Star Trek Countdown #2 (Spoilers)

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek Countdown #2

All I have to say is that, based on what I've read on TrekMovie.com and elsewhere, the screenwriters appear to have a fairly good grasp of science, and have made the effort to recruit a high-profile science advisor for the film. Make of that what you will.

 

[Ben]

Re: Star Trek Countdown #2

I know this isn't a popular opinion, but I'm glad these comics brought Data back and I hope the novels incorporate this. The post-Nemesis books have been GREAT (esp. Destiny), but I really think they would've been better with Data. I don't care if it's a cheap gimmick. I don't care if it doesn't make sense. I don't care if it devalues death in future stories. Data needs to be around.

Kind of like when they brought back Aunt May to the Spider-Man comics. There was a ridiculous explanation for how she really wasn't dead, but once you got over that, you got to have new comics with Aunt May in them (I like Aunt May).

 

[Captain Randy Hall]

Re: Star Trek Countdown #2

I know this isn't a popular opinion, but I'm glad these comics brought Data back and I hope the novels incorporate this. The post-Nemesis books have been GREAT (esp. Destiny), but I really think they would've been better with Data. I don't care if it's a cheap gimmick. I don't care if it doesn't make sense. I don't care if it devalues death in future stories. Data needs to be around.

Kind of like when they brought back Aunt May to the Spider-Man comics. There was a ridiculous explanation for how she really wasn't dead, but once you got over that, you got to have new comics with Aunt May in them (I like Aunt May).

Whatever floats your boat, Ben. I've been waiting patiently (OK, less than patiently) for them to bring back my favorite character--one James T. Kirk--for one last appearance by Shatner as the iconic character he brought to life for so many years.

Yeah, I was one of the Bring Back Kirk folks, and as such, I'm really (let me repeat this for emphasis) really enjoying IDW Publishing's stuff. With a wide variety of creators (such as Peter David and John Byrne) giving us a pretty good range of new Trek.

I know there are varying opinions on this, but it warms this "grup's" heart to see sincere effort to do a comic Trek product that I enjoy.

And just one more item: What do you think all of the Marvel zombies who used to razz folks about the Legion of Super-Pets is now waiting for the Pet Avengers, or some such title. That I'm looking forward to.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek Countdown #2

And just one more item: What do you think all of the Marvel zombies who used to razz folks about the Legion of Super-Pets is now waiting for the Pet Avengers, or some such title. That I'm looking forward to.

Well, if Lockheed is in it, that makes it automatically cool.

 

[drychlick]

Re: Star Trek Countdown #2

i just read it it a great read! but the data back from the dead is over the top!

 

[Trent Roman]

Re: Star Trek Countdown #2

The B4 transplantation from Nemesis took. Not all that original.

Yeah, that was the least-creative possibility.

It was also the most practical for being the most obvious. I'm entirely unsurprised that this was the method chosen, because this was the 'out' that was set-up at the end of Nemesis; anything else, and you'd need to take time away from the main plot of your tiny comic book to explain the situation that landed Data back amonsgt the land of the living and in the captain's chair, a scenario I don't doubt many would feel entirely unnessary because, after all, NEM had already provided a solution. And more people have seen NEM then are familiar with the 'B4 can't become Data because memories aren't personality' rant. As resurrections go, it's clean and efficient in relating to the majority of the audience.

The challenge for the book line now is to account for how B4 was made functional, and why, in this case, memory did become personality... and make the whole, rather mechanical thing seem more interesting than just 'B4 woke up as Data one day'. EDIT: Well, 'now' being however many dozen years down the line the events of Countdown take place vis-à-vis the current timeframe of the post-NEM novels.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[C.E. Evans]

Re: Star Trek Countdown #2

Yes, I have to agree that bringing Data back in this fashion only completed the scenario set up in Nemesis, so I don't have a problem with it at all.

Personally, I really like the idea of Data as captain because he's the last person I would have expected to take over the Enterprise. Not only does it raise the issue of why Starfleet--or what event--put Data the center seat but also what happened to the rest of Picard's crew (including those featured post-Nemesis).

By the timeframe of Countdown, it's been nearly thirty years since "Encounter At Farpoint," so I would expect most of Picard's original command crew to have finally moved on...

 

[Stevil2001]

Re: Star Trek Countdown #2

Ha! Officers don't move on; this is Star Trek.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Re: Star Trek Countdown #2

i just read it it a great read! but the data back from the dead is over the top!

No more than Spock, of which the man himself made reference to.

 

[JoeZhang]

Re: Star Trek Countdown #2

Ha! Officers don't move on; this is Star Trek.

Yeah academy reunions must be pretty boring

Geordi: "So then I got posted to the enterprise"

Bob: "what then?"

Geordi: "I stayed there until I retired, what about you?"

Bob: "well I made cargo chief on the USS Highlander"

Geordi: "then what?"

Bob: "I stayed there until I retired"

Geordi: yeah.. nice weather we've been having...

 

[Kemaiku]

Re: Star Trek Countdown #2

Wow, a Super Nova, that still haven't gone nova, that can threaten the entire galaxy almost immediately...right. So this movie is kick starting its life by dragging out the lamest TNG cross over it can with an even science as horrendous as the moves new appearance.

 

[JoeZhang]

Re: Star Trek Countdown #2

Wow, a Super Nova, that still haven't gone nova, that can threaten the entire galaxy almost immediately...right. So this movie is kick starting its life by dragging out the lamest TNG cross over it can with an even science as horrendous as the moves new appearance.

But who's going to see this tie-in? geeks like us - I'll be amazed if anything more than

"We were friends and I failed him saving Romulus" or the like is mentioned as exposition.

I certainly don't expect any TNG characters even get name-checked.

 

[cem1701]

Data in Countdown....SPOILERS...

Okay, this can't really even be discussed without possible SPOILERS, so...

SPOILERS BELOW....

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Okay, so Data is back. As much as I am looking forward to see how they bridge Next Gen and the new movie, the most interesting thing of this series so far is the return of Data. We get a one bubble explanation that Data's neural nets were successfully implanted on B4, and that is it.

I know that the comics to do not necessarily jive with the books, but it in books, B4 gets ruled sentient, so how can Data's personality be used to overwrite his? Do you think there is a way to jive this with the books or do you think that the comic writers are just completely ignoring the book-continuity Data/B4 thing?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Data in Countdown....SPOILERS...

Perhaps 'Countdown' is set in the Abrams timeline*. That would give them a free pass to do what they want.

*Meaning, when Countdown takes place, the changes that ST XI would later make in the past, have already occurred.

 

[JoeZhang]

Re: Data in Countdown....SPOILERS...

I know that the comics to do not necessarily jive with the books, but it in books, B4 gets ruled sentient, so how can Data's personality be used to overwrite his?

It happened spontaneously?

 

[Christopher]

Re: Data in Countdown....SPOILERS...

It's not practical for the books and comics to coordinate their continuities, due to the very different lead times; books take much longer, so they can't take the comics' plotting into account, and it would be unfair to require IDW to follow the novels' lead all the time. So what happens in the comics isn't binding on the books and vice-versa. They're separate media from separate creators, sometimes acknowledging or paying tribute to one another, but each free to take its own original approach.

(Also, the word you want is "jibe," not "jive." To jibe is to correspond or agree; to jive is to speak nonsense, tease, or mislead.)

 

[JoeZhang]

Re: Data in Countdown....SPOILERS...

Perhaps 'Countdown' is set in the Abrams timeline*. That would give them a free pass to do what they want.

*Meaning, when Countdown takes place, the changes that ST XI would later make in the past, have already occurred.

But why then does anyone travel back in time?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Data in Countdown....SPOILERS...

Perhaps 'Countdown' is set in the Abrams timeline*. That would give them a free pass to do what they want.

*Meaning, when Countdown takes place, the changes that ST XI would later make in the past, have already occurred.

But why then does anyone travel back in time?

Point taken.

But consider this: If it's only 8 years after Nemesis, then why does the Enterprise-E have so much more advanced tech (a holographic LCARS, for example - they didn't even have that in the *29th* century from "Relativity") and why is Data already a Captain?

 

[JoeZhang]

Re: Data in Countdown....SPOILERS...

Perhaps 'Countdown' is set in the Abrams timeline*. That would give them a free pass to do what they want.

*Meaning, when Countdown takes place, the changes that ST XI would later make in the past, have already occurred.

But why then does anyone travel back in time?

Point taken.

But consider this: If it's only 8 years after Nemesis, then why does the Enterprise-E have so much more advanced tech (a holographic LCARS, for example - they didn't even have that in the *29th* century from "Relativity") and why is Data already a Captain?

I don't think it is 8 years after Nemesis, I think it's further along than that.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Data in Countdown....SPOILERS...

But consider this: If it's only 8 years after Nemesis, then why does the Enterprise-E have so much more advanced tech (a holographic LCARS, for example - they didn't even have that in the *29th* century from "Relativity") and why is Data already a Captain?

Not to say anything about the content of Countdown, but neither of these objections makes sense. They already have the technology to create whole imaginary worlds and people with holography. A holographic console floating in midair would be a million times simpler than a holographic doctor that looks, moves, and talks exactly like a real human. We've also seen free-floating holographic displays going as far back as "The Last Outpost" in TNG's first season. The absence of such displays in starship bridges is clearly a matter of preference, not lack of ability to create them.

As for Data, he graduated from the Academy in 2345; at the time of his death in NEM, he was therefore a 34-year veteran, and was a full commander in line for the first officer post on the Enterprise. Assuming that Data did come back to life in B-4 and Starfleet accepted him as the same individual (a reasonable assumption, considering that Spock didn't have to start over as a cadet upon his resurrection in a new body), there's no reason why he wouldn't be eligible for captain's rank within 8 years (or however much time has passed since NEM -- the stardate suggests it's 2387, but the dialogue and uniforms suggest it's c. 2408).