Regarding Peter David comics and Strike Zone

[foravalon]

In my quest for Klingon lore I find myself cutting a chronological swath through the publishings of years long past and I've now arrived at Peter David's Strike Zone, his first Trek book I believe. However, prior to this he wrote Trek comics for DC and I've read in more than one place now that SZ was his opportunity to wrap up a few story arcs that he had begun in the TOS era of the comic series. But what I haven't seen is any reference to what those plot elements are.

Does anyone out there know exactly what is resolved in Strike Zone that was begun in the comics?

 

[Turtletrekker]

The race that Garth of Izar was dealing with in PAD's Trek comics was called the Cognoscenti, the same race that created the world of super-weapons in "Strike Zone" that caused the fuss with the Klingons and the Kreel. Also, the little albino Klingon that was named "Bernie" by Bryce and called "moron" by the Klingons in the comics is the Honorable Kobry in Strike Zone.

 

[Christopher]

^^With the name "Kobry" being formed from KOnom and BRYce, Bernie's adoptive parents in the comics.

 

[Dayton3]

Turtletrekker said:
The race that Garth of Izar was dealing with in PAD's Trek comics was called the Cognoscenti, the same race that created the world of super-weapons in "Strike Zone" that caused the fuss with the Klingons and the Kreel. Also, the little albino Klingon that was named "Bernie" by Bryce and called "moron" by the Klingons in the comics is the Honorable Kobry in Strike Zone.

What happened to the Cognoscenti?

And why were they giving Garth of Izar advanced technology?

How did Garth get connected to them and what was their goal.

 

[Christopher]

What happened to them was that the series got cancelled before PAD could do anything with them, so he wrote Strike Zone to wrap up that arc. As for their motives and goals, you can find out by reading Strike Zone and the DC trade paperback collection Who Killed Captain Kirk?

 

[foravalon]

Right on, thank you guys, although I don't think it was Garth of Izar in the comics it was a captain named Phil Burroughs who some how inexplicably went crazy after visiting the planet from "This Side of Paradise" (another plot element never really explained) and from then on had his crew call him Captain Zair. PAD, being a huge TOS fan, was probably nodding to Garth of Izar though since Zair is an anagram of Izar and the characters had many similar traits.

Having a hybrid-klingon as an ambassador seems to be a popular sentiment in the 23rd Century since Kobry, K'Ehleyr, and Alexander, all fulfilled similar roles.

Thanks again guys!

 

[KRAD]

^ Uh, yeah, it was Garth of Izar. That was revealed later on in the storyline.

 

[Dayton3]

I've read Strike Zone and the Who Killed Captain Kirk story.

I still don't get what the goal of the aliens was.

The Star Trek DC comics to me was far and away the best of Trek in comics.

 

[captcalhoun]

Having a hybrid-klingon as an ambassador seems to be a popular sentiment in the 23rd Century since Kobry, K'Ehleyr, and Alexander, all fulfilled similar roles

that was the 24th century. somehow i'm Sh'oqed that KRAD didn't point this out.

 

[foravalon]

KRAD said:
^ Uh, yeah, it was Garth of Izar. That was revealed later on in the storyline.

oops spoiler alert for me! That's what I get for asking questions whilst still in mid-reading. It's all good though, there's only so long that you can keep rosebud a secret. Thanks for the help! After this it's just MJF's Kahless book and on to Captain Klag the crew of the Gorkon!

Having a hybrid-klingon as an ambassador seems to be a popular sentiment in the 23rd Century since Kobry, K'Ehleyr, and Alexander, all fulfilled similar roles

that was the 24th century. somehow i'm Sh'oqed that KRAD didn't point this out.

blimey! I'm 0 for 2 today!

 

[foravalon]

Dayton3 said:
What happened to the Cognoscenti?

And why were they giving Garth of Izar advanced technology?

How did Garth get connected to them and what was their goal.

Maybe they were really just the Petraw stirring up trouble just a couple years early. Did we ever find out how they became involved with the Iconians' and/or their technology? And what the Hell happened on Alexandra's Planet in 2367? It's like it's declassified for everyone but us!

 

[Therin of Andor]

foravalon said:
Having a hybrid-klingon as an ambassador seems to be a popular sentiment...

What was amusing about the Richard Arnold/DC Comics saga was that DC had introduced Konom, the Klingon turncoat who becomes a Starfleet officer with its Issue #1 (of Series I), and he was certainly very popular with DC ST readers. Konom's popularity may have helped inspire the late addition of Worf in TNG's premiere. (But RA, in consultation with Gene R, had been unimpressed with the original DC TOS characters poaching the limelight from "the big seven").

Then, during the infamous Richard Arnold/Peter David feud (see PAD's book of essays, "But I Digress..."), PAD suggested the idea of an albino Klingon hybrid in DC's last few Series I comics - and then we ended up with the human/Klingon hybrid K'Ehleyr (in TNG's "The Emissary" and "Reunion"), and a canonical Albino Klingon in DS9's "Blood Oath" (and its recent prequel novel, "Excelsior: Forged in Fire"). By making Bernie "Ambassador Kobry" in "Strike Zone", PAD was finaly able to pick up the truncated DC TOS movie-era storyline (that he hadn't been allowed to continue into DC's Series II) so long as it appeared that "Strike Zone" was a self-contained TNG novel.

 

[KRAD]

^ I doubt that anything that happened in the comic books had any effect on anything that happened on the TV show. And trying to find a causal effect between Bernie and the later developments of K'Ehleyr and the Albino (which were years apart) is specious at best.

 

[foravalon]

Dayton3 said:
I've read Strike Zone and the Who Killed Captain Kirk story.

I still don't get what the goal of the aliens was.

The Star Trek DC comics to me was far and away the best of Trek in comics.

Well I've yet to finish the DC Comics story-line but I've recently completed Strike Zone. It seems the Cognoscente (or Cognoscenti in the comics) were simply an uber-advanced race (ala B5's Old Ones) who had essentially moved on from this plane, but they were checking on the development of various species with future potential by providing them with the means to utterly destroy themselves or each other. The first part of the test would be see if these species could avoid annihilating themselves or each other, and it seems the final part of the test was to see if the lesser-advanced species could see through the test and assert themselves as being superior to such practices of experimentation; a test which apparently the Enterprise passed.

Without having finished the comics yet, I can only guess that Garth stumbled upon a location of the Cognoscente experiment, much like the Kreel did, and succumbed to the temptations he was being offered. That temptation being the potential of uber-advanced technology and weapons of mass-destruction, but Garth never quite got the payoff since the offerings were a ruse to begin with, and in trying to, he utterly failed the test.