Star Trek comics online

[RookieBatman]

It's of mild trivial interest that when the strip adopts the red uniforms, the stardates make a huge leap forward, not only going way past TWoK, but past all of the original series movies (which they couldn't have known at the time, which is why it's only of trivial interest). Also, in the first red-uniform arc, Spock is still there. I didn't check the date that arc started against the premier date of TWoK, but it would be interesting to question whether they actually might've actually made the conscious decision to leave Spock in even after he died. I didn't do any kind of thorough search, but just from cursory browsing, it doesn't look like they ever took Spock out of the strip.

 

[Christopher]

Sorry, I misspoke. The strips that were published after TWOK were still set before TWOK (with the assumption being that the uniforms were adopted some time before the movie). The first two stories with TWOK-era uniforms, written by Martin Pasko, still reflect the standard command structure with Kirk as captain and Spock as first officer (though Kirk is referred to as "admiral" toward the end of the second storyline). But the last batch of stories, by Gerry Conway, take place in a time when Kirk is an admiral and Spock is Captain of the Enterprise. The first Conway story has Starfleet asking Kirk to temporarily resume command for a mission only he can handle. However, Kirk remains in command of the E for the next two storylines before Starfleet reassigns him to shore duty in the penultimate storyline. The final storyline, though, was an odd one that's hard to pin down in the chronology; Kirk is still in command of the ship without explanation. Aside from that, though, Conway's intent is clearly to show the events leading up to TWOK.

So basically the way I'd break down the chronology of the US comic strip is something like this:

ST:TMP: 2273
Comic strip storylines 1-13: First year or so of new 5-year mission, 2273-4
Uniforms changed: Sometime during 5YM
Comic strip storylines 14-15: Late in 5YM, maybe 2277
5YM ends; Kirk returns to Admiralty; Spock promoted to captain: 2278
Comic strip storylines 16-20: early 2280s
TWOK: 2285

 

[Therin of Andor]

I didn't do any kind of thorough search, but just from cursory browsing, it doesn't look like they ever took Spock out of the strip.

A female Vulcan character was added for their ST II uniform era, and she was intended to be Saavik, but this was overruled and she got a new name.

 

[RookieBatman]

Sorry, I misspoke. The strips that were published after TWOK were still set before TWOK (with the assumption being that the uniforms were adopted some time before the movie). The first two stories with TWOK-era uniforms, written by Martin Pasko, still reflect the standard command structure with Kirk as captain and Spock as first officer (though Kirk is referred to as "admiral" toward the end of the second storyline). But the last batch of stories, by Gerry Conway, take place in a time when Kirk is an admiral and Spock is Captain of the Enterprise. The first Conway story has Starfleet asking Kirk to temporarily resume command for a mission only he can handle. However, Kirk remains in command of the E for the next two storylines before Starfleet reassigns him to shore duty in the penultimate storyline. The final storyline, though, was an odd one that's hard to pin down in the chronology; Kirk is still in command of the ship without explanation. Aside from that, though, Conway's intent is clearly to show the events leading up to TWOK.

So basically the way I'd break down the chronology of the US comic strip is something like this:

ST:TMP: 2273
Comic strip storylines 1-13: First year or so of new 5-year mission, 2273-4
Uniforms changed: Sometime during 5YM
Comic strip storylines 14-15: Late in 5YM, maybe 2277
5YM ends; Kirk returns to Admiralty; Spock promoted to captain: 2278
Comic strip storylines 16-20: early 2280s
TWOK: 2285

I agree that pre-TWOK seems to be the right placement for them, but since it appears that the writers intended it, why did they ratchet up the stardates so far?
[EDIT: On further examination, I note that the stardate for the last TMP-uniform arc was just about 7 points away from TWOK's stardate. Interesting that that one took a big jump from the one before (which was 7760.5). I wonder if they had originally (perhaps before they saw TWOK?) planned to set further strips after TWOK, but then changed their minds later on, perhaps so that they could leave Spock in.]
Anyway, stardates are usually not worth much anyway. This is all very good information for my ongoing timeline project. Thank you!