Kirsten Beyer

I've never read a piece of Star Trek fiction before. Well, unless you count that weird crossover comic with Doctor Who from 2012/2013. In fact, my only real exposure to Star Trek, in general, comes from a handful of episodes of The Next Generation, the first two JJ Abrams movies, and general cultural osmosis. But when the trailers for Star Trek: Picard started dropping, I found my interest piqued. It looked like the kind of show I'd be interested in, so I made a point of watching it. At this show more point, several episodes have aired and I'm really enjoying the show, so I went and looked to see if anything had been released to tie into the show. And lo, and behold, there was this three-issue prequel comic from IDW, written by Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson and illustrated by Angel Hernandez, that promised to reveal some of the events that happened prior to the start of the show. It sounded like the kind of thing I'd be interested in, so I picked up the issues and gave them a read and, I gotta say, it's really solid. Though a bit short, Star Trek: Picard - Countdown tells a really good story that shines a bit of light on Picard's history before the beginning of Star Trek: Picard.

If you, like me, found yourself wanting to know more about Picard's time working with Starfleet to try and evacuate the Romulan people prior to their sun going supernova, then this is the comic for you. If you were wanted to know more about the backstory of characters like Zhaban, Laris, and Raffi, then this is the story for you. If you wanted to know more about what Next Generation characters like La Forge were up to between the end of that series and the beginning of Picard, then this is the story for you. It's actually impressive how much is crammed into these three issues. Star Trek: Picard - Countdown isn't a long story and it never goes as in-depth as you'd like it to, but it does a good job at introducing, and contextualizing, some of the new characters in Star Trek: Picard to readers while also letting us see what some fan-favorites, like Picard and La Forge, were up to during the Romulan evacuation.

In Picard: Countdown, we follow Picard and Raffi as they travel to one of the Romulan colony planets to try and make a deal with the governor to evacuate those on the planet. Once they get there, they quickly learn that the governor has no intention of making a deal with Starfleet but intends to derail the entire operation. To say any more would be to venture too far into spoiler territory, but needless to say it's a pretty exciting ride. One of the coolest things about the story is getting to see how some of the Romulans reacted to Starfleet's efforts to save them from dying in the aftermath of their sun going supernova. It's interesting that the Romulans treated Starfleet about as suspiciously as some of Starfleet have treated the Romulans - but I suppose that makes sense given their history of conflict. Of equal coolness is getting to see Zhaban and Laris, who act as Picard's house staff during the series and are later revealed to be members of the Tal Shiar, in proper action. We also get a hint of why they ultimately decided to live with Picard on his vineyard and that's really cool. Overall, it's totally not a necessary read in order to understand the show, but those who find themselves craving new information will definitely find some here.

While the story is extremely solid, I do have one complaint: it's so short! I understand that comics are usually pretty fast-paced, but this one moves at the speed of a freight train and never lets up. While that works for keeping the energy and excitement up, it does rob some of the quieter moments of the chance to breathe a little. It's clear that Beyer and Johnson know ho wot write a Star Trek story and have perfectly captured the voices of these characters, so it would have been nice for them to have been given a chance to do a little bit more with them. It's a solid story, but I can't help but think a fourth issue might have given it the room to be even better, allowing it to space things out just a bit better and giving everything the room to breathe.

What's probably most impressive about this comic is Angel Hernandez's artwork. Hernandez is able to perfectly capture the feeling of Star Trek while bringing their own style to the mix. All of the characters are immediately identifiable as their on-screen counterparts, but where Hernandez lets loose is with the background designs. Hernandez makes the various starships look that perfect mixture of clinical and homely; they still look like an important government machine but they also feel lived in. The same is true for the colony planet Picard and Raffi visit. This planet is sort of weird-looking, but it also makes sense. Hernandez even gets to design some new creatures, too, in the form of the planet's indigenous lifeform. And those designs are excellent - they look suitably alien without feeling cliche. On the whole, Hernandez's artwork breathes a lot of life into this comic and ends up stealing the show.

At the end of the day, Star Trek: Picard - Countdown isn't essential reading, but it sure is fun. It's a very solid story, very competently told by two writers intimately involved with the creation of numerous Star Trek stories. While the comic feels a bit too short, it's still extremely entertaining and provides some insights on many of the characters and ideas that the Picard show explores. Hernandez's artwork gives the whole affair a beautiful sheen, breathing life into Beyer and Jonhson's words and tying everything together with a very cohesive look. While I don't know how Picard: Countdown stacks up alongside other Star Trek comics and stories, I can't say I wasn't thoroughly entertained by it. I'm really enjoying Star Trek: Picard and this comic honestly furthered my enjoyment of the show. I hope IDW continues to make comics set around Picard - they're a lot of fun! show less

If you are looking for an action-packed Voyager book, this is not the book for you. I gave it 5 stars for the author's grasp of the Voyager characters and their universe, and for the wonderful JetC and P/T scenes.

The book seems like two stories published together with a thin thread uniting them, mostly like it was a set-up for everything else. The author assumes the reader is familiar with the events in 'Before Dishonor' and the 'Destiny' series, so it's best to brush up on (not necessarily show more reread) those first.

The first part of the book is an action-packed hunt for B'Elanna and Miral who have been kidnapped. Everyone but Tuvok is present. The rest of the book consists of our heros' reactions to Janeway's death, particularly that of Chakotay. JetC fans will thoroughly enjoy scenes and comments that confirm what they've always believed, and will ache with Chakotay during his struggle.

While I wish there was a more cohesive plot to the book, the minute details, brief glimpse of home, and JetC more than make up for it. show less

This is a good, though not the best, entry in Beyer's "Full Circle" Star Trek Voyager relaunch series. As most books in this series, it has a story that is told more-or-less completely within this novel, and further development of the series arc. The idea of the self-contained story, regarding the "Children of the Storm" is very good, and in some parts quite touching. The Children are a species so different from our own that any type of communication is extremely difficult and prone to show more misunderstanding. The two cultures had a very brief encounter in the past, in which the Children were basically able to communicate "OK, we'll let you pass through our space in peace this time, but don't come back." Up to now, the Federation has honored this. But since the Children were known to have defeated the Borg soundly in the distant past, the Federation, although currently clear of the Borg, has seen enough destruction from them that they have decided to seek out the Children and establish friendly relations to find out how they did it. The communications difficulties lead to all sorts of tragedy, and whether things can eventually move to a peaceful footing is entirely in doubt to the end. My main difficulty is that the tragic part gets bogged down, in my opinion, with too much tactical detail. It loses the emotional impact.

As far as the progression of the longer arc, there's a few interesting things revealed to move it along, but it mainly takes a back seat. I got the feeling that it is primarily positioning for major developments in the next book. We shall see. I did enjoy the story, just not quite as much as some of its predecessors ("Unworthy" was outstanding.) show less

if this first miniseries is anything to go by, the strange new worlds comics are going to have the same general strengths & weaknesses as the discovery comics.

first of all, great art. just a truly great job of translating what you see on the screen in the show to the panel in the comics without being overly photorealistic which is always just a little bit off-putting to me when comics go for that. it's also little things like how the dialogue reads, it's always very pleasant when you can show more imagine the dialogue coming out of the actors' mouths & such, while still not going too lengthy/wordy to have an effectively paced comic.

as for the plotting, if discovery is anything to go by they oftentimes seem to like setting things between seasons, which makes perfect sense, but it does very much limit the kind of story you can tell, especially when there is any kind of cliffhanger between seasons like number one's arrest. i do think using that as the main plot of this comic to try to flip it from a liability to an asset was a very shrewd move, and i think they did the best they could with what they had to work with.

and hey, maybe we're gonna see more of the illyrians in season 2 of the show, and we got a nice sneak peek of them here. my gut tells me that the reason the comic showed us so much of them is that they know they aren't really gonna show up in the series proper, so they figured it would be nice to depict them in this form at least, but who knows?

for all its stated limitations, this was a fun read, especially if you're looking to whet your appetite for season 2 of the show. show less