Random Happenstance

It may seem like I only do these when I'm behind schedule, but this is an honestly topical pulse-pounding, senses-shattering, action-packed Star Trek panel:

I could buy the Enterprise having some chipmunk-guys assigned to it, sure; but what are the odds they'd all be assigned to the same deck? Way to kick my suspension of disbelief in the gut, David...

Just kidding there. I wanna say this issue came out about the same time C'hp was in Green Lantern Corps, so maybe chipmunks had a brief surge of popularity. You know, like Australians or girl pop groups: everywhere for a bit, then everyone denies ever liking them at all. So, I guess that's C'hp, D'le, and...what was the other one? Was there another one? Sorry, but I was probably trying to watch scrambled satellite porn when Rescue Rangers was on...man, I hope my mom doesn't read this...

Anyway, back in the day of DC's first series of Star Trek comics, the Enterprise was packed full of more aliens than usual. The first movie seemed to be building up for that, since there were a ton of extras in latex masks floating about. This issue had a Klingon serving on board, that would have to be retconned/never spoken of again with the recent coming of Worf, and I think one of the following issues had a Horta on board, from the classic "Devil in the Dark." M'ress and Arex from the Animated Series are also on board at this point, although I couldn't say if Peter David was responsible for that one or not.

Then in Wrath of Khan and the rest of the sequels, Spock and maybe his protege seemed like the only non-humans aboard. The comics would start to reflect that more, and everyone here seemed to get reassigned off-panel. Am I building up to a point? Sure, why the hell not! Arex appears on a recent cover for IDW's Star Trek: Year Four, and Peter David returns yet again to Trek comics with a new New Frontier series. (I liked the last one he did for Wildstorm, which I think actually showed up here the last time I did one of these panels.)

Are we going to see a return to the days when the comics actually made use of the fact that they didn't have to make aliens look like guys with bad foreheads (I should talk!) and Starfleet wasn't just humans-only? Should M'ress and Arex dust off their resumes? Or should they be asking themselves why they're constantly in and out of continuity? (There's your first issue right there. You're welcome.)

Panels from Star Trek #54, "Old Loyalties" Written by Peter David, pencils by Gordon Purcell, inks by Ricardo Villagran. It was also reprinted in the trade Who Killed Captain Kirk?, which is well worth a shot. And Australians: of course we still love you. At least as much as anthropomorphic chipmunks.