Yesterday, the galaxy lost a great man with the passing of Leonard Nimoy: forever to be known as Mr. Spock. In no way was my reading of this trade done as a tribute or some sort of cheap attempt at garnering readership or hits within the Star Trek community. Honest. I actually started reading this book a couple of days before news of Nimoy's hospitalization for chest pains and had finished this book up the night before his death. With yesterday being my day to review a family-friendly comic, I got a day behind on reviewing 'the Enterprise Experiment' and this just happens to be an eerie coincidence.
'The Enterprise Experiment' was written by original series screenwriter DC Fontana. The story is set during the fourth year of the Enterprise's five-year tour. (The show was canceled after only 3 years, so there are two 'mystery' years of the Enterprise. Why there has never been a Star Trek: Year Five though is beyond me.) The mini is also a sequel to the episodes 'The Enterprise Incident'- which was originally written by Fontana and 'Errand of Mercy', the episode that interduced the Klingons and the Organians.
Since this story is based on two episodes, there's basically two parts to this story. The first part is the sequel to the 'Enterprise Incident,' in which the Federation has developed cloaking device based on the cloak Kirk and Spock stole from the Romulans during the 'Enterprise Incident.' When Kirk and Spock are on a shuttle craft in order to test the cloaking device's effectiveness they find themselves unable to detect any trace of the ship. That is because the cloaking device is also based on the technology of the Guardian of Forever, thus it phases the ship out of sync with the physical universe. With a Romulan warship on the horizon, Kirk and Spock must regain contact with their starship or they'll become sitting ducks.
Part Two is the sequel of sorts to 'Errand of Mercy' starting with the Klingon Kor launching several successful attacks on outposts in the Klingon Neutral Zone. Since it appears that the Organians are no longer enforcing the peace treaty they imposed during "Errand of Mercy' the Enterprise is ordering to investigate the Organians disappearance and to stop Kor's attacks on Federation enclaves.
I liked part one a lot better than part two. Mostly, I found the Romulan story to be more exciting and interesting. But I also found the Klingon story to be in error with the films, particularly 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.' Though the actual whereabouts of the Organians is a subject of debate amongst Trek fans, it's mentioned in both the film and novelization of ST:VI that the sentient beings have suddenly disappeared. But Year Four takes place a good decade or so- thus this story is in error. Trekkers call this sort of continuity flaw a 'nit' and this is a serious one.
Another thing that I felt was out of sorts were flashback sequences involving Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The purpose of those scenes was to show how much the three men are a family to each other than their actual families are. But it really didn't have much of a place in this story since the main themes had more to do with trust amongst people and faith in technology and not "family is the company you most keep."
I don't think DC Fontana meant for these flashbacks to even be included. In the back of this volume is the writer's five-part original proposal for this series. Nowhere are the family flashbacks of the Enterprise's big three even mentioned. So, I think the blame rests with the editors. A good 10 pages was wasted on this extraneous storyline- pages that could have been used to better fill out the conflict between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.
Once again, IDW Publishing did a great job examining the unexplored reaches of the fourth year of the USS Enterprise's five-year mission under Jim Kirk. However, with the new Trek movies, IDW seems to be less focused on the original series. There's no reason why the publisher can't release comics based on both Treks since the new films are set in a tangent universe. I'd really like to see how the fifth and final year of Kirk's first command of the Enterprise ended. But since it's been 7 years since this Year Four story was published, it's probably a pipe dream.
Lastly, let's talk about the art. It's very good with amazing detail to not just the original cast but the guest stars and the Enterprise as well. I marvelled at how much detail was put into the cloaking device and the work done on animated series character Arex, was fantastic. But the covers by the Sharp Brothers were even better and I enjoyed the pencil to inks processes added to the director's cut materials at volumes end.
Worth Consuming
Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.
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