A 96 large page graphic novel set between films IV and V, Debt of Honor is cool in that it skips around via flashback to all different times in the TOS/films timeline, showing off different bridge sets, uniforms, gadgets and guest stars. So the nerdish fanboy in me was thrilled. Storywise – I can not tell a lie – what we have here is 96 large pages of a mess.
What’s kinda funny is that we have our first flashback to the events on the Farragut and the death of Captain Garrovick (we remember this story from the TOS episode Obsession, of course) and this is a key event in the later novel/graphic novel Ashes of Eden. This is funny because the events are completely different in each book. Hence the ongoing argument as to what is canonical in the World of Trek. But I digress….
It wasn’t just the cloud gas in Obsession, it was a band of hull-ramming beasts – like giant green sea horses or something – that caused a big stink afterwards. Turns out that Kirk has been running afoul of these beasts a LOT during his career. It’s just that we’ve always faded to black just before it happened. It’s not just him – the Klingon Kor has been having issues, too, as has a very sexy half-Romulan named T’cel who, we learn, may or may not have sired a quarter-Romulan with Kirk named T’Kir. H-w-what????!
Anyway, the gang gets together, as do a lot of deep cut characters (like the Enterprise crewman Dave Bailey who flew away with Balok!) and they fight the float-y bugs. They kinda-sorta win, T’cel makes a sexy face, and they all go back to swim with George and Gracie from the Sausalito Cetatian Institute.
