'Star Trek: Year Five' Coming in April from IDW

[Landru1000]

It's not like the movie era is a bad thing. Good grief, in many ways it's been more influential than the TV series.

I'm a weird sort of fan, generationally. As a kid in the '80s, the movies were Star Trek to me. I read the DC Comics religiously, and the original TV show wasn't in syndication in my hometown. When the comics would occasionally go back to the original 5-year mission, I wondered what the point was.

The serialization of the new comic series sounds interesting enough but there are so many TOS stories. I'd much rather see a post-TMP series, along the lines of what Christopher was trying to jumpstart with Ex Machina. I really think the avoidance of the period has a lot to do with the uniforms -- no one wants to draw them, and I'm sure books where they're wearing the TMP costumes don't sell like TOS-era stories. And I think the maroon uniforms are associated with geria-Trek.

 

[Christopher]

I really think the avoidance of the period has a lot to do with the uniforms -- no one wants to draw them, and I'm sure books where they're wearing the TMP costumes don't sell like TOS-era stories.

The TMP uniforms have a reputation for being drab, but that's a relic of the '80s film-to-video transfer that washed out the colors. The Director's Cut restores the original film hues and shows they're more colorful than people think, except in the bridge scenes because of the low lighting to accommodate the console displays. And the TMP photonovel released alongside the film printed the film frames with even more saturated colors, and it actually looks quite bright and vivid. So that shouldn't be a dealbreaker. And the TMP costumes have a lot of design variations that could add visual variety.

And I think the maroon uniforms are associated with geria-Trek.

I would've thought they'd be mainly associated with The Wrath of Khan, which is a fan favorite.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I'm a weird sort of fan, generationally. As a kid in the '80s, the movies were Star Trek to me. I read the DC Comics religiously, and the original TV show wasn't in syndication in my hometown. When the comics would occasionally go back to the original 5-year mission, I wondered what the point was.

This describes my childhood, too. The movies, the DC Comics of the mid-80s, the focus of the Best of Trek volumes (which I read more religiously than the novels at the time) on the movies -- the movie-era is my native Star Trek era. I only rarely saw a classic episode, as the series wasn't syndicated where I was in West Virginia. I'm fonder of the maroon jacket era than the television series that came before it.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

For what it's worth, Marvel's license in 1979 covered only Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Although they still managed to squeeze a couple of TOS-era references in here and there, most notably a flashback to Kirk's time on the Republic in a mystery story written by Mike W. Barr.

I have no idea why Marvel ever agreed to a license that didn't allow them to use 95% of the material associated with Star Trek, though. That's a pretty bad deal for all parties involved.

DC's license in 1983 covered the series and films, and why Mike W. Barr chose to continue from the end of Star Trek II rather than tell Five Year Mission stories I wouldn't know.

Barr said in the letter columns of DC's Trek that while he thought it was fun to look back on the TOS era, Star Trek should always be about moving forward. That's why he included a framing sequence with the movie era cast in the first flashback story he told, in Annual #1's "All Those Years Ago..."

Barr or original editor Marv Wolfman also made a point in one of the early letter columns that since the monthly Star Trek book featured Saavik replacing the deceased Mr. Spock, the comics were reflecting the current status quo of Trek in a way that the novels were not. (Although personally, I doubt that Barr would've made that choice if he didn't know that Star Trek III: The Search For Spock was right around the corner -- DC's first ST issue was cover-dated Feb. 1984, which meant that it would've been on sale in late 1983. Comics can adjust plans on the fly a lot faster than novels can.)

Post-1995, supporting the TOS movie franchise was no longer important, since there was no movie franchise to support, so going back to the "iconic" Five Year Mission period probably made a lot of sense.

Yes, I'm sure this was the case. Also, by 1995 Trek comics had been doing mostly movie era stories every month for 7-8 years. Shifting over to the TOS era was something fresh and different then.

Can you read the John Byrne photonovels via some online way? I don't want to buy paper things that collect dust anymore, less I have to.

Most of Byrne's stories from Star Trek: New Visions look better digitally, anyway. Sometimes the print editions was rather dark & murky, a consequence of too many people just looking at the art on illuminated computer screens instead of printed proofs.

I took an overall look at the New Visions series while it was still ongoing last year. You may find that interesting if you're still on the fence about getting the series. (Byrne himself liked my review, saying it was written "by someone who GETS it" on his Forum.)

Byrne's series was fun, but felt gimmicky using screen grabs. Instead of being pulled into the story I kept trying to ID the episodes characters were lifted from.

That's funny, as one of the reasons Byrne chose to do the series using stills from episodes was so that the more comics adverse readers weren't distracted by wonky actor likenesses. (And as an artist myself, let me tell you that William Shatner is TOUGH to draw, at any age.)

I dunno, I think the visuals of the original show are more comics-friendly. Bold colors, less fussy designs, simple shapes. I can see why that would be one's inclination, art-wise.

I agree. Matt Jefferies' and William Ware Theiss' set and costume designs for TOS relied much more on simple, distinctive shapes and bold, vibrant colors. Perfect for the comics medium.

1. The 5YM represents the iconic characters in their physical prime.

Agreed. And, as I recently said over on the Trek Movie Forum, TOS is much cleaner continuity wise. You can just dive in and tell your story without having to worry about fitting it in to a precise time in the movies' continuity.

2. Lots of writers have their "pet" 5YM story (or stories) that they've always wanted to tell and "get out of their system" (so to speak), and so they naturally gravitate to that particular era, as opposed to the movie era.

Speaking as someone who's trying to pitch a TOS era story to IDW right now, I can confirm that this is the case.

I really think the avoidance of the period has a lot to do with the uniforms -- no one wants to draw them, and I'm sure books where they're wearing the TMP costumes don't sell like TOS-era stories. And I think the maroon uniforms are associated with geria-Trek.

I personally find the TWOK era uniforms fun to draw, although all that detail would get a little old after a while. I personally would get tired of them after six issues or so.

The TMP uniforms have a reputation for being drab...

Well, that's because they are. Especially when you're drawing them in line art, when one of them looks more or less like every other one. And the muted colors don't help. A lot of drab browns, bluish greys, sand, and white with only a black belt buckle to break things up. They're just not visually exciting.

Really, the only TMP era uniform that doesn't look like a pair of feetie pajamas to me is Kirk's Admiral uniform. That one is really sharp and I wish the other TMP uniforms had some color variation like that one had.

And the TMP costumes have a lot of design variations that could add visual variety.

Oh, boy. I'd get to draw Kirk's white short sleeve uniform that made him look like a dentist. No thanks.

 

[JD]

I know so little about so much. Can you read the John Byrne photonovels via some online way? I don't want to buy paper things that collect dust anymore, less I have to. (Though I do prefer paper, via the library. It's just an accumulation thing.)

The majority of my comics these days are digital, and I get most of them from Comixology, which has all of the major publishers and a lot of smaller indies too. You can either read them online on your computer, or you can use their app which lets you download them onto whatever devices you're using it on.

Again, that explains the rule, but not the surprising lack of exceptions. (Ditto for your second point.) As I've mentioned, the novels have always leaned primarily toward the TV era, but there has still been a higher percentage of movie-era stories in the prose than there has been in the post-1995 comics. I can name a fair number of movie-era prose tales published in the last quarter-century -- Ex Machina, Forgotten History, Unspoken Truth, Foul Deeds Will Rise, In the Name of Honor, much of Mere Anarchy, parts of Crucible, Shadow of the Machine, The More Things Change, the New Earth miniseries, assorted Strange New Worlds stories, etc. They've always been in the minority, but they've been there, enough to be in the double digits. But the only movie-era Enterprise-based comics I can think of from the past quarter-century are the 5-issue Untold Voyages and two short stories in a Wildstorm anthology. And the non-Enterprise movie-era comics are pretty scarce too.

IDW did a Wrath of Kahn adaptation, and the Gorn issue of the Alien Spotlight series featured Chekov and Capt. Terrel on the Reliant before WoK, and they had a Capt. Sulu issue of the Captain's Log series.

 

[Christopher]

IDW did a Wrath of Kahn adaptation, and the Gorn issue of the Alien Spotlight series featured Chekov and Capt. Terrel on the Reliant before WoK, and they had a Capt. Sulu issue of the Captain's Log series.

Yes, I alluded to those in post #29 when I mentioned "other movie-era captains" among the non-Enterprise story focuses of most post-1995 movie era comics. That's part of the anomaly -- that most comics that have ventured to the movie era since '95 are not set aboard the Enterprise. And the TWOK comic doesn't count because it's not a new story.

 

[Landru1000]

It looks like this series is ignoring the animated series, and will feature Chekov and not M'Ress/Arex. I guess you could argue that Chekov left for year four and returned for the final year, but that doesn't make a ton of sense. Ah well, just another "alternate universe."

 

[Christopher]

It looks like this series is ignoring the animated series, and will feature Chekov and not M'Ress/Arex. I guess you could argue that Chekov left for year four and returned for the final year, but that doesn't make a ton of sense.

Nothing new about that. Most of the "year five" stories ever published feature Chekov rather than Arex; it's the default position, even for works that do acknowledge TAS.

Remember that Sulu was missing for a large chunk of season 2 while George Takei was filming The Green Berets, but he came back. No reason Chekov couldn't do the same. In Ex Machina and The Face of the Unknown, I interpreted Chekov's absence as an extended leave, and The Latter Fire explains that he was away to take security training (setting up his security chief role in TMP).

 

[Indysolo]

Remember that Sulu was missing for a large chunk of season 2 while George Takei was filming The Green Berets, but he came back. No reason Chekov couldn't do the same

Why would Chekov be in The Green Berets?

 

[Christopher]

Why would Chekov be in The Green Berets?

They were a Russian inwention.

 

[JoeZhang]

Why would Chekov be in The Green Berets?

Because they were a Russian invention.

Edit: (Christopher's version is funnier).

 

[Landru1000]

Remember that Sulu was missing for a large chunk of season 2 while George Takei was filming The Green Berets, but he came back. No reason Chekov couldn't do the same. In Ex Machina and The Face of the Unknown, I interpreted Chekov's absence as an extended leave, and The Latter Fire explains that he was away to take security training (setting up his security chief role in TMP).

Sure, I just think it's weird that he leaves for security training, and then comes back to resume his old navigator position. But I know that Chekov's presence in the first and last years of the five-year-mission has always been pretty inconsistent in the novels and comics.

 

[Stevil2001]

I didn't read them, but skimming the entries on Memory Beta, it looks like the Year Four comics already set a precedent by featuring both Chekov and Arex.

 

[Leto_II]

I didn't read them, but skimming the entries on Memory Beta, it looks like the Year Four comics already set a precedent by featuring both Chekov and Arex.

Yup, and many other works (including a number of late-5YM TOS Litverse novels) have since followed suit with this precedent, including Allegiance in Exile and That Which Divides -- matter of fact, with this new series it'll probably be easy to simply assume that Arex and M'Ress are "offscreen" and off-duty whenever we see Chekov on the bridge, unless we get some explicit mention of them having left the ship previously, or something similar.

 

[Christopher]

Yup, and many other works (including a number of late-5YM TOS Litverse novels) have since followed suit with this precedent, including Allegiance in Exile and That Which Divides -- matter of fact, with this new series it'll probably be easy to simply assume that Arex and M'Ress are "offscreen" and off-duty whenever we see Chekov on the bridge, unless we get some explicit mention of them having left the ship previously, or something similar.

When I alluded to Chekov's leave of absence in Ex Machina, I explained Arex as the night-shift navigator who was promoted into Chekov's day-shift slot, essentially. However, when I wrote The Face of the Unknown, I decided to make it consistent with The Latter Fire, which had Arex as a new transfer to the ship upon Chekov's departure. My ExM reference was such a small, throwaway line that I was willing to disregard it. But I'm pretty sure it's the one time in my roughly 15 years of doing this that I've consciously contradicted something from one of my own earlier Trek stories.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I didn't read them, but skimming the entries on Memory Beta, it looks like the Year Four comics already set a precedent by featuring both Chekov and Arex.

Not too surprising, considering that D.C. Fontana wrote for both TOS and TAS.