I wrote issues #3-#4 of STAR TREK: YEAR FIVE and #3 drops in a few weeks! Check out this behind-the-scenes interview where I discuss my thoughts on the graphic novel writer's room (alongside Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Jody Hou and Jim McCann) and how Star Trek has impacted my life. From IDW Publishing:
Good fun. The first two issues have been really strong. Great characterisation. Kirk has almost a season one vibe which I like. The only thing missing for me so far is the return of CPO Janice Rand to engineering.
I am really enjoying "Year Five". IDW's alternate cover for "Star Trek: Year Five" #4 features a great JJ Lendl tourist poster for Sigma Iotia II, complete with cosplaying Andorian gangster: Andorian gangster by Ian McLean, on Flickr
I thoroughly enjoyed the latest issue. I think the stories are quite dialogue heavy so they feel quite meaty, and the ongoing arc with the Tholian is serving to showcase the supporting crew quite well. It was a great sequel to a pretty daft episode. I feel like Uhura has to do too much heavy lifting to represent the ladies, although her scenes with the Tholian work really well. The lack of women could be eased if they take a leaf out of STC 's book develop some previously featured characters. I'd love to see CPO Rand feature as an assistant to Scotty in engineering.
Which is so frustrating! She never officially left the ship in the first place, even if she clearly ceased to be Kirk's yeoman. She's there in TMP, why make an assumption that she left the ship until TMP when it reduces the very limited number of female characters you have to work with? They are really pushing to give Uhura a higher profile to try and raise female representation, it just seems very odd for writers to miss such an obvious opportunity. It's even odder than this approach is more common than not among TOS writers, although I noted that she got a little cameo in Waypoint, which was cute.
Because many fans have created their own stories, eg. that Rand left the ship because of Kirk, that she left to have a child, that she left to retrain. Just as you get cranky with the writers for choosing to not to use her (Who knows - maybe they are planning a big reunion scene for the final "Year 5" issue, with Janice turning up from Transporter School in her new TMP jumpsuit?), others would be objecting loudly if she was just there during the latter episodes of the 5YM.
It is true that there is story potential in a formal absence but then she has been 'off camera' for three years so plenty of time to fit in fan speculation. Like Ro, she could also have been receiving more advanced training. John Byrne brought her back in NV after all.
And if the current writers did it too, we'd be seeing arguments about "who did Rand's return better?". We are only two and a half stories (five issues) in. Plenty of fun still to come in "Year 5".
Nah, Byrne was smart. He reintroduced her in a time travel flash forward, where Kirk sees her in the corridor and acts surprised, and she just says, don't you remember, I transferred back on board! He sort of screwed up slightly by making her an officer when in TMP and STIV she's clearly an NCO but her rank is so all over the place in canon appearance, I'm not sure that anyone cares. My view is that she works better as an O'Brien type character; a reliable work horse who just purses her lips and bites her tongue at some of the officer decisions. Truth to tell, I only make the noise because, over the years, writer after writer, after writer has forgotten about and marginalised the character. She was the female lead with a big personality who was fired due to real world issues, who nonetheless appeared across 1/6 of the TOS run. It just seems so strange that she's so often forgotten. In that vein, and in the light of the diverse crew we see in TMP, and TAS, it would be cool if they also thought about featuring a few alien crewmen here or there. :-)
Bought issue 5 today. Woot! Edit: Another really enjoyable read. It's really easy to read the dialogue with the actor's voices in your head. Kirk is the right balance of smart, not leaving all the mental gymnastics to Spock. Uhura also felt more organic in this one and not so much thrust to the fore, although with hindsight, her role in issue 4 did have a whiff of STIII about it. We get some new guest characters in this one too. Rather than lament the lack of Rand in this one, I would instead note that Chapel, as a student of 'the Louis Pasteure of archaeological medicine', would have been amply qualified to accompany McCoy on the landing party, but maybe her training and experience might come into play a bit more in the next issue... I have enjoyed the fact that they have at least used Chapel a couple of times so far but they do need to up their game to foreshadow her decision to complete her medical training by TMP.