Line #9 ComicBook/StarTrekDebtOfHonor


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/debt_of_honor_comic.jpg]]
2	->''"If a starship is an embodiment of her crew and captain, then they likewise are a reflection of the ship. Encompassing both honor and shame. ''Enterprise'' was commissioned as a vessel of Starfleet. In Starfleet's service is where she has to earn her place. And my responsibility, my... ''penance'', is to help her do it."''
3	-->-- '''Captain James T. Kirk'''
4
5	''Franchise/StarTrek: Debt of Honor'' is a 1992 ''Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse'' graphic novel by Creator/DCComics, written by Creator/ChrisClaremont and illustrated by Creator/AdamHughes, Creator/KarlStory, and Creator/TomMcCraw.
6
7	The narrative of the novel is told in a series of flashbacks from a FramingDevice a few months after ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. As the crew of USS ''Enterprise'' (NCC-1701-A) join hands with the Romulans and Klingons for a covert mission to eliminate a threat to all their societies, James T. Kirk recalls his prior encounters with his Romulan counterpart, Commander T'Cel.
8
9	The comic is part of Volume 2 of the ''ComicBook/StarTrekDCComics'' series.
10	----
11	!!This graphic novel provides examples of the following tropes:
12	* ThirteenIsUnlucky: Watchtower 13, one of the border outposts along the Romulan Neutral Zone, is right smack dab in the middle of the Critters' hunting grounds. Because of the large number of ships which vanished in its vicinity - victims of the Critters' attacks after major celestial events - Watchtower 13 was abandoned by both Starfleet and the Romulans as unlucky. This becomes the rendezvous point for Kirk, T'Cel, and Kor when they unite to permanently deal with the Critters.
13	* ActionMom: When she reappears in the movie period, T'Cel has an adult daughter, T'Kir, who serves with her on her ship. [[spoiler:It's lightly implied that T'Kir's father may be Kirk himself, sired after they fled the ''Farragut''.]]
14	* TheAtoner: Kirk expresses guilt for having stolen and destroyed ''Enterprise'' in ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock'', and wishes to atone by ensuring that ''Enterprise''-A doesn't share her predecessor's fate.
15	* BodyHorror: The fate of anyone unlucky enough to be captured by the Critters alive: Vivisected to learn about how they work, and then mutated, twisted, and perverted into some nightmarish hybrid. [[spoiler:Diane Morwood is utterly horrified when Kirk breaks through her conditioning, and learns what's become of her.]]
16	* BookEnds: Kirk goes out boating with Dr. Gillian Taylor from ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'', who is still working with the humpback whales they rescued and brought to the future to repopulate the species.
17	* CallBack: The book opens on a Kirk having a nightmare of his encounter with [[Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock Kruge]] and the destruction of the first ''Enterprise'', which plays a considerable role in Kirk's mindset throughout the story.
18	* CallForward: In the epilogue, Jim and Gillian share a toast with champagne from Chateau Picard, [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Jean-Luc Picard's family vineyard]].
19	* ChekhovsGun: Kirk gives Scotty a copy of the schematics he and T'Cel took of the Klingon {{BFG}}, intending to use it to disrupt the dimensional gateway allowing the Critters access to that part of the galaxy. Sadly, [[JustForFun/ChekovsGun Chekov himself doesn't get to fire it]], with that honor going to Riley.
20	* ClothingDamage:
21	** Because it wouldn't be the TOS era without it, Kirk has his uniform torn open in his first encounter with the Critters, baring almost all of one arm and shoulder.
22	** After the fight aboard the Critter mothership, T'Cel beams back aboard with a rather sizable hole torn in her dress over her right breast.
23	* ContinuityPorn: As it spans some 40 years of Kirk's history, the book is positively riddled with it, but a few standouts:
24	** ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'': The book opens with Kirk on leave with Gillian aboard her boat while keeping tabs on George and Gracie. Additionally, the Probe serves as the impetus for Kirk, T'Cel and Kor's plan to lure the creatures into a trap. And at the end of the story Gracie has her baby.
25	** [[Recap/StarTrekS1E20CourtMartial Jame Finney]] is now a junior grade lieutenant serving aboard ''Enterprise''.
26	** Numerous former crewmen from the Original Series such as Riley, Kyle, and Garrovick rejoin the crew for the mission. Additionally, many episodes of the Original Series are directly referenced. Janice Rand also plays her own role in helping pulling them all together, though expresses regret to Uhura about not being able to come alone for the ride.
27	** Saavik is back aboard ''Enterprise'' as well, and her appearance owes more to Creator/KirstieAlley than Robin Curtis, especially at the beginning where she wears her hair up in a style similar to Alley's in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''.
28	** Kirk's nightmare at the beginning references Kirk's battle with Kruge and David's death on Genesis, and the destruction of ''Enterprise'' in ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock'', and Khan himself puts in an appearance, cursing Kirk to live to a "ripe old age" at the cost of watching everything he loves and held dear die around him.
29	** The alien creatures driving the plot are encountered at three points it Kirk's past:
30	*** The first incident reveals that they were responsible for the final destruction of ''Farragut''. Additionally, [[Recap/StarTrekS2E13Obsession the cloud creature]] which killed Captain Garrovick and many of the crew is mentioned prominently in the flashback to ''Farragut'''s destruction.
31	*** Kirk's second encounter with the creatures, this time in command of ''Enterprise'', occurred following [[Recap/StarTrekS2E6TheDoomsdayMachine their battle with the Planet Killer]] when ''Enterprise'' responded to ''Phoenix's'' distress call. Upon rescuing T'Cel and her crew, she indicates that the Romulan cruiser her ship was attempting to assist had been attacked and disabled by the Planet Killer.
32	*** The third incident, and the one which allows Kirk and T'Cel to begin piecing together that the creatures were monitoring a particular section of space to ambush ships responding to or crippled by major spacial anomalies, followed [[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture V'Ger's]] approach to earth, this time with a Klingon cruiser having been attacked.
33	* ContinuitySnarl:
34	** The stardate the story is set in places the main story in roughly 2289. However ''Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'' was set in 228'''6'''. Not only has Gracie ''still'' not had her baby - despite a humpback whale having a gestation period of eleven months - but the entire plan by Kirk, Kor, and T'Cel relies on luring the creatures into an ambush after determining they were monitoring a particular spacelane for major celestial events. While all other encounters (''Farragut'' being attacked by the Cloud Creature, ''Phoenix's'' engagement after Kirk destroyed the Planet Killer, and V'Ger's approach to Earth) occurred immediately following the inciting events, this would require the creatures to wait for ''three years''. The handwave is made that Kirk and his comrades used back channels to keep traffic out of the area until he could put his plan in motion, however that still creates numerous problems.
35	** Gillian Taylor claims she had to partly re-learn English in the 24th century since it changed so much in her time. ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'' though (which preceded this) showed no problem with her speaking to Kirk or Spock, nor vice versa. The rest of the crew also had no issues while on Earth.
36	* FantasticRacism: ''Many'' examples as the three crews struggle to work together:
37	** Internally with the Klingons: Kor's people are smooth-foreheaded ''TOS''-style Klingons, and his remarks indicate an internal power struggle between his subspecies and the more common ridged Klingons.[[note]]This book was released before Kor turned up in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' with a ridged forehead. ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' later revealed that the ''TOS'' Klingons were the result of genetic experimentation gone wrong. Later Expanded Universe literature managed some ArcWelding so this still works out.[[/note]]
38	** One of Kor's officers looks down on humans, particularly Jame Finney. At least until Jame puts her in her place.
39	** The Romulans immensely dislike the Half-Vulcan Saavik, considering her a traitor for identifying as Vulcan.
40	** Several human security guards on ''Enterprise'' harass the Romulan T'Kir.
41	* HeinzHybrid: [[spoiler: T'Kir is early established to only be half-Romulan, and is strongly insinuated to be Kirk's daughter (although exactly when they could have had the opportunity to conceive her is unclear given the events of the USS ''Farragut'' sequence), meaning she's half human. Her mother is herself genetically half-Vulcan, so by implication T'Kir is in total half-human, 1/4 Vulcan, 1/4 Romulan. She notes to Kirk that her mother would playfully chide her as "painfully human," and her name means "Daughter of Kir." T'Kir mentions she would like to learn more about the "other half" of her heritage, and Kirk agrees to help her along the way. ]]
42	* HeadTurningBeauty: [=McCoy's=] reaction upon his first look at T'Cel is to gripe about how not only does Kirk have an improbable ability to have absurdly beautiful women pop up out of nowhere, but that T'Cel may be the most beautiful out of ''all'' of them.
43	* HeroRivalBaddieTeamUp: The final fight against the extradimensional creatures sees Jim Kirk team up with his Klingon rival Commander Kor, and Romulan frenemy Commander T'Cel with whom he has UnresolvedSexualTension (she had previously been a civilian consultant stationed on USS ''Farragut'' and escaped with him when it was destroyed, only to leave to draw off Romulans investigating the incident and turn out to be half-Romulan herself). Their bond of mutual respect is enough to overcome the SpaceColdWar state between their three governments so they can deal with the monsters that have been attacking area shipping for decades.
44	* KlingonPromotion: A non-lethal variation occurs. Starfleet lieutenant Jamie Finney, who acts as a liaison officer on Commander Kor's Klingon ship, recommends caution in an unclear tactical situation. Khadri, a female Klingon officer taller by more than a head responds by insulting her as coming from a "coward's race" and threatens her, to which Finney reacts by knocking Khadri out with a flying kick.
45	-->'''Kor:''' Most impressive.\
46	'''Finney:''' Her challenge left me no alternative, commander.\
47	'''Kor:''' And you rose to the occasion, Lieutenant, like a Klingon. I salute you. Of course you realize your victory entitles you to assume Khadri's status and position aboard the ''Revenge''.\
48	'''Finney:''' Commander! That really isn't necessary--!\
49	'''Kor:''' Oh, but it ''is''. In fact, I insist, as a means of binding our regrettably ad hoc alliance more closely together.
50	* LanguageDrift: Gillian Taylor mentions that she had to partially relearn English because it's changed considerably in the 200 years since her home time period ([[ContinuitySnarl there's no sign of this in the film]], where Kirk and the rest speak to 20th century people in San Francisco with no problem-her included)..
51	* LongestPregnancyEver: The stardate given puts the main action in 2289, but it also seems to take place in the same year as the Gillian Taylor scenes. ''Film/{{Star Trek IV\|TheVoyageHome}}'' takes place in 2286, but humpback whale's gestation period is only 11 months. So somebody done goofed.[[note]]In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' stardates were inconsistent ''at best'', but by ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' (which had completed its fifth season when this comic was published) they had been nailed down significantly more.[[/note]]
52	* MeaningfulName:
53	** T'Cel's Bird of Prey, ''Phoenix''. Spock himself directly makes the comparison in their second encounter after the V'Ger incident, remarking how the old ship has risen from the ashes.
54	** Also the name of her daughter, T'Kir. In Romulan this means "Daughter of Kir," [[spoiler:one of the hints that her father is ''Kirk himself''.]]
55	* MilitaryMaverick: {{Discussed\|Trope}} by Sulu at one point. Kirk, T'Cel, and Kor all have one thing in common: they're often politically inconvenient to their governments, and ''very'' good at their jobs. Ergo, they get picked for difficult missions that can't really get any public acknowledgement. Their personal bonds are part of this: they can form an off-the-books EnemyMine despite their governments being in a three-way SpaceColdWar.
56	* NonHumanHumanoidHybrid: In her first appearance in the comic, T'Cel is depicted as acting quite a bit more passionately than Vulcans typically do. She later turns out to be half-Vulcan, half-Romulan like Saavik (who also appears in the comic): her mother was rescued from an EscapePod well before the events of "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E14BalanceOfTerror Balance of Terror]]" and mistaken for a Vulcan, and declined to correct the Federation's mistake, and had her with a Vulcan. {{Downplayed}} since technically Vulcans and Romulans are subspecies of the same humanoid species.
57	* RammingAlwaysWorks: How the Critters attack their targets: Ram small, shuttle-sized pods into them and spill out to attack. The Romulans adapted the same idea into their assault shuttles, hardening the nose cones for fast boarding operations.
58	* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The galaxy is an ''enormous'' place. Yet somehow the four incidents which drew the creatures into the story (''Farragut'' being attacked by the Cloud Creature, the Planet Killer's rampage, V'Ger's return to Earth, and the whale probe) all managed to occur in roughly the exact same area of space.
59	* SettingAsACharacter: Actually becomes a plot point. [[spoiler:Kirk declines to follow T'Cel in exploring the dimension the creatures came from because he feels he betrayed the original ''Enterprise'' in ''Film/{{Star Trek III\|TheSearchForSpock}}'' by ending her career as a fugitive from the law. Therefore he feels he has a responsibility to ensure ''Enterprise''-A has a long and honorable career of her own.]]
60	* ShoutOut: At one point Gillian Taylor listens to a recording of the band Cats Laughing, referring to the recording as "the Excalibur Sessions". Chris Claremont has referred to the band a few times during his run on ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'', noting that they were ComicBook/KittyPryde's favorite band. A lieutenant Emma Bull (named after the science-fiction writer who was also a member of Cats Laughing) was stationed on the Enterprise also.
61	* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: [[spoiler:Although not directly called attention to, there's a number of subtle hints that T'Cel's daughter, T'Kir, may be Kirk's. She remains behind aboard ''Enterprise'' when T'Cel takes her Bird of Prey through the dimensional portal to save the others.]]
62	* StarCrossedLovers: Kirk and T'Cel have feelings for each other and share a kiss (and possibly more) before being separated when she abandons their escape pod to draw off Romulans snooping around the site of ''Farragut's'' destruction, but T'Cel's disappearance and later reappearance as a Romulan Imperial Fleet officer puts a damper on that. [[spoiler:At the climax, T'Cel plans to take her Bird of Prey through the dimensional portal to explore it and invites Kirk along. [[LovedINotHonorMore He declines out of a sense of responsibility]] to keep ''Enterprise''-A from suffering a similarly ignominious fate as her predecessor.]]
63	* TragicTimeTraveler: {{Downplayed}} with Dr. Gillian Taylor. After being sent to the future from the 80s as a result of the events of ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'', she mentions having a lot of trouble adjusting to the future, even re-learning English because the language evolved so much since her time.
64	* TrueCompanions: Kirk did ''not'' plan for ''Enterprise'' and her crew to become involved in his mission, and intended to meet with T'Cel and Kor alone in fears of sullying the new ship's reputation before she even has an opportunity to build one. Uhura rightly chides him over how short-sighted he was thinking that the men and women under his command would ''not'' leap at the chance to help him deal with such a major threat to the Federation.
65	* {{Tuckerization}}: The minor character Diane Morwood is named after fellow ''Star Trek'' EU writer Creator/DianeDuane and her husband and occasional co-author Peter Morwood. There are references to other science fiction/Star Trek EU authors among the crew: Creator/VondaNMcIntyre (assisting Chekov with a weapons modification), [[Creator/JohnMFord John M. "Mike" Ford]] (author of Klingon world-building novel ''Literature/TheFinalReflection''; his crew counterpart is mentioned as a "Klingon expert"); [[Creator/SamuelRDelany Samuel R. "Chip" Delany]] (assisting Scotty in engineering).
66	* WalkingSwimsuitScene: With the exception of one brief scene where she changes into some vintage '80s clothes provided by one of Kirk's associates, Gillian spends her entire time in a swimsuit. {{Justified\|Trope}} as she also spends most of her time both on her boat observing Gracie, and scuba diving to interact more closely with the animals.
67	* WaveMotionGun: The Klingons, inspired by the Planet Killer, developed a cannon capable of destroying planets. A prototype was built onto one of their Dreadnoughts, that was subsequently attacked by the Critters. Kirk and T'Cel take full schematics and sensor readings to essentially blackmail the Klingons into abandoning the project, or else risk a 3-way war of mass destruction, as T'Cel and Kirk both know that if they report their discovery, the Federation and Romulan Empire would doubtlessly declare war over the existence of such a weapon.
68	* YouAreACreditToYourRace: Jame Finney earns this compliment from Kor and the rest of his crew, after Finney not only manages to lay out a Klingon woman almost ''twice her size'' when said woman got in her face, but her ferocity and tenacity in battle, and willingness to ''stun Scotty'' to return to ''Revenge'' to help the rest of the party fight after Scott tells her that the signal is too far gone to bring them all back. [[spoiler:At the end, this leads Kor to offer her a post as cultural liaison between his people and the Federation, in a cultural exchange similar to [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekS1E10TheCorbomiteManeuver Bailey's posting with Balok of the First Federation]].]]

Context ComicBook / StarTrekDebtOfHonor