Funny, odd, amazing things in the ST Comics
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Well, not at first -- note the transparent shuttlebay hatch in that first image. It took a few issues for Tom Sutton to get better references for the Enterprise.
But there's one very odd mistake
That's not a mistake, it's a design choice to fit the panel onto the page. An awkward choice, perhaps (though easier to cope with when you have the book in your hands and can turn it sideways), but still a choice.
What was the deal with the Enterprise and Excelsior bridges in DC's first Trek run? Occasionally they'd resemble the Enterprise movie sets but far more often they were large, rectangular spaces with unique turbolift access and circuits and controls spamming every surface.
Sometimes the artists didn't have reference, or sometimes they just chose to go another way with it. Gray Morrow's Enterprise interiors never looked much like what you saw on the show or movies, but it was all drawn so beautifully you didn't care.
I love Tom Sutton's take on the Star Trek universe, though I think it's more United Planets (ie., the Legion of Super-Heroes) than United Federation of Planets. He's not a likeness artist, so his characters only vaguely resemble the actors -- but they're recognizable as the characters they're supposed to be. His technology looks wildly different than the Star Trek norm, and that's kind of the charm of it. Sutton suggests the idea of Star Trek without being slavishly devoted it, which is refreshing when compared to licensed comics today that are so busy matching likenesses and look that they forget to have a personality of their own.
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Yeah, I prefer something like Sutton's inaccurate but creative art to the sort of thing that's basically just tracings of screencaps, accurate but lifeless.
LOL, the "SS" insignia on the Romulan's helmet. Sublety is all... 
I think if you want subtlety, a Mirror Universe story is the wrong place to go looking for it.LOL, the "SS" insignia on the Romulan's helmet. Sublety is all...
Speaking from experience, licensors these days are far more fussy about the artwork, and wouldn't approve art that diverted as much as Sutton's did. I mention this only to make it clear that it's not entirely on the artists........
DC was helped by the fact that they had the rights to use all of Star Trek. Marvel's contract limited them to only use elements that had appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. They snuck in a few TV elements, though, like Kirk's service on the Republic.
And two appearances from Admiral Fitzpatrick from "The Trouble with Tribbles" (in issues #4 and #6).
I'll never understand the precise limits of these licences. I recall reading a Trek videogame writer wasn't allowed Klingons in a a 90's pitch because they were part of "the Next Gen license" and they had Voyager - despite a Voyager character being half-Klingon!
Well, though Trek tends to ignore this, there is a meaningful distinction between Klingons as a species or genetic heritage and Klingons as a political and cultural entity. Maybe the idea was that the Klingon Empire itself and its representatives were part of the TNG license and thus off-limits. B'Elanna was biologically half-Klingon but not a member of the Klingon state or society, so she wouldn't have counted.
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Sometimes companies will only pay for limited rights by way of reducing costs, so for example one licensor could only have a Voyager license, which means they can only do stuff that's particular to that show. That would explain the Klingon Empire and Klingon characters being off-limits.
Back when I edited the Marvel novels in the 1990s, we had a very specific list of characters we could (and couldn't) use, just as an example.
Back when I edited the Marvel novels in the 1990s, we had a very specific list of characters we could (and couldn't) use, just as an example.
It's sort of like how the 1988 Superboy show could use Clark Kent but couldn't call him Superman. Same character, but two different licenses. (Although it was able to use Superman villains like Metallo and Mxyzptlk, and mention the Daily Planet by name.)