Star Trek 1403: Error

1403. Error

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor #2, IDW Comics, May 2010

CREATORS: John Byrne (writer), John Byrne (artist)

STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)

PLOT: McCoy and crew visit Gamma Tarses VII, and ocean planet whose alien civilization has built upwards on tiny islands. Scotty has called him there because people have been mysteriously dying. McCoy struggles against their strange traditions (and perpetual smiles), including a holiday that prevents him by law from working. Nothing seems wrong with them, but there are other mysteries, such as the headgear you must wear when using their transporters, and the fact they have no children and all appear to be the same age. McCoy breaks into a secret facility and is arrested, but after leaving a log for his crew, takes off the headset when beaming to the courtroom. He materializes in yesterday's clothes and with no memory of the last day. His crew shows up with proof of what is happening - the Tarseans have made themselves immortal by resetting their biology, but have cumulatively drained their life force and are dying suddenly. They let McCoy go, but it's their choice if they want to do something about the problem.

CONTINUITY: Scotty appears, on leave from the Enterprise refit (The Motion Picture). Admiral Kirk appears in the coda. Among McCoy's control group is a female from Wrigley's Pleasure Planet (The Man Trap). McCoy's memoirs mention many unbelievable stories (from Mirror, Mirror, The Immunity Syndrome, etc.).

DIVERGENCES: The new Enterprise bridge simulator is on a holodeck, which can be reconciled given that one appeared in the Animated Series (The Practical Joker), but only if you believe the simulator in ST II was holographic.

PANEL OF THE DAY - It's true, tasers ARE fun.
REVIEW: Byrne lays in many possible solutions for the mysterious deaths, but of course, techie (even medical techie) mysteries can't really be solved by the reader. Which doesn't mean it's not a fun read. It keeps you engaged, even as you see McCoy's irascible nature get him into trouble (left to his own devices without Kirk's leadership and Spock's rationality, he gets into quite a lot). It's nice to see Scotty show up, the aliens and their environment are well done, as usual, and there's romance between Theela and Duncan to spice things up. So another fun issue, that perhaps makes too many references to the Original Series, but none of them I relevant to the plot or understanding it. Just memory lane sort of stuff.

This Week in Geek (4-10/10/10)

Buys

Nothing, but then, I gotta take a break from consuming.

"Accomplishments"

DVDs: Our Asian cinema night brought us Triad Election, AKA Election 2, a direct sequel to the Johnnie To film we watched last month. All the surviving characters return as do the musical cues, so it's all of a piece. We're two years later, and another election inside the Society highlights how the younger generation cares less for tradition, changing Hong Kong's underground landscape. It's Johnnie To, so there are scenes of casual brutality that will stay with you for a long time, but also some beautiful, lyrical shots. The extras also treat the two films as one longer epic, with interviews dedicated to actors who did not fulfill their complete destinies in the first one, and a making of that seems to follow from the first's.

I also flipped the complete season of Max Headroom (at 14 episodes, quite doable), a prescient little cyberpunk gem from my youth, more relevant today than ever. If you say that the Internet is the new television, then it got a LOT right. Think Blade Runner or Brazil meets Network, and you've got the gist. Very fun still and definitely cut down before its time (that's what happens when you're programmed against Miami Vice and Dallas, I mean come on). There's an extra disc with a couple of hours of interviews and round tables with writers, producers and actors, telling the story of how it was made and what impact it had. Sadly, Matt Frewer (Edison Carter/Max Headroom) wasn't available for comment. It's my feeling that there could have been even more in this package, including the original Channel 4/HBO movie, the video jockey links and even the Coke adverts, but I understand how such a thing would have been a copyright nightmare to assemble. Still, what's there is passionate and enlightening. If you don't know it, discover it!

RPGs: We might have started our DC Adventures series today, but are taking advantage of Canadian Thanksgiving and doing it tomorrow. I should still report on another character that was made, Chalif's Napoleonic Wars French patriot hero, Fleur-de-Lys. This guy was never good at marksmanship, so is kept on the back lines peeling potatoes. Without his superiors' knowledge, he goes behind enemy lines wearing a domino mask and breaks some jaws using the mystical powers of French Liberty (enhanced speed), Equality (enhanced fighting skills) and Fraternity (enhanced presence and charisma). I think it's a fine design and can't wait to see it in practice.

New Unauthorized Doctor Who CCG cards: 12 new cards from The Keys of Marinus, barely a fraction of what I can squeeze out of that story (or anthology of stories, really).

Hyperion to a Satyr posts this week:
II.i. Reynaldo - Fodor (2007)

Star Trek 1402: Weeds

1402. Weeds

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor #1, IDW Comics, April 2010

CREATORS: John Byrne (writer), John Byrne (artist)

STARDATE: Unknown (before The Motion Picture)

PLOT: From the letters of Leonard McCoy... McCoy has joined the Frontier Medics Program and has been assigned an old ship and Dr. Duncan as a partner. As they leave an Andorian moon, the ships goes astray as there's too much mass on board. They find Theela, a spoiled Andorian girl who is stowing away. They're about to take her back when they're forced to respond to a medical emergency on Ophiucus III, a colony covered in a giant megaplant. The colonists are unfortunately falling prey to a devastating fungal parasite, which only affects humans. The plant's more animal-like aspects start attacking the colony, and everyone succumbs to the fungus, even Duncan and McCoy, though not Theela. McCoy directs her to find and create a remedy, and by the end of the process, she even seems to enjoy herself. Though they find a temporary cure for the fungus, McCoy's report still makes the Federation declare the megaplant a protected life-form and the colonists are forced to abandon the planet. Theela's family pulls some strings and has her assigned to McCoy's crew - he gives her a month's probation.

CONTINUITY: These stories occur while McCoy is on leave from Starfleet; Admiral Kirk reads about them during the Enterprise's refit (The Motion Picture). Ophiucus III is where Harry Mudd was headed in Mudd's Women. "Joanna" is written on the side of McCoy's ship - his daughter's name.

DIVERGENCES: Byrne pictures Andorians both with the forward leaning antennae of Enterprise and the ones sprouting out of the hair of The Original Series, as if to say they're two races within the same species.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Rookie med school mistake
REVIEW: John Byrne is becoming quite good at creating Star Trek series that never were. First Assignment: Earth, then Crew, and now Frontier Doctor. McCoy gets a supporting cast right off the bat, including a steady and courageous professional in Duncan (who may play the action hero of the stories), a cute but volatile nymph for him to mentor in Theela, and a ship's computer that talks back a lot (perfect for the technological curmudgeon in McCoy). The story itself is a fairly standard medical dilemma, livened up by cool-looking plant creatures and technology. McCoy's acerbic self is always fun as he tells his partner to shut up and let himself be treated, or as he grabs an antenna like you would a disobedient child's ear. Kirk's framing tale is not continued into other issues, but makes for a charming send-off from the parent series. Promises good fun just from the covers.

What If... Loki Had Found the Hammer of Thor?

This is it, the last issue of the original What If? series... and the end of a Golden Age. Featuring another strong Peter Gillis story and some very early Kelley Jones art, it would make a beautiful Thor tale regardless of which universe it happened in and is about death and rebirth, which is fitting. Or is it? The letters page tells us that the stories for the next few issues aren't ready yet and that #48 will go out when it's ready. However, we never got that Stan Lee/Butch Guice "What if Doctor Doom Had Kept the Power Cosmic?" nor Gillis and Ordway's two-part X-Men story. "Rebirth" was going to wait a little longer. It was almost 4 years before we got a What If? special (see it next week) and then another year after that before What If? went back to series. And yet it was never really got as good as it did in the early 80s. Sigh.

What If Vol.1 #47 (October 1984)
Based on: Journey Into Mystery #83
The true history: Odin punished both his sons for fighting. Loki was imprisoned inside a tree, and Thor was exiled to Earth in the human form of Don Blake. When he had learned humility, Thor/Don felt compelled to to go to Scandinavia where he found strange aliens from Saturn scouting for an invasion. He ran from them to a cave where Thor's hammer Mjolnir was hidden as a wooden stick. Striking it against the cave walls turns Don Blake into Thor and a myth is reborn. Soon after, Loki tricks Heimdall into shedding a tear "for him" by angling a leaf into it. He is freed to cause more mayhem on the Marvel Universe.
Turning point: What if Loki had been freed before Thor?
Story type: Momentary difference
Watcher's mood: Close encounter of the third kind
Altered history: Somehow, Loki gets himself released fractionally faster and starts looking for his bro'. He finds Don Blake instead and the Uru hammer transformed into a wooden cane. He escapes Asgard, gets the hammer and throws it into the woods to become part of the forest.
If he can't use it, no one can. Poor Don Blake runs into the yonder cave and finds... nothing of interest. The Saturnians don't waste time with him.
It's a death that Odin feels all the way back to Asgard, so if you thought the Saturnians were now free to invade Norway, think again. An All-Father's grief is a powerful thing indeed.
Thor wakes up in the Land of the Dead without his memory and happily wrestles other men for pleasure. Who are we to judge Viking Heaven? Odin, however, won't let his son go without a fight and he mounts an expedition to wrangle him from Hela's grasp. She's not moving.
While the Warriors Three and Heimdall are with him, Balder thinks this is against the natural order of things and sits out. It's a grave mistake since Loki has discovered the ancient prophecy that Balder's death will spark Ragnarok. All he needs is a weapon tipped with mistletoe, the only thing in creation not to have taken a vow never to harm Balder. Oh, and he has it.
As the forces of evil awaken to battle a defenseless Asgard, Balder meets up with Thor in Valhalla.
Seeing his little friend jogs Thor's memory and together they start fighting Hela's forces to get the Hel out of there. Without Thor, Asgard will surely fall and instead of the assured mutual destruction/cleansing/rebirth prophesied, we're gonna get a billion years of evil rule in the universe. The Warriors Three follow Heimdall's nose to the forest where Loki threw Mjolnir and Loki fails to stop them from acquiring the Uru hammer in branch form. Odin turns it back into a hammer and hopes to deliver it to Thor himself, giving his life in exchange for his son's. Someone has other plans, however, and it's the Lady Sif who walks into the Land of the dead to take her love's place.
Balder is also freed, and we only learn later what toll was paid for his life, once Ragnarok is averted. It's Odin's usual get out of jail free card - his eye.
You know what they say, when you lose the use of a sense, your other senses get sharper. Odin's fashion sense, for example.
Books canceled as a result: None. Thor's been through so many permutations over the years that it all comes out to the same. I'm sure the next page would have shown a more humble Thor choosing to return to the life of Don Blake, for example. Loki's still on the run, so he can create the Avengers.
These things happen: Loki has never been able to lay a finger on Thor's hammer. Other things did come to pass, such as Sif's death (and later, rebirth), Odin losing an eye and Thor getting divorced from his Don Blake persona.

Next week: What if Iron Man Had Been a Traitor?
My guess: Poker night with the Crimson Dynamo and the Titanium Man every Friday.

Star Trek 1401: Fool's Gold, Issue 4

1401. Fool's Gold, Issue 4

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Fool's Gold #4, IDW Comics, March 2010

CREATORS: Scott and David Tipton (writers), Fabio Mantovani (artist)

STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)

PLOT: Garak proposes the treasure be found, and the following con is perpetrated on the two released rogues. Quark gives them coordinates and asks them to get the treasure for him for a cut of the profits. They fly to Bajor and find treasure replicated by O'Brien. Kira and a squad of Bajoran troops immediately arrive to take possession of the "treasure" and thank the two men for finding the embezzled Bajoran wealth. They get a big parade and a medal, which makes the news. Soon, treasure hunters leave the station. Sisko confronts Dukat about spreading the rumor and giving collectors codes to damage parts of the station without detection, but the Gul admits to nothing. Garak, who has inspected the "treasure map" misses his next lunch with Bashir to visit Bajor and find the actual treasure, enough to keep himself in business for a long time.

CONTINUITY: See previous issues (Garak, Dukat, Morn).

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - A Star Wars moment
REVIEW: An excellent resolution that all hinges on Garak's knack for deception. It's a lot of fun to see a con executed so well, even if you could guess it was before its actual reveal (maybe this helped convince Sisko of Garak's usefulness in By the Pale Moonlight). Dukat's role is another nice twist, and even MORE fun is the coda with Garak scooping up the treasure, in town no less. No dank caves for him! While the first three issues are sort of all set-up, they're worth it for these uniquely Cardassian resolutions.

Movie Marquee Friday: Dial M for Movies

A heartbeat under the soothing water...
The past stamped in neon...

Mythical heroes caught in amber shatter into constellations...

Fanning shadows across a lonely man's life...

Stately, foreboding and epic...

Mothra did not approve this message...
Her true name was lost in the storm...

The color of jazz is ultraviolet...

Traversing the storm can get you killed...

Star Trek 1400: Fool's Gold, Issue 3

1400. Fool's Gold, Issue 3

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Fool's Gold #3, IDW Comics, February 2010

CREATORS: Scott and David Tipton (writers), Fabio Mantovani (artist)

STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)

PLOT: Turns out the rumor is that a rich Cardassian official hid what is now referred to as the "Bajoran stash" at the end of the Occupation and left clues to its coordinates on the station for his sons to find. However, the whole family was soon killed and the treasure never found. Now that the rumor is out, treasure hunters are turning out in droves. Quark has been milking it, but claims not to have started it. Sisko makes an announcement telling the station's visitors the rumor is bunk, but it only starts a violent riot. Sisko reacts by closing DS9 down for business and revoking docking permits. Garak's solution is to ask Sisko to let him find the treasure for him...

CONTINUITY: See previous issues (Rom, Morn). Garak appears. The rogues got their information from an Edosian (Arex's people, from the Animated Series).

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Hard to slap away a three-hander.
REVIEW: With the arrival of Garak, we might just have a ball game. This is a good old-fashioned mystery, and it takes a real man of mystery to solve it. The bar brawl/riot action is just good fun, with flying Klingons interrupting Bashir and Garak's lunch, and of course, that's the only reason Garak even considers helping. The sometimes uneven art continues to be a boon to the series, which in large part is a retread of Deep Space Nine's tropes. Maybe it's meant to act as an introduction (or re-introduction) of the show to IDW's readership, with more innovative storylines coming later. It's a fair romp for now.