Star Trek 1248: Past Imperfect

1248. Past Imperfect

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Untold Voyages #3, Marvel Comics, May 1998

CREATORS: Glenn Greenberg (writer), Michael Collins and Keith Williams (artists)

STARDATE: 7683.1 (a year after the last issue)

PLOT: McCoy is hoping to spend shore leave with his daughter Joanna at Starbase Eleven, but he has a big fight with her when he thinks she's having an affair with Jim Kirk (nothing happened). Later, she's kidnapped by Jahn from Miri's Planet, where a new plague has sprung up and Miri has died. Jahn is seeking revenge against the doctor who failed to save her - Leonard McCoy. The Enterprise tracks them back to Miri's Planet and easily rescue her, but McCoy realizes his cure had unforeseen effects and it was his fault for not being thorough enough. The Onlies, dying once again, kick the "grups" off the planet, though Jahn does bond with Joanna, who promises to return after she completes medical school.

CONTINUITY: This is a sequel to Miri. Jahn from that episode appears. McCoy's daughter Joanna, from the Animated Series, has only appeared once before in comics (Marvel Comics's first series #13). Also of interest, is Gold Key's #40, in which McCoy's daughter (called Barbara) has a very similar scene where she and Kirk are caught flirting. Her engagement to a Vulcan there is undone ("it didn't work out"). Janice Rand is still transporter chief (The Motion Picture). Starbase Eleven was featured in both Court-Martial and The Menagerie.

DIVERGENCES: Joanna's appearance is not compatible with the original Marvel series (if it occurs before, she and McCoy should not be estranged in TOS #13; if after, a Vulcan fiancé would be acknowledged instead of "Paul"). How does the TOS novel The Cry of the Onlies relate to this story? It also features Jahn seeking revenge (but in the first 5-year-mission).

PANEL OF THE DAY - Old-fashioned villainy.
REVIEW: I don't expect the non-canonical stuff the mesh together smoothly, or even try to. After all, it's non-canonical, so no writer can be held accountable for not referencing a comics series from another company, etc. But it's fun to think it all fits together. My point is that I've read more than one Joanna McCoy father-daughter tension stories, and that there has been at least one other sequel to "Miri". In that context, it can be a little annoying to read retreads of things you've already read. Well, I haven't read The Cry of the Onlies, and I have very little patience for the Onlies' child-speak in the first place (it help drop that episode to Low Rewatchability all those reviews ago). Thankfully, this issue doesn't overuse it. But as half the issue is consecrated to the Joanna McCoy stuff, the Onlies don't really feature much at all. Not enough to redeem them or even make me hate them all over again. A case of too few pages to tell a more far-reaching story, especially with the superior Joanna subplot competing for pages. As far as Joanna stories go, this one features a far less strained relationship that I enjoy. Family histrionics give way to a lighter touch and sometimes real comedy. Who WOULDN'T warn Kirk away from their daughters? An uneven result overall.

Writer Glenn Greenberg talks at length about the making of this issue in the Comments.