Christopher Priest's proposed Star Trek comic

[Stevil2001]

I've been reading Christopher Priest's run on Black Panther recently, and something about it made me think he ought to write a Star Trek comic. I don't remember what now, that was a month ago, but I think it was probably a very good Star Trek joke—combined with the fact that Priest is an exceptional, clever, interesting comics writer and worth reading no matter what he's writing. (Though not even Priest can get me to read Deadpool.) I had this vague idea of starting a thread about who people would like to see write Star Trek comics but then I googled "christopher priest star trek" and found this article from Priest.

Priest says he's never really had a desire to write a Star Trek comic except for one idea he had about Worf facing institutionalized racism. IDW approached him and he pitched that and it got as far as an outline for a five-issue miniseries and a script for the first issue but CBS licensing didn't like the core premise. It's an interesting read; he's posted the script, but I find reading scripts very difficult so I didn't last too long with it.

 

[Extrocomp]

How bizarre. Why would Christopher Priest think that Starfleet has a racism problem when they welcome all sorts of weird alien species into their ranks? No wonder CBS didn't like it.

 

[F. King Daniel]

How bizarre. Why would Christopher Priest think that Starfleet has a racism problem when they welcome all sorts of weird alien species into their ranks? No wonder CBS didn't like it.

I remember when Starfleet had a sexism problem with no female captains.

And didn't Nog have to deal with some racism?

 

[USS Pertinax]

How bizarre. Why would Christopher Priest think that Starfleet has a racism problem when they welcome all sorts of weird alien species into their ranks? No wonder CBS didn't like it.

Well, it depends how much of certain tendencies of certain species nurture or culture.

A black human and let's say an asian might not be be not that different, but a Klingon and a human might be radically different.

 

[Christopher]

How bizarre. Why would Christopher Priest think that Starfleet has a racism problem when they welcome all sorts of weird alien species into their ranks?

Except that, at least in onscreen Trek, there seems to be a glass ceiling, in that most starship captains and the vast majority of flag officers are human. And virtually every starship is named for a person or place from Earth, almost never from another world. It's easy to assume racism isn't a problem when you're a member of the privileged group. It might look very different if you're not.

Besides, Starfleet has a long history of enmity with the Klingons, and as we learned from "Yesterday's Enterprise," relations were tense enough in 2244, just 20 years before TNG started, that a single incident at Narendra III made the difference between peace in one timeline and war in another. So pretty much every Starfleet flag officer would be from a generation that had grown up seeing Klingons as, if not an enemy power, then at least a potential enemy. It makes perfect sense that some higher-ups in Starfleet might have a problem adjusting fully to the idea of Klingons as allies, let alone members of Starfleet.

And then the Khitomer Accords were suspended and the Federation and Klingons were at war for a year before the Dominion War. It sounds like Priest originally had his idea during TNG, but kept it in mind over the years as DS9 and the movies came out. So if he'd done it in a post-DS9 setting, there'd be some fresh enmity toward the Klingons among Starfleet personnel, making it even more plausible that someone in authority might be prejudiced against Worf.

 

[Stevil2001]

Yeah, I don't think it's unreasonable that there could be enough of an enmity against Klingons in Starfleet to create a "glass ceiling" for Worf. We see occasional casual "racism" in the C24 Star Trek shows, such as prejudice against Nog for being Ferengi. One can imagine a human officer perfectly happy to see Worf in Starfleet but with reservations about the idea of him actually being in command. As Christopher points out, there's plenty of precedent for it. (And Priest's script has Riker in command of Titan, so it's post-Nemesis.)

 

[Greg Cox]

I remember when Starfleet had a sexism problem with no female captains.

And didn't Nog have to deal with some racism?

By coincidence, STAR TREK EXPLORER magazine just published a short story (in the digital supplement for issue #9) in which Nog encounters anti-Ferengi prejudice at Starfleet Academy, and finds out from Boothy by that Worf encountered similar challenges as the first Klingon at the Academy.

Starfleet may be based on utopian ideals, but actual people are going to sometimes struggle to live up them. Ideals are goals to aspire to after all, not something that can be taken for granted. (Remember the anti-Romulan witch hunt in TNG's "The Drumhead"?)

 

[Arpy]

I don't know how I'd feel about the Worf story...with the Klingons specifically I could see some in the Federation having a problem in them given their fundamentally warlike nature, death cult philosophy, and century of both hot and cold wars with them. In the end I supposed it's about the execution of the story. How good a yarn it was. And if it kept in mind that Worf was adopted by loving human parents, and Khitomer was saved from the Klingon's mortal enemies by a Federation ship with many humans in command sacrificing their lives for them.

Here's my quibble with the idea though. These story suggestions are always about the utopian Federation having issues with someone, and they're a retelling of Civil Rights Era stories from our history – not unexpected given when TOS first aired and the continuing legacy of slavery in our society. But why is it always writer wants to show bigots in the Federation, publisher doesn't want to tackle bigotry in the Federation, bigotry is not addressed at all – here's a story about time another arch alien empire plotting invasion for fun or a scientifically absurd story about Thanos's time crystals. Why not tell either a really well executed story about bigotry in another society, or a story about how little prejudice there is in the Federation, how aberrant a thing that is and troubling to those around it all the same – isn't that what the great TNG episode "The Drumhead" did in a way? Have your cake and eat it too.

Or how about the Federation proactively championing anti-bigotry in another society (in an adult, poignant, and aspirational story, not a simplistic, self-satisfied, or saccharine one) in some scenario where the Prime Directive allows for it – there always seems to be a way around it in other stories. In the way you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, I think promoting a vision to aspire toward can be more powerful than a tragedy to run away from. What Trek has over any other sci-fi franchise is that aspirational aspect. It's profoundly powerful and inspiring and captivating, yet writers so often either run away from it or simply have no idea how to do it well. It's not part of the magician's bag of literary tricks or revered sets of thematic spells taught at any of the finest wizarding schools.

 

[TheAlmanac]

I could see this kind of premise potentially working--after all, there are those who would say the Federation is nothing more than a "Homo Sapiens Only" club.

 

[publiusr]

This would have been perfect in DC’s run as a way for a disgusted Konem to drop out due to Cartwright…had DC kept the license.

This way Worf could stay as Starfleet’s first commissioned Klingon officer.

DC captured Trek’s ethos quite well.

 

[Stevil2001]

Even if it was an awkward fit for canon, I'm sure a Christopher Priest–penned Star Trek comic would be more interesting than the majority of what IDW puts out.

 

[Therin of Andor]

And then the Khitomer Accords were suspended and the Federation and Klingons were at war for a year before the Dominion War.

I loved the irony that, in ST VI, the Efrosian President of the UFP had to deal with a major Klingon racism problem when his own physical appearance was so reminiscent of Klingons. No one says anything of it, so it ends up being a subtle subtext.

Re Konom:

This way Worf could stay as Starfleet’s first commissioned Klingon officer.

Konom didn't go to Starfleet Academy, though. He wore the uniform in a similar way to when Kira started wearing one at the end of DS9.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Reminder to all, Ash Tyler predates Konom by decades as the first Klingon in Starfleet. Although they immediately put him in Section 31 so he probably doesn't officially exist anymore.

 

[Christopher]

I loved the irony that, in ST VI, the Efrosian President of the UFP had to deal with a major Klingon racism problem when his own physical appearance was so reminiscent of Klingons. No one says anything of it, so it ends up being a subtle subtext.

I don't see that much resemblance. Okay, he's got subtle forehead bumps and long hair and facial hair, but so many Trek-universe species have forehead textures of various sorts that I don't think many people in the Federation would look at him and be reminded specifically of Klingons, especially with Efrosians' very pale hair and eyes.

 

[Therin of Andor]

When ST VI came out, I saw a lot of reviews asking why the UFP President was a Klingon. (I knew he was an Efrosian because the one in ST IV had been named for Unit Production Manager, Mel Efros… by the Punk on the Bus, actually)

 

[Christopher]

When ST VI came out, I saw a lot of reviews asking why the UFP President was a Klingon.

Did they wonder the same thing about the Saratoga helmsman in TVH?

Of course, there was that one reviewer who infamously thought that the Klingons in the opening of TMP were the crew of V'Ger and wondered why they didn't show up again later on. Reviewers don't always pay attention.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Did they wonder the same thing about the Saratoga helmsman in TVH?

No, but a whole new can of worms. Some assumed he was a Deltan due to Vonda McIntyre’s novelization, which she wrote without photo references of him:

http://therinofandor.blogspot.com/2006/11/truth-about-efrosians-pard_116269248336471480.html

 

[Christopher]

Some assumed he was a Deltan due to Vonda McIntyre’s novelization, which she wrote without photo references of him

Not just a matter of photo references, I think. IIRC, in her TWOK novelization she described the Deltan men at Regula I as having long hair -- only the women were bald, or something. I always figured that was why she interpreted the helmsman as Deltan.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Not just a matter of photo references, I think. IIRC, in her TWOK novelization she described the Deltan men at Regula I as having long hair -- only the women were bald, or something. I always figured that was why she interpreted the helmsman as Deltan.

No, the Deltan with long rose-coloured hair was a different Deltan. I mention him in the article on my blog.

The other two "partners" of Jedda and Zinaida are introduced and named in McIntyre's ST IV as: female Verai Dva-Payjh and male Kirim Dreii-Dall, who is described as having “fine, rose-coloured hair down to his knees”.

But, in retrospect, she was probably also covering for John Vargas not being bald (as Jedda) in ST II. He was scripted as Deltan, and she has both Jedda and Zinaida as bald Deltans in her novelization, IIRC.

 

[Extrocomp]

Not just a matter of photo references, I think. IIRC, in her TWOK novelization she described the Deltan men at Regula I as having long hair -- only the women were bald, or something. I always figured that was why she interpreted the helmsman as Deltan.

Actually it was the science officer who was Deltan in the novelization, not the helmsman.