Mike W. Barr wrapped up his eight-issue Mirror Universe saga in the July 1985 issue of DC Comics’ ongoing Star Trek series. He wrote Homecoming, while Tom Sutton delivered pencils and Ricardo Villagran delivered inks.

So how does he tie it all up? Let’s find out…

Stardate: none listed

We are given an opening splash page, which shows a mass of Starfleet ships, including the Christopher Pike, massing (a little too close together, but I realize that’s artistic licence). Aboard the Pike is Captain Styles, and he and his fleet are waiting for the Mirror Universe invasion fleet, and Excelsior’s return to the Prime Universe so he can capture Kirk and his crew and put them on trial for the events of Trek III.

When Kirk confirms his identity, Styles gleefully announces that Kirk and his crew are under arrest.

While McCoy is outraged at Styles ‘ actions, Kirk is already concocting a plan. Kirk copies the Excelsior’s logs, and with Uhura’s help, transmits an open signal on a pre-selected frequency.

And it’s time to explore the freedom of the press!

The story moves to Starbase 13 where we meet Lyndra Dean, an Andorian reporter, who is less than thrilled with the ‘exclusive’ she got from Commodore Garrett. The rest of the press corps that is assigned to the Starbase are quite happy to wait on press releases instead of chasing down stories.

Lyndra gets the story first! And goes right to air.

And when Admiral Turner at Starfleet Headquarters on Earth hears about it..

The story mentions Genesis, the possible Mirror Universe invasion, which Kirk repelled. Interviews are aired, including with Carol Marcus, and Turner becomes increasingly furious. And public protests begin in front of Command.

Turner orders Starfleet to deliver Lyndra Dean to his office. When she arrives, they attempt to accuse her of violating Starfleet secrecy, but she violated no security as the transmission was sent in the open. Lyndra cites the First Amendment as well as a couple of additions that apparently are similar, so readers have a point of context regarding the press.

She invites the fight, but is happy to get out of the office.

Meanwhile, on the Excelsior in the middle of the fleet, Kirk delivers a thank-you speech to the finest crew ever, as they prepare to return to Earth and face music.

Kirk, Spock and McCoy are beamed off the ship, not to Headquarters, but somewhere on Earth Spacedock. Turner is there to secretly meet them, and less than impressed that Kirk, once again, ignored orders and didn’t come alone.

He agrees to keep Kirk out of the limelight, something Kirk claims he never wanted, by giving him a ship… the Excelsior. He is basically to give her a shakedown cruise, since he and his crew have already disabled her twice, to sort the bugs out.

He gets to keep all of his crew except for Captain Spock, who is given command of the science vessel Surak. The trio will be separated again, but Spock reminds them that space, compared to death, is easily surmountable. Though they did that too.

As the Surak and Excelsior head out on their separate missions, Kirk has Konom visit the botanical gardens and send a thank-you gift to Lyndra as the human adventure continues.

This is the only issue that didn’t have me as wowed as the rest of the story. I know they had to find a way to wrap it up to work in-universe, but it seems a little too trite. If they had planted Lyndra in the story a little earlier, that could have worked. To throw in a new character at the eleventh hour to help wrap everything up. That’s a little bothersome.

But overall, this was a great adventure, though there were some inconsistencies and canon issues.

Let’s see what happens out there when we delve into some single-issue stories. Next time it’s The D’Artagnan Three.

Boldly go!