Comic Legends: How Vonda McIntyre's First Name for Sulu Became Canon
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COMIC LEGEND:
Peter David's comic book adaptation of Star Trek VI helped to get Vonda McIntyre's first name for Sulu made canon.
STATUS:
True
The world of science fiction lost a great voice when the amazing Vonda McIntyre passed away earlier this month. McIntyre was a multiple Nebula Award-winning author, with her novel, Dreamsnake, capturing both the 1979 Nebula Award AND the 1979 Hugo Award.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowShe was also an acclaimed writer of Star Trek novels (she also wrote the novelizations for three of the first four Star Trek films after Roddenberry did the novelization for Star Trek: The Motion Picture).
She wrote one of the earliest original Star Trek novels, with the beloved Star Trek novel, The Entropy Effect.
In that novel, she gave Sulu the first name of Hikaru....
There was a bit of a kerfuffle at the time about whether she was even ALLOWED to do that, which she explained to iO9 a while back:
However, while the name was allowed for the novel, Sulu continued to be just called "Sulu" in the Star Trek films.
This changed with the help of Peter David.
David, of course, was an acclaimed writer of Star Trek novels and comics. His original Star Trek run for DC saw him do some Sulu character development...
Later, David was doing the comic book adaptation of Star Trek VI (after also adapting Star Trek V), which is where Director Nicholas Meyer finally allowed Sulu to become a captain...
Well, David was obviously familiar with McIntyre's work and after visiting the set of the film, he persuaded Meyer to add "Hikaru" to the film and Meyer did so. It, of course, was also in David's adaptation...
So Sulu's first name was now canon!
Very cool stuff.
A nice tribute to a wonderful writer. Vonda McIntyre will be greatly missed.
Thanks to Peter David for sharing this story in the Comic Buyers Guide years ago!
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Source: www.cbr.com