IDW has just released a five-page preview of the first issue of "Star Trek Countdown." the official comic prequel for the new Star Trek movie, which is coming out this month week. Check it out below
COUNTDOWN PREVIEW
The four issue ‘Star Trek Countdown’ comics series will show the progression from the Next Generation era to the new Star Trek movie. The series is ‘presented’ by Star Trek director JJ Abrams with a story by Star Trek co-writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. The series will primarily deal with (elder) Spock and the film’s villain Nero, including interactions with other characters from the TNG era. The series is written by Tim Jones and Mike Johnson with art by David Messina.
Cover and 5 page preview (click to enlarge)
As reported, the comic series starts off after the events of Star Trek Nemesis. The Stardate given is 64333.4, around eight years after Nemesis (Stardate 56893.5). Issue one starts off with Nero and his crew, including his second Ayel, on a mining operation (looking for something called ‘decalithium’) when something seems to go wrong. Also of note is that Nero and his crew have hair and no tattoos (as seen in pre-release images), and although the drilling platform appears the same, Nero’s ship looks different than seen in the Star Trek trailer and press previews.
UPDATE: Countdown coming THIS week
Although the comic is listed at some online retailers as coming out on January 28th, IDW tells TrekMovie that Countdown #1 will be released on Wednesday the 14th.
Pre-order Star Trek Countdown now
Issues 1-3 are available now for pre-order at tfaw.com and the Trade Paperback is available at Amazon.
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Star Trek Countdown |
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$12.23 |
You can also order a subscription to all four issues at IDW.com ($15.96 or $3.99/issue).
sweet…first?
wow so here we have it…
nero’s romulans seem so polite…and his ears are intact!
rhat was a little disapointing the style of it reminds me of the game dead space
I’ve never actually read a comic book before.
This will be my first.
#2 – “[N]ero’s romulans seem so polite.”
If you can read any of the words in these comics’ dialogue bubbles, even after clicking to enlarge, then your eyeballs are definitely a couple of decades younger than mine! :-)
4 – Please be gentle with it. ;-)
Nero seems human with that dialog to that guy in the spacesuit.
Get your ass up here?
Color me worried.
#5— Once you enlarge, move your cursor to the bottom right corner of the enlarged picture and ‘click’ on the icon that comes up. It becomes as clear as anything on the site.
Not sure it is too big of a deal in hindsight if you think about it. Major Kira from DS9 was no stranger to human slang.
Another odd thing is that the drill is there, bridge looks like the one in the film, but the ship doesn’t resemble the Vorlon/Shadow planetkiller with chains seen in the trailer.
Erm, I didn’t really read your aticle first, Anthony. Sorry.
That stardate puts it a whole 14 years after Nemesis. Nemesis was 2379, so this would be 2393. I’m intrigued to see what they do with this.
#7—I’d say no more so that the Romulans in “Balance Of Terror”. The dialogue in that episode could have just as easily been on the bridge of a Federation ship between any two human veteran officers.
Re: Devon.
Tomalok would never threaten to kick Picard’s ass all the way back to Sector 001.
I like it!
Nice artwork, with creative use of “lighting,” if you can say that about a comic. I’m in.
Consider this a translation from Romulan into English. So see, it’s not that they’re using human slang. Jeez!
Closettrekker
I disagree. The Romulan dialogue in “Balance of Terror” was very formal.
“I regret that we meet in this way. You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend.” (which is the classic WWII movie line)
– Romulan Commander to Kirk
“Take care, Commander; he has friends. And friends of his kind mean power . . . and power is danger.”
“Danger and I are old companions.”
“We have seen a hundred campaigns together, and still I do not understand you.”
“I think you do. No need to tell you what will happen when we return home with proof of the Earthmen’s weakness – and we will have proof. The Earth commander will follow; he must. And when he attacks, we will destroy him. Our gift to the homeland – another war.”
“If we are the stronger, is this not the signal for war?”
“Must it always be so? How many comrades have we lost in this way?”
“Our portion, Commander . . . is obedience.”
“Bah– obedience, duty, death and more death; soon, even enough for the Praetor’s tastes. Centurion, I find myself wishing for destruction before we can return. (chuckle) Worry not; like you, I am too well-trained in my duty to permit it.”
– Romulan Commander and Centurion
“I will tend to the centurion!”
“No need; the centurion is dead.”
“Why don’t we fire, Commander?”
“No. . . . He is shrewd, this starship commander; he tries to make us waste energy. It is estimated we have only enough. . . . It is time – all debris into disposal tubes! (to Decius) The body of the centurion, as well. (aside) Forgive me, my old friend. But I must use all my experience now to get home.”
– Decius and the Romulan Commander
“How, commander? How?”
“He’s a sorcerer, that one – he reads the thoughts in my brain.(explosion) … Our fuel supply all but gone and he stays out of reach!”
“Then we are beaten! Can it be true? The Praetor’s finest and proudest flagship – beaten!”
“Perhaps . . . we can yet save your Praetor’s pride for him. (to crew) More debris into the tubes! Decius — do we have any of the old-style nuclear warheads aboard?”
“Yes, Commander, but only for self-destruction.”
“Place one in with the debris — proximity fuse!”
– Decius and Romulan Commander
Nowhere is anyone called “big boy”
Do romulans really say “Big Boy” and get your ass up here??? Well Next Genie fans there’s your big gift of a little slice of inclusion in the rebirth of the TOS Trek franchise, a comic written by a ridlin addled mtv emo 14 year old. Enjoy!!!
#15—-If it helps you, just consider the dialogue a rough translation from the Romulan language. Perhaps the Romulans have a similar slang term for that part of their anatomy, and use it in much the same way as humans use the word “ass”.
:)
#13. Nemesis took place on/around stardate 56844.9 (2379), so this stardate is only 8 years after Nemesis, making it 2387.
SPOILER…. known for months but still giving a warning.
The “drilling” technique described here is used by Nero in the new movie.
This is a very interesting tie in.
#9 – Thank you! That’s MUCH better!
I was getting ready to save up for bifocals, but now I can spend my money on other essentials such as food, gasoline and “Star Trek” movie tickets.
Have a good one, now!
I wll also conced that it looks like Nero and his crew are civilian contractors, and that their time spent away from the machinations and paranoia of Romulus would probably allow for interactions and a sense of familiarity that would be completely unacceptable in the Romulan military.
Still, whether a loose translation or not, I think they could have gone with a little more creative dialogue.
The dialog does seem a bit strange for a Romulan, but it’s only three pages of it, so it would be illogical to judge it so early. However, what I noticed is that the stardate places it well after Nemesis, which again raises the question of whether it really is B4 instead of Data in the Starfleet uniform on the other issue’s cover.
Is there really a calculation to figure “real time” from stardates?? I didn’t think there was. I believe you all, though. There’s certainly stuff I don’t know!
As it was clearly shown at the end of Nemesis, Data’s transplant to B4 was effective, as evidenced by B4’s singing (why must Old Yellow Eyes always f***ing sing?) “Blue Skies” It’s a rehash of “Search for Spock” where we have a near lobotomized Spock saying “Your name is… JIM!”
By the next movie he was almost 100%. Similarly speaking, if Paramount had ponied up a big paycheck, plus producer and story credit for Spiner, Data would have been back with his positronic Katra residing in his simple-minded plot device brother.
Interesting. I like Nero’s ship — it looks distinctly Romulan, but definately unique.
Just had a thought – since there’s time travel involved, and the bridge looks the same, maybe the ship in the movie is this one, with years and years of modifications added onto it?
@24: That’s just what I was going to say.
The dialogue seemed very comic book to me. Not surprising its a comic. You have to adapt to the format you are using.
If Nero and crew are calling each other “big boy” in the movie, then that’s a different issue.
However, where I’m from “big boy” is quite a gratuitous term to describe ones reproductive organs and not there bodybuild!
#18—“Nowhere is anyone called ‘big boy’. ”
Nor did I suggest that. My response was meant to point out that BOT’s dialogue portrays the Romulans, on a personal level, as being not dissimilar to our own kind. In fact, I think we are meant to appreciate that those Romulans are not faceless villains, and even to empathize with their feelings of friendship, loyalty, duty, and patriotism.
I wasn’t addressing (in that post, anyway) the formality or lack thereof in the dialogue.
The post to which I was responding said, “Nero seems human with that dialog to that guy in the spacesuit.”
Humans are also quite capable of formality in speech, just as they are capable of informality and the use of slang terms or metaphors.
Take this portion of the dialogue in BOT:
Decius: “Take care, Commander; he has friends. And friends of his kind mean power . . . and power is danger.”
Romulan Commander: “Danger and I are old companions.”
This is a ‘very’ human use of language.
Power is not actually danger, nor can danger actually be a companion. Call it metaphor, or call it personification, but clearly, Romulans are prone to very human habits in the use of language.
I do not see why the use of “slang” terms by people of the same species over a century later would be any less believable.
Re 28
So Nero’s ship got V’Ger’d? Maybe.
But it also looks like they just lost their drill.
#27 I think “The Offspring” firmly established you can download an Android’s memories, but not their “soul” or a better word maybe “essence” in Data’s case.
Data, even absorbing Lal’s experience of emotions, was still emotionless and no closer to understanding what it is that seperates him from humans as evidenced by subsequent episodes.
Data’s memory transfer to B4 is no different. The memories there, but the soul aint. If that happens, then Star Trek would be saying that Data is nothing but a collection of files. Whereas TNG always professed that Data was much more than the sum of his parts.
B4 could never be Data; just as Data could never be Lal.
I like it, good style, has the technobable..lots of -ilium resources, seems like trek to me! And seeing Nero’s regard for the life of his crew, it’ll be interesting to see what turns him into the evil, “wait is over,” Nero we know from the trailer!
I fear that actually regularly getting this comic, as I probably will, is going to nerdify me further…1602 and Watchmen are the only other comics/graphic novels (don’t judge me for including Watchmen in that) I have read cover to cover!
I am an excited Spuddy!
Pay less attention to the language used, and more attention to the fact that these guys are not soldiers. I think it’s a deliberate attempt to show that these were ‘normal guys’ and not soldiers or politicians.
Speculation: The drills proximity to the exploding moon creates some sort of ability for his ship to time travel, harnacing the power of the collapsing planet? Oh god, I’ve been watching FAR too much Star Trek……. I didn’t even use the word quantum, or singularity tho, so have mercy on me…..
Walk it off, guys. What civilization does not have slang? Name one that doesn’t make fun of people for size or their ‘backside?’
Besides, we’re not talking about RSA officers, these are the Romulan equivalent of longshoremen.
The bridge of the mining ship and the drilling rig look identical to what we’ve seen before in the film. It’s possible that these vessels are in the movie, though I wonder how the “space octopus” plays into it.
Re 30
Also, see my proposed justification for the dialogue. That doesn’t mean I think it’s any good. I understand that the Romulans are humanoid and we’re reading their dialogue in English. My comment was specifically with the quality of the dialogue and I posted that same BOT quote above to illustrate what good weighty metaphorical dialogue looks like.
As for lowering vocabulary standards for comic books: The only comic books I’ve read were read two of the JMS Spiderman comics online (the 9-11 special issue and his first installment) and in neither did he alter his rather theatrical dialogue to please the kiddies (who are probably all over 40 anyway).
I believe the original writers of Trek wrote formally in order to create a somewhat timeless depiction of the future. By keeping the language clean, the dialogue suffers less from being dated (the skirts, however).
#24—“I wll also conced that it looks like Nero and his crew are civilian contractors, and that their time spent away from the machinations and paranoia of Romulus would probably allow for interactions and a sense of familiarity that would be completely unacceptable in the Romulan military.”
Excellent point. They do seem to be performing a very “civilian-like” task.
Put simply, we do not yet know who these Romulans are, or what function in which they serve in Romulan society. I still do not know that it makes much difference. Romulans are generally well-disciplined, but they are not Vulcans. I find it perfectly believable that they would, at times, make use of less formal speech.
One Romulan shouldn’t be expected to behave precisely like another, any more than humans can be defined, as a race, by uniform behavior. I think that includes their respective manners of speech and use of language.
I have a feeling Ayel is going to be a very memorable character, because Clifton Collins, Jr. has the potential to be a truly great character actor.
35 That could work, which might be why Spock Classic and Picard would be interested in a private mining operation. How the Kirks get dragged into it is anybody’s guess.
It’s going to be fun trying to put these clues together!
Really bad timing and lack of basic survival skills by the Rommies in not checking that star for current stability status.
Re: 32
Data is nothing more than a collection of files. He doesn’t have a soul.
He is a great approximation of humanity, but not nearly as accurate as his brother, who acts on real human emotions and motivations (albeit evil).
TNG demonstrated this in the episode where he pursues a relationship with a female crewmember. At the end of the episode, the relationship ends because for all his mimicry of human emotions, Data was not a suitable romantic choice and could never give his partner what she needed, aside from companionship and his “fully functional” hardware.
#38–“That doesn’t mean I think it’s any good. I understand that the Romulans are humanoid and we’re reading their dialogue in English. My comment was specifically with the quality of the dialogue and I posted that same BOT quote above to illustrate what good weighty metaphorical dialogue looks like.”
I would definitely agree that the dialogue is not as good in this comic book preview as in “Balance Of Terror” (Bob Orci’s favorite episode of Star Trek). I am certainly no expert on comic books (I’ve never read one), but I would never have expected it to be. Call it a preconceived notion of comic books on my part.
:)
Re: #39
It could be that the Romulan crew’s mood is meant to contrast with their more villainous behavior in the film. Something over the course of the comic series will happen to them to them from happy-go-lucky miners into time-traveling fanatics bent on killing Kirk and destroying Vulcan.
42: Yeah, talk about 500 billion to one bad odds.
#15 – Tomalok was never cool enough to threaten to kick someone’s ass.
45: Clearly that is their intent. What makes a villain?
However, it’ll probably be some lame Anorax inspired imitation. Anything would be better than Shinzon’s hatred of humanity – a race of which he was a member and which never harmed him in any way. It would’ve seemed more logical that he would have taken out his aggressions on his Romulan captors by making them work for the new Reman leadersghip.
47: He threatened to destroy the Enterprise and display its broken hull in the public square of Romulus as a symbol of glory, but he didn’t get all up in Picard’s grill, dawg.
#45—“It could be that the Romulan crew’s mood is meant to contrast with their more villainous behavior in the film. Something over the course of the comic series will happen to them to them from happy-go-lucky miners into time-traveling fanatics bent on killing Kirk and destroying Vulcan.”
That would seem to be the intent. The writers described the comic prequel as as story which depicts the transformation of Nero from a Romulan patriot to an evil villain (paraphrasing, of course). Obviously, something drives Nero to descend into villainy.
What I am most looking forward to is Orci’s promise that the comic series will make Nero’s connection to Spock (Nimoy) clear before the film.