CBS is planning to launch a new Star Trek show that I may or may not be able to access. Cool. I'm good with that. I'll find a way to watch it.
In the meantime, I have come to find that the graphic novel world is where Star Trek, especially TOS, seems to be finding most life these days.
A wander into our local comic book shop about a month ago introduced me to "Star Trek: new visions", an interesting, very creative effort by someone named John Byrne, under the IDW imprint. Byrne is unknown to me and I honestly have no interest in looking him up but his STnv project is really interesting.
Presented in graphic-novel format, Byrne's "new, feature-length tales" feature the Kirk-era crew from the 1960s. The visuals are impressive: by combining still photos of the TOS characters and locations from Original Series episodes, computer generated "new" characters, objects and locations and comic-book style dialogue and narrative bubbles, Byrne brings a vivid life to his stories.
But that's where things fall down. Despite the amazing images, the stories themselves are unfortunately reminiscent of the poorly plotted, amateurishly told tales presented in the old Gold Key comics. They are often melodrama of the worst kind.
It's too bad, too, because the visuals are so good and the amount of work that must go into creating STnv must be significant. With better stories, STnv could really take off.
IDW is also responsible for bringing us "Star Trek: Star Fleet Academy", a new comic/graphic novel franchise that focuses on the reboot universe that made its debut in the J.J. Abrams films. I came across the first collection of this STSFA at my local big box book store.
Is STSFA great? No, not really. Derek Charm's art is fairly standard, fairly basic comic book art. The stories, by Mike Johnson and Ryan Parrott, while a step up from those found in STnv, are still not terribly sophisticated nor well-wrought. STSFA seems aimed at a younger audience, of course, so perhaps I'm not being fair in assessing it on adult terms.
All of that being said, it's nice to see that Kirk, Spock and McCoy continue to romp and, with some luck, continue to attract younger fans to the world of Star Trek.
