Didja Notice?

 

The issue opens at the Mawhrin Air-Chipelago on the Orion homeworld of Vondem, orbiting the star Alnilam. Alnilam is the middle star of the three stars of the belt in the constellation Orion. This issue is the first mention of the names of Vondem for the Orion homeworld and the Mawhrin Air-Chipelago.

 

This issue opens 14 years in the past, on stardate 2248.307, with a flashback to Gaila's childhood. Gaila was Uhura's roommate at Starfleet Academy and had a fling with Kirk while there.

 

Page 2 is the first reference to the Pacari, an interstellar species allied to the Orions.

 

Page 2 also reveals that Gaila is a member of the most powerful of the eight families of Orion, the Hexis-Kyse.

 

On page 6, the story jumps to the "current" time, stardate 2262.335. Despite the fact that the "Previously in Star Trek..." paragraph on the inside front cover states this story opens after the end of "LiveEvil" Part 3, this stardate comes about 1 year before the beginning of "LiveEvil" Part 1 (2263.27)!

 

The Starfleet ship on which Gaila is stationed is the U.S.S. Tereshkova. The ship's class in unknown, but is similar to the Miranda-class, though with a third warp nacelle (for comparison, the USS Reliant from the film Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan was a Miranda-class). Tereshkova probably gets its name from Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who became the first woman in space in 1963.

 

This issue reveals that the Enterprise's Lt. Kai is the brother of Gaila. Kai first appeared in "After Darkness" Part 1.

 

This issue reveals that Gaila and Kai were the first Orions to join Starfleet.

 

Page 12 reveals that Gaila, Kai, and their father, Kazek, lived on Earth when the two were teenagers and chose to apply to Starfleet Academy. They lived in the city of Naussau, the capital of the Bahamas.

 

On page 14, the Enterprise receives a distress call from a ship in the Ullushu system. This appears to be the first mention of the Ullushu system in the ST universe.

 

The Orion ships depicted here are a different design than seen in other licensed stories, but they do share the ring-shaped protuberance of the Orion ship seen in the remastered version of the original series episode "Journey To Babel".

 

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