Star Trek: Early Voyages

[Freman]

The ship and tech just got recast like the characters, that's all.
Pretend they look like the one that played them in TOS.

Lol no thanks. That doesn't work for me. And it's not so much the recasting that bothers me anyway. It's the disregard for continuity.

The Early Voyages comic did the prequel thing right.

 

[Saul]

I don't want to restart any arguments here but I am glad to see my thread on Star Trek: Early Voyages reappear. I'm still very much fascinated by the comic and still very eager to know if anyone out there knows of unprinted comic art or comic book scripts that would have been future issues of the comic had it not ended prematurely. Even if there was a brief story outline about that disastrous Klingon First Contact that was planned.... That would be great. If it exists, then I would love to know more about what could have been.

I love the pre-TOS era that we got before we had SNWs and Ent. Especially the aesthetic of Early Voyages really worked it's way backwards from TOS and kept that familiarity.

 

[BillJ]

SNW? Early Voyages is where I go when I want pre-TOS action.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I don't know if Abnett and Edginton ever offered any additional details on that "whole lot of cool stuff" that they had originally planned for future issues of Early Voyages. Did they have any stories written in their entirety, or just outlines/treatments? Perhaps it will always be a mystery. As I recall, the Omnibus collection didn't say anything in this regard... a missed opportunity, for sure.

I had a brief correspondence with Ian Edginton some years later and, IIRC, he did try to suggest a novelization to finish up the story. He had previously suggested a new one-page text summation of the end of the story arc for the last comic issue, but it would have required another pass through the Approval Stage with Paramount and there was simply no time to make that happen and make the end-of-licence cut-off date.

 

[Saul]

I had a brief correspondence with Ian Edginton some years later and, IIRC, he did try to suggest a novelization to finish up the story. He had previously suggested a new one-page text summation of the end of the story arc for the last comic issue, but it would have required another pass through the Approval Stage with Paramount and there was simply no time to make that happen and make the end-of-licence cut-off date.

Darn. So curious to read that or even a novelization. Has he ever graced the boards here?

 

[Avro Arrow]

He had previously suggested a new one-page text summation of the end of the story arc for the last comic issue, but it would have required another pass through the Approval Stage with Paramount and there was simply no time to make that happen and make the end-of-licence cut-off date.

Presumably they could, at any time, just post something online, not as a work of fiction that would be subject to licensing, etc., but just as a “this is where we were planning to take the story” kind of behind-the-scenes anecdote.

Since nothing like that has happened in all the intervening years (that I am aware of, anyway), I can only assume there is no interest in doing so.

 

[Procutus]

You guys have convinced me I need to check this out. I just ordered the IDW reprint volume from the library.

And for the life of me, I don't know how the hell I missed seeing this series when it was out. It definitely sounds like my kind of Trek.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Darn. So curious to read that or even a novelization. Has he ever graced the boards here?

I don’t think so. It would been Facebook.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I don't want to restart any arguments here but I am glad to see my thread on Star Trek: Early Voyages reappear. I'm still very much fascinated by the comic and still very eager to know if anyone out there knows of unprinted comic art or comic book scripts that would have been future issues of the comic had it not ended prematurely. Even if there was a brief story outline about that disastrous Klingon First Contact that was planned.... That would be great. If it exists, then I would love to know more about what could have been.

Patrick Zircher is on Bluesky and he answers fan questions all the time.

Patch Zircher (@patrickzircher.bsky.social)

Writer. Artist. Making new Solomon Kane adventures for Heroic Signature & Titan Comics! Drawn hundreds of comics for Marvel, DC, & others.

bsky.app

 

[JD]

I don't want to restart any arguments here but I am glad to see my thread on Star Trek: Early Voyages reappear. I'm still very much fascinated by the comic and still very eager to know if anyone out there knows of unprinted comic art or comic book scripts that would have been future issues of the comic had it not ended prematurely. Even if there was a brief story outline about that disastrous Klingon First Contact that was planned.... That would be great. If it exists, then I would love to know more about what could have been.

I love the pre-TOS era that we got before we had SNWs and Ent. Especially the aesthetic of Early Voyages really worked it's way backwards from TOS and kept that familiarity.

A few years ago IDW released a collection of the whole series and I was really hoping they'd either do new issues to finally finish up the last storyline after it came out or something to give us some idea of how it would have ended. I'll confess, I never read the final arc when I read the series after the comics collection DVD came out, because I knew would never getting a resolution for it would bug me. I've gotten used to unresolved from watching TV shows that got cancelled now, so if I ever reread the series I'll read those last issues too.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Yeah, it was pretty easy for me to skip the last couple of issues, both because of the switch of artists and because I knew the last storyline was unresolved. The time travel storyline worked very well as a series finale, IMO.

 

[Phoenix219]

One fellow fan disagreed with the force of a thousand exploding suns.

Even more proof that ENT is in the rewritten, post TCW, post FC timeline.

I also will say, no, I don't think that SNW looks like a precurser to TMP in any ways - it looks more advanced. You could maybe make the argument that it looks like it could be the ship before the "A".

 

[Daddy Todd]

Does anyone have the Eaglemoss volumes containing these stories handy? Towards the end of that line, they published quite a bit of ephemera relating to unfinished storylines. But I packed mine up last summer and moved them to the shed, so they aren't particularly accessible at the moment.

 

[BillJ]

I also will say, no, I don't think that SNW looks like a precurser to TMP in any ways - it looks more advanced.

One of those issues that is a problem, for pretty much most sci-fi prequels. Trek's problem is that it never really evolved beyond its' 1960's framework.

I think Enterprise was mostly able to get away with it because it was a century prior to TOS. Discovery and SNW are simply too close to TOS to be believable predecessors.

 

[Phoenix219]

One of those issues that is a problem, for pretty much most sci-fi prequels. Trek's problem is that it never really evolved beyond its' 1960's framework.

I think Enterprise was mostly able to get away with it because it was a century prior to TOS. Discovery and SNW are simply too close to TOS to be believable predecessors.

I enjoy them, but I absolutely NEED the framework of the timewar and timeline rewrite to shut my brain off from bitching about every little detail. Knowing that in that framework, its not even supposed to be TOS anymore, I can enjoy the easter eggs and overlook the differences. Trying to fit everything in properly will never work in a single static timeline. (not trying to start this war again, just giving more context to my opinions.)

 

[BillJ]

I enjoy them, but I absolutely NEED the framework of the timewar and timeline rewrite to shut my brain off from bitching about every little detail. Knowing that in that framework, its not even supposed to be TOS anymore, I can enjoy the easter eggs and overlook the differences. Trying to fit everything in properly will never work in a single static timeline. (not trying to start this war again, just giving more context to my opinions.)

I think I could probably get around it if these shows weren't so reliant on nostalgia. It constantly reminds me that these shows are "different" from what came before.

I'm on the record as Trek being a massive multiverse. It wasn't what it was originally designed as, but neither was it designed with a whole entertainment universe in mind.

 

[Phoenix219]

I think I could probably get around it if these shows weren't so reliant on nostalgia. It constantly reminds me that these shows are "different" from what came before.

I'm on the record as Trek being a massive multiverse. It wasn't what it was originally designed as, but neither was it designed with a whole entertainment universe in mind.

I wasn't watching live when ENT aired, and its much better about things than the modern shows, but still has a lot that needs ironing out, and I understand completely why people were upset. Seeing the borg drone episode, and already not-believing-in-predestination-paradoxes, gives the same excuses I use for the newer shows, to ENT as well. It really does break almost every reference to past ships and early space travel / tech level made in TOS and the first 2 seasons of TNG. Again, setting it in a rewritten timeline allows me to just enjoy it for what it is without balking at every little detail.

 

[BillJ]

Again, setting it in a rewritten timeline allows me to just enjoy it for what it is without balking at every little detail.

I am happy you have found a way to enjoy the newer material, it is something that I continue to struggle with. Especially with, funny enough, Strange New Worlds. It isn't that it is a bad TV show, it is just that I already know the ending.

There's just no sense of "what might happen?"

 

[Phoenix219]

I am happy you have found a way to enjoy the newer material, it is something that I continue to struggle with. Especially with, funny enough, Strange New Worlds. It isn't that it is a bad TV show, it is just that I already know the ending.

There's just no sense of "what might happen?"

I still have hope that they will veer in a new direction in my rewritten timeline and give me some surprises. I would rather see Pike escape his fate, and forge an entirely new path through the TOS stories, than see it just meld into the 60s show, where it will never truly fit. I've seen the original timeline from beginning to end, and have seen the final stories of my favorite characters, in one way or another, through fanfilms, OTOY, and Gods and Men, and Spock in the Kelvinverse - and now Picard Season 3. I'm okay with that.

Ever since SNW showed blatant timeline changes in their time travel episode, changing Khan's birth and all of the events of TOS based on that, I've doubled down on my ideas, and am completely convinced we are in a new sandbox. Thats good - they can't mess up the old stuff, that technically doesn't even exist anymore. Mental gymanstics on my part? Sure, but theres a logic to it, at least.

 

[BillJ]

Ever since SNW showed blatant timeline changes in their time travel episode, changing Khan's birth and all of the events of TOS based on that, I've doubled down on my ideas, and am completely convinced we are in a new sandbox. Thats good - they can't mess up the old stuff, that technically doesn't even exist anymore. Mental gymanstics on my part? Sure, but theres a logic to it, at least.

That's the good thing about the multiverse, they all exist side by side.