Didja Notice?

 

The "Previously in Star Trek" paragraph on the inside front cover suggests that the planet Sulu and his away team are on is called Banks-216. But in "Deity" Part 1, Kirk states "Banks-216" as the name of a system. In science-fiction writing, an Arabic numeral attached to a world name generally denotes a moon, or, in real world astronomy, a system (while a Roman numeral denotes a planet). So Banks-216 would be either the 216th moon of the planet Banks or the name of a star system. In the nomenclature of a star system, the number usually indicates a catalog number, not anything inherent in the star system itself.

 

The "Previously in Star Trek" paragraph also reveals that the aliens of the Banks-216 world are called Felidae. The Felidae are bird-like bipeds, but it's interesting to note that Felidae is also the Latin word for the cat family in scientific nomenclature.

 

On page 1, Sulu is obviously being marched with the rest of the Enterprise away team to the Drowning City, along with a number of Felidae guards. But on the splash page of pages 2-3, Sulu seems to be standing alone with just one Felidae. And then, in panel 2 on page 3, the rest of the group is present again!

 

The Felidae refer to their ruling council as the Aerie. "Aerie" is a term used to refer to the nest of a bird of prey.

 

The lead spokesbird of the Felidae describes their god bringing a deluge upon their city as punishment for the Wayward Ones not offering their young as a gift. Scotty remarks it is "awfully Old Testament of this 'deity'..." The concept of a deluge as punishment from God and the naming of the Old Testament are obvious references to the Abrahamic religions of Earth.

 

On pages 8-9, notice that Sulu (on the planet) seems to be communicating with Uhura (on the Enterprise) without the use of a communicator!

 

On page 9, a Felidae appears to have hooved feet rather than clawed like a bird.

 

Two Enterprise crewmembers who may be Lieutenants Zahra and Kai (seen in previous storylines of the comic book) appear in panel 3 of page 10.

 

Throughout the issue, and particularly noticeable on page 18, the Enterprise's impulse engine array on the rear of the saucer section appears to be the smaller version seen before the ending of Into Darkness, not the larger one seen after the ship is repaired at the end of that film.

 

When the Enterprise seemingly scares away the gigantic "godship" of the Felidae with a single blast of photon torpedoes, Scotty remarks, "This must be what David felt like when he popped Goliath!" This is a reference to the story of David and Goliath in the Bible, in which the giant Philistine warrior Goliath is defeated by the young Jew, David.

 

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