“Yesterday’s” Comic> Star Trek: Early Voyages #2

The sad thing is you can’t get a Number One action figure, can you? I’m not even sure you can get Captain Pike.

Star Trek: Early Voyages #2

Marvel/Paramount Comics (March, 1997)

“The Fires Of Pharos”

WRITERS; Ian Edginton & Dan Abnett

PENCILER: Patrick Zircher

INKER: Greg Adams

COLORIST: Marie Javins

LETTERER: Janice Chiang

EDITOR: Bobbie Chase

A Starbase in a nebula used by criminals is attacked and the Enterprise comes to their aid. They’ve also been trying to build a “lighthouse” called Project: Pharos, but they found deposits of dilithium so pure it doesn’t need to be refined. Commander Kaaj of the Klingons has learned of the deposit and wants to seize it for the Klingon Empire since it’s in unclaimed space. They set a trap for the away team and the Enterprise but Number One, leading the away team, out smarts them on the ground using the transporter and gets the away team and surviving construction crew out of there. Then Pike uses the phasers to set off the deposit to stop a war, the dilithium turning into a natural beacon through the nebula that will burn for years. Kaaj swears revenge.

What they got right: I have to applaud Pike and Number One’s brilliance in how they dealt with their various traps. The Federation may not get the dilithium, but neither do the Klingons and while Starfleet doesn’t get their traffic recorder they do get their beacon. You take the wins you can. The art is still really good too.

What they got wrong: Someone needs to make this into a show, I don’t care if it’s animated. Don’t try to do your own scripts, CBS, we’ve seen how you botch that up with your current Star Trek shows. Just use the comics as the script and storyboard.

Recommendation: A really good issue, which I hope continues for the rest of this series. Pick this one up if you’ve always wondered how good a captain Pike could have been.