TOS comic book consistencies

[Jsplinis]

Hello everyone,

I am working on building my own personal canon/ timeline of the TOS era for a near future marathon.

I'm a Star Trek fan and a comic book fan, so the basic skeleton of my timeline will be the TOS/ TAS episodes and movies and DC Comics vol.2 an its annuals, specials, gn's and limited series.

Because of DC Fontana's level of influence in TOS/ TAS I'm including Vulcans Glory and Enterprise Experiment. Also, to tie into DC Comics vol. 2 I'm including Peter David's and Howard Weinstein's TOS novels and short stories: The Rift, Covenant of the Crown, Better Man, Deep Domain and Official Record.

Because Howard Weinstein is one of the writers, I'm including Mere Anarchy and then the TOS works of Christopher L Bennet because they tie into that. Kobayashi Maru will be included because it corresponds with DC Comics version of the Kirk's test. And finally, to flesh out Saavik's story, I'm including Pandora's Principle, Unspoken Truth and Just A Little Training Cruise.

So, that leaves me with a few things to consider. Being a fan of Star Trek AND comics I was thinking about including the Wildstorm and IDW TOS era comics. Other than their depictions of Kirks nephew and the final mission of the first 5YM, will there be an inconsistencies with my timeline so far?

Also, I've heard that Enter the Wolves is a sequel to Sarek. How much do they tie in together, is it necessary to read the novel to understand the comic, and will the novel create inconsistencies with my timeline so far if I include it?

In case you were wondering, the Gold Key comics and various Marvel Comics aren't up to my personal taste, so they won't be included. Besides there are crew contradictions for Pikes crew between Marvel's Early Years and DC Fontana/ Peter David (which I'm including).

Thanks for any help and have fun,
Jsplinis

 

[ryan123450]

This kind of thing is right up my alley. I don't know about Sarek but I would add the original Year Four if you are going to do The Enterprise Experiment. If you don't want inconsistencies you can count out everything by John Byrne published by IDW. I may be wrong but I assume his Crew doesn't jibe with the older stuff from that era. And everything else by Byrne is referenced by each other.

I'm not sure about this either but I think Greg Cox's novels about Gary Seven are all consistent with The Peacekeeper from DC Vol 2.

And since the DC Vol 2. characters cross over to several books, you should probably check out this thread http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=140169

 

[Christopher]

I'm not sure about this either but I think Greg Cox's novels about Gary Seven are all consistent with The Peacekeeper from DC Vol 2.

Not entirely. They do both use the same name and background for Gary's employers (the Aegis), but "The Peacekeeper" asserts that Kirk hasn't met Gary since "Assignment: Earth," which conflicts with Assignment: Eternity and The Eugenics Wars. However, I just disregard the couple of panels in the comic where that's asserted, and that way they can fit.

 

[ryan123450]

Yeah, tiny stuff like that I like to ignore too.

 

[Jsplinis]

This kind of thing is right up my alley. I don't know about Sarek but I would add the original Year Four if you are going to do The Enterprise Experiment. If you don't want inconsistencies you can count out everything by John Byrne published by IDW. I may be wrong but I assume his Crew doesn't jibe with the older stuff from that era. And everything else by Byrne is referenced by each other.

Does that apply to McCoy: Frontier Doctor as well? Does it reference the other Byrneverse stories?

 

[Greg Cox]

I'm not sure about this either but I think Greg Cox's novels about Gary Seven are all consistent with The Peacekeeper from DC Vol 2.

Not entirely. They do both use the same name and background for Gary's employers (the Aegis), but "The Peacekeeper" asserts that Kirk hasn't met Gary since "Assignment: Earth," which conflicts with Assignment: Eternity and The Eugenics Wars. However, I just disregard the couple of panels in the comic where that's asserted, and that way they can fit.

For the record, Howie Weinstein coined the term (the Aegis) in the comics and I borrowed it for the novels.

It seemed silly to invent a new name for Seven's sponsors when Howie had already come up with a perfectly good one!

 

[Christopher]

This kind of thing is right up my alley. I don't know about Sarek but I would add the original Year Four if you are going to do The Enterprise Experiment. If you don't want inconsistencies you can count out everything by John Byrne published by IDW. I may be wrong but I assume his Crew doesn't jibe with the older stuff from that era. And everything else by Byrne is referenced by each other.

Does that apply to McCoy: Frontier Doctor as well? Does it reference the other Byrneverse stories?

Oh, yes. It has a storyline that contains references to just about all of Byrne's prior IDW Trek miniseries, and provides a climax to an arc that began in an issue of Assignment: Earth and continued in an issue of Crew.

Also, Byrne's take on the Trek universe has some minor inconsistencies with screen canon as well. His Romulan series shows a Klingon emperor in the 23rd century, contradicting what Gowron said in TNG: "Rightful Heir" about the last emperor being 300 years earlier. And Frontier Doctor shows Kirk actively supervising the Enterprise refit, even though TMP showed that he was unfamiliar with it and Will Decker had supervised it instead.

 

[ryan123450]

Didn't one of the Lost Years books have Kirk in charge of the refit in some capacity as well?

 

[Christopher]

^I think A Flag Full of Stars may have. But that's hard to reconcile with Kirk's onscreen ignorance about the design details of the new ship.

 

[Avro Arrow]

If you don't want inconsistencies you can count out everything by John Byrne published by IDW.

That being said, the Byrne stuff is awesome, and you should read it whether or not you include it in your personal continuity!

 

[ryan123450]

I second that opinion as well. Definitely some of the better Trek comics I've read.

 

[Nightowl1701]

^I think A Flag Full of Stars may have. But that's hard to reconcile with Kirk's onscreen ignorance about the design details of the new ship.

Not really. If I recall right, Kirk was on the space shuttle Enterprise at the time - Decker was the one flying the half-completed starship Enterprise. Kirk didn't set foot on the latter.

(Just occurred to me I might've misinterpreted that.)

Let me put this in Hollywood terms: Kirk was put in as overseer of the Enterprise refit program, meaning he was "executive producer." But he wasn't ever on set or looking over dailies in the editing room - the "director," Decker, was. Kirk was behind his desk arranging funding, staffing and publicity. All he would know of the finished product (until TMP) was the 'script' (meaning the same general exterior plans we all have - wouldn't help us find our way through the ship, would it?) and some concept art.

 

[JD]

Also, I've heard that Enter the Wolves is a sequel to Sarek. How much do they tie in together, is it necessary to read the novel to understand the comic, and will the novel create inconsistencies with my timeline so far if I include it?

I read Enter the Wolves before I knew it was related to Sarek, and had no problem understanding it. I didn't even realize it was a sequel until people started talking about it on the boards after I read it.

 

[Christopher]

That being said, the Byrne stuff is awesome, and you should read it whether or not you include it in your personal continuity!

Right. The great thing about fiction is that you don't have to settle for just one version of the universe. Look at how many different interpretations there are of Batman or Spider-Man or Sherlock Holmes or Godzilla. It's always fun to explore variations on a theme. Delineating different Trek tie-in continuities isn't a value judgment or a declaration of what should and shouldn't be read; it's just cataloguing what goes where.

Let me put this in Hollywood terms: Kirk was put in as overseer of the Enterprise refit program, meaning he was "executive producer." But he wasn't ever on set or looking over dailies in the editing room - the "director," Decker, was. Kirk was behind his desk arranging funding, staffing and publicity. All he would know of the finished product (until TMP) was the 'script' (meaning the same general exterior plans we all have - wouldn't help us find our way through the ship, would it?) and some concept art.

That might explain A Flag Full of Stars (though the book has other continuity problems, the big one being that's it's immovably set in July 2269 and is supposed to be more than a year after the 5-year mission ended, when we now know canonically that the mission ended in 2270). But Frontier Doctor shows Kirk as a far more involved participant in the refit and testing process.