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"Countdown to Darkness"
Part 2
Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #2
IDW
Story: Roberto Orci and Mike Johnson
Script: Mike Johnson
Artist: David Messina
Cover by
David Messina
February 2013 |
Kirk faces a Prime Directive conundrum when
he and Spock meet former Enterprise Captain Robert
April on the surface of Phaedus IV.
Read the full story summary of this issue at Memory
Beta
Notes from the Star Trek
Chronology
The 4-part
Countdown to Darkness mini-series
leads into the 2013 film
Star Trek Into Darkness.
Didja Notice?
The planet called simply Phaedus in
"Countdown to Darkness"
Part 1 is suddenly referred to as Phaedus IV in this and
subsequent issues of the mini-series.
Page 1 of this issue reveals that Phaedus IV is on the edge
of explored space.
| On page 2, Kirk remarks that Captain April died commanding
the previous Enterprise on a mission twenty years
ago and that the ship was decommissioned
two years ago. During some flashback
scenes of April's time as captain of
this Enterprise, we get a few images
of it and see that it has some
aspects of the ship seen in the
original TV series. April states
that he was captain of the ship
going on ten years when he first
came to Phaedus IV twenty years ago. |
 |
 |
On page 9, panel 5, the tricorder in use by Captain April is
similar to the classic tricorders used in the original TV
series (though not exactly the same).
On page 12, the present-day April is wearing a black
undershirt beneath his Starfleet tunic. But in all following
scenes of the present day, the undershirt is gone.
On page 16, Captain April tells Kirk of his first officer,
Alex Marcus. In
Star Trek Into Darkness, we see that, in the
present day, Marcus is now an admiral and the head of
Starfleet. He is also the father of Dr. Carol Marcus, to
whom Kirk is introduced in
Star Trek Into Darkness; in the original timeline, Carol Marcus was
Kirk's lover for a time and the mother of Kirk's son, Dr.
David Marcus, as seen in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.
The Mudd woman piloting the cargo ship intercepted by
Enterprise over Phaedus IV is presumably the
daughter of Harry Mudd, who appeared in two popular episodes
of the original TV series, "Mudd's Women" and "I, Mudd",
and the animated series episode "Mudd's Passion", as well as
a number of appearances in comic books and novels. In
"Countdown to Darkness"
Part 3, April comments on her "disreputable father", though he
is not named.
She appears to be at least partially Bajoran, judging by the
ridgelines on her nose. The
Bajoran species was introduced in the original timeline in
the ST-TNG episode "Ensign Ro".
On page 20, Kirk looks through electrobinoculars. Panel 1
shows the binocular view. Notice that the top left corner of
the binocular display shows not only the current
magnification, but also what appears to be the current air
temperature (100.4° F)! The bottom right corner shows what
even today are standard symbols for power level and (lack
of) wireless networking.
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