John Byrne's "Star Trek: Assignment Earth" miniseries

[Christopher]

Well, in "Balance of Terror," there are references to "the praetor" and "our praetor," as well as "save your praetor's pride for him." All indications are that the characters are discussing just one praetor (since the "your" and "our" and "the" are used interchangably by the same characters, precluding the possibility that distinct praetors are being alluded to). That could be interpreted as the particular praetor who sent them on their mission, I suppose, but there's no support for that interpretation in the episode.

 

[foravalon]

The Rihaansu books play around with language a lot anyway, I find it just as easy to consider the multiple regional "Praetors" Duane refers to as simply a different interpretation of the term "Senator". The roles seem similar enough, certainly Duane's Big Three of the 2270's seem to share a similar type of rulership over the rest of the senate, or praetoriate, much as the later and earlier single leading Praetors do.

If Byrne's smarmy Praetor had a notoriously terrible and abusive reign, then it would make sense for the people of Romulus to desire to spread the power out a little once again. After the reign of the mad ruling queen T'Rehu back in the day, it seems to be a lesson that the Romulan people are in constant in need of reminding. The subsequent eras of Dralath and Shinzon in the decades afterward illustrated that it was a lesson learned the hard way.

 

[Stevil2001]

But wasn't the praetorate specifically a separate thing from the senate in the Rihannsu novels? Maybe a closer match would be DS9's continuing committee.

 

[foravalon]

Ah yes, I see that you're right. Maybe it's a division somewhat like the Senate and the House of Representatives, where Duane's "Senate" is the House, and her Preatoirate is more in line with what we see in our gov and in later depictions of Romulan government. It still seems like basically the same thing but with different names.

 

[foravalon]

Here we go...

From "My Enemy, My Ally" by Diane Duane:

He had long been fascinated by the "modified tri-cameral" or three-house legislative-executive branch of this Emperorless Empire. The Tricameron was comprised of a "Senate"—evenly divided against itself into a half that proposed and passed legislation, and a half that vetoed it—and a "Praetorate," a sort of quadruple troika or duodecimvirate: twelve men and women who implemented the Senate's decrees, declared war or peace, and (it seemed to Jim) spent most of the time squabbling amongst themselves for power. That was partially due to the nature of their office, since a Praetor could be "made," by election or manipulation of influence. But a Senator could only be born—the senatorial office was hereditary, passed from father or mother to eldest sister's-son or -daughter: and the only thing that could remove a Senator from office was death.

Here the Praetorate seems almost akin the the Supreme court, without the power squabbling bit, does our supreme court have power squabbling? Interesting...

 

[Stevil2001]

The way Duane describes the praetorate is almost exactly a match for the continuing committee, isn't it?

So... about John Byrne...

 

[foravalon]

So... about John Byrne...

Quite good and I can't wait for the rest of the Assignment: Earth series! I'm not sure I understood the relevance of the full page of biographies the Beta 5 spat out on all the nuclear facility workers though, I'm not saying it's out of character for the situation, but I had trouble understanding the necessity of it in the comic, the same goes for the scene where all of the characters are introduced. I just kept thinking, will we see any of these characters again? Why do I care about all their full names and their life stories?

 

[Sci]

Here we go...

From "My Enemy, My Ally" by Diane Duane:

He had long been fascinated by the "modified tri-cameral" or three-house legislative-executive branch of this Emperorless Empire. The Tricameron was comprised of a "Senate"—evenly divided against itself into a half that proposed and passed legislation, and a half that vetoed it—and a "Praetorate," a sort of quadruple troika or duodecimvirate: twelve men and women who implemented the Senate's decrees, declared war or peace, and (it seemed to Jim) spent most of the time squabbling amongst themselves for power. That was partially due to the nature of their office, since a Praetor could be "made," by election or manipulation of influence. But a Senator could only be born—the senatorial office was hereditary, passed from father or mother to eldest sister's-son or -daughter: and the only thing that could remove a Senator from office was death.

Here the Praetorate seems almost akin the the Supreme court, without the power squabbling bit, does our supreme court have power squabbling? Interesting...

Comparing the Romulan Praetorate to the United States Supreme Court doesn't work. The Supreme Court is judicial, and often tries to avoid political rather than legal issues.


It would be more accurate to compare the Praetorate to the British Cabinet as it existed when it first evolved -- when the Prime Minister did not control the Cabinet but was merely first among equals, when each Minister was viewed as being in genuine control of his department. The Cabinet was the committee that ran the Kingdom for Parliament, and each Minister could implement his own policies. It was very different from its current incarnation, wherein the Cabinet is more or less in the control of the Prime Minister.

The way Duane describes the praetorate is almost exactly a match for the continuing committee, isn't it?

So... about John Byrne...

Well, we don't really know what the powers and duties of the Continuing Committee are. We know that they're apparently responsible for confirming new Praetors, that they can try and remove a sitting Senator for treason, and that the Chair of the Tal Shiar is usually assured a seat on the Committee, indicating that it's not automatically comprised only of Senators. We don't know if the Continuing Committee is just a body that deals with ascension to and removal from high office or if it has other duties.

 

[8of5]

Quite good and I can't wait for the rest of the Assignment: Earth series! I'm not sure I understood the relevance of the full page of biographies the Beta 5 spat out on all the nuclear facility workers though, I'm not saying it's out of character for the situation, but I had trouble understanding the necessity of it in the comic, the same goes for the scene where all of the characters are introduced. I just kept thinking, will we see any of these characters again? Why do I care about all their full names and their life stories?

I believe it was a (perhaps rather over the top way) of making sure it wasn't too obvious who the spy was.

I really enjoyed it. And I think it's one of the best paced comics IDW have done so far - it took a satisfyingly long time for me to read, and apart from that Beta 5 page didn't have anything that seemed either too drawn out or too quick and unexplained.

 

[foravalon]

I quite agree 80f5, I'm eager for the next installments! It was only when I got to that one page when I had to raise my eyebrows and say, "for real?"

Other than that, awesome! I do want to see more interaction with Isis though, the pseudo-bickering vibe between she and Roberta is one of favorite parts about Assignment Earth and the Eugenics Wars Books. I'm feeling a definite desire to read Assignment: Eternity again as well.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Good stuff.

My only real disappointment was that Byrne didn't letter this himself, as he did with Next Men, Batman/Captain America, and damned near every other project he's taken on the past fifteen years. I knew something was nagging at me the entire time I was reading it, and then I finally realized -- the lettering was wrong.

 

[Therin of Andor]

My only real disappointment was that Byrne didn't letter this himself

I only notice lettering if it's illegible due to blobbed ink. Otherwise I never really check the lettering credits, and I wouldn't care if it was all typeface that resembled hand lettering.

 

[Christopher]

My only real disappointment was that Byrne didn't letter this himself

I only notice lettering if it's illegible due to blobbed ink. Otherwise I never really check the lettering credits, and I wouldn't care if it was all typeface that resembled hand lettering.

Isn't that the way it's actually been done for decades? If you look closely, every occurrence of a given letter looks the same.

 

[KRAD]

Ninety percent of comics (or more) these days are lettered by computer. There are maybe four people left in the business who still letter with pen and ink.

 

[Andrew Harris]

Isn't that the way it's actually been done for decades? If you look closely, every occurrence of a given letter looks the same.

Not quite decades, but yes, for a good number of years now. At IDW, the editor of the book develops the balloon placement guides, and the letterer is responsible for the computerized work that follows those guides, as well as creating what are some truly spectacular sound effect designs. They're also quite skilled in helping solve whatever ballooning problems arise, since it's usually difficult to predict at the balloon guide phase exactly what shape a balloon will take and how much space the words inside will require, where the lines will break, etc. Most of the logos that you see also had the letterer's hand in them.

In a few cases (Byrne's books, Simon Furman's Transformers, or sometimes when an IDW editor writes a book) it's the writer himself who develops the balloon placement guides, but that's more the exception than the rule.

 

[Christopher]

^^I note that when I see comic-book scripts and compare them to the finished pages, the dialogue has often been trimmed down or rearranged in the latter. I suppose that's to get them to fit the balloons/art better.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Not quite decades, but yes, for a good number of years now.

That was Christopher's question you answered, not mine. But thanks!

 

[Andrew Harris]

Not quite decades, but yes, for a good number of years now.

That was Christopher's question you answered, not mine. But thanks!

Ach, yes of course. So sorry!

^^I note that when I see comic-book scripts and compare them to the finished pages, the dialogue has often been trimmed down or rearranged in the latter. I suppose that's to get them to fit the balloons/art better.

Christopher--

Yes, that's frequently what it is. Sometimes, though, it's some other logistical or design problem... for example, the artist might have inadvertently drawn the characters with a placement in which the dialog flow didn't work correctly, was out of order, etc. (which, in truth, could have also been the writer's fault, by not realizing that he had already blocked out the characters for the scene in a way that would later cause dialog/ballooning problems).

Sometimes it's that the ballooning would have looked awkward, such as tails going through characters' faces, or across important action, or even criss-crossing each other--which *really* always looks distracting. And, sometimes, it's even just because the artist really kicked ass on a scene, with his facial expressions, posture, pacing, etc., and some of the dialog simply ended up not being necessary.

For example, this happened in New Frontier #1, when artist Stephen Thompson drew Calhoun rolling his eyes in such a way that an entire exchange of dialog was no longer needed, and would have even distracted from the timing of the scene. (And, when you find yourself actually eliminating Peter David dialog, you know that the artist really did the trick.)

So, as you can see, the whole lettering trade is really both a science and an art, even with it being so heavily computerized now.

Byrne, meanwhile, actually helps out his IDW editor immensely by doing his own ballooning guides--as both the writer and artist on the book, he can take most of these adjustments into account ahead of time, and that makes deadline production on his issues all that much easier.

 

[Christopher]

Yes, that's frequently what it is. Sometimes, though, it's some other logistical or design problem... for example, the artist might have inadvertently drawn the characters with a placement in which the dialog flow didn't work correctly, was out of order, etc. (which, in truth, could have also been the writer's fault, by not realizing that he had already blocked out the characters for the scene in a way that would later cause dialog/ballooning problems).

That's a problem that crops up a lot in my experience: balloons being arranged in a confusing order. Sometimes it can be chalked up to the artist going for top-to-bottom order while my mind is expecting left-to-right, or vice-versa. But one case that's just weird is on p. 2, panel 2 of Alien Spotlight: Gorn, where the doctor's speech balloon in the top left is supposed to be read after Terrell's pair of balloons on the right side. I think that's the result of the kind of blocking problem you mention, since arranging it more logically would've had balloon stems crossing over characters and whatnot. But there was room to raise the top of the panel a bit more (even with the top of panel 1) and have Terrell's balloons above their heads and the doctor's reply in the lower right.

(Not to single out IDW, of course -- this sort of problem crops up all over the place from time to time. But that's the most recent example I encountered.)

 

[HIj'Qa]

So... about John Byrne...

Quite good and I can't wait for the rest of the Assignment: Earth series! I'm not sure I understood the relevance of the full page of biographies the Beta 5 spat out on all the nuclear facility workers though, I'm not saying it's out of character for the situation, but I had trouble understanding the necessity of it in the comic, the same goes for the scene where all of the characters are introduced. I just kept thinking, will we see any of these characters again? Why do I care about all their full names and their life stories?

and there is a typo