|
When the crew of the starship Enterprise accidentally
discover a band of heroic explorers long thought dead, they
must help them to acclimatise to a galaxy they barely recognise.
When internal stresses threaten to tear the group apart, can
Captain Kirk persuade them to become heroes once again...?
If
you're a fan of Babylon 5, then this could be the Star
Trek graphic novel for you! Reprinting issues 13-18 of
the second DC Comics series, it features work by occasional
B5 scribe Peter David, Lennier actor Bill Mumy and
B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski.
First
up is the three-part The Return of the Worthy, co-written
by David and Mumy. A controversial story, this is an homage
to Trek's 1960s rival Lost in Space, in which
the young Mumy played Will Robinson. The Robinson family is
echoed in a legendary party of alien space travellers, the
Worthy, who comprise a very similar line-up, including a father
figure, a daredevil pilot, a freckled boy genius and a robot
(but no Dr Smith equivalent). Look out for a cameo appearance
by Mumy himself, depicted by artists Gordon Purcell and Arne
Starr as crewman Barnes, and the words "LOST IN SPACE" reflected
in a pool of water on one of the comic covers.
This
story marks David's final regular contribution to DC's Trek.
Perhaps he had grown tired of Paramount's continual editorial
interference - which is the reason why the Gorn are replaced
here by a similar looking red-skinned reptilian race called
the Lath. Unfortunately, letterer Bob Pinaha overlooks a few
instances of the word "GORN", which rather gives the game
away. Protocol officer R.J. Blaise mysteriously disappears
after issue 13, at Paramount's insistence. She appears to
have been redrawn as a red-haired crewmember in issue 14 and
as a blonde in issue 15. David wasn't even allowed to write
her out properly, despite a situation being set up whereby
Ms Blaise (or is it Miss Blaise - the writers seem
uncertain) could become the Worthy's "ambassador to the present".
Some
of Tom McCraw's colouring is also out of register in places,
and the repro on a couple of pages looks a little low-res.
Nevertheless,
if you can accept its tongue-in-cheek concept, The Return
of the Worthy is an enjoyable story, one that foreshadows
Mumy's writing on Innovation's Lost in Space comic,
in which he developed the characters and their situation in
arguably more serious and grown-up ways than the original
series.
In
orbit around a planet that is due to disintegrate in a matter
of hours, Kirk and co are surprised to detect a lone humanoid
on its surface - a humanoid who is reluctant to leave...
Worldsinger
is a one-shot tale that takes us back to the Enterprise's
initial five-year mission under Captain Kirk. It also features
writing by the pre-B5 J. Michael Straczynski, though
you probably wouldn't guess it was him if you didn't see his
credit. Despite a characteristically mystical story element
and a couple of brief allusions to hell, this is very much
traditional Trek.
Artists Purcell and Starr have fun with the classic environment,
depicting Kirk in a couple of his famous "under telepathic
attack" poses, though, as with The Return of the Worthy,
the resolution on one of these pages looks a little poor.
In
order to protect the Needran System from increasingly violent
attacks by space raiders, the Enterprise crew must
team up with uneasy allies - the Klingons...
The two-part Partners? marks the debut of new regular
writer Howard Weinstein. No stranger to Trek, Weinstein
had previously written several novels, a story idea for the
fourth movie and an episode of the animated series. Here he
sets the tone for the then forthcoming Star
Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country by depicting
an uneasy alliance between the Federation and the Klingon
Empire. His story is dynamic and full of twists, though he
refuses to commit himself on the subject of stardates, instead
taking the Eddie Izzard approach of using "supplemental" log
entries instead!
I am less thrilled with the work of guest artists Ken Hooper
and Bob Dvorak, who tend to make the characters look flat-faced.
Some of Tom McCraw's skin tones are also a little odd: prospector
Sally Gallan is coloured bright yellow, despite otherwise
appearing to be a Caucasian human, while the Klingons become
lobster pink.
Despite
its faults, this volume, which also features interviews with
George Takei (Sulu) and William Shatner (Kirk), will make
a worthy addition to your collection.
Richard
McGinlay
Buy
this item online
We
compare prices online so you get the cheapest
deal! Click on the logo of the desired store
below to purchase this item.
|
|
|
£10.19
(Amazon.co.uk) |
| |
|
|
|
£10.79
(Forbiddenplanet.co.uk) |
| |
|
|
|
£11.49
(Play.com) |
| |
|
|
|
£14.99
(Countrybookshop.co.uk) |
| |
|
|
|
$19.95
(Amazon.com) |
All prices correct at time of going to press.
|
|
