few months later, he found that the Hill People were equally armed and the planet devastated by civil war, and considered it a victory for the Klingon side.
CONTINUITY: See previous issues (The Undiscovered Country, QuchHa). Krell, the planet Neural, Nona, Tyree, Apella and the Mugato all feature (A Private Little War).
DIVERGENCES: See previous issue (title).
PANEL OF THE DAY - Because Mugato.
REVIEW: Oddly, we don't return to the framing tale at the end of this issue, but that's perhaps its only real weakness. Krell, the least memorable of all of TOS' "lead" Klingons is given a little more class here. The cowardice on show in A Private Little War is explained as part of a larger plan, and besides, he fights a Mugato bare handed! As with the rest of the mini-series to date, the comic adds scope to the original episode, and provides it with a coda that couldn't really have been done in the 60s, i.e. before the Vietnam war ended. In the end, neither side has won Neural, but the Federation has lost most of all in the deal. This mirrors the American experience in Vietnam without making the parallels too obvious.
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