Star Trek Day 2021 - That Time I Created My Own Series

Okay, I wrote literally hundreds of mini-comics back in the day. The nineties were the ultimate heyday for me when it come to Star Trek and I had to create my own adventures--from every Star Trek series to the comics (Starfleet Academy and Early Voyages from Marvel!) to novels and finally--my own crew! I'm sure I created multiple crews, but the one that I wrote the most mini-comics about was called Star Trek: Unity. Admittedly, the art wasn't very good, but by writing and drawing these stories I had my own little playground in the Star Trek Universe. I don't recall the exact year, but based on the uniforms and content, I'd guess I created Unity around 1996 or 1997.

The premise of Star Trek: Unity was a nod to both DS9 and The Original Series. Basically, Starfleet takes command of a Gorn space station after an alliance with reptilian humanoids. The station orbits the former homeworld of the Metrons, who have revealed they are dying. The Gorn call the anomaly the "transportal". In the first issue, an alien force called the Jar'Keth (who resemble Species 8472) comes through the transportal and attacked the station. The Starfleet and Gorn crews must work together to repel the invaders.

I know I wrote at least 50 issues, but I only have the cover thumbnails as most of the original issues were lost. I did all of the covers except for one created by Slasher Design's Justin Osbourn and another colored by my grandma (who also created the design for the Scyth, see below).

Like DS9, the station was alien--this time Gorn. Throughout the fifty issues, the station had a starship assigned to it (also like DS9). It started out with a ship reminiscent to the original U.S.S. Voyager design (with the long nacelles), then had a Sovereign-class ship, and finally a U.S.S. Defiant-like ship called the U.S.S. Hornet. The series took place at the same time as the latter seasons of DS9, TNG movies, and Voyager, so I included characters like the Dominion, Klingons, and Romulans. There were also appearances or cameos by Lokai, Doc Zimmerman, Captain Picard, Q, Locutus, Captain James T. Kirk, Commander Spock, Captain Montgomery Scott, Captain Morgan Bateson, Dr. Beverly Crusher, Chancellor Gowron, Admiral Ross, Commander Sela, Gul Dukat, and Ro Laren.

I even had a number of characters including Cadet Yoshi Mashima from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Counselor Deanna Troi from TNG join the crew, but the core group of characters were as described below.

Captain Tracy Kirk - a middle-aged woman, who is a descendant of James T. Kirk.

General Shaket - a Gorn officer and first officer of the station. Like the Captain, Shaket is a descendant of the Gorn that James T. Kirk fought. In fact, the station orbits the very planet where they were transported by the Metrons in that episode.

Lt. Commander Goth - a Katairn, a cat-like humanoid who is an offshoot of the Caitians or the Kzinti. He is the Chief Engineer.

Lt. Travis Chilton - Human science officer. Sort of a love interest for the Captain, although he was killed off by the end of the second season.

Doctor Tessa - An Orion woman and chief medical officer, who was possessed by a light being called a Koatt.

Bele - The half-black/half-white commissioner from TOS episode "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield", now working for the Gorn Hegemony. Like the prickly Odo, Bele served as the station's security chief.

Lt. Syntar - A member of the Scyth (green-skinned, rigid foreheads, lots of ear and nose rings, warriors, who were designed by by grandma who had never seen an episode of Star Trek). Syntar was the tactical and security officer aboard the Starfleet ships assigned to Unity.

While the conflict often included the Gorn, the Jar'Keth, and the Dominion, I also re-visited Wolf 359 at the time of the Borg attack, floated on the cloud city of Stratos, had visitors from the Mirror Universe, the Kelvans, and even the Companion (from TOS's "Metamorphosis").

It was a fun series of fan fiction that was immersed in the time when Star Trek was at the height of its popularity. While I don't have any actual stories to share, I've include a few shots of artwork and a poster I created of the crew just for this post. Happy Star Trek Day!