Comic Book Retro 50: September 1976

And we're back for another edition of Comic Book Retro 50 where I look back at what comics a young Dave-El was pulling from the spinner racks lo these 50 years gone!

So what pray tell got my pocket change in September 1976?

Let's kick things off with Justice League of America #137 with a cover by Ernie Chan.

I know I've given Ernie a lot of grief for his covers during this era at DC Comics but this ain't half bad. 

Holey Moley! Are we finally getting that much anticipated Captain Marvel vs. Superman match up? 

"Crisis in Tomorrow" by  E. Nelson Bridwell, Martin Pasko, Dick Dillin & Frank McLaughlin kicks off Part 3 of the annual JLA/JSA crossover, this year including the heroes from world designated as Earth S.  ("S" as in Shazam!) 

The world where Captain Marvel and the rest of the Marvel Family resides has been primarily represented by other more obscure heroes formerly published by Fawcett Comics.  

Here we see the Green Lanterns of Earth 1 and Earth 2 teamed up with Ibis the Invicible.  (Invincible has long as no one slaps that stick out of his hand.)  

Mr. Atom was a long time robotic nemesis of Captain Marvel. 

Speaking of robotics, Superman's alien android enemy Brainiac shows up turn Hal Jordan into a skeleton.

For reasons.

Evil reasons.

Reasons of evil.  

King Kull is still working his malevolent machinations from the Rock of Eternity for... well, you know...

For reasons.

Evil reasons.

Reasons of evil.  

God bless E. Nelson Bridwell who I was always admired as a classic fan boy make good but I wonder if even he understood everything that was going on in this storyline.

Meanwhile, Billy Batson, Mary Batson and Freddy Freeman have been shut off from their magic lightning from the Rock of Eternity.  But Johnny Thunder shows up with his Thunderbolt who provides his own magic lightning to transform our intrepid youths into Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr.  

You can see why Bridwell kept the Marvels off the table until now because they rapidly take out King Kull and his machines in one single epic illustration.  

Wait! We've got 2 pages to go and quite the dangling loose end to resolve: Superman is still on a "HULK SMASH!" rampage due to King Kull's Red Krytonite.

Ooh boy! We're gonna get that epic Supeman vs. Captain Marvel throw down promised on the cover! 

Well...  no.

Wait! That's it? After all that King Kull did over three issues..

For reasons.

Evil reasons.

Reasons of evil.  

We're just gonna fly off and that's that?

If this was not enough about JLA#137, click here for Alan Stewart's more extensive post about this issue.  

I remember young Dave-El was a bit disappointed by the anti-climatic ending but to be fair, Cap using his wisdom to defeat a foe rather than his fists was in character for the Big Red Cheese.

Looking back on it now, JLA#135-#137 was a lot of nonsense that barely held together but at the time, other than the anti-climatic and rushed resolution, young Dave-El rather enjoyed this ride. 

What else did Dave-El buy in September 1976?  

There's Isis#2  with a cover by Mike Vosburg & Jack Abel 

 "The Creature from Dimension X" by Steve Skeates, Mike Vosburg & Vince Colletta gave us some sci-fi action that the TV show producers could scarely dream about it.

"Lost & Found" by Steve Skeates, Mike Nasser & Frank Giacoia was a more grounded short story in keeping with the tone of the TV series.  

Ernie Chan & Bob Oksner provide the cover to Superman#306.

"Backward Battle for the Bizarro World" by Martin Pasko, Curt Swan & Bob Oksner gives us a return of Bizarro but in a different way than he was presented in the 1960's.

While Bizarro had all the powers of Superman, that aspect was rarely explored and stories deferred to Superman having to figure out Bizarro's backward logic and how to convince him to stop being a pest.

Here we see Superman and Bizarro in a direct super powered confrontation.  

Superman declares Bizarro has "not even alive" which makes it OK to kill him?  Marty Pasko is really channeling some over the top drama here. 

Bizarro is all messed up as he mistakenly believes his home planet, the square shaped Earth known as Bizarro world, was destroyed.  

The resolution still comes down to Superman figuring out Bizarro's backward logic and using it to resolve the conflict.

There's also a dramatic wrap up on the Toyman plot that continued from last issue.  

Marty is trying to bring some Marvel level angst to Superman.

We needs some silver age DC goofiness. Oh, that wacky Steve Lombard, what a schmuck! 

On to Green Lantern#92 with a cover by Mike Grell. 

"The Legend of the Green Arrow" by Denny O'Neil, Mike Grell & Bob Smith sends Hal, Ollie and Sinestro through a plot device called a "Silver Twist" that deposits our cast into a mash up world of alien tech and a rustic medieval culture.

Conveniently, Hal and Sinestro's rings don't work and given there's a plot afoot parallel to the legend of Robin Hood, Ollie is in his element for a change.  

Trying to relive the glory days of the O'Neil/Adams GL/GA run but leaning away from social relevance and towards sci-fi and fantasy, Denny O'Neil was clearly hard pressed to figure out how to make Green Arrow work.  

From SPACE to the FUTURE, it's Mike Grell on the cover art again for Superboy#222 and ah geez, it's this guy again?

In "This Legionnaire Is Condemned", writer Cary Bates (with artists Mike Grell & Bob Wiacek) is determined to make us care about Tyroc.  

You may recall Tyroc was created to answer the question "Why are there no black people in the Legion of Super Heroes?"  

You may also recollect the answer (straight out of Stephen Miller's wet dreams) was that all the black people were living on their own island.  

The Legion tells Tyroc that since they have green folk and orange folk and blue folk, black folk are welcome too. And Tyroc decides to give them a chance.

Tyroc's subsequent appearances do seem to be centered around a disturbing recurring theme.

• It's assumed that Tyroc (the ONLY black man on the team) is up to bad shit. 
• It turns out Tyroc was just sacrificing his reputation and identity to flush out some kind of threat.   

Cary Bates has been writing the Legion since they took over the Superboy title as of issue #197.  This issue is his last issue.

This would also be the last we would see of Tyroc for a long time.  He would have a cameo for the wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl in  All New Collectors' Edition C-55 and a quick pop in for Superboy & the Legion of Super Heroes#250. 

He will get a 3 issue arc in Legion of Super Heroes#263-#265 (1980) which ends with that island for only black people shifting to another dimension and Tyroc leaves the Legion.   

Back to September 1976, the back up is a short story written by Jim Shooter with art by Mike Nasser & Bob Layton. Since I began reading the Legion (Superboy#205, August 1974), this is the first NEW story I've seen not drawn by Mike Grell.  

"Death of a Legend" is about a super hero who is more celebrity than hero but has to rise up to face a dangerous challenge. 

For more teen team action with Teen Titans#45, sporting an Ernie Chan/Vince Colletta cover.   

"You Can't Say No to the Angel of Death" is written by Bob Rozakis with art by Irv Novick & Vince Colletta.  

Taking over from Joe Orlando is Julius Schwartz as editor.

Let's do a quick flashback to Teen Titans#44 when Mal Duncan cobbles together some different elements from other stories and characters to create a super hero identity to help him rescue the Teen Titans.

Art by Pablo Marcos & Bob Smith

Julius Schartz did not like that.  He wanted Mal to have his own original identity that was not assembled from spare parts.

So with issue #45,  Speedy starts to rag on Mal about his borrowed super hero persona.  

This is a bit much from a kid sidekick whose whole schtick is a borrowed identity from his mentor, Green Arrow. Who calls himself "Speedy"? 

Mal leaves Titans HQ with a full mad on at this jackass.  

Mal goes up against a Gotham street gang called the Wreckers who set off a bomb explosion.  Caught in the blast, it appears Mal Duncan's number is up as Azrael, the Angel of Death, has come to claim him.

Mal challenges Azrael to a fight.  The angel Gabriel is summoned to referee and the fight is on.  

Mal wins which pisses off  Azrael. 

OK, are you guys following all this?

So Mal puts the horn to use to summon the Titans to help finish off the Wreckers.  

So this was the solution to Julie Schwartz's mandate for Mal to have an original skill set?  OK, points for "original" maybe but it's also muddled and absurd.  

While the Guardian identity may have been a borrowed one, Mal was able use that identity to take direct action and save his friends.

This new concept just means all Mal can do is holler for help and teleport his friends into danger.  

Side note:  Issue #45 marks the the first appearance of Karen Beecher who will become the costumed hero Bumblebee.

After a couple of months of not picking up an issue, I returned to the fold with Action Comics#466, sporting a weird but dynamic cover by Neal Adams of grown up Lex Luthor beating up baby Superman?  

"You Can Take the Man Out of the Super, But You Can't Take the Super Out of the Boy" is the actual title for this adventure by Cary Bates, Curt Swan & Tex Blaisdell.  

The bit is that Lex has figured out a way to de-age both physically and mentally his hated foe, working from the premise that an older, wiser Lex can easily defeat a young, less experience Superman.

He tries this trick out on Batman and Flash before zapping Superman with his de-aginator thingy.

It's another Ernie Chan/Vince Colletta cover for Detective Comics#466.

Ernie Chan & Vince Colletta are also on the interior art which does not favors for the script by Len Wein,  "Signalman Steals the Spotlight".

I'm not sure where this Len Wein tale came from.  Len had left DC about 2 years back to set up shop at Marvel and would not return to DC on the regular until 1978.   

This story is a bit of an odd duck. Signalman was a Z-list bad guy from the 1950's and should've given Batman little trouble.

Instead, Batman gets knocked out and tied up inside the Bat-Signal turned death trap. 

Gotta admit Batman bursting out of the Bat-Signal like that is pretty impressive.  

The back up sees the Calculator taking his schtick up against Green Arrow this time in "Take Me Out of the Ballgame".

Bob Rozakis's script is illustrated by Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin.  IIRC, this is Rogers' debut work as a professional comics artist.   

Rogers will go on to acclaim as the artist for Steve Engelhart's run on Batman in Detective Comics.  (But let's save something for next years' posts on Comic Book Retro 50.) 

We see that Calculator's scheme to immunize himself against super heroes is working.  Guest star Elongated Man (who defeated Calculator last issue) is unable to help Green Arrow.

OK, one last book for September 1976 and we're not done with baseball.  

DC Super Stars#10  with a cover by Ernie Chan is branded as "Strange Sports Stories".    

Strange Sports Stories was an anthology comic that ran for 6 issues from 1973 to 1974.   It featured (do try to keep up) Stories about Sports that were (this is the key element) Strange.  

This special leads off with an ALL NEW 18 page tale called "The Great Super-Star Game" by Bob Rozakis and JLA artists Dick Dillin & Frank McLaughlin.  (As if Dick and Frank weren't stressed enough with the annual JLA/JSA crossover.)  

It's heroes vs. villains!

Uncle Sam from Freedom Fighters is the umpire.

For the good guys, we've got Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Plastic Man, Robin and Kid Flash.   

For the bad guys, up on deck are Sportsmaster and Huntress (hopping the dimensional divide from Earth 2), Lex Luthor, the Joker, Chronos, Doctor Polaris, Felix Faust, Matter Master, Tattooed Man, Weather Wizard and Amazo.  

Why pray tell is this game happening?

The Huntress and Sportsmaster set up a baseball game between heroes and villains. 

Villains win?  Huntress will remain a villain. 

Heroes win? Huntress will become a hero.

Really! 

Here's a page of the game play for this thing that actually happened! 

Of course the villains cheat but the heroes win and here's the last page for all of that.  

Rounding out the contents are some reprints.

From Strange Adventures#59, it's "The Super-Athletes from Outer Space" and from Green Lantern#39, Hal Jordan has to compete in the "The Fight for the Championship of the Universe"

Both stories pencilled by Gil Kane.   

And that is that for what a young Dave-El bought in September 1976.

Next week's comic book post is a Comic Book Retro Spotlight.  Before the events of JLA#135-#137, we'll take a look at a prior crossover between Earth 1 and Earth S from 1974.  

________________________________________

Thanks to The Tom Breevort Experience, the Grand Comic Book Database. Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Books and Mike's Amazing World of Comics.   

Doctor Who: Love Me Tender

 

A couple of weeks back, I wrote a Doctor Who blog post where I said this:

As you know, the BBC announced it's intention to put Doctor Who out for tender.....As I write this, the BBC has not acted on that intention so as of right now, the BBC is not in talks with anyone to run the show...What is the hold up on putting Doctor Who out to tender? I have no idea. I imagine there is some legal woo-woo with lawyers and such I don't understand.

Well, a few days after I wrote that, the BBC put Doctor Who out for tender.  

Here's what we know.

• The BBC is accepting applications from producers and studios to take over production of Doctor Who.
• The deadline for submitting those applications is October 2nd.
• By January 2027, the BBC will have narrowed those applications down to a short list of finalists. 
• From that short list, the BBC will decide by April 2027 who will be the new production entity who will chart the future of Doctor Who.
• That entity will need to deliver a full season/series in 2028.  

Yeah, that's a bit of a wait to get any kind of new Doctor Who but the good news is there is definitive plan to get new Doctor Who back on TV once more within this decade.

And it's still a shorter time frame than the dire wilderness years from 1989 to 2005.  

In the meantime, I expect the usual churn of rumors and gossip on who has or has not submitted applications and who does or does not have the inside track to make the short list or who will or will not get picked by April 2027.  

Well, it wouldn't be Doctor Who without rampant rumors and gossip.  

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Outlander: Blood Of My Blood

Andrea and I are feeling a bit bereft. 

This weekend we caught up watching all the episodes of Hudson & Rex with John Reardon as Charlie Hudson.

We're not watching season 8 with Luke Roberts as Mark Hudson because (to quote Project Hail Mary), "Rocky hate Mark."

You Tube keeps misleading me with videos that offer to scoop what's going on with Charlie's return in season 9 but those are just old clips with some inane babbling by someone guessing on what they think is going to happen.

Meanwhile, Andrea and I do have our emergency back up "cop with dog partner" show in Blue Skies to pick up some slack. 

On with this week's Touchbase.  

Alas, Outlander is dead!

Long live Outlander! 

While our journey with Claire and Jamie came to an end earlier this year, the saga of their parents continues as season 2 of Outlander: Blood Of My Blood began this weekend.

Or O-BOMB for short. 

We spent all of season 1 keeping everybody apart but the season ended with star crossed lovers Brian Fraser and Ellen McKenzie, future parents of Jamie Fraser, finally together.

And our time tossed couple of Henry and Julia Beachamp were  reunited at long last and with their infant son William in hand, they gathered at the stone circle of Craigh na Dun to escape the year 1715 and return to the 20th century and their daughter Claire.

But life and television writers have other plans.

The stones don't work for the Beauchamps (as they are unaware gemstones are needed to activate the stones) and they are cornered by Simon Fraser's men who are determined to recover Julia and William. 

The sinister, spiteful Simon, the erstwhile Lord Lovat, thinks William is HIS son and is part of a prophesy to rule all as king. 

Fighting the men, Henry is stabbed by a knife with a gemstone in the handle and as the wounded Henry falls against one of the stones, he vanishes.  

Left alone, Julia with her son has no choice but to return to Lord Lovat's castle.

Meanwhile, Henry is in 1924. In his own corner of hell.

He is being held in the Inverness Lunatic Asylum.

Now, that is not a proper way to refer to a mental health facility, is it? I should be ashamed of using such language.

But that is the name of the place, there's a sign out front and everything: Inverness Lunatic Asylum.

Between the unresolved stress of Henry's PTSD from his time in the trenches of the Western Front in World War I and his time travel to and from 1715 and all the shit he had to deal with in the 18th century, Henry's eggs are all scrambled.

Dr. Perryman of the Inverness Lunatic Asylum thinks he can resolve Henry's memory problems with the latest advances in mental health treatment: electric shock therapy.

Leaving Henry's eggs scrambled AND fried.

As for our other couple, Brian and Ellen, their idyllic retreat to finally be together and fulfill the promise of their love (or something) is interrupted by the Jacobite Rebellion.

🙋  What is the Jacobite Rebellion?

The Jacobite Rebellion (or Rising) of 1715 was an attempt by the exiled James Francis Edward Stuart, son of the deposed James II of England, to regain the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland for the House of Stuart.

It won't work and the Jacobites will have to try again in 1745 but that's matter for Jamie, Claire and the first 2 seasons of Outlander.

Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. 

BUT back to O-BOMB.

Brian is compelled by honor, duty and some other 3rd thing to join his fellow Scots in the uprising. (He is on the snack committee or something.) 

Ellen didn't go through all the trouble of running away from the McKenzie clan and the arranged marriage to Malcolm Grant to just have Brian run off and get killed in some damn rebellion.

But...

His honor, duty and some other 3rd thing is why she loves him so.  Also the McKenzies are looking to recover their errant sister and would likely kill Brian if he were found with her.

So she willingly agrees to return to the McKenzie's castle.

But not before she and Brian engage in some unprotected sexy times because, dammit, future Jamie Fraser with those piercing eyes and that rugged square chin needs to be procreated. 

No, I am not gay. Why do you ask?

Anyway,  other than Henry strapped to a table in the Inverness Lunatic Asylum in 1924, the status of quo of season 1 is frustratingly restored.

Julia is back in the clutches of Lord Lovat.

Brian is back under the cruel control of his father, Lord Lovat, conscripted to do shit for a man that hates him, doing things Brian does not want to do.

Ellen is back under the domineering control of her brother Collum, the undeserving laird of the McKenzie clan. 

God, I hate this show! Whose dumb idea was it to watch this thing?

Oh yeah, it was mine.

Fine! I guess I will have to stick around to find out how all this plays out through season 2 of O-BOMB!

You know, if I have to.  

That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase!

Next week: the season finale of Stuart Fails To Save the Universe.

And the season finale of the Official Stuart Fails To Save the Universe Podcast. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

 

Reality: What A Concept

Last week we had a special visitor come to North Carolina.

Who was this visitor?

Why it was none other than America's own lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, sociopathic, dishonorable, treasonous, gutless, moronic, heartless, soulless, slimy, loathsome, vile, incompetent, psychotic, crooked, disgusting, reprehensible, revolting, horrible, malicious, obnoxious, hateful, narcissistic, small-minded, despicable god damn, motherfucking piece of shit!

Or to save time: Donald Trump.

Standing in North Carolina, speaking to people from North Carolina, Li'l Donnie felt compelled to say that North Carolina sucks! 

Der Führer pronounced North Carolina as one of the absolute worst states in the nation.  

Apparently Trump thinks North Carolina is some kind of stinking cesspool of crime and violence and it's all Roy Cooper's fault.

So he's seen the Michael Whatley ads then, I guess?

We're in the middle of a campaign for an open U.S. Senate seat  with Democrat Roy Cooper going up against Republican Michael Whatley.   

Roy Cooper was born in North Carolina, has lived here all his life and has a solid tract record of service to the state as a legislator, district attorney and governor.

Michael Whatley is... none of those things.  

Whatley has been running ads that paint Cooper as soft on crime, releasing thousands of criminals and chances are because of Roy Cooper, if you're in North Carolina, you're being murdered right now.

Those ads have included grieving fathers who attribute the murder of their children to Roy Cooper.

Except...

One father said he was told his testimonial was for a project on fighting gun violence.  He intends to vote for Roy Cooper and says there is nothing about his son's murder that has any connection to Cooper. 

The other father is in SOUTH Carolina and his daughter was murdered in SOUTH Carolina and her murder has no connection to Cooper or any of his policies in NORTH Carolina. Unlike the other dad, this guy does not disavow his participation in the ad and is proud of whatever he can do to stop Roy Cooper and support Donald Tr--whoops, Michael Whatley.   

Cooper has a counter ad that calls out these Whatley spots as lies.  

All Whatley has going for him is his absolute and total fealty to der Führer.  His devotion is so complete, Whatley insisted in an interview that grocery prices are DOWN and gas prices are DOWN. Just because Li'l Donie thinks he can get away with saying this crap doesn't mean anybody else can say this shit. 

Cooper has another ad that runs this interview, followed by Roy looking at the camera with utter incredulousness. "Can you believe this guy? I KNOW prices are going up!"    

Roy Cooper's selling point: he understands reality.  

****************************************

"Reality: what a concept!"  

---Robin Williams

****************************************

Donald Trump has his own concept of reality.

• Prices are DOWN!
• The war with IRAN is going GREAT!
• People LOVE Donald Trump!

Woe and lamentations unto thee to say otherwise:

• Prices are UP!
• The war with IRAN is an intractable MESS!
• And no we fucking DON'T!

Li'l Donnie rejects these points as FAKE NEWS and declares he will ban news agencies that don't report his concept of reality.

Saturday morning, reporters for CNN, MS NOW and Politico showed up at the White House to find their press passes revoked and confiscated for the temerity of reporting anything that does not align with his vainglorious delusions that everything is awesome and we owe all that awesome to Trump! 

With Natalie Harp printing up a constant stream of pro-Trump, pro-MAGA propaganda, Li'l Donnie's propensity for ignoring the reality we live in in favor of his own is reinforced. The only voice he hears other than his own is a selected cadre of syncophants who are mere echoes of his self aggrandizement.

Nowhere is this more blatantly on display than with the fuckery going on with the Kennedy Center.

Immediately after being sworn in for his 2nd term, Trump quickly sacked the Kennedy Center's board of trustees and replaced them with people loyal to him. And der Führer made himself chairman of the board. 

And that's when the troubles began.

Various artists scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center began cancelling their shows.  

Sales of tickets and memberships declined precipitously.

To honor their Lord and savior for this good work at saving the Kennedy Center from ruin, the board voted to put Trump's name on the building.  

And that's when the troubles got worse! 

Any artists holding their noses to still perform at the Kennedy Center dropped out.  Revenue bottomed out.

The courts ordered Trump's name be removed from the building.

Presumably this was done but a tarp hangs over the front of the building to spare widdle Donnie's feelings from being hurt.

Faced with a financial crisis, the Kennedy Center board says the only way to save it is to put Trump's name back on the building.

You know, the very act that precipated the center's financial crisis.

Trump's concept of reality is that the Kennedy Center was bleeding money and heading for financial ruin until he took charge.

After a downturn brought on by the COVID pandemic of 2020, the Kennedy Center was running a deficit. But in 2023 and 2024, the center was back in black, taking in more than it spent.

From the moment Trump installed his own stooges to run the joint and himself as chairman, the Kennedy Center has been in the red, losing money.  

BUT the board asserts that ONLY Donald Trump can lead the effort to improve fund raising to get the Kennedy Center back on track but he's NOT going to do that unless he gets credit for it.

An assertion that Trump himself repeats: why should he lift a finger to help the Kennedy Center if he's not going to get credit for it?

Meanwhile, facing bankruptcy, the board voted to shut down the Kennedy Center and there's a very real fear that if der Führer does not get his way, he may tear the damn thing down. 

Think it's a bit outrageous that he would do such a thing? If you think that, I have a lovely White House East Wing to show you and ---Whoops! No, I can't. There is only a hole in the ground where Trump is building a ballroom that only he wanted.

And that's where we are, navigating two realities.

There's the reality you and I are stuck in where every goddam thing is on fire and Donald Trump is holding the match and the gasoline.

And there's the reality where Li'l Donnie lives, where everything is golden and NOT on fire and he wants credit for all the wonders his dementia addled brain beholds.

And if CNN won't confirm his concept of reality, to hell with them.

Natalie Harp has a print out that will confirm that...

Star Trekking: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season 4 -"“Once La’an a Time”

 

We've reached the penultimate episode of season 4 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and let the wailing and the lamentations of the Trekker faithful be heard.

It's a damn gimmick episode. 

And it's a sequel to an earlier gimmick episode from Season 1.

Back in season 1, Dr. M'Benga's daughter, Rukiya, was dying of some incurable Trekkian disease. While looking for a cure, the doctor's plan to forestall Rukiya's death was to store her in the transporter pattern buffer.  

Some nebula aliens connected up with Rukiya decided to give her a gift: a chance to live out her favorite book, The Kingdom of Elysian. With bonus content: Rukiya had worked out some fanfic in her head and that was folded in. 

Long story made short: the crew of the Enterprise were compelled to adopt the personas and dress of characters from this fantasy novel.  

The episode was called  "The Elysian Kingdom" that aired on June 23, 2022 and if you wanna know more about it click here for what Keith R.A. DeCandido thought about it back then.

That was then.

This is now.

And now for reasons passing very strange and damn near undecipherable, the advanced science that seems like magic is back to recreate the Kingdom of Elysian once more.

Apparently for the benefit of La'An.

Which brings us to “Once La’an a Time” and if you wanna know more about what Keith R.A. DeCandido thinks about this, click here. 

Or cut to the chase and read this statement from Keith: "On this week’s episode, we revisit the Elysian Kingdom, and like far too many sequels, it’s a disappointment."

Do I concur with that? 

I have to say I do. 

But...

There is a lot that's kind of cool about this episode.,

Let's give it up for our girl Christina Chong.

La'An is struggling with her inner darkness and worries that as a Khan, she might give in to impulses for world conquering or something.  

La'An has to pretend to be Princess Thalia and wear an ornate, frilly dress. I could almost hear La'An channelling Worf in my head: "Captain, I must protest! I am NOT a damsel in distress.

Chong has to play La'An, La'An pretending (badly) to be Princess Thalia and finally the princess herself.  

La'An (dressed as the princess) and the princess have a sword fight. That must have been quite a busy shooting day for Christina Chong.  

Great line from La'An.  She meets a stranger in the woods and says "I mean you know harm." The stranger draws his sword and La'An replies, "Harm it is then!" 

I saw Paul Wesley in the opening credits and I'm like, really, Jim Kirk is going to show up again? Look, I think Wesley is doing a fantastic job as the future Capt. Kirk but since Kirk is not assigned to the Enterprise yet, the machinations to make him fit in an episode of SNW can border on the absurd.

But this time, Paul Wesley has shown up to play a role in this Elysian fantasy, as Thalia's love interest Prince Dashing. I guess whatever is creating this fantasy world is picking up on La'An's latent feelings for Kirk she developed in her alternative time line adventure from Season 2, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”.

Prince Dashing is the heroic and romantic archetype in fantasy fiction, fighting evil and saving the princess.  Except...

He's not really good at it.  

And he's also a werewolf.

What wolf?

Werewolf!

Where wolf?

There wolf! 

Oh, THAT wolf! 

Heads up! Erica Ortegas snogs Una Chin-Riley! 

Hold on! Their Elysian counterparts, Sir Adya and Z’ymira the Huntress, are the ones who kiss.  OK, technically "Sir Adya" is a dude but...

No matter how you slice it:  Melissa Navia shares a big damn kiss with Rebecca Romijn.

Deep dive Easter egg: Benny Russell is identified as the author of "The Kingdom of Elysian". 

Benny Russell was the name of the 1950's science fiction writer that Benjamin Sisko became in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode,  “Far Beyond the Stars."  

I gathered from that episode that Benny was a far better writer than to have written something like "The Kingdom of Elysian".  Well, he did sustain a severe head injury in that episode.

Meanwhile on the Enterprise....

The cowardly Sir Rauth and the wizard Pollux from the Elysian Kingdom board the Enterprise and have to pretend to be Pike and Spock.  

They practice their roles by rehearsing ways to say "Hit it" and "Fascinating" so they can be prepared....

For nothing really.  

Especially when the dragon shows up.

🔥Big damn space dragon time! 🔥

You wanna see the Enterprise fight a giant red fire breathing dragon... in SPACE!  

Oh, you think that can't happen, eh? 

Bring it on, bitch! 

“Once La’an a Time” has a lot of individual bits that are genuinely amusing and there is some serious character growth for La'An.  But do those bits really come together to make a worthwhile whole?  

Sadly I don't think so. Or maybe that's on me for not getting it.

I have to admit to a lot of confusion as to what was happening and why. It was as if the marching orders were "What if La'An could work through her personal shit through that "Elysian Kingdom" fantasy woo-woo we did back in season 1?"  

There is a lot of twisting for the pretzel o' logic to get us into that scenario and I'm not sure it all made sense.

Online there was the expected gnashing teeth and tearing at garments over Star Trek: Strange New Worlds doing yet another gimmick episode.  

While researching "The Elysian Kingdom" episode from Season 1, I noticed this observation from Keith R.A. DeCandido:   

"SNW is sometimes embracing the goofier style of plotlines from Trek history, and I’m down with this. I don’t need all the new Trek shows to dip into this well—for example, this sort of story wouldn’t really work on Discovery or Picard, whereas it’s pretty much all Lower Decks does—but I like that SNW goes for it sometimes."

Keith wrote that 4 years ago.  As for "SNW goes for it sometimes", I think that the gimmicks have become part of the SNW brand now.  I think the gimmicks are not the exception to the rule but are inherent in the rule of what makes Star Trek: Strange New Worlds unique in the pantheon of the Trek universe.  

Next week, season 4 comes in for a landing with an episode entitled "Tomorrow's Enterprise".  A title that calls to mind the TNG episode "Yesterday's Enterprise": I am be very interested to see if this episode goes where I think it will.

We'll look at that next week. Live long and prosper, y'all!