| STAR TREK COMICS | |
| The Champion | |
| |
| Series: | Tamerlane |
| Writer/s: | G.S. Davis |
| Artist/s: | G.S. Davis |
| Original post date: | February 14, 2008 |
| Production number: | E1I1 |
| Year: | 2268 |
| Stardate: | 5711.1 |
| Next episode | The Last Night of the Year |
| Previous episode | By Her Reason Swayed |
The Champion is a three-issue episode of the Fan Comic Tamerlane. It is the first full episode to be released by G.S.Davis.
Episode Tag
Tamerlane, on routine patrol, comes across a derelict Orion Slaver. When Cochrane and her crew beam aboard, they find something that could threaten the security of her ship and crew and perhaps the entire Federation.
Episode Summary
In issue one, we meet Commander Julienne Cochrane, the captain of the Federation Destroyer Tamerlane and some of her crew as they are breaking up a revolt on the Federation Agricultural outpost AG-24. While at AG-24, they pick up their new Chief Engineer Brandi Ward who was formerly stationed aboard the Farragut.
Resuming their normal patrol, they discover an Orion Slaver drifting into Federation space. The Slaver is adrift and seems to be badly damaged. Beaming aboard, they find the ship is eerily abandoned. But it doesn't take long for the crew to find out why.
Issue two opens with Tamerlane's SFCI (Starfleet Crime Investigator) team on board the Orion Slaver. The crew quickly unravels the mystery of the Orion ship of horrors, but in the process, they unleash a force that cripples the Tamerlane. Suddenly Captain Cochrane is faced with a stark moral dilemma.
Production Notes
General
- This is the first actual episode of Tamerlane. The previous episode being only a testbed for creating a comic of this size.
- Originally planned as a seven-issue arc, "The Champion" ultimately became its own episode based on a singular moral quandary as its premise.
- "The Champion" is currently scheduled to be three issues long (120 pages), with issue one released on February 14th, 2008. Issues two and three will follow in August and December, respectively.
- The Champion is a character introduced in the second issue.
Issue one
- The script's first draft was completed in July, but production didn't start until November of 2007.
- It took 106 days to complete 40 pages.
- "The Champion" marks the introduction of many of Tamerlane's Regular characters, including Robert Pachico, Detrell and Ebak Scott Sison.
- Brandi Ward is shown actually being assigned to the Tamerlane in this episode. Something referenced to in By Her Reason Swayed.
- Brandi received a character "facelift" just before this issue when it was noted that her elaborate hair would invariably get caught in some spinning machine. It seemed a simple ponytail would be more practical.
- The Orion Slaver depicted in this episode is based on the Orion ship designs from the board game "Star Fleet Battles", a game the author played extensively as a kid.
- The issue was posted to the forum at 5:12 PM Tokyo time, 2 minutes late (for a 510 release).
- This issue marks the first time the Tamerlane MACOs are shown.
- This issue has many references to the fan film Starship Farragut, including the away team jackets and Farragut's Phaser type III rifles.
- G.S.Davis asked Holly Bednar, the actress who portrays the character Michelle Smithfield on the fan film Starship Farragut to check the dialogue and give a thumbs up for her character portrayal prior to penning the scene.
- Unlike By Her Reason Swayed, this issue uses zip tones (store-purchased tones) to compliment the grey markers.
- This issue also has the first color interior "splash" page (The first Omake had a color cover, but since it was only 20 pages, it had no interior splash page).
Issue two
- This is the first "Mostly Green" issue; only the cover was actually printed and hand-colored. The interior pages were all done entirely in-computer (Using a Wacom tablet).
- This issue is where we actually find out who the Champion is, and we also get some of the backstory.
- This issue introduces yet another aspect of the Tamerlane crew: The SFCI Crime Investigators. The idea being that where the Constitution Class ships are built like space labs, the Destroyers are built like Space Police Stations.
- This issue introduces the secondary character Lt. Vanessa Vallejo, the head of the SFCI team.
- Vallejo's accent gave both the author and the editor numerous problems trying to keep her accent unique and consistent while remaining understandable.
External links
- "The Champion" at Taptastic
- Complete PDF of "The Champion" from the author.
- Tamerlane episode: "The Champion" Issue two