Star Trek: Year Four #1 comic book

posted by JediSheltie @ 7:34 PM

August 8th Comic RoundUp

Star Trek: Year Four 01

Thought I'd take a little longer to look at this one. Considering the year of hype ahead about the upcoming movie, etc., it seems IDW Publishing knew a good deal when they saw it and snapped up the rights to Trek Comics. The first effort was a TNG based short series that I didn't read, mostly because it was TNG. The few things I heard about it weren't all that great.

Which brings us to author David Tischman's latest effort: Year Four. Set during the fourth year of the Starship Enterprise's original 5 year mission, the goal of the comic appears to be capturing the feel of a TOS episode in a single comic form. Does it succeed at that goal? Well, let's take a look at the stats right out of the gate:

• - Enterprise discovers uncharted world.
• - World's small number of occupants lead by charismatic, exiled scientist.
• - Exiled scientist plays by his own rules, consequences be damned.
• - Exiled scientist has hottie blonde assistant.
• - The landing party consists of 2 guys in blue shirts, 1 guy in a gold shirt, and one guy who made a very unfortunate fashion choice that morning.
• - He's dead, Jim.
• - Enterprise driven off, stranding parts of landing party.
• - Bonus Trek Comic Cliché: references to cannon established after TOS.

Now, I'm the last guy who will complain about unoriginal plots. Talk to our founder about the various existential crises he's had over them. Still, this "episode" comic covers a lot of very familiar Trek themes in a way that does little to lend any kind of unique voice. Trek had a lot of common themes in it, and there's nothing wrong with revisiting them. This comic does that, but mostly in a way that seems like different "iconic" episode elements were merely being strung together without any greater purpose.

Eventually I was waiting for the evil computer to be revealed.

The plot of the comic has the Enterprise discovering a series of worlds locked in a kind of double helix pattern mostly devoid of life. Kirk and Co. beam down to investigate and discover an exiled scientific genius who's taken up residence in this empty world system to eradicate all disease. Other dangers lurk on the world, of course, leading to the original "Oh my god, you killed Kenny!" moment of scripted television. Offing the red shirt was a story beat I had no problem with, actually, as that's the kind of iconic moment that transcends most story elements.

Kirk and McCoy investigate, only to discover the brilliant scientist exile is up to no good, of course. What's strange about the entire story is that, ultimately, Kirk and company do little to bring about the story's resolution. Ultimately it turns out their simple arrival was the first domino that caused the rest to fall on their own. Other plot holes abound, such as the nature of the scientists Island-of-Dr.-Moreau-like assistants, and how they could drive off the Enterprise with torpedoes. Everything ultimately seemed rushed, as if some more exposition might have made things a bit clearer, but the "1 episode comic" theme forced too much story compression.

Characterizations were reasonable. If I had to quibble, I might say Kirk started hitting on the blonde assistant a wee bit too quickly after his latest red-shirted fatality. Then again, I guess it's reasonable to assume, four years in, he's pretty much used to it by now.

Art was passable. In fact, it seemed to suggest a bit of The Animated Series, with clean lines and broad flat colors. The Enterprise was rendered with reasonable accuracy. Though I'm hardly the stickler for this as I am for renderings of the "A", this was certainly a step above any of the starship abominations common to the mid-80's Trek comics.

If the idea of this comic is to present some "unseen episodes" of the original Star Trek, then author David Tischman will have to do a little better than cut-in-paste plot elements from old episodes. Granted, that presents a bit more a writing challenge, but with any luck, he can come up with more Balance of Terrors and less Spock's Brains. I'm going to grab a few more issues. Perhaps I'll float the guy a pass and say the cobbled together iconic plot elements were meant to be appealing to old Trek farts like me. Give me that "old home" feeling and keep me hooked. Well, hopefully Tischman will spread his wings a bit in upcoming "episodes."