looks like just a callback to the cute kitty in ALIENS? i mean, this Star Trek / Aliens story was never brought to completion so i don't think there is any "story" to be asking about
Funny, odd, amazing things in the ST Comics
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Many times variant covers are commissioned and even completed before the entire story is fleshed out and written. I pitched concepts and had the series moved forward I would have talked to both IDW and Dark Horse. But there was a scenario running through my head when I did the sketches: The Enterprise is compromised by Xenomorphs. The ship was being evacuated and a self destruct was ordered. Spot, of course, escapes and tries to run back to her cabin. Data would have rushed back, probably fought off an attack and rescued her just in the nick of time. (Yes, a call back to Jonesy from Alien) Would the ship have exploded? Probably not--again this was semi-detached from the story which would have included Romulans and Borg assimilated Xenomorphs.
And "Is there an in-story reason why it's so dark throughout the Enterprise?" it's red alert and they are on emergency power - I had 2 versions of each cover one with the red lights all on and then ones with fewer which seem 'brighter'
He's giving his answer right there in the corner 
They should've put those lines in the movie!
The entire set of adventures on the Excelsior between SFS and TVH were amazing, and they even reconnected it so it matches the movies again. Spock initially got his mind repaired by a meld with his mirror counterpart, Kirk got the Excelsior after the Enterprise was destroyed. Then just before TVH, they have to escape in the stolen BoP that was still in Excelsior's shuttle bay, and Spock loses his memory from an infection. They go back to Vulcan with the BoP again, leading into TVH
They should've put those lines in the movie!
The entire set of adventures on the Excelsior between SFS and TVH were amazing, and they even reconnected it so it matches the movies again. Spock initially got his mind repaired by a meld with his mirror counterpart, Kirk got the Excelsior after the Enterprise was destroyed. Then just before TVH, they have to escape in the stolen BoP that was still in Excelsior's shuttle bay, and Spock loses his memory from an infection. They go back to Vulcan with the BoP again, leading into TVH
Oh wow, those chunky golden Romulan costumes and helmets! They were so ridiculous I loved them.
It’s a shame about that Alien comic. I would have bought it, and I never buy Star Trek comicsMany times variant covers are commissioned and even completed before the entire story is fleshed out and written. I pitched concepts and had the series moved forward I would have talked to both IDW and Dark Horse. But there was a scenario running through my head when I did the sketches: The Enterprise is compromised by Xenomorphs. The ship was being evacuated and a self destruct was ordered. Spot, of course, escapes and tries to run back to her cabin. Data would have rushed back, probably fought off an attack and rescued her just in the nick of time. (Yes, a call back to Jonesy from Alien) Would the ship have exploded? Probably not--again this was semi-detached from the story which would have included Romulans and Borg assimilated Xenomorphs.
And "Is there an in-story reason why it's so dark throughout the Enterprise?" it's red alert and they are on emergency power - I had 2 versions of each cover one with the red lights all on and then ones with fewer which seem 'brighter'
The "two to tango" exchange was in the script. The "White Rabbit" line probably was too, in a different draft. Comics adaptations of movies don't really have room to add stuff that isn't already scripted.
The entire set of adventures on the Excelsior between SFS and TVH were amazing, and they even reconnected it so it matches the movies again. Spock initially got his mind repaired by a meld with his mirror counterpart, Kirk got the Excelsior after the Enterprise was destroyed. Then just before TVH, they have to escape in the stolen BoP that was still in Excelsior's shuttle bay, and Spock loses his memory from an infection. They go back to Vulcan with the BoP again, leading into TVH
Except that makes no sense, because the BoP is far, far too large to fit inside the Excelsior's shuttle bay. This was shown earlier in the Mirror Universe Saga issues, where the BoP had to be towed underneath the Excelsior.
I also thought it was kind of a cruddy move to kill off Spock's Surak crew just to reset the continuity.
He's giving his answer right there in the corner
I loved Gray Morrow's Star Trek work.
Another additional scene in the Star Trek IV comic is the Sarek/Chapel conversation early on. A few pages back I described Tom Sutton's Star Trek as "more United Planets than United Federation of Planets," and that whole page feels like it wouldn't be out of place in a Legion of Super-Heroes comic.
The entire set of adventures on the Excelsior between SFS and TVH were amazing, and they even reconnected it so it matches the movies again. Spock initially got his mind repaired by a meld with his mirror counterpart, Kirk got the Excelsior after the Enterprise was destroyed. Then just before TVH, they have to escape in the stolen BoP that was still in Excelsior's shuttle bay, and Spock loses his memory from an infection. They go back to Vulcan with the BoP again, leading into TVH
Like @Christopher, I don't care for the death of the Surak's crew. I can't say that any of the characters were super memorable -- we only saw them three or four times over two years -- but there were surely other ways of doing a light reset to match up the comics continuity to the film continuity.
I just pulled both and looked at them, and I'd say, not really.
I'd forgotten that Todd McFarlane drew the USS Surak page in Who's Who in Star Trek. The talk of the Surak above reminded me the ship started out as a sister ship to the Grissom, and then it turns into something that in later days would resemble the love child of the Soyuz-class and the Constellation-class.
The talk of the Surak above reminded me the ship started out as a sister ship to the Grissom, and then it turns into something that in later days would resemble the love child of the Soyuz-class and the Constellation-class.
Didn't Gray Morrow draw it as a mini-Excelsior?
Gray Morrow drew the Saratoga as a mini-Excelsior
spot-on depiction of Madge Sinclair too so he had gotten some ST4 movie material to review, but apparently not a brief on the Saratoga being a re-dress of the Reliant model
Weirdly, Sutton draws the Surak as a mini-Excelsior crossed with the Grissom in issue #34, the first part of "The Doomsday Bug." Page 11, more Grissom; page 12, more Excelsior. Morrow doesn't have a chance to draw the Surak; Kirk has Sulu plunge the ship into a star at the end of issue #34 to contain the virus. I'd forgotten how weird the Surak looked in issue #33 (the 20th-anniversary TOS crossover); it doesn't even look like anything Starfleet there.
Morrow takes over from Sutton for issues #35 and #36. The Saratoga appears on the last page of #35 and a couple of times in #36, and it's drawn as an Excelsior. Morrow's Styles looks more like a 2022 Jason Isaacs than a 1984 James B. Sikking. Grand Admiral Stephen Turner makes a return appearance in issue #35, and Morrow draws him to look a lot like Ronny Cox, which would be a good casting choice for the character, come to think of it.
Right, I forgot Morrow only did the last 2/3 of "Bug."
I've taken a deep dive into what kind of ship the Surak is supposed to be on my website. The ship appears variously as an Oberth, a Constitution, an Excelsior, and the warp sled from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Then there's one version that's unidentifiable as anything, not to mention the wildly different version drawn by Todd McFarlane in Who's Who in Star Trek that's sort of a Reliant variant but not really. Copiously illustrated, it's the first and only reference of its kind, not to mention clearly the work of a mad-person.
Allyn Gibson's blog said:
I wonder if that has something to do with the fact that Spock's shuttle in TMP was named Surak?
And those comic book readers grew up to make Discovery's Turbolift Funhouse
This I agree with. I was fond of Spock's U.S.S. Surak crew.
Love this!I've taken a deep dive into what kind of ship the Surak is supposed to be on my website. The ship appears variously as an Oberth, a Constitution, an Excelsior, and the warp sled from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Then there's one version that's unidentifiable as anything, not to mention the wildly different version drawn by Todd McFarlane in Who's Who in Star Trek that's sort of a Reliant variant but not really. Copiously illustrated, it's the first and only reference of its kind, not to mention clearly the work of a mad-person.
I always figured the Surak was supposed to be Oberth-class, but I'm not sure there was a model commercially available at the time like there was the Enterprise (which I recall them saying they used in an old lettercol, and why their Excelsior sometimes looked extremely iffy since they didn't have one of those), and thus the artists were limited in what they could use as a reference. None of which explains why they went so totally bonkers changing their minds mid-issue, however
A venomous fish? That's why Spot looked so shabby
Hehehehe. That was my original supposition at the time, but a few years ago someone said the poison wouldn't affect a cat.
osc.org: "Lionfish spines are venomous, not poisonous. Meaning, once the spines are removed, the rest of the fish is completely edible – and quite delicious. Not only does eating lionfish help remove these pesky fish from Florida's waters, but it also offers a sustainable fishing alternative."
Yes, I had seen this still but it wasn't in the movie, so it was a thrill when it was added into the comic adaptation.
Dr Chapel and Ambassador Sarek in ST IV by Ian McLean, on Flickr
I think I knew that at one time.I wonder if that has something to do with the fact that Spock's shuttle in TMP was named Surak?
I wonder, since we don't see any of the other crew of the Surak in issue #33 ("Vicious Circle!"), if the intention was for Spock to have taken a warp sled by himself to rendezvous with the Excelsior and the Enterprise but the dialogue didn't bear that out? If Len Wein had written, "It's a warp shuttle from the science vessel Surak" instead, we wouldn't have to account for this weird version of the ship.
