Carlin, Michael

AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:

2 out of 5

(1 book)

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Beginnings

(Art by Pablo Marcos, Carlos Garzon and Arne Starr)

The first run of DC Comics' series based on the (then) new Star Trek TV series.  Here we see Captain Picard and the Enterprise-D crew face numerous strange alien perils, as well as running afoul of their old nemesis Q.

When these comics began to be published, TNG was still very new and, as a result, the writer here clearly didn't have much idea of the themes or characters of the show beyond the very surface level.  With Next Generation being my favourite iteration of Trek and Picard being my favourite Captain, it's therefore a huge disappointment to see it all so badly misrepresented.  Not sure what I mean?  Well, get ready for a version of Data who expresses his excitement at the start of every mission and flies into a rage and attempts to murder Q.  Not weird enough?  Well then, now we've got a version of Counsellor Troi's whose vague telepathic/empathic powers of the TV series have been elevated to near-omniscience, to the point that she overrules her superior officers to forbid Data and Geordi from going on an away-mission.

But the problems are not only about how wrong the familiar elements are here.  There are huge tonal shifts across the book that make different sub-stories feel like they're from totally different franchises (none of which are 'Star Trek: The Next Generation').  For example, one of the stories has all the crew celebrating Christmas when the Enterprise is invaded by a mysterious energy being who turns out to literally be the spirit of Christmas (Geordi can see it through his visor and it looks like Santa) and is being pursued by a race of green furry aliens who are clearly references to the Grinch.  At the other end of the scale, we have flashbacks to Tasha Yar's childhood on the tough streets of a poor colony world, wherein she's raped as a girl.  Because that's something that the writer thought a Star Trek comic needed.

The one redeeming element of this book, and the only reason I'm not rating it lower, is the interactions between Picard and Q.  Q is represented with just the right amount of manipulative arrogance and, much better, Picard has just the right amount of 'no time for Q's BS' in his attitude.  These were the only two characters in this book whose dialogue sounded like the actors (the brilliant Sir Patrick Stewart and John de Lancie) in my head.

2 out of 5

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Star Trek (here)