McCoy is still missing. Kirk is injured. Bugs have attacked bugs. There’s some weird quadraphasic readings. Oh, and Ambassador Cassady is in charge, where does that leave the Enterprise crew? This week IDW brings an end to their five issue Mission’s End series which tells the story of the final days of Kirk and crew’s five year mission. We wrap it up with our review of the final two issues (and the series as a whole) below.
MISSION’S END #4 REVIEW
The fourth issue of "Mission’s End" picks up moments after the end of the last issue. Spock hovers over Kirk’s limp and unconscious body as the crawlers are attacking the spiders. In something of what appears to be an uprising or rebellion by the previously believed non-sentient crawlers, one of the pieces of the "Heart of God" is stolen and, despite being chased by a Federation shuttle, spirited away by the crawlers. Cassady finds herself the ranking Starfleet officer, and Spock turns to her for guidance, while pointing out the requirements of the Prime Directive. In the meantime, McCoy finds himself in a situation where he is forced to pull rank on the security detail assigned to his portion of the away mission. At the same time, Uhura has discovered strange communications from within the Enterprise, and Scotty and Sulu are forced to deal with the disturbance.
He’s a doctor, but not of philosophy. It’s still bad… (click to enlarge)
Ty Templeton, the author of this final 5-year mission story, is starting to pull the strings of the various plot threads together. There are four major disparate plotlines at the start of the issue, but by the halfway mark, the connections are starting to become apparent. Templeton obviously knows his classic Trek crew and revels in reference dropping throughout, from McCoy’s southern love of the Mint Julep to Sulu’s martial arts, to Uhura’s abilities. He also presents us with some more references to the Orion Syndicate, something that was hinted at in the first issue, and a group that has made appearances in a couple of the other IDW series to date.
After a drop in quality in the artwork in the third issue by Stephen Molnar, the quality picks up again. There are still occasional difficulties in differentiating characters from each other, but overall, the artwork is back up to the levels of the first two issues. One of Molnar’s best moments in this issue is when Cassady is having a crisis of faith over Kirk’s unconscious body near the shuttlecraft. His lines are simple, but bring out the conflict and confusion in her body language as she tries to decide what the best course of action is and whether her past desires are still relevant. Neil Uyetake takes over the lettering and continues the jagged, and somewhat difficult to read, style for the insects, and makes the change in letterer invisible.
Cover for "Mission’s End" #4
(click to enlarge)
MISSION’S END #5 REVIEW
The fifth, and final, issue of "Mission’s End" leads off with Kirk trying to figure out what has gone wrong and how to salvage the situation. He does not know about the Orion Syndicate fleet faced by Scotty in the skies above, but he does have some ideas as to where to start, based on his past experiences on the planet, nearly five years previous. In fact, he starts off by locating McCoy to a very thankful "I was wondering when you were going to show up". Kirk’s next step is figuring out how to resolve the situation without further bloodshed.
The classic Star Trek mantra… if Kirk’s not on the ship and the ground beneath his feet is solid… wait for him! (click to enlarge)
There are a few leaps in this issue that force the reader to write parts of the story on his or her own, but most of them play out like a television episode, there are only one or two that stand out as awkward. Ty Templeton brings his story to a close by the mid-point of this book, allowing for an elongated epilogue, where the real story notes for the three main characters are hit. This epilogue reads like the last 10 minutes of Deep Space Nine’s final episode, "What You Leave Behind". In a sense, this is what the last episode of the original Star Trek could have played out like at the end… if it had been given the chance to get to five seasons to cover the original mission. Templeton shows, over these eight pages, that he understands the characters and how they grow from the ones we saw in the original and animated series to the ones encountered ten years later in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He also makes their partings believable and sympathetic.
Back in stardock, just in time for the Motion Picture to start… (click to enlarge)
Molnar’s best moments of this issue are, like the last one, the introspective moments. The first fourteen pages play out as expected, but once the wrapup scenario begins, he manages to capture the expressions and moments in a way that feels like the montages and character moments from a television episode. The colors help this section, and despite the occasional 1980s DC Star Trek comic visages at times, the epilogue stands out as the best portion of the entire story, both from art and story points of view.
Cover for "Mission’s End" #5
(click to enlarge)
Overall, the Mission’s End series started well, had some moments where it lagged a bit, but came together at the end for a fantastic final issue. Templeton waited until the fifth issue to tie the first and last missions of the Enterprise under Kirk’s command, but did it in a convincing way that did not seem out of character for the rest of the plotline. Other than a dip in the middle, the artwork was consistently good too. This is not the best of the original series comic stories to date, but the epilogue stands comfortably with the best of IDW’s Star Trek works.
Issue 5 available now – TPB coming in October
Star Trek Mission’s End #4 and #5 are available in comic stores now. You can order them from TFAW.
A trade paperback combining all 5 issues comes out in October, you can pre-order that now from Amazon
MORE: See Mission’s End #5 5-page preview
Reviews: Star Trek Mission’s End: #1, #2, #3
Sounds groovy. Nice panel selections to show it off, too.
Based on all the fiction written concerning the first 5 year mission, the crew must have encountered some enemy, foe or unusual occurrence on literally a daily basis! Good for them!!
It bugs me when artwork depicts “the final year” of the mission and they use a first season likeness of Shatner. Shat looked different by season three, the artwork should reflect that.
I look for these on the comic shelves all the time… Oh, sure, they have Batman, Superman, X-Men, even Star Wars, but no Star Trek to be found.
Scifigirl
that is why we link to issues at tfaw.com and tpb at amazon
Why should I read comics like this now, or even novels for that matter, given that the new movie has erased this timeline? It seems utterly futile to me, especially since the writers intend to continue along the same path in the next film, with the original timeline having been overwritten by this new one.
Wish I could attend the Vegas Trek Convention though –sounds like it’s gonna be a blast of a good time.
because this time line is still cool, and you can have both.
I agree it does seem as though they suddenly started believing this whole infinite universe thing just to suit the new film. All other incarnations of Star Trek has had one past and future, if the Enterprise or Voyager mess with something it does affect the timeline.
I think the infinite universe answer is a lame excuse in order to get everyone behind them on what they did to continuity in the film.
It can still be fixed, if in the last mission of this crew they go back to the beginning and finally put right this evil doing, it can then follow Star Trek as we know it.
I have a question for Batman fans were you upset when they hit reset with Christian Bale, so the previous films didn’t exist?
Guys, this is stupid. Reboots don’t “erase” previous works.
If you prefer TOS canon, by all means pretend that the new movie didn’t happen. Why upset yourself by instead pretending that STXI erased the original canon? The fact remains that it’s all still there, it’s all still valid, and it’s up to YOU to believe what you want to believe.
I for one have put the new film in the same category as the Spider-Man and Iron Man films: pop-culture interpretations of beloved franchises that aren’t quite the real thing, but that’s okay.
Of course, my interpretations of canon are highly personal and subjective.
That Orion on the #4 cover looks like Brainiac.
8. David B – July 31, 2009
“I agree it does seem as though they suddenly started believing this whole infinite universe thing just to suit the new film. All other incarnations of Star Trek has had one past and future, if the Enterprise or Voyager mess with something it does affect the timeline.”
How do we know that the previous time traveling didn’t splinter off, creating an alternate universe? To the observer it might look like they ‘corrected’ a prime timeline from their perspective, but it may have only meant that they splintered back into a more familiar timeline.
The previous movies generally used theories and science that was thought to be true at the time. They didn’t suddenly start using this theory on a whim. Aside from that, Star Trek is fiction….Science Fiction. I can’t think of any better place to explore such possibilities. Parallels was an example of these splintered off universes existing within Trek. For heavens sake, deal with it.
As for Batman…I don’t think many would have been upset they were starting over with the film series, considering that Batman has been reinterpreted and adapted numerous times. In the comic book world…you get used to accepting that the characters might not act or be exactly the same for very long.
6, you should just do what I do–pretend Q saved the timeline and made ST09 be in an alternate reality, but Spock Prime just didn’t realize it because Q sent him to a point in an alternate reality before it seriously diverged from TOS (beyond, of course, what Nero did). Q, being Q, would of course be immune to any timeline changes. See? Everything fixed!
…And TATV never happened, either. I don’t have any explanation for that one. I just ignore it. Otherwise I’d have to not like Riker, and I refuse to do that.
The storyline of this series seems underwhelming. Years ago, DC comics did their version of the final mission. The story involved the Enterprise returning to Talos IV to save Captain Pike and the Talosians after the planet was taken over by Klingons. THAT was a story worthy of a TOS finale!
Sulu on cover #4 looks like he’s ready to do something more than just restrain him.
Ohhhhh my.
Couldn’t get into the art on this series. As far as story, I also really liked the “Final Mission” written by Mike W. Barr referenced by 13. That was a satisfying yarn!
The art is excellent!
I thought the art was great but as an attempt to tell a story about the “final mission” of the 5 year voyage, having the running thread being giant talking bug people that the original show couldn’t have pulled off on TV does take me out of the story a bit.
I think the fact that they chose to include Nimoy in this movie as elder Spock makes it more difficult to just write off the change in the timeline as just ‘a different or alternative version of ST’ with the original timeline supposedly remaining intact, aside from his actions in the film being out of character given that he accepted the outcome by the end of the movie rather than feeling it necessary to travel back in time to correct the timeline.
As for this notion about a new universe having ‘split off’ and being created when Nero and Spock went through the black hole –I’ve already pondered that prospect elsewhere but deemed it highly unlikely. Their having gone back to an already existing alternate timeline with subtle differences in its history would be far more likely, all things considered.
I realize some people may consider this a silly thing to get all hung up on …I did notice that someone here mentioned their chalking it up to being just ‘a different version of Trek’ altogether, which it obviously is, but then it would have probably been better if they didn’t include Nimoy at all to give a solid sense of continuity and a real connection to the original series and its characters. Frankly, I’m peeved by the extent to which Orci, Kurtzman and Abrams want to just skate with this without making a solid definitive statement clearly addressing the problem head on, because it’s a serious issue to longtime fans like myself. “The original timeline remains intact even though this one obviously overwrites it.”
Give me a break. That’s just taking the fan base for granted IMHO, and it’s really no better than a lot of the stunts Berman and Braga pulled when thumbing their noses at Trek fans, especially at fans of the original series, which arguably they took the most for granted during their time running the franchise.
In a perfect universe a new trek friendly reboot series would go out of its way to unestablish BermanBragaisms – Cochrane is from Alpha Centauri, Enterprise doesn’t exist etc. And then undo the orciverse – romulan empire is just fine – rumors that spock is in some other dimension is akin to Elvis sightings.
A friend of mine was talking up how much better the movie was than “that show that doesn’t exist” (enterprise). Sadly I pointed out that in the movie continuity Enterprise is the only show that counts!
I prefer DCs annual 2
What is this – the 3rd or 4th comic version of the end of the first 5YM?
#18–part of the multiverse theory implies that its not just events that can be different, but peoples’ appearances too…the 1990s FOX/SciFi show Sliders dealt with this by having alternate versions of a main character played by another actor (in other words one who looked different from the original) and even a FEMALE version of a male main character, so the disparity created by Nimoy playing Elder Spock to Quinto’s younger Spock, or by the rest of the new cast playing roles once played by others, doesn’t exist…also…it IS a NEW timeline that’s SIMILAR but not THE SAME as TOS… as for Spock’s actions…see how youd react if you were inadvertently responsible for the deaths of over 6 billion Romulans and over 6 billion of your own people and your own mother and Kirk’s father in an alternate timeline…after all Spock is half-human too, and hadnt had enough time to recover emotionally from the devastation…Vulcan logic and discipline were not designed to be adequate to deal with the guilt and trauma of being accidentally responsible for the deaths of over 12 billion people…moreover he felt since he was there already he had a responsibility to the people of the new timeline…AND we’re dealing with a much older, different Prime Spock than in the TOS films OR in Unification… one further burdened by the death of Prime Kirk at Veridian 3, the devastation of the Dominion War, the Borg Disaster in the relaunch novels, and who knows what else… so dont presume that Prime Spock’s actions were out of character as you dont have suffjcient information to form an accurate argument…
>>#18–part of the multiverse theory implies that its not just events that can be different, but peoples’ appearances too…the 1990s FOX/SciFi show Sliders dealt with this by having alternate versions of a main character played by another actor (in other words one who looked different from the original) and even a FEMALE version of a male main character, so the disparity created by Nimoy playing Elder Spock to Quinto’s younger Spock, or by the rest of the new cast playing roles once played by others, doesn’t exist.”<>”also…it IS a NEW timeline that’s SIMILAR but not THE SAME as TOS…”<>”as for Spock’s actions…see how youd react if you were inadvertently responsible for the deaths of over 6 billion Romulans and over 6 billion of your own people and your own mother and Kirk’s father in an alternate timeline…”<>”Vulcan logic and discipline were not designed to be adequate to deal with the guilt and trauma of being accidentally responsible for the deaths of over 12 billion people…moreover he felt since he was there already he had a responsibility to the people of the new timeline…”<>”so dont presume that Prime Spock’s actions were out of character as you dont have suffjcient information to form an accurate argument…”<<
Sure I do –I know the storyline to this latest movie, where it starts and where it ends, and I just gave you an argument that holds solidly true to the character, whereas what happens in this film doesn’t by the end of the movie and is simply inconsistent with who Spock was and what he believed, regardless of what stage of his life is at issue.
“#18–part of the multiverse theory implies that its not just events that can be different, but peoples’ appearances too…the 1990s FOX/SciFi show Sliders dealt with this by having alternate versions of a main character played by another actor (in other words one who looked different from the original) and even a FEMALE version of a male main character, so the disparity created by Nimoy playing Elder Spock to Quinto’s younger Spock, or by the rest of the new cast playing roles once played by others, doesn’t exist.” -Porthos X
That’s not the issue –in fact, I didn’t even touch on appearance as an issue. I’m concerned with the integrity of the timeline and how the original timeline has been affected and altered by this new one, which clearly changes everything.
“also…it IS a NEW timeline that’s SIMILAR but not THE SAME as TOS…”
That’s the problem actually.
“as for Spock’s actions…see how youd react if you were inadvertently responsible for the deaths of over 6 billion Romulans and over 6 billion of your own people and your own mother and Kirk’s father in an alternate timeline…”
Spock was not “responsible” for all that –he was doing all that he possibly could to rectify the situation when he simply ran out of time. And what canon shows is that when a problem in the timeline like that one emerged, the answer was to go back in time to correct the timeline, such as in “City on the Edge of Forever,” and ST IV: TVH, which was a little different in that they went back in time there to retrieve whales, which had gone extinct by the 23rd century –but if he could go back to the 20th century to retrieve two humpback whales, one would think that saving Romulus and thereby preventing the events that unfolded in this film from happening would have been just as important, if not more so.
“Vulcan logic and discipline were not designed to be adequate to deal with the guilt and trauma of being accidentally responsible for the deaths of over 12 billion people…moreover he felt since he was there already he had a responsibility to the people of the new timeline…”
Spock’s responsibility when it came to maintaining the integrity of a timeline was always in seeing to it that history unfolded correctly, in addition to his lives of his fellow comrades and those closest to him –in other words, the crew of the Enterprise and what would happen to them also.
“so dont presume that Prime Spock’s actions were out of character as you dont have suffjcient information to form an accurate argument…”
Sure I do –I know the storyline to this latest movie, where it starts and where it ends, and I just gave you an argument that holds solidly true to the character, whereas what happens in this film doesn’t by the end of the movie and is simply inconsistent with who Spock was and what he believed, regardless of what stage of his life is at issue.