As the 1970s became the 1980s, Marvel Comic published an 18-issue series set in Star Trek’s Motion Picture era. Today, it is not often recalled fondly, but Siskoid and special guest Xum Yukinori insist on reexamining it, using one of its worst stories and one of its best to best to give you a good sense of what it was really like.
Listen to Episode 24 below!
Relevant images and further credits at: Gimme That Star Trek ep.24 Supplemental
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Fun show. This series came out before my Trek-mania kicked in. I don’t even recall seeing these on the stands.
I was unaware of the classic monster story! Sounds like fodder for House of Franklin-Stein. I smell a crossover.
Why do I feel like Xum is going to look for a done-in-one-story with Gnomes to showcase on his show, just so he can finish off that list of unused puns?
Chris
Well spotted. There WAS a list of unused puns. I head them. Maybe don’t poke the bear.
“Today’s Episode: What You Don’t Gnome Might Hurt You”…
If only Marvel had held onto the Trek license for another year or two, they would have had WOK to work around and I imagine the book would have been a big hit.
I remember seeing ST on the stands sporadically as a kid, I think this issue’s gnome cover would have put me off from buying it, frankly.
But it all ended well I guess, since eventually the Trek license found a new gnome at DC, who really did a lot of great stuff with it.
That’s a long way to go for that pun, rob. A very long way.
I had one issue from this run that my dad found for me at a garage sale. I was intrigued but was left cold by it. Truth be told I haven’t really grokked the Trek comics on the whole. But you gnome me, I’m a harsh critic
Puns, the final frontier…
This episode is reminding me that I actually own these issues… or at least scans of them on a DVD-ROM of all Star Trek comics published before 2002 (has anyone ever asked how such a thing could be legal? It LOOKS officially licensed…). While I copied all of the DC Comics to my e-reader years ago, I never bothered to do so with the Marvel comics. I should go back and get those.
Besides the stories themselves, I imagine that one reason that these TMP-era comics have such a negative reputation (and thus why I’ve stayed away from them up to now) is the fact that those TMP-era *uniforms* are so awful-looking! Just looking at the scans you’ve provided on the supplemental page, I can tell that it’s going to take some effort to work through these. Still, I should at least give them a shot.
The GIT Corporation DVD-ROM was indeed a licensed product. The original plan was to include the U.S. and U.K. newspaper strips too, but licensing talks fell through for whatever reason. Also missing from that collection due to licensing were the X-Men crossovers from Marvel’s second attempt at Star Trek comics.
I’m generally a fan of the often goofy, sometimes insane Gold Key comics, but I don’t give the initial Marvel run the same pass. Unlike a sizable portion of the Gold Key run, it’s not like the writers hadn’t seen an episode of the series.
I’m just grateful Xum didn’t point out if Kirk and Spock were turned into Gnomes, they’d have a gnomance.
Please stop, gnome more.
Sometimes I wonder who had the “rougher” reputation, this or the Marvel “Star Wars” series, in the eyes of the fans.
At least I found the Marvel “Star Trek” series an enjoyable… if nonsensical… ride, and it was probably one of the few handful of times the “Motion Picture” era was actively expanded upon. (Now if maybe I give it positivity points, I can earn some brownie points from Gene Hendricks!)
I thought Marvel’s SW comics were beloved?
They are NOW, but for the longest stretch of time around the 90’s, when the Zahn novels launched and the Prequel Trilogy was gearing up, those Marvel issues were not getting the love.
Maybe it was because of fans getting their “shiny new toys” with novels… that were admittedly their own assortment of mixed-bag materials… new “canon” comics from Dark Horse, which also sometimes could be fair to middling, and… Yeah… those Prequels…