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Trek Prequel Comic -SPOILERS- (official COUNTDOWN review thread)

What do you guys think of the 2386 Starfleet uniform with the new commbadge? I guess this means the "All Good Things," "Visitor" and "Endgame" commbadge seen in every single late 24th/early 25th century future flash-forward since 1994 is now kaput because of reset and corrected timelines.

I like it but, as history has shown, I won't get so attached to it so to expect that is what the future will look like.

Hasn't it been shown, by TrekGuide.com, all those episodes exist it different timelines?
 
What do you guys think of the 2386 Starfleet uniform with the new commbadge? I guess this means the "All Good Things," "Visitor" and "Endgame" commbadge seen in every single late 24th/early 25th century future flash-forward since 1994 is now kaput because of reset and corrected timelines.

I like it but, as history has shown, I won't get so attached to it so to expect that is what the future will look like.

Hasn't it been shown, by TrekGuide.com, all those episodes exist it different timelines?

Technically. But as someone from the franchise once hinted, if you see it in ALL the different timelines it's still an element that will probably come to pass. Who knows. It's STAR TREK. Anything's possible.:lol:
 
We've never had this type of tie-in before, correct?

Sure we have. DC Comics was doing their own version of what happened between ST III and ST IV, not knowing whether there'd even be a ST IV. When they knew what the next movie would start with, ie. Spock still pretty much a blank slate, relearning on Vulcan, the comics had several connected issues where Spock and his USS Surak crew catch a space virus, which kills everyone except Spock, who's mind (which had been restored previously by the Mirror Universe Spock) goes back to the same inert state it was at the end of ST III.

Over on Spacedock, meanwhile, we see Janice Rand (who'd had a ST III cameo in the Spacedock cafeteria) working with outgoing Admiral Morrow (ST III) and incoming Admiral Cartwright (ST IV), plus there's a jubilant Captain Styles plotting the return of his USS Excelsior, which Kirk and his crew have been using for many months. And they also set up for Kirk and his crew to collect the ailing Spock, and get him to Vulcan again, in the stolen Klingon bird of prey.

None of this was canon. But it certainly set up the anticipation for ST IV for comic readers.

are the comics considered canon?
Nope. Not even the bonus scenes in movie and episode adaptations.
 
There has to be some point in the movie where they'll touch on Nero's motivations and thus events of the comics, right?
 
On the other hand, they made Leonard Nimoy look even older than he already is for his role. Why? Vulcans are not supposed to age so rapidly. Or is it because he's half human? Or is this story really set 40 years after "Unification", and it's the stardate that's wrong.

As far as Spock's aging, throughout the movies Nimoy was already aging obviously, so he ended up looking like someone his age in human years... in fact he was already discussing growing old with Kirk during The Undiscovered Country. Then 70+ years later (in Trek time) he apparently seemed to stop aging in the Unification episode (with just a tad hint of grey?) For someone who is probably between 150-200 years he will undoubtedly look old.

This could also explain why we have 25th century technology on the Enterprise (the three dimensional panels) and why Data is suddenly Captain of the Enterprise. Whatever explanation there might be about how he came back to life, according to the stardate only seven years have passed since "Nemesis". How did he make it from Lt. Commander to Captain in only seven years, or even less?
Keep in mind that he was going to become the first officer in Nemesis after Riker became a Captain, however, that didn't get to happen obviously. So he was already going to be on his way as it was, so I don't think there is any inplausibility to Data becoming a Captain several years later. It will be interesting to see if they address the whole Data situation as it is. Is he B-4/Data? We will see.
 
There has to be some point in the movie where they'll touch on Nero's motivations and thus events of the comics, right?

I think that the comics are "canon" is that it is a backstory written by the writers of the movie and is also likely to not be contradicted. I wish that Paramount would get their shit together like Lucas Licensing did with the Star Wars 'verse.
 
I wish that Paramount would get their shit together like Lucas Licensing did with the Star Wars 'verse.

George Lucas is on record that he ignores all the Extended Universe stuff and wouldn't let it stop him telling the story he wanted to tell. (In any case, he only has six movies to worry about.) No difference. :devil:
 
I wish that Paramount would get their shit together like Lucas Licensing did with the Star Wars 'verse.

George Lucas is on record that he ignores all the Extended Universe stuff and wouldn't let it stop him telling the story he wanted to tell. (In any case, he only has six movies to worry about.) No difference. :devil:

In this case though it's a comic by the people in charge of canon. Why would they write it to set up their movie and then ignore/discount it?

If Lucas wrote a comic I'm sure he would follow its history.
 
A really big "kill the ones dearest to you" revenge scheme launched out of pure hatred. It also makes the plot a little more complex and not so one-dimensional sounding.

Actually, that motivation sounds simple and one-dimensional.

Indeed.
I hope there's more to Nero's turn to the dark side than the old cliche "his wife and child died so he's out to avenge their death"
 
In this case though it's a comic by the people in charge of canon. Why would they write it to set up their movie and then ignore/discount it?

Well, they had it written so that ST fans could go into the new movie with some extra insights the general public don't care about. If the "Countdown" mini-series is announced as being canon, then the licensed novels, short stories, comics and RPGs would be expected to follow its lead. I wasn't saying they (ie. JJ's team) would ignore it.

If a different production team do ST XII, or a new TV series, there's no guarantee they'd want to include a four-issue comic prequel in the stuff that influences their new project.

Gene Roddenberry's office once announced that even Roddenberry's novelization of TMP wan't canon, except for those bits that were already onscreen. Jeri Taylor's "Mosaic" and "Pathways" were ignored the moment she left "Voyager". Not too many people even like Denny Martin Flinn's post-ST VI novel.
 
We've never had this type of tie-in before, correct?

Sure we have. DC Comics was doing their own version of what happened between ST III and ST IV, not knowing whether there'd even be a ST IV. When they knew what the next movie would start with, ie. Spock still pretty much a blank slate, relearning on Vulcan, the comics had several connected issues where Spock and his USS Surak crew catch a space virus, which kills everyone except Spock, who's mind (which had been restored previously by the Mirror Universe Spock) goes back to the same inert state it was at the end of ST III.

Over on Spacedock, meanwhile, we see Janice Rand (who'd had a ST III cameo in the Spacedock cafeteria) working with outgoing Admiral Morrow (ST III) and incoming Admiral Cartwright (ST IV), plus there's a jubilant Captain Styles plotting the return of his USS Excelsior, which Kirk and his crew have been using for many months. And they also set up for Kirk and his crew to collect the ailing Spock, and get him to Vulcan again, in the stolen Klingon bird of prey.

None of this was canon. But it certainly set up the anticipation for ST IV for comic readers.

Though it would explain the changes in the design of the Bird of Prey's bridge between III and IV.
 
I'm sort of glad, as far as canon is concerned, that this movie seems to be wiping the slate clean.

Canon has become a burden, an attempt to get fans to buy into a bunch of shit that they wouldn't otherwise buy into.

I just don't care anymore.

Now, I can just take it one product at a time, and disregard all the rest. Which is kind of what I was already doing, come to think about it.
 
Holy crap. I went to Midtown Comics (a farily large comic shop in NYC) and they were sold out of this comic. I guess there are quite a few Trek fans out there anticipating this film in NYC!
 
A really big "kill the ones dearest to you" revenge scheme launched out of pure hatred. It also makes the plot a little more complex and not so one-dimensional sounding.

Actually, that motivation sounds simple and one-dimensional.

Lets add another layer to it. Nero could fancy himself a brilliant mind and has some, in his opinion, "perfect" answer to deal with some crises but Spock or someone else more important than himself disagrees and perhaps embarrasses Nero when his idea is rejected.

Nero keeps making mistakes and/or being over ruled by others to his breaking point. It all collectively adds up to insanity.

Just speculating, of course but that is, imo, what made Khan such a great character. No matter what he did it would get screwed up furthering the madness more and more.
 
I'm sort of glad, as far as canon is concerned, that this movie seems to be wiping the slate clean.

Canon has become a burden, an attempt to get fans to buy into a bunch of shit that they wouldn't otherwise buy into.

Absolutely Right(TM).

There's just too much of "it makes sense/is good enough because that's the way it's always been done in Trek" involved in the way the Franchise tells stories. Too seldom does anyone seem to ask "Is there a good reason it should work this way? Would you do it this way at all if it weren't established?"
 
All interesting but I doubt most of this will be evident in the actual movie. Sure this backstory was developed by the screenwriters. But will likely only be suggested in vague hints of dialogue.

For what it is worth, the comics apparently only came into play well after the movie had been conceived. Roberto Orci claims it was Anthony Pascale (of TrekMovie.com) who was the inspiration for these comics after he had asked what they would do to throw a bone to the TNG fans, and thus here we are!

Well that isn't exactly how it happened. In a couple of conversations I had with Bob I told him that I knew that elements of the new movie were tied to the TNG era and that I knew that many fans of Trek (like Bob himself) came into Trek via TNG and still preferred TNG. I told him I felt that they should get the message out to TNG fans that in a way this film was a 'sequel' to Nemesis as well as being a 'prequel' to TOS. So the links between TNG and ST09 were out there already. This comic is only emphasising them, and that was entirely Bob's idea.
 
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