Star Trek: Countdown #1 early review - MASSIVE SPOILERS!

[Bonzo the Fifth]

Personally, to me, the easiest way to fully restore You-Know-Who would be to let some of 7's nanoprobes tinker with B-4's positronics for a while. I imagine that would repair (or would it be upgrade?) any abnormalities and shortcomings of his more... primitive matrix, allowing Data, or at least the memories, and presumably some aspect of his identity, to surface more permanently. I mean, look at what happened when some of those nanoprobes got hold of the Mobile Emitter. A positronic brain isn't 29th century tech, for sure, but I imagine some creative stuff could come out of a fusion of Borg technology and Soong's creations...

Of course, with the fallout from Destiny, that might not be an option anymore...

That being said, I'm not necessarily comfortable with the idea of Data simply 'emerging' from B-4's mind... For one, that wasn't his goal when he downloaded his memories and experiences into B-4... it was to serve as a guide to possibly inspire him into 'extending' himself in the same manner as Data himself did. Those experiences were probably never meant to manifest as a full consciousness... That leads to unfortunate implications when you consider the events of "The Schizoid Man" where Ira Graves does essentially that very thing to Data himself, and we, as the audience, are meant to be outraged that he would do such a thing... Does Data have some right to hijack B-4's existence, no matter how limited, on some basis of being 'better'? Data was way too much of an ethicist to abide something like that, in my opinion, so I'm not really sure how one would go about restoring him...

 

[RonG]

There are many ways in which such a resurrection can occur. The most probable way is to claim "he never died" (no body, after all) and go in one of several routes:

- last minute beam out by persons unknown
- "Q-terference"
- time travel - whisked away at the last minute by some future agency

 

[Dukhat]

The Enterprise looks like its gone through a refit as well from the brief glimpse we got on the final page.

Are you sure it's a refit of the Enterprise-E, and not the Enterprise-F? How different does the ship look?

And if it is just a refit of the Enterprise-E, I hope it doesn't look like that god-awful Sovereign refit in Star Trek: Online.

 

[TheAlmanac]

Bob Orci himself says it's not canon, cuz he's not getting into that and "the Supreme Court" had yet to rule on it.

Where did he say this? I don't recall Orci making a statement to that effect...could you point me to it?

IIRC, it was on trekmovie's site, in one of their interviews.

Okay, I found what you're talking about in this interview, but it's not quite as conclusive as you initially suggested:

TrekMovie: Well the bigger issue is more [Star Trek movie prequel comic] Star Trek: Countdown and whether or not that is considered canon. That is not a promotional thing, that is a…. thing thing. Your name, JJ’s name is on it and Alex’s name is on it. So, canon or not canon?

Roberto Orci: I don’t think that is for me to decide. As you know, I considered some of the books, in my mind, to be of character canon. And some of them in between the movies to possibly be even possible candidates for canon, until some other movie comes along and makes those impossible. That is my personal view, but I am not going to declare whether comics are canon.

TrekMovie: There is a difference between a regular comic and a comic with your guys' names on it. To extend the canon metaphor, you are like a writer of the gospels, so does it apply when you are writing other stuff, like comics? Who makes that decision?

Roberto Orci: I don’t know, I think it will be a majority vote.

TrekMovie: Well, I can run a poll, but I was looking for something more official. Trek fans like rules and I think would like to be told, yes it is or no it isn’t, as opposed to leaving it up to themselves, because then it is actually ‘fanon’ and not ‘canon.’

Roberto Orci: Why don’t we say for now, that this current court has not taken up that case and it can yet rule.

So, Orci is taking the "David Souter" role here, but can't make a final ruling without the court being in session...

 

[Turtletrekker]

There are many ways in which such a resurrection can occur. The most probable way is to claim "he never died" (no body, after all) and go in one of several routes:

- last minute beam out by persons unknown
- "Q-terference"
- time travel - whisked away at the last minute by some future agency

Well, we know from Taking Wing/The Red King that the explosion of the thallaron weapon in Nemesis created a spatial rift that led all of the way to the Smaller Magellanic Cloud, so it could be conceivable that Data was whisked away somewhere a nano-second before the Scimitar went "boom!" This would be, IMHO, a serious stretch, but a possibility.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I hate the updated uniform.

I wasn't expecting a new uniform, but I loved it. While the black w/ padded grey shoulder uniforms look good on a big screen, I think they're rather plain in comic books, so this glimpse of Data's uniform looked great!

RonG, I can do a scan if you like.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3452/3217889058_41e11ee81f_o.jpg

 

[JAG]

Please do that, I would love to see them and I won't get my copy for weeks.

 

[RonG]

I hate the updated uniform.

I wasn't expecting a new uniform, but I loved it. While the black w/ padded grey shoulder uniforms look good on a big screen, I think they're rather plain in comic books, so this glimpse of Data's uniform looked great!

RonG, I can do a scan if you like.

that'd be great Therin, thanks!

 

[JoeZhang]

 

[Therin of Andor]

that'd be great Therin, thanks!

http://therinofandor.blogspot.com/2009/01/datas-debut-again-or-b-4.html (Beware SPOILERS)

 

[RonG]

well...

this is certainly.. interesting

 

[JoeZhang]

I like the new uniform. I think the thing to consider is that this is a prequel to a TOS film not really a TNG thing so they want the design atheistic to fit in with that film. I guess the uniform change is so it more fits the lineage established in the film - such as the badge.

 

[RonG]

Good point, JoeZhang. Haven't really thought about it that way...

while the current uniform are far better looking IMO, I can get used to these (if comics, games and novels adopt it as the "official" 24C uniform).

 

[JoeZhang]

Good point, JoeZhang. Haven't really thought about it that way...

while the current uniform are far better looking IMO, I can get used to these (if comics, games and novels adopt it as the "official" 24C uniform).

Hopefully the next few issues will fill in the back-story or we'll get a IDW series in this time period.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

NEED. ISSUE. NOW.

 

[Dukhat]

Thanks for the Data pic. To whomever`s doing scanning, can you scan Data`s ship as well?

Also, I remember old Bashir from "The Visitor" stating that in the 25th century, Starfleet vessels have three-dimensional displays. It looks like the comic gives a nod to that! (If Data's scenes take place in 2408, based on Spock's line that he's been on Romulus for 40 years...but that would invalidate Nero's stardate...Hmmm)

 

[fleetcaptain]

After I read the post yesterday morning/afternoon, I went out to one of the many comic shops I go to in my area and got this issue. It's been one of the many I have been waiting for and to finally see how this ties into the new movie. I had spoiled myself alittle by seeing that Data was mentioned as Captain of the Enterprise. I haven't read it yet but so far this whole series looks like its going to be great. I love the nod to the 3-D displays on the bridge and even an Bajoran at Ops.
Can't wait to see more of Data in the next issue. Just a short month of a wait. Hehehe.

 

[JoeZhang]

Thanks for the Data pic. To whomever`s doing scanning, can you scan Data`s ship as well?

Also, I remember old Bashir from "The Visitor" stating that in the 25th century, Starfleet vessels have three-dimensional displays. It looks like the comic gives a nod to that! (If Data's scenes take place in 2408, based on Spock's line that he's been on Romulus for 40 years...but that would invalidate Nero's stardate...Hmmm)

 

[Mysterion]

Re: the last page - alternate timeline anybody? This would also explain the differences in appearance of the TOS stuff we've seen thus far.

 

[JoeZhang]

Re: the last page - alternate timeline anybody? This would also explain the differences in appearance of the TOS stuff we've seen thus far.

It would just gets too confusing I think - what we see here is the motivation for Nero to go back in time and try and destroy Vulcan. If he's *already* from an alternative time line *headache*.

What we see here is "real".