"The Nogura Regatta" is a TOS comic strip. It is the 13th story in the US Comic Strips series, published daily in newspapers over a period of seven weeks by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. The story was set during Captain Kirk's second five-year mission aboard the refit USS Enterprise. In this story, ambitious pirates attack Federation starships during a celebratory race.
Description
- Omnibus teaser
- Kyoshi Nogura plans a starship race to honor his grandfather, Fleet Admiral Nogura, but pirates abduct several entrants.
Summary
- Captain's log: stardate 7760.5.
- To celebrate Admiral Nogura's birthday, a group of cadets headed by the admiral's grandson, Kyoshi, have organized a starship regatta.
The race is a rally-style race between six Federation starships. Two other captains participating are Kirk's friend Bob Clark with the Cutter-class USS Rim Explorer and Kirk's former Starfleet Academy student Vera DiMarco with the USS Bold Venture. Kirk's command crew is initially hesitant to participate, but Kirk wins them over with the notion of competing for the pride of Starfleet.
That evening, Kirk has dinner with DiMarco, who tries to get Kirk to reveal weaknesses to the Enterprise left over from their battle with the Kzinti. Kirk says she'd been an unusually aggressive and competitive student. McCoy compares her to a Dalgorian water viper.
Early the next day, Kyoshi explains the rally-style rules to Kirk's crew. Ships are handicapped to equalize their capabilities, and each is given a sealed pouch to unseal at a designated checkpoint that reveals a mission to complete en route. As a warp twelve cruiser, the Enterprise will depart last. Amongst themselves, Kyoshi and two cadet friends discuss how the race, Kyoshi's psychology term project, is designed to “bring out the best and the worst in all participants".
Clark's ship reaches its checkpoint and is directed to the Hydra Daco system to retrieve a deep-sea batfish. DiMarco tries to break open her pouch before reaching their checkpoint. Enterprise leaves at 0740 hours at warp seven. At its checkpoint, Kirk learns he has to retrieve a Thorian blood rock on a planet deep within Free Trader Lanes, a sector notorious for criminal activity.
Kyoshi's cadets dock at the Free Trader station and meet with Captain Sturdevant, commander of a massive Free Trader pirate starship. Kyoshi pays Sturdevant to delay the racers, but the pirate instead kidnaps the cadets, heads to the Hydra Daco system and destroys Rim Explorer. Focused on the race, DiMarco ignores Rim Explorer's distress call, but the Enterprise diverts and rescues Clark's crew.
- Captain's log: stardate 7759.3.
- The Enterprise is in orbit around Thoris Amarnis 4…
Beaming down, Kirk, Spock, Leonard McCoy and Montgomery Scott find that the blood rocks supply light and heat to local inhabitants, and taking one would be a crime. Feeling like laboratory rats, they choose instead to trade for the rock. DiMarco also feels the race was rigged — Bold Venture's crew had been manipulated into kidnapping a telepathic reptilian — so Bold Venture changes course and joins the Enterprise. Meanwhile, the cloaked Free Trader ship has also arrived in the Thoris Amarnis system. Sturdevant and his fellow Free Traders plot to attack, capture and sell the Enterprise to Klingons.
Feeling guilty for the mess they'd created, the cadets escape the brig and deactivate the pirate ship's cloaking device. DiMarco decides to beam aboard and rescue the cadets. Her first officer says the race has changed her, that she wasn't usually “heroic". DiMarco feels guilty for having not rescued the crew of Rim Explorer. Kirk and DiMarco beam aboard the cargo hold of the pirate ship, surprised to see each other. Kirk's blood rock overheats the cargo hold, leading two pirates to investigate. When they don't return, Sturdevant goes to check on the hold, only to find himself at the wrong end of Kirk's phaser pistol. He surrenders, preferring the brig to facing Klingons who'd already paid him for the Enterprise.
Leaving the system with the cadets, DiMarco suggests a private race, head to head, with no tricks, and Kirk accepts. At warp 11, the Enterprise crosses the finish line 29 hours later, just ahead of Bold Venture, the last to arrive in the official regatta. DiMarco then asks Kirk to dinner in Chinatown.
Chronology
- 1970s
- Rallying is a popular form of groundcar racing. (300 years prior to story)
- 2250s
- Vera DiMarco attends a class taught by James T. Kirk at Starfleet Academy.
- 2274
- USS Rim Explorer is destroyed by a Free Trader starship during a starship regatta.
References
Characters
USS Enterprise crew
- Pavel Chekov • Leonard McCoy • James T. Kirk • Montgomery Scott • Spock • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura
- Referenced only
- Christine Chapel
Other characters
- Charlie • Bob Clark • Vera DiMarco • Melkis • Kyoshi Nogura • Sturdevant • Urdiss
- Referenced only
- Heihachiro Nogura
Starships and vehicles
- USS Bold Venture • USS Enterprise (Enterprise-subclass refit Constitution-class heavy cruiser) • Free Trader starship • USS Rim Explorer (Cutter-class cutter) • unnamed Federation shuttlecraft (Starfleet Academy transport) • unnamed Federation starships (unidentified Daedalus-style starship • unidentified Starfleet cruiser • unidentified Cutter-class starship)
Locations
- Starfleet Command Headquarters • Free Trader Lanes sector • Free Trader station • Hydra Daco • Thoris Amarnis (Thoris Amarnis IV)
- Referenced only
- Beta V • Chinatown • Earth
Races and cultures
- Human • Thorian • Urdiss's species • Vulcan • unnamed races and cultures
- Referenced only
- Bebebebeque• Klingon • Kzinti • Romulan
States and organizations
Science and classification
- Atalskes phaser IV • circuitry • cloaking device • club • coordinates • deflector shield • forcefield • internal combustion engine • laboratory • microscope • navigation beacon • phaser • psychology • radio • sensor • sensor ghost • subspace communication • transporter • viewscreen • warp engine
Ranks and titles
- admiral • cadet • captain • commander • criminal • doctor • engineer • first officer • helmsman • pirate • science officer
Other references
- 20th century • assignment patch • bacteria • bank • batfish • beam • blood rock • bridge • briefing room • brig • captain's log, USS Enterprise, 2274 • cargo hold • civilization • colony • crew • crime • Dalgorian water viper • distress signal • drydock • engine room • Federation Starfleet ranks (2270s) • fencing • honor • hour • landing party • light • light year • lion • log entry • minute • money • monkey • orbit • parsec • planet • plant • quarters • rat • reptilian • second • security • sickbay • snake • Starfleet uniform (early 2270s) • Starship classification • system • telepathy • transporter room • tree • warp factor (warp seven • warp 10.5 • warp 11 • warp 12) • warship • year
Appendices
Related media
- TOS novel: The Great Starship Race – The USS Enterprise competed in The Great Starship Race in 2269, but the competition was marred by the arrival of a Romulan warship.
- TNG comic: "Ill Wind, Part One" – The USS Enterprise-D provided security and assistance for the Centauris' Cup in 2370, the Federation's major bi-yearly starship race.
- VOY episode: "Drive" – Voyager's Delta Flyer entered the first Antarian Trans-stellar Rally in 2377.
Background
- This story arc was not printed with a title. The title was created for the story's reprinting in The Newspaper Comics, Volume 2.
- This is the last of 13 story arcs set after the events of TOS movie, novelization & comic adaptation: The Motion Picture with the crew wearing the early 2270s Starfleet uniform. It is the last story written by Sharman DiVono and the last in the series set in 2274.
- Artist Ron Harris said this was his favorite story in the series. It also contained his favorite day's comic strip, published on Sunday July 25, 1982, in which it was suggested that DiMarco had slept with Kirk. In it, DiMarco wore a clingy evening gown while Kirk sat putting his shoes on in her quarters, whereas in earlier scenes she had worn a uniform. (My Favorite Star Trek Page article at the Blog of Ron Harris.)
- The artist's impending departure prompted a shorter story, which was printed in newspapers daily over 49 days (7 weeks). (ST reference: New Life and New Civilizations: Exploring Star Trek Comics)
- The story provided three assignment patches that were unique to this story: USS Rim Explorer, USS Bold Venture, and Starfleet Academy.
Starships and locations
- This story was produced before TOS movie, novelization & comic adaptation: The Search For Spock introduced Spacedock. Starfleet Command Headquarters was drawn similar to the orbital office complex seen in The Motion Picture, except with oblong modules surrounding it instead of cylindrical ones. This space station orbited an unspecified planet. While docked, on the last panel of the story, DiMarco asked Kirk to dinner in Chinatown, but it wasn't explicitly stated if that was on Earth. A nearly identical drawing represented Starbase 22 in arc 8, "It's a Living".
- Six starships were in the race, depicted in panels published on 7/25/82 and 7/26/82. These were the USS Enterprise, USS Bold Venture, USS Rim Explorer, and three unidentified ships. One resembled a refit Daedalus-class starship, with a spherical primary hull attached to one or more 2270s-era warp nacelles. Another was an unidentified cruiser, with a flying-disc domed primary hull attached to one or more 2270s-era warp engines. The third, shown very small, seemed like a second Cutter-class ship.
- This story began immediately after the previous story, "The Wristwatch Plantation", with a blurb wrapping up events from that story.
- Chronologically, comic story arcs 7 "Heads of State" and 8 "It's a Living" took place after this story.
Creator credits
- Previous US Comic Strips writer/artist Thomas Warkentin ghost-illustrated the final two weeks of this story. (Star Trek: Communicator Issue 121: "Forgotten Frontiers") The last 12 dailies were unsigned. In addition to differing art styles that distinguish the two artists, their art could be recognized by the shapes of the panels they used. Ron Harris's five stories used rectangular panels, whereas Warkentin's eight stories used rectangular, curved, rounded and circular panels.
- Paul Chadwick provided art assistance for this story. (http://www.hassleinbooks.com/pdfs/TrekComics.pdf) Daily strips signed PCRH (Paul Chadwick/Ron Harris) were published on 7/19, 7/20, 7/22, 7/23 and 7/24/82. The strip for 7/21 was signed PCRHTW (Paul Chadwick/Ron Harris/Thomas Warkentin). Chadwick may also have helped with the 7/18 Sunday strip, as its inking style sharply differs from prior and subsequent Sunday strips, yet is similar in style to the art of the dailies credited to him that week.
Images
Connections
| US Comic Strips stories | ||
|---|---|---|
| Stories | "Called Home" • "Dilithium Dilemma" • "The Real McCoy" • "Double Bluff" • "Aberration on Abaris" • "Husian Gambit" • "Heads of State" • "It's a Living" • "The Savage Within" • "Quarantine" • "Restructuring Is Futile" • "The Wristwatch Plantation" • "The Nogura Regatta" • "A Merchant's Loyalty" • "Taking Shape" • "Send in the Clones" • "Goodbye to Spock" • "Terminally Yours" • "The Retirement of Admiral Kirk" • "Getting Real" | |
| Collections | The Newspaper Comics (1 • 2) • Graphic Novel Collection (15 • 24 • 34) | |
Timeline
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: #12: The Wristwatch Plantation |
TOS comics US Comic Strips |
Next comic: #14: A Merchant's Loyalty |
| Previous story: The Wristwatch Plantation |
Stories by: Sharman DiVono |
Next story: latest story |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous adventure: The Wristwatch Plantation |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next adventure: Heads of State |
| Previous comic: The Wristwatch Plantation |
Continuing voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)) | Next comic: Heads of State |
Production history
- 18 July – 4 September 1982
- Published in daily newspapers. (Los Angeles Times Syndicate)
- 1 October 2013
- Collected in the The Newspaper Comics' Volume 2 omnibus. (IDW Publishing)
- 12 April 2018
- Collected in the Graphic Novel Collection's Volume 34 omnibus. (Eaglemoss Collections)
External link
- Thirteenth Story Arc article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.