Finally received the first two issues of
Lost Contact and the
Celebrations one shot in the mail and was able to sit down this weekend and dive into them at last:
The mini series is starting a bit slow and some of the characterizations don’t ring true for me at all, which I guess can be explained by the fact that the short was written well before the first season even aired. As
@tenmei mentioned earlier, especially Kelrec and Jay-Den feel way off in their characterization (and to the extent she’s even in there, so does Tarima). Not completely incompatible with the show, I guess, but still: The way Kelrec loses his cool on the
Athena and Jay-Den is constantly at odds with Genesis for whatever reason on the planet just feel wrong.
What I do like is that they chose to focus the story on Genesis, which they haven’t done on the show. The plot feels thin and a bit jumbled though. It comes across overly simple while at the same time moving at a glacial pace. However, I did like the concept of them having to communicate visually, and I’m curious to see where the story will go with it in the coming issues.
The art is serviceable enough, but some design choices seem odd, like how characters repeatedly use old-style push buttons or a holographic device displaying data looks almost like a 21st century projector. Not to mention the inexplicable use of
Discovery EV suits in the 31st century and the limited angles on the
Athena.
I’m pleasantly surprised by the
Celebrations short, though. All the stories are super cute and hit just the right notes for me. The truncated storylines seem perfect for some small slice-of-life-ish moments of some of
Trek’s queer characters, and I think they managed to collect some nice variety in terms of tone and style. Both the
Lower Decks and
Starfleet Academy shorts very much feel like they depict moments that could very well have happened on those shows respectively. The others still feel true to the characters they are about, but I have a harder time imagining an episode of
Picard actually depicting Seven and Raffi having a romantic adventure on the holodeck or one of the Kelvin movies taking the time to show how Sulu met his husband. Interestingly, though, those two are probably my favorites shorts in the collection. The Seven/Raffi story is very rewarding for old school
Voyager fans, and the writer for the Sulu story got Kelvin-McCoy just right.
My favorite art, however, is the one from the Chapel story, which feels very loose and almost like fan art, and yet it neatly captures Jess Bush’s look and mannerisms (even though her story feels a bit forced, since they only ever paid lip service to her being bi on the show). What I find curious is that the cover art by artist Adelle Kincel depicts Adira and Gray, although they are not represented with a story inside the special, but omits Jay-Den and Kyle, which leads me to believe their story might have been a last minute addition when the cover was already done.
Has anyone read the 2024
Celebrations issue? Is it similar in quality?
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