fuckyeahscottyjaylah

Boldly Go #1 came out today, and I’m a bit floored. I honestly wasn’t expecting to see Jaylah for a few issues. So, naturally, I am just enthused about this. Granted, it’s only one page and Jaylah’s only in one panel, but it’s honestly just a lot more than I was expecting. 

My expectations were more like—Jaylah goes to the Academy on Earth and Scotty stays with the crew, wherever they wind up. I thought, at best, we’d get long-distance video chats of sorts between Jaylah and the crew (or Scotty) and that she really wouldn’t make it on board until issue five. But instead, we got this, and it is so much better than everything I expected and it’s actually everything I did not expect at all.

I mean, Scotty’s a guy who can only be dragged out of the Enterprise just short of kicking and screaming. The guy loves his ship. Said ship is undergoing massive reconstruction and I would’ve expected Scotty to stay on Yorktown where it was being rebuilt. Probably be an obnoxious backseat driver to everyone rebuilding that ship.

But instead, he goes to Earth. With Jaylah. Takes part in the Academy, and not just coming in as a one-off guest speaker, but as a teacher of Starship Safety Protocols. As a teacher of a class Jaylah’s taking. Like, it’s almost as if he’s decided to stick as close to Jaylah as possible or something.

So, no doubt, after reading this issue and adoring it for it’s pacing, writing, and overarching story setup (Borg, Borg, Borg!) all I can do is grin like an idiot at how happy it makes me to see Scotty’s on Earth with Jaylah. I want to know more about that situation. Like, are they inseparable still, even outside of the classroom? Is Jaylah shacking up with Scotty (and I mean this completely non-romantically, because I’d slay to see them in an awkward, sexual-tension-infused “platonic” roommate situation) or is she staying in the dorms? Do the other students see her as the “Teacher’s Pet” or…? Will we get to see Scotty showing Jaylah around Earth or San Francisco? How long are we going to have just Scotty and Jaylah on their own Earth holiday before they join back up with the crew? Are they supposed to be low-key parallel to Spock and Uhura’s sabbatical on New Vulcan?

Then, can I just gush for a minute about Scotty at the Academy, teaching? Scotty, who, initially had his application for the Academy rejected because he was “too smart for his own good?” (Ongoing #19) Like… Scotty, who wound up not getting into the Academy until about his mid-twenties (versus late teens) because he was rejected and spent a few years working freighters and came back as a much older student? That Scotty, back, when he could be taking part in the Enterprise’s reconstruction, to be close to Jaylah?

Man. Sign me up for this. Sign. Me. Up.