I read the first issue of the new IDW Star Trek book. It's not bad, I liked it OK. I liked the new Star Trek - I wasn't one of these folks who were outraged that thye had re-cast the old parts or anything. I did like the fact that they set up the new continutiy in such a way as that it didn't invalidate the old continuity.
Anyway - things I liked about the comic. The art was quite good, and captured the likenesses of the characters. The storytelling captured the characters' personalities fairly well also. There were some nice amusing little bits.
A thing I have mixed feelings about - the first issue is the beginning of a re-telling of the old series episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before". It so far at least is following the general outline of the TV epsiode, with a few small twists thrown in - mostly the explanation of the presence or absence of various characters that were or were not in the original story but are or are not present here being explained. It's an interesting idea for a one-off, but I'm not quite sure if I'm up for a book that's just a re-telling of the old stories over and over. It would be good if they threw in some new stories ocassionally, too. I had assumed that was the whole point of setting them up in a new timeline, that they didn't have to slaivshly follow the storylines of the old show, but could re-visit some of them from time-to-time if they wished.
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It may be that they can't tell new stories because they don't know which direction the sequel will go. Perhaps it's easier to go with the re-tellings as they can be altered without upsetting the applecart, so to speak. That was the problem for Marvel's Star Wars and DC's Star Trek, trying to tell stories around the upcoming films!
Though there are going to be problems when they get to "Amok Time" and "Journey To Babel".
I wouldn't say that they've "slaivshly" followed the original story here. There's more different then just the appearance of the crew and ship. Minor differences thus far but I expect that those minor differences will lead to larger ones quite quickly.
I was very impressed with this first issue. Besides enjoying the story and art, I was impressed that the issue's credits included, "Based on the original teleplay of Where No Man Had Gone Before by Samuel A. Peeples." I'm a big fan of giving credit where credit is due and IDW won major points in my book for including that.
My only problem with the movie relaunch was wondering why they couldn't just have new performers in the classic roles for new/more adventures around established continuity instead of starting an alternate timeline with "Spock Prime". If they had, I wonder how Leonard Nimoy would have felt about playing Sarek instead of an "alternate" Spock?
With that said, according to the Comic Shop News article that heralded the launch of the new series, after the current adaptation of the Kirk pilot, there will be totally new stories, but every licensed property has the same problems to some extent that Phillip mentioned above.
Because it wouldn't be "new" and "different" if it was the same, that's why.
Also, Star Trek is being crushed by its continuity; it's totally getting in the way of the freedom and ability to write new stories. They needed to appeal to an audience that wanted to see a movie, not a history lesson.
Clark, et al:
Exactly how much continuity are we discussing here?
Are we throwing in ALL the previous books and comics too, or just focusing on the classic 78 episodes?
Gene Roddenberry himself only considered the original series (and maybe the animated series with the same cast/characters) canon going into filming the original Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Next Generation, Voyager, etc; are all separate chapters in an over all mythos.
Besides, as shown with the first issue of the initial story arc, the comic book people are certainly willing to work with/around established facts.
All I was wondering was why the movie took the approach it did.
Fine, and I gave you my answer.
How much continuity are we discussing? The very fact that there's a question about whether one should or shouldn't include the 78 episodes of the original series, and maybe the animated series, and the 10 movies, and spinoffs Next Generation, Voyager, Deep Space Nine, and Enterprise, not to mention the novels, comics series from Dell, Gold Key, Marvel, DC, IDW, etc. -- makes my case!
For the person who is faced with a choice of seeing this movie over the other 19 in the other rooms in the theater, does it really help that decision if they have to know that there even were 78 episodes of the TV series?
I agree with Clark that for Star Trek to succeed now, it had to start anew. New actors, new imaginings of now iconic figures. To escape the parody and punchlines that the general public considers it. The changes they made (a younger Kirk, the Spock/Uhura relationship, Scotty as comic relief, the fate of Vulcan, etc) removed everything we knew by heart and now we truly don't know what will happen next. That's exciting!
But Lee, nothing happened to "our" Star Trek! There will always be novels, comics, games and collectibles based on Shatner/Kirk, Nimoy/Spock and the rest. That's what was so cool about the new movie! The old TV shows and movies still exist and are still valid and important.
So may both Live Long and Prosper!
One of the things I really, REALLY want to see in the new continuity is how the advance knowledge of various things affect how the new version of the United Planets Federation handles them. Spock's ship's computer (and his own memories) have a wealth of information that could be used.
For example, were I the Elder Spock, the first thing I would have done is alert the Federation about the Borg, V*Ger, the whale-seeking aliens, Q, and the general location of Khan Noonien Singh's sleeper ship. The Federation could send out lower-priority ships to handle A Piece of the Action, or pre-emptively save all of those colony worlds beset by weird flowers, horta monsters, or Nazis. We don't even need to see how a lot of those played out, just some references in the dialog here and there.
I would also like to see a few of those "clean-up" missions go horribly wrong due to increased Klingon and Romulan involvement in the universe thanks to the perceived power vacuum now that the Vulcans are essentially gone.
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