Gordon Purcell

This should be great. This is not great. This is eight issues of people talking about things, thinking about things. Imagine all of the awesome things that could happen in a crossover between Doctor Who and Star Trek. Well, none of them happen here. The variant covers are way more interesting than any of the actions in this weirdly aimless, meandering, suspence-less comics. Some plot threads are just abandoned, while others are tied up in the most trite and obvious ways possible. Characters' show more facial expression vary from inappropriate to nonexistent. I bought the deluxe hardcover of this book, anticipating it despite the negative reviews. I should have listened, and I should not have wasted my money. show less

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

This volume from Titan collects three different DC Comics stories where there's interaction-- convergence, if you will-- between the original and Next Generation crews. One of those stories is the adaptation of Star Trek Generations, so I read it after finished Star Trek: Movie Classics Omnibus from IDW, which contains the first six movies. (The only Star Trek film adaptation to never be collected is Marvel's Star Trek: show more First Contact, though there weren't adaptations of Insurrection, Nemesis, or Beyond.)

The Generations adaptation is competent but uninspired; mostly it's nice to see some deleted scenes that didn't make it into the film, like retired Captain Kirk going orbital skydiving, or Soran's torture of Geordi La Forge. On the other hand, some of the film's little bits of business become so shrunk down you wonder why Michael Jan Friedman even bothered to keep them; I don't see how anyone could follow the "Mr. Tricorder" bit. Gordon Purcell is a great artist, so I was pleased to see him doing his thing here. I was also amused that he faithfully renders how the Enterprise-D crew are constantly changing uniforms, even down to how Riker rolls up his sleeves to disguise the fact that Jonathan Frakes was given Avery Brooks's uniform from Deep Space Nine, and Frakes has longer arms. Surely a comics adaptation is a place to smooth out visual production exigencies and just make everything look as nice as possible!

The storyline "Convergence" is reprinted here, but since I'd just read that in IDW's The Gary Seven Collection, I did not reread it. It looks like the quality of reproduction is higher here, though.

Finally, there's a short little story about how Captain Morgan Bateson is struggling to adapt to twenty-fourth-century life (following the events of "Cause and Effect") and Scotty comes along to help him out (following the events of "Relics"). Which is a little weird now that I think about it, because Bateson actually jumped forward in time first! I referenced this story in my first published piece of Star Trek fiction but don't tell anyone, I'd never actually read it before now. show less

Originally Reviewed At:Mother/Gamer/Writer
Rating: 4 out of 5 Controllers
Review Source: NetGalley
Reviewer: Me



Ultimate Nerdgasm…

Let me go ahead and confess that I read the entire graphic novel in my best Captain Jean-Luc Picard voice. I love that man – well Patrick Stewart – and I couldn’t help but get a little excited when I was offered this for review. It’s so worth it, for any Star Trek or Doctor Who fan. It gives the readers exactly what they want, a science fiction mash-up of show more epic proportions.

We are immediately thrust into the story with Picard and the Doctor discussing the Borg. Both men are on either side of the fence with the situation. And through a flashback to one of my favorite Star Trek episodes told by none other than Guinan (aka Whoopi Goldberg), the Doctor is informed as to why our brave Captain doesn’t trust the Borg and would never form an alliance. However, once they dig deeper and realize the Cybermen are attempting to convert the Borg and use all of their resources to take over the universe, the threat against the world becomes too great even for Picard to ignore.

The best thing about Assimilation 2 Volume 2 is the characters. The illustrator aimed to make each character resemble their television selves, and I think it works in its favor. You can’t help but feel nostalgic or geek out when gazing upon the faces of Data, Worf, Geordi La Forge, or Matt Smith as the Doctor. Knowing you are heading into battle with your favorite characters, adds to the overall enjoyment of the story. The only downside is unfortunately you don’t get the conclusion to the story in this compilation. *sad face* You must wait until the next installment to see if their efforts work or if it was all for nothing.

Overall, Star Trek: The Next Generation / Doctor Who: Assimilation 2 Volume 2 is a must-read for any fan of either series. It’s engaging, highly entertaining, and will leave you wanting more long after you reach the end of page 72. I highly recommend geeking out to it!




This Review Counts as Part of the Manga/Graphic Novel/Video Game Challenge, If You Would Like To Participate You Can Find All the Information HERE show less

This TPB was more of the same as the first volume. It picked up right where the previous volume left off. The Cybermen and Borg were still thorns in the Enterprise and the Doctor's sides. And before any fighting and saving day can happen the Doctor has to convince Picard to parlay with the Borg. They want the Enterprise and the Doctor's help because their former allies turned on them, and then turned towards the Delta Quadrant to destroy the rest of the Borg as well.

This TPB also had the show more Enterprise Crew getting a look inside the TARDIS (and a couple of rides on it too) and a really cool scene between Amy Pond and Jean-Luc (it must be a red head thing).

All in all both TPBs made a good eight issue story line. Lots of both the Doctor and Star Trek goodness crammed into the same book. What could be better. show less