Spoilers Star Trek: Waypoint Discussion Thread

[Sakonna]

https://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/JAN190795

Another Waypoint special on the way at the end of April!

Interesting cast of characters on the cover. Five of the the biggest Trek marquee characters -- Kirk! Spock! McCoy! Worf! Janeway! -- all orbiting perpetual second-stringer Beverly Crusher. I'd be excited for a good Beverly story!

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

https://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/JAN190795

Another Waypoint special on the way at the end of April!

Interesting cast of characters on the cover. Five of the the biggest Trek marquee characters -- Kirk! Spock! McCoy! Worf! Janeway! -- all orbiting perpetual second-stringer Beverly Crusher. I'd be excited for a good Beverly story!

McCoy looks like a hybrid of Kelly and Urban on the cover. :P

 

[Avro Arrow]

Great news! I really like the Waypoint anthology format. Hopefully this continues to be a recurring title.

 

[JD]

I finished up the original miniseries a few months ago, and I'm really looking forward to more. If this does continue for a while, I hope we get some more Enterprise stories set during series with more than just Archer.

 

[Alwaystrekkin]

So the Waypoint 2019 Special is available now on Amazon (USA for me) Kindle, with stories about Dr. McCoy, Worf (post DS9), Bev Crusher/ T.Yar, and younger Kathryn Janeway yay, & Tuvok pre Voyager: https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Wa...qid=1556094126&s=digital-text&sr=1-1-fkmrnull

 

[Markonian]

Tasha Yar comes across as gung-ho in this issue. Perhaps something soured her mood before she went on this mission?

Bev makes a good figure as lead character for this story. She previously starred in Waypoint comic “Mirror, Mirror, Mirror, Mirror”.

The likeness of younger Janeway is amazing. She really looks like a young woman and like Janeway. I also love the inclusion of a Jelna and Arcadian. Until this comic, I didn’t like the Arcadians because the ST:IV photos make them look like scary porcelain dolls. But seeing an Arcadian among other Starfleet officers on a mission, redeems them visually. Cool aliens!

That Adegeda “airship” reminds me of the giants from the “Little Talks” music video by Of Monsters and Men.

Overall, the visuals are a great highlight in the whole issue. The likenesses, the environs and the eye candy parts are fantastic!

Based on clues, can we determine what years each story take place in?
According to the Schmidt Family stardate calculator, the Voyager story is set in 2355, which seams a decade too early for me.

 

[Leto_II]

^ Noticed that the VOY story in apparently intended to be the mission described onscreen in the episode "Night" (where Janeway conducted a dangerous planetary survey during her first days as a command-level officer aboard the U.S.S. Billings), and while it's mostly consistent with that account, there was one slight inconsistency I noticed -- the episode described the location as a "volcanic moon," whereas it's identified as planet Arali Prime in the comic story, and the vulcanism seen in the comic book is caused by an alien entity, and disappears moments later, leaving behind a non-volcanic landscape.

The comic also establishes this mission to be Janeway's first with Tuvok accompanying her following his adversarial testimony against her during a previous mission (described in the episodes "Fury" and "Revulsion"). This story would therefore have to take place at some point after 2356 (when Janeway first met Tuvok), while Memory Alpha evidently dates this mission as taking place in 2365 (during TNG season two, which would be consistent with the uniforms and tech, though the given stardate of 32641.2 is also erroneous for this particular year — change just one digit, and 42641.2 would actually work perfectly here).

 

[Sakonna]

I parcel these Waypoint stories out slowly, I started with the Beverly/Tasha one. Honestly, they had me at that character pairing. Beverly & Tasha go on an away mission together, perfect premise for a 10 pager, thumbs up, loved it.

Make this a monthly series, please!

 

[Therin of Andor]

But seeing an Arcadian among other Starfleet officers on a mission, redeems them visually. Cool aliens!

An artist's rendition in the "ST IV Sourcebook Update" showed an Arcadian full-length as having a mermaid-like tail, and one of the post-ST IV DC Comics used this illustration to inform the addition of an Arcadian crewmember.

However, ST IV's sequence on an outdoor tarmac briefly showed two bipedal Arcadians, and this footage was later reused in TNG's "The First Duty". So canonically, they are bipedal.

 

[Christopher]

However, ST IV's sequence on an outdoor tarmac briefly showed two bipedal Arcadians, and this footage was later reused in TNG's "The First Duty". So canonically, they are bipedal.

Maybe, but canonically, Klingons and Romulans have smooth foreheads and also bumpy foreheads, Trill have bumpy foreheads and also smooth, spotted foreheads, Andorians' antennae are rear-mounted and immobile and also front-mounted and mobile, Tellarites don't have tusks but also do have tusks, Gorn have humanlike legs and also dinosaurlike legs, etc. Canon is not always a reliable narrator.

 

[Extrocomp]

I'm not sure why the aliens in this issue had human names. A Benzite named Forrest and a Rigelian named Probert. Maybe there was some miscommunication between the writers and the artists.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Canon is not always a reliable narrator.

Sure, but aliens from the same planet with either two legs or a manatee tail seems to be pushing it. (Unless you accept that Earth humans and merpeople co-exist, I guess.) I commend the artist of the FASA Sourcebook for his/her creativity, but even I didn't notice the tiny, background, bipedal Arcadians in ST IV (and TNG) until today. (I had noticed the tiny Tellarites by their distinctive, borrowed, TMP Kazarite robes on premiere night!)

 

[Christopher]

I'm not sure why the aliens in this issue had human names. A Benzite named Forrest and a Rigelian named Probert. Maybe there was some miscommunication between the writer and the artist.

Spock, Troi, Dax, Kira, and Odo are all human names. So are Kang, Mara, Kali, Kruge, Maltz, and Chang.

Sure, but aliens from the same planet with either two legs or a manatee tail seems to be pushing it. (Unless you accept that Earth humans and merpeople co-exist, I guess.)

I wasn't speaking about in-universe biology, but about the freedom of fiction to change its mind, especially where nigh-invisible background details are concerned.

Besides, there's a Trek Lit precedent -- the Selkies, who metamorphose from an amphibious stage to a fully aquatic stage midway through life. They retain the same overall body shape, but it's conceivable that another species could undergo a more radical metamorphosis. Heck, it's more plausible than the backward-aging aliens of VGR: "Innocence," or the idea of biological life evolving into incorporeal form.

 

[JoeZhang]

Also (although they generally never do it on screen) - I bet people see names from other cultures as interesting - I'd love to see a Klingon called 'Alan' or a Trill call 'Ron'.

 

[Christopher]

Also (although they generally never do it on screen) - I bet people see names from other cultures as interesting - I'd love to see a Klingon called 'Alan' or a Trill call 'Ron'.

Susan Wright's Starfleet Academy novel The Best and the Brightest (released under the TNG banner) featured an alien character who'd been born and raised on Earth and was named Bobby Ray Jefferson.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Also (although they generally never do it on screen) - I bet people see names from other cultures as interesting - I'd love to see a Klingon called 'Alan' or a Trill call 'Ron'.

An Orion called Marta. A Chameloid named Martia...

Also Bernie the albino Klingon dwarf in the DC Comics.

 

[Christopher]

Also Bernie the albino Klingon dwarf in the DC Comics.

Nicknames assigned by human characters don't count.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Nicknames assigned by human characters don't count.

I dunno. Was he nicknamed by Konom after his father-in-law?

 

[Christopher]

I dunno. Was he nicknamed by Konom after his father-in-law?

Almost -- by Nancy Bryce after her father. Konom called it a "stupid name" before he learned that, and when it caught on, he said a resigned "Oh, marvelous. Bernie the Klingon."

 

[Pauln6]

I enjoyed the stories well enough. It's fun to see unusual pairings, although I'd enjoy all of them more if they were longer.

I thought the TOS story had disturbing shades of a Big Bang Theory episode! I loved the little background cameos of Chapel and Rand. The only thing that threw me was McCoy's comment that Kirk romances a new woman in every second port. I've always felt that this was part of the popular myth and not generally true. Kirk's an accomplished flirt and someone who will take one for the team if he has to but he's not really a womaniser, so to hear one of his closest friends say that he is sounded a bit of a bum note for me.

Overall good fun though.