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"Countdown to Darkness"
Part 3
Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #3
IDW
Story: Roberto Orci and Mike Johnson
Script: Mike Johnson
Artist: David Messina
Cover by
David Messina
March 2013 |
Spock attempts to rescue Sulu and Hendorff
from the Shadow forces, while Captain April has plans of his
own.
Read the full story summary of this issue at Memory
Beta
Notes from the Star Trek
Chronology
The 4-part
Countdown to Darkness mini-series
leads into the 2013 film
Star Trek Into Darkness.
Didja Notice?
The "Story So Far..." paragraph on the inside front cover
states that Kirk and his landing party encountered Captain
April after responding to a distress signal on Phaedus IV.
But there was no distress signal involved in the previous
issues. The landing party went down to the planet's surface
in a shuttlecraft after the Enterprise is bombarded
with high energy transmissions from the surface blocking
long range communications and transporter capability.
On page 2, Sulu reveals he's received special dispensation
from the captain to carry whatever he needs, in this case a
knife hidden in his boot, despite it being a violation of a
number of Starfleet uniform and weapons regulations.
On page 7, Uhura remarks to Kirk that Spock, ever since the
destruction of Vulcan, keeps risking himself unnecessarily;
for example, when the Galileo crashed. The
Galileo
crashed in
"The Galileo Seven"
Part 1.
On page 8, Dr. McCoy, currently in command of the
Enterprise with the usual command personnel away,
remarks that he could just turn the ship around and fly back
to Mississippi. Previous stories in the series have
revealed that he is originally from that state.
Also on page 8, McCoy is sitting in the captain's chair. In
"Countdown to Darkness"
Part 2, he chided Uhura for not sitting in it while she was
in command, saying, "I would."
On page 11, we see a Klingon tricorder for the first time in
the new timeline.
The proxy war being fought on Phaedus IV between the
Klingon-backed Shadows and April's minority faction is
reminiscent of the Klingon/Federation proxy war fought by
the natives of the planet Neural in the original series
episode "A Private Little War".
On page 15, Spock remarks that he mistakenly put the needs
of the few before the needs of the many. This is from
a
quote by the Vulcan philosopher Surak, which Spock
previously used in
The Assassination Game and in the original timeline
in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.
On page 18, April commands the Enterprise computer
to activate emergency protocol 31 with the password
"Caroline". The number 31 might suggest that April is part
of Section 31, the covert unit of Starfleet Intelligence
seen in episodes of
the various Star Trek TV series and which was hinted at in
"Return of the
Archons" Part 1. It is unknown what significance may lie
in April's password "Caroline"; his wife was named Sarah in
the ST animated series episode "The Counter-Clock Incident".
On the last page of the issue, what happened to the
unconscious bodies of the bridge crew? Suddenly, the bridge
seems to be empty except for April and Mudd.
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