Star Trek: New Visions #5

I've been re-cataloging my collection currently. I'm creating a back-up in case my main archive ever goes away. In this lengthy process, I am coming across some treasured items. I'm also realizing there's a lot of stuff I forgot I had, like this issue from John Bryne's photo-comic series Star Trek: New Visions. 

Taking stills from the original series along with newly created CGI-art, Bryne created a 22-issue issue series that I imagine had to have been a lot harder to create than it looks. With drawing your own comic book, your imagination can run wild. But by basing your visuals on photographs, there's only so much you can work with without being repetitive. And if you want to add action to the images though digital means, there's an even finer line you can't cross without making the changes look fake. That's the massive challenge Byrne has with this issue. 

In the story 'A Scent of Ghosts', Number One from the pilot episode 'The Cage' has returned to the Enterprise. The officer is on a short trip to her newest assignment as the commander of the USS Yorktown. Eventually, the Enterprise catches up with its sister ship. Only, the crew of the Yorktown is missing!

Kirk leads a landing party to the Yorktown. But within moments, Kirk's team begins to vanish as well, leaving only Dr. McCoy left on board to conduct the investigation! As the country space doctor checks through records, both Spock and Number One, along with Scotty, notice that the last encounter the Yorktown crew had was with a ship that the former crew members of Captain Pike are very familiar with. Only, the last time they parted ways, it was as friends. 

Scenes of Captain Pike's original interactions are peppered throughout this tribute to the most unknown first officer in Star Trek history. Considering that John Bryne only had 1 50-minute long episode of character interaction to go on with Pike's crew, I'm amazed at how well a never before revealed tale of the Enterprise was pulled off. Having most of the story set during Kirk's time as captain helped. But still, this was a feat that only a master storyteller could pull off. 

I would have liked to have seen an interaction between the two crews. That's what I thought I was getting from the cover. Alas, they just weren't the case. This omission doesn't make for a worse story. I was just disappointed. 

There's a small back-up feature set during Spock's pursuit of Kolinahr. This tale pays respect to a character whom the actress who played her had passed away just recently in real life. The stunning visuals of Vulcan reminded me of Jack Kirby's collages. Only, these were better. 

I really like this series. It always impresses me how John Byrne made these work. Hopefully, I'll one day find out his process because I am fascinated by the meticulous nature it must have took to make these books.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Star Trek: New Visions #21

Two great stories comprise this John Bryne produced picto-comic.

In the first adventure, Captain Kirk and the Klingon commander, Kor are taken prisoner by an all-new alien race. The unlikely allies escape their prison together because they've both been implanted with detention charges in their hearts that will explode if either gets further than 10 meters from the other. 

The second tale takes place aboard the Christopher Pike Enterprise. Here, the crew encounter a ship and a weary traveler that according to read-outs are from early 1900s Earth. While the technology and the science of the traveler's story seems to check out, clearly there's something odd. Because this Victorian era space traveler is also the character from a novel by H.G. Wells!

Both stories were very good. The Kirk and Kor story was better if only because I wasn't familiar with the Wells' story that was the inspiration for the Pike episode. I love Bryne's creativity and enthusiasm with these stories. I hate that the series just recently came to an end.

What I had issue with was some of the 'art'. The premise of these untold tales of Star Trek: The Original Series is that they are made of old cast photos mixed with new CGI photo shop. I normally overlook the oddity of how the computerized stuff looks. But I can't this time.

There were several panels in the Kirk/Kor story in which I couldn't tell what it was Bryne had made. Turns out later it was a phaser weapon used by this new alien race. But it was so poorly crafted and just plain dark and hard to make out. Then there's the space traveler in the Pike-era set adventure. At first, he looks pretty decent for an all-new character. But by the end, he starts looking like parts of his faces were being morphed out of existence. I swear, one panel looked like Scotty was transporting the poor guys lips right off his face. 

The stories were good, the photos were great but the new art had some technical issues. So really bad, the Enterprise explodes in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock technical issues...

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.