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"Reunion" Part 1
Star Trek #53 (IDW)
Written by: Mike Johnson
Story Consultant: Roberto Orci
Art by: Tony Shasteen
Colors by: Davide Mastrolonardo
Letters by: Chris Mowry
Cover by:
Tony Shasteen
January 2016 |
Lt. Gaila returns to the Enterprise
for a reunion in more ways than expected.
Characters appearing in this
issue
Vila
Lt. Gaila
Lt. Kai
Kazek
Lt. Uhura
Captain Kirk
Captain Campbell
Spock
Lt. Sulu
Lt. Chekov
Science Officer 0718
Jerath
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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