Star Trek III’s Most Uncomfortable Scene Just Got 10x Weirder

The issue in question is DC’s Star Trek (vol. 1) #33, an issue designed to help the franchise celebrate its 20th anniversary. Accordingly, the story is a sequel to The Original Series episode “Tomorrow is Yesterday” and features the crew of the earlier show meeting their film counterparts. The younger Spock meets the older Saavik, and upon discovering that she has made the rank of lieutenant, he tells her, “You have done honor to our father and our family.”

When you remember the Star Trek III scene where the reborn Spock got down and dirty with Saavik, this brief bit of dialogue is enough to make you hear the Kill Bill siren in your head. Why the heck is this comic suggesting that these two Vulcans are brother and sister when the movies never indicated such a relationship? As it turns out, the answer is complicated and ultimately serves to make this comic even grosser.

The Star Trek comics, much like the books, had their own canon, which was mostly consistent despite not appearing in the films or television shows. In this Beta canon, Saavik was born and raised on a crappy planet near the Romulan Neutral Zone named Hellguard, and she was rescued from her miserable life by Commander Spock. Spock wanted to teach Saavik the Vulcan way of life (remember, she is half-Romulan), eventually taking her to Vulcan where his parents, Sarek and Amanda, could help him take care of her.

Therefore, what’s going on in this comic is that Spock is surprised to see Saavik because he remembers her as a young, confused woman that he last saw on his homeworld being taken care of by his mom and dad. This younger version of himself had not yet lived to see her join Starfleet. Therefore, he is pleasantly surprised (at least, as much as a Vulcan can be) to see that she is a science officer aboard the Excelsior and notes that her accomplishments honor Sarek, a man who is father to them both.

While that provides the context for why Spock is treating Saavik like a sister in this panel, it still doesn’t change how weird this plot point is because Star Trek III had come out two years before the comic was published. That means that its writer (Wolverine creator Len Wein) had already witnessed the uncomfortable scene where these two Vulcans got their freak on before reminding us that they were basically brother and sister.

Our best guess is he felt stuck with the Saavik background created by fellow writer Mike W. Barr, but the whiff of weird incest remains strong in this scene.

If you can get over how bizarre all of this is, it’s interesting to note how much Spock and Saavik’s relationship in these old comics mirrors Spock and Burnham’s later relationship in Discovery. Sorry, haters…the idea of Spock randomly having siblings never mentioned onscreen before goes back decades.