Countdown #4
- Thread starter Therin of Andor
- Start date
I don't see it so much as laziness, more as fanwank. See the fourth paragraph in the spoiler-coded stuff below (it's my review from my blog).
Countdown is setting the stage for the movie that's supposed to be a bold, fresh, new vision of Star Trek. Unfortunately, Countdown itself is hampered by everything that makes that new vision necessary: fanwank, technobabble, and yet another attempt at recapturing that Khan magic.
The first issue's not all bad. It introduces Nero, a Romulan working stiff whose ship is used in dangerous planetary mining expeditions. We haven't seen many ordinary Romulan civilians, and we get a bit of a sense of what their lives are like; Nero has a risky job, a loyal crew, and a pregnant wife at home. But the star of a planet he's trying to mine is flaring up.
And here comes the technobabble. The Hobus Star (it's always called The Hobus Star, never just Hobus) is going to go supernova. Not only that, it's likely to destroy the whole Romulan Empire unless the decalithium (oh, joy, another kind of lithium) Nero mines can be converted by top secret Vulcan technology into the mysterious and magical substance known as red matter (like dark matter, I guess, but more colourful). But wait, the supernova is changing. It could destroy the whole universe. Or maybe the whole galaxy. Depends which issue you're reading. Either way, it's scarier than Genesis and the Nexus combined. Now it's really really essential to get some decalithium converted into red matter to create a black hole to suck up the supernova. But the Vulcans aren't eager to help.
Fortunately, some people are willing to help. First, there's the starship captain who saves Nero's ship from some nasty Remans: why, it's Data! What a surprise! Looks like he got better after being killed in Nemesis. Then there's the Federation ambassador to Vulcan. Why, it's Jean-Luc Picard! What a surprise! (Vulcan, by the way, almost feels like it's not part of the Federation; they haven't shared red matter technology with anyone else, and they have their own ambassador on Romulus, where Spock lives and serves as the Federation ambassador. They also see Spock as a traitor.) Then there's the brilliant spacecraft designer who has the one ship that could possibly deliver the red matter into the supernova: why, it's Geordi LaForge! What a surprise! And then, when the plan works just a little too late and Romulus is wiped out, killing Nero's wife and unborn son (and a lot of other people), who's the general leading a Klingon battle fleet to stop Nero's quest for revenge? Why, it's Worf! What a surprise! The pages are practically stuck together with all the fanwank going on.
Nitpick: Romulans have green blood, not red (someone noticed that by the last issue).
The only connection to TOS is an image of Kirk on a monitor when Nero, as a guest of the Enterprise early on, pokes around the ship's library computer to see what he can learn.
So... why is Vulcan now almost belligerent towards the Romulans, Spock, and the Enterprise, when the Romulans have greatly improved relations with the Federation? Why is it necessary to wipe out the Romulan Empire (and, it's suggested, most of the Romulan people) with a scientifically wrongheaded big technobabble threat, when Nero's main concern is his wife and unborn child? Why is it necessary to bring Data back through B4, when Nemesis tells us that wouldn't work? Why have drastic career changes for Picard, LaForge, and Worf? And how much of this is going to end up established as definite canon through the movie?
For too long now, people making Trek movies have looked back to The Wrath of Khan as a model, forgetting that a lot of the best Star Trek TV episodes didn't have a big black hat villain. Nero is another Trek villain who starts out as a not bad guy who ends up a villain seeking an over-the-top, misguided revenge. There's a bit of Khan (whose wife and other frends died), there's a bit of Soran (who wasn't evil, originally, he just wanted to get back to the Nexus), there's a bit of Shinzon (the Romulan citizen who kills Romulan political leaders and gets a ridiculously powerful ship with unethical tech, though Shinzon got the ship first then wiped out the Romulan leadership), there's even a Borg connection (that's the unethical tech this time, instead of thalaron weapons)... well, the never-seen-before old Romulan tradition of shaving off your hair and tattooing your face and head as a sign of grief is something new.
I guess the writers of the comic (the movie's Orci and Kurtman get story credit, Mike Johnson and Tim Jones get the writing credit) wanted a Big Event story as a preface for the movie that changes everything. But, in my humble opinion, it comes off as a misfire too reminiscent of past Trek movies and of Pocket's Ordover Era, when the Federation/galaxy/universe was threatened with annihilation two or three times a year. They're just trying way too hard here to pile on the Bigness without thinking any of it through.
When the movie comes out, I don't think reading this will add a lot to the experience. It's highly unlikely that it will seem like a necessary bit of backstory to make sense of anything in the movie. So let's have it not be canon, please.
The first issue's not all bad. It introduces Nero, a Romulan working stiff whose ship is used in dangerous planetary mining expeditions. We haven't seen many ordinary Romulan civilians, and we get a bit of a sense of what their lives are like; Nero has a risky job, a loyal crew, and a pregnant wife at home. But the star of a planet he's trying to mine is flaring up.
And here comes the technobabble. The Hobus Star (it's always called The Hobus Star, never just Hobus) is going to go supernova. Not only that, it's likely to destroy the whole Romulan Empire unless the decalithium (oh, joy, another kind of lithium) Nero mines can be converted by top secret Vulcan technology into the mysterious and magical substance known as red matter (like dark matter, I guess, but more colourful). But wait, the supernova is changing. It could destroy the whole universe. Or maybe the whole galaxy. Depends which issue you're reading. Either way, it's scarier than Genesis and the Nexus combined. Now it's really really essential to get some decalithium converted into red matter to create a black hole to suck up the supernova. But the Vulcans aren't eager to help.
Fortunately, some people are willing to help. First, there's the starship captain who saves Nero's ship from some nasty Remans: why, it's Data! What a surprise! Looks like he got better after being killed in Nemesis. Then there's the Federation ambassador to Vulcan. Why, it's Jean-Luc Picard! What a surprise! (Vulcan, by the way, almost feels like it's not part of the Federation; they haven't shared red matter technology with anyone else, and they have their own ambassador on Romulus, where Spock lives and serves as the Federation ambassador. They also see Spock as a traitor.) Then there's the brilliant spacecraft designer who has the one ship that could possibly deliver the red matter into the supernova: why, it's Geordi LaForge! What a surprise! And then, when the plan works just a little too late and Romulus is wiped out, killing Nero's wife and unborn son (and a lot of other people), who's the general leading a Klingon battle fleet to stop Nero's quest for revenge? Why, it's Worf! What a surprise! The pages are practically stuck together with all the fanwank going on.
Nitpick: Romulans have green blood, not red (someone noticed that by the last issue).
The only connection to TOS is an image of Kirk on a monitor when Nero, as a guest of the Enterprise early on, pokes around the ship's library computer to see what he can learn.
So... why is Vulcan now almost belligerent towards the Romulans, Spock, and the Enterprise, when the Romulans have greatly improved relations with the Federation? Why is it necessary to wipe out the Romulan Empire (and, it's suggested, most of the Romulan people) with a scientifically wrongheaded big technobabble threat, when Nero's main concern is his wife and unborn child? Why is it necessary to bring Data back through B4, when Nemesis tells us that wouldn't work? Why have drastic career changes for Picard, LaForge, and Worf? And how much of this is going to end up established as definite canon through the movie?
For too long now, people making Trek movies have looked back to The Wrath of Khan as a model, forgetting that a lot of the best Star Trek TV episodes didn't have a big black hat villain. Nero is another Trek villain who starts out as a not bad guy who ends up a villain seeking an over-the-top, misguided revenge. There's a bit of Khan (whose wife and other frends died), there's a bit of Soran (who wasn't evil, originally, he just wanted to get back to the Nexus), there's a bit of Shinzon (the Romulan citizen who kills Romulan political leaders and gets a ridiculously powerful ship with unethical tech, though Shinzon got the ship first then wiped out the Romulan leadership), there's even a Borg connection (that's the unethical tech this time, instead of thalaron weapons)... well, the never-seen-before old Romulan tradition of shaving off your hair and tattooing your face and head as a sign of grief is something new.
I guess the writers of the comic (the movie's Orci and Kurtman get story credit, Mike Johnson and Tim Jones get the writing credit) wanted a Big Event story as a preface for the movie that changes everything. But, in my humble opinion, it comes off as a misfire too reminiscent of past Trek movies and of Pocket's Ordover Era, when the Federation/galaxy/universe was threatened with annihilation two or three times a year. They're just trying way too hard here to pile on the Bigness without thinking any of it through.
When the movie comes out, I don't think reading this will add a lot to the experience. It's highly unlikely that it will seem like a necessary bit of backstory to make sense of anything in the movie. So let's have it not be canon, please.
Thanks for the review, Steve.
The Vulcan bits MIGHT be a continuation on the novel plot threads... they've established that many Vulcans are very leery of reunification, for instance. Still looks fanwanky, tho.
The Vulcan bits MIGHT be a continuation on the novel plot threads... they've established that many Vulcans are very leery of reunification, for instance. Still looks fanwanky, tho.
Well, if it looked more like a spork, I'd have called it something else!
Well, if it looked more like a spork, I'd have called it something else!
What's a spork? Vulcan kitchen cutlery?
Steve said everything perfectly! I think what is lazy about Picard, in particular, is that I do not see his character giving up command after what he experienced with Kirk. He, like Kirk, has a drive to make a difference and being ambassador to Vulcan is not going to accomplish that (one of the founding members of the Federation and a staunch ally, not a lot going to happen there). The same goes for Geordi. He is like Scotty, loves being an engineer of the Enterprise. I cannot see him giving that up for something that he has never really shown an interest in.
How is having a character choose to do something different - over a decade after making a different decision - "lazy".
If Picard was still captain of Enterprise-E, some people would claim laziness. He's an ambassador to Vulcan, and that's lazy to others. He's an elderly vintner in "All Good Things..." - was that lazy too? I mean, he becomes a vinter just because his family owned some vineyards?
He marries Bev Crusher in the TNG Relaunch novels and begins planning a family. Is that lazy too? And some would say, why Bev? That choice is "lazy". Why marriage? That choice is lazy. Why not adopt? Why not become an expert in alien antiquities?
We had a recent thread elsewhere about defining "lazy writing", and it's not really a valid concept. Lazy writing is a writer not producing anything printable by the deadline. All other writing involves creative choices. As much creative choice and effort goes into any Picard career change storyline. Whether you agree or disagree with the writer's choice has nothing to do with the writer's effort. Whether they convince you of that choice is a bit different; if you already disagree, the job to convince you becomes harder, but the writer doesn't know you're going to disagree when they're writing, and some of the audience (who do agree) will be applauding the decision and praising the writer's effort. They won't be seeing it as laziness. And if the writer convinces too much, they'll call it "over-writing".
I think the issue is not feeling true to characters. The relaunch of TNG felt like a good extension of where the characters would go from where they have been. In countdown, it feels like they want to cram all these characters in the book, so they invent ways for them to be there; just feels contrived. It just does not feel true to who these characters are and have been. The relaunch has done a much better job at knowing these characters and growing them in a real way.
I don't want to get into a long discussion about time travel, but I thought the same thing reading the last panel of Countdown #4 as I did watching the last scene of Terminator 2...
The timeline could not have changed that drastically because nothing really changed.
What I mean is this:
In T2...Sarah and John Connor are STILL there, so they could not have stopped Skynet forever because if Skynet never happened, Reese never came back & never fathers John, so John never should have existed.
In Countdown #4, Nero and Spock go back in time and nothing happens in the "present." Data, Picard, et al. are still on the Ent E, no change in their memories of what just happened, etc.
So to me, that means that all of the 24th centruy Trek that we know still happens, despite whatever Nero and Spock do in the past.
Unless you want to get into their actions creating a parallel timeline and then...snooooorrrrrree.......
The timeline could not have changed that drastically because nothing really changed.
What I mean is this:
In T2...Sarah and John Connor are STILL there, so they could not have stopped Skynet forever because if Skynet never happened, Reese never came back & never fathers John, so John never should have existed.
In Countdown #4, Nero and Spock go back in time and nothing happens in the "present." Data, Picard, et al. are still on the Ent E, no change in their memories of what just happened, etc.
So to me, that means that all of the 24th centruy Trek that we know still happens, despite whatever Nero and Spock do in the past.
Unless you want to get into their actions creating a parallel timeline and then...snooooorrrrrree.......
That's exactly what the producers of the movie have been saying for almost a year now.
And apparently the destruction of Romulus is mentioned on screen, so that will be canon.
Nothing about the Naradas Borg enhancements though, so I guess we can just ignore that bit. Would have hated it for Destiny to be contradicted that fast.
Nothing about the Naradas Borg enhancements though, so I guess we can just ignore that bit. Would have hated it for Destiny to be contradicted that fast.
Only if Countdowan and the movie are a closed time loop. I think it is another timeline, where the 24th century ramifications are unknown.
Yeah but the old 24th century trek still happens.
We, the audience, are just going to switch tracks to this new timeline. Doesn't mean the old track is gone.
The whole thing is really just one big Myriad Universes story.
We, the audience, are just going to switch tracks to this new timeline. Doesn't mean the old track is gone.
The whole thing is really just one big Myriad Universes story.
And apparently the destruction of Romulus is mentioned on screen, so that will be canon.
Nothing about the Naradas Borg enhancements though, so I guess we can just ignore that bit. Would have hated it for Destiny to be contradicted that fast.
there's nothing in the enhancements that outright contradicts Destiny. Yes, we saw Borg technology atomized at the end of the trilogy, but there's no evidence that the Borg destroyed the knowledge of Borg technology. Anything that anyone had physically that the Borg built is now gone, but the studies and reverse engineering of that technology would still exist. If the Romulans took what they had learned from battling the Borg since the middle of the 24th century and reverse engineered that, the Borg enhancements of the Narada are still entirely possible.
I'm not sure Myriad Universes is the perfect comparison, but I can see where you're going with that. The distinction I'd make is that the Myriad Universes books are "What if?" stories; the new film's timeline is a "What IS" storyline. (Yes, technically, all the novels are "What if", but you get the idea.)
It's more akin to the Mirror Universe, where Prime timeline characters have crossed over, and existed in the alternate timeline, interacted with it, etc., much as Spock Prime (Nimoy) does in the film. But, after their divergence points, I don't think any of the Myriad Universes stories had any Prime timeline characters in them, or were ever intended to.
In fact, speaking of the Mirror Universe, and to amplify your underlying point: The MU remains one of the most popular corners of the Trek canon, and yet nobody has ever wondered about why when the Mirror Universe timeline began, it didn't suddenly wipe out the original Trek timeline. It's the same exact situation here: a new timeline splits off, but it doesn't rewrite the one that came before.
I don't agree. My approach when writing my MyrU installment was to assume that it wasn't just a potential reality, but a real alternate timeline, something that really happened in a different quantum state of the cosmos. I even implied that an event in the Places of Exile timeline was the direct reason why something happened, or rather didn't happen, in the main timeline (i.e. the reason why Species 8472 was never heard from after "In the Flesh"). Given that (IIRC) Marco used TNG's "Parallels" as a precedent for explaining the MyrU idea to the fans, I think it was his intention that these be actual parallel realities rather than merely "imaginary stories."
That is true -- of all the MyrU novels except Places of Exile. That does feature a character we met in the main timeline.
Surely the functional difference is minimal, though. Unless, as you did, you tell an alternate timeline story about alternate timelines, it's a difference that makes no difference.
^True, but my point wasn't intended to cover that issue, merely to say that it's legitimate to use Myriad Universes as an analogy for the new film, because they both depict timelines that "actually" exist alongside the main one.
Ah, true enough.
It's not the same at all, since as far as we know, the Mirror Universe was not the result of time travel. Indeed, it couldn't be. A timeline is not a universe. A universe is a distinct, physical location. A timeline is more like an idea, a concept, a version of events.
And it's an entirely natural reaction to immediately assume that ST XI obliterated existing continuity. In all previous instances of time travel, the new timeline did exactly that: overwrote the old. Now, suddenly, the rules have changed? That's a bit odd, innit?
The only escape route I can see from all this is that if you take Countdown into account, ST XI can indeed be said to take place in an alternate universe (not timeline), since Countdown appears to be set in the universe of ST Online - which is incompatible with existing TrekLit continuity.
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