Review: Star Trek TNG: Intelligence Gathering #2
Although it is set in the time of The Next Generation, the second issue of the Scott and David Tipton written "Intelligence Gathering" series is another opportunity for the pair to show off their knowledge of The Original Series. This time they bring in Rigelians (who first appeared in “Journey to Babel”) and the Kaylar (who made their only appearance in the original Star Trek pilot, “The Cage”). But the center of this story of intrigue is Worf.
This issue shows the start of Worf’s diplomatic career, something that came to fruition in the later seasons of Deep Space Nine. As expected, Worf tries to do things the “Human” way to start, and quickly finds, like in a number of episodes, that being Human doesn’t always work for him, and under advisement from Riker, tries find “a ‘Worfian’ solution to this dilemma.”
Worf starts to get angry (click to enlarge)
As with the Tipton’s other stories (such as the "Blood Will Tell" series), their characterizations of the Klingons and their use of dialogue jumps off the page and feels like something we might expect to see and hear on television or the movie screen. Unfortunately, one characterization does not feel quite right when taking the rest of the IDW comic canon to date. In the story "Light of the Day", the fourth issue of David Tischman’s The Space Between series, Ro and Worf come to a new understanding with each other. Yet this new story presents Ro and Worf at that level of understanding already, but is set a season earlier.
David Messina’s art, as usual, is stylized but rings true to the feel of Trek in the comics. He manages to capture Worf’s attitude almost perfectly, even if his likenesses of Data and Riker occasionally leave something to be desired. One minor issue I have with his art on the crew we know and love is that he’s managed to give Ro Laren a comic-book breast enlargement. In most of the panels she appears in, she is more more endowed than she ever was on the television shows.
Worf realizes that Picard has just called him a “scoundrel and womanizer” (click to enlarge)
One potential problem brought up elsewhere is that there are apparently some phaser blasts where we see sound effects, but no visible shots. Each time this occurs (on pages 12 and 13), we see a "BRVVT" when a Kaylar weapon is shot. I don’t recall seeing any Kaylar weapons in the television series, but it is hard to know if it is a mistake or intentional.
Elena Casagrande has worked regularly with David Messina, previously doing "art assists" on all of his prior Star Trek books with Ilaria Traversi handling the colors. Casagrande takes over the colors on this issue, and it is a completely seamless transition. Whether she is taking over for the rest of the series or not, she has done a fine job on this issue.
Ro and Worf admire the Kaylar debt collection agencies (click to enlarge)
Other than a throwaway reference in the Captain’s log at the start of the story, this, on the surface, appears to have nothing to do with the prior issue, but Scott Tipton reported on the IDW Star Trek forums that the two stories will be tied together as the series continues toward its conclusion.
The story in this issue isn’t the most eventful, but is a good character story for Worf, showing his frustration at not being given the direct solution by Picard, and then showing his satisfaction at having solved the problem at the end of it all. Like the first few issues in IDW’s prior Next Generation series, the first few stories in this series feel like one-off "monster of the week" style episodes. Hopefully the Tiptons can tie this series better than David Tischman was able to finish that one off. I look forward to the next issue of this series.
Previews
New Frontier Covers
Artist Stephen Thompson has some previews for the "New Frontier" issue 2 featuring Edward Jellico (click to see more)
Chris Ryall also has an image of the "quad" art for the first "New Frontier" issue
Assignment Earth covers
Some more previews from Chris Ryall, this time for John Byrne’s upcoming "Assignment Earth" series
Coming up next week…Romulans!
A review of the last issue in the "Alien Spotlight" series – an issue by a master of the genre – and a brief revisit to a long forgotten era – or at least, one that should have been forgotten!
I hope that this new series is better than the last batch of comics was, bacause I really wasn’t that impressed.
Worf is sooooo boring.
I hate all the new comics
But I would be happy to read really good ones
#2
agreed
Click on the pic above at the very bottom of the article and it links to a site with loads of fantastic artwork. Click on ‘January (15)’ under the ‘Blog Archive’ heading, and scroll down for a tremendous black and white rendering of Kirk fighting a Klingon.
As a designer, I love sites like this. Sure hope you allow for some kind of ‘Fan Art’ section in your future plans Anthony.
#2
Spock is sooo boring.
#2
People with nothing better to say are soooo boring.
Damn, #5 beat me to it. =P
This looks exciting. Star Trek comics are back in a big way.
Last year’s TOS comics that didn’t have the “almost-Archie-like” drawings where quite nice.
I dont know why but i just cant get excited about Star trek comic in general and believe me I do like like comics and graphic novels.
Okay, where are the Ro pictures?
#2 and #6 ahem exsqueeze me? worf kicks ass and you would dare to insult Spock!!?! If you’re looking for unbelievebly pointless characters, try Neelix, Kes or even Mayweather! seriously Why!!?!
2, 6, 10 —
I would posit that it’s all in how the producers used the characters. Personally, it never struck me as odd that (outside of Mirror, Mirror) Spock is the only non-human character in TOS. (Lots more humanoids pop up in the crew for TMP, but not before.) Spock’s role was to comment on humanity. By the time you get to Voyager, you’ve got multiple characters serving that purpose. I have nothing against any of the actors you mention, but it’s true their characters’ purpose for being there gets muddled. As for Mayweather, when they used his character at all it was fine. The problem is he became a recurring extra. That sucked, since the show NEEDED more character moments anyway.
These Trek comics have made me a solid David Messina fan! :)
The text in this entry states that the Kaylar have only been seen in “The Cage,” but Kloog in “Gamesters” was a Kaylar. At least most believe this to be so, as do I, and I believe they intended when making it.
My lash dentish wash Kaylar.
owie..
Is “The Cage” accepted as canon? Not meant to be a sarcastic remark, but a serious question. Given that this was an original pilot and then essentially put on the scrap heap only to be re-cut for scenes in the Menagerie, doesn’t that mean the the Kaylar were really first “officially” seen in “The Menagerie? Based on this, does it therefore mean that all we regard as canon about Pike has its foundations from that episode rather than from “The Cage”?
i love this website and ive enjoyed many a night on here reading and contributing but i dearly hope that now the film has been put back we can still sustain the momentum. i hope that there arnt big gaps between breaking stories and interviews etc. i hope the news keeps coming the interest maintained
greg
UK
Sheer boredom. And why is Worf so fat? Trek in comics has always been a mixed bag.
Excuse me but I thought Kaylar was worf’s wife from TNG
I can’t think of anything more nerdy than Star Trek comic books…except reading about Star Trek comic books on a Star Trek blog.
Good to see Ens. Ro, in comic book form. I wish she had become a regular.
Anthony, any estimate on the date for the roll out on the forums, and other site changes?
You want Trek comic art??
Here ya go…
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryRoom.asp?GSub=37499
I’d love to hear any comments :)
jason
warning for trolling
comments to https://trekmovie.com/about/feedback
And for others making comments here about how you ‘dont care’…well I dont care that you dont care. This site is about all aspects of Trek. No one cares about them all, myself included. You dont like toys or games or comics or books or remastered or even the movie…just skip those articles.
No need to attack those who like them
19, funny! And you’re spending time here reading them… that’s an irony…
13: Kloog? He looked a bit like a Kaylar, but I’m not totally convinced that he was one. Thus… only the one mention that’s a “for certain” mention.
15: The Cage? Well, from what I’ve read from Paramount, everything televised and in theatres is considered “canon”. Except TAS. And even they’re leaning toward that being canon. So… yes. The Cage is canon.
The Menagerie just has “flashbacks” to that “episode”.
18: Worf’s wife was “K’Ehleyr”. Pronounced… well… almost like “Kaylar” :)
Also, sorry I didn’t put any pictures of Ro’s comic-enlargements… I just couldn’t think of any really good captions for them. The last image there, which shows Ro, was the most amusing one that had her in it.
I’m not saying I don’t care. It’s just I realized how nerdy I was for caring…
Sorry to ask such a n00b question, but…
I have always admired comics from afar. I wouldn’t know a good one from a bad one. I was hoping to get into some TOS comics, to share with my son. Is there a good series to start with? Is there somewhere online (preferably a Canadian site) that I can buy them? Thanks in advance for any help/guidance!
To Dab (#26):
Although I think it’s still possible to get some of DC Comics’ old TOS collections (and I thought they were generally quite good, check Amazon), IDW Publishing is currently doing a Star Trek: Year Four title. The idea being the series covers (right now) year four of the original five year mission (of which, only three years were covered on the TV show).
I tried it out, as I did the TNG mini-series that kicked off IDW’s line of Trek comics, and I was really unimpressed. Dull stories, inconsistent artwork, little to no character depth, and skimpy dialogue. For $3.00 a book, I want something that will take me more than five minutes to go through. But that’s just my opinion, others seem to like what IDW’s doing. You can find IDW’s Trek stuff at your local comic shop, or else go to idwpublishing.com and see for yourself.
Question… has anything been said about IDW doing a DS9 mini-series, or some kind of DS9-related title (Section 31, for instance)? As I said in my other posting, I was really unimpressed with the IDW/Trek titles I tried.
As a huge DS9 fan who feels like there’s so much untapped potential for that series and characters (but knows we’ll probably never see those characters again), I think a DS9 comic is about the only thing that would get me to give IDW another try.
28: As I understand it, IDW has the license for TNG and TOS. Nothing more at this time. Again, however, as I understand it, they are investigating the possibility of doing a DS9 comic to either tie into the Pocket “relaunch” or to sit during the series proper. Nothing confirmed or firm though.
Thanks Alex (#29)! Odd that they have the rights to also make a New Frontier comic but haven’t acquired DS9 yet (or the other two TV series for that matter, though those don’t interest me). Hopefully they’ll look into that soon.
I’d certainly give a DS9 comic a shot. Given a choice, I’d prefer stories set in the “Relaunch” (post TV show) period since the continuity of the series proper was pretty tight, but perhaps a mix of the two wouldn’t be a bad thing.
I followed the Relaunch books for awhile and really enjoyed them. I read the Avatar two-parter, Rising Son, and then Unity. All must-reads for DS9 fans. After that I didn’t keep following the series, for whatever reason (parenthood, and life in general just got in the way I guess).
I should go back and see what I’ve missed in the years since I stopped reading DS9 (and Trek in general). I found very few of the DS9 books written during DS9’s run on TV to be good reads, but those Relaunch books (set after the TV show) were great. I’d recommend them to any DS9 fan. Andy (Garak) Robinson’s “A Stitch in Time” is a fine book too! I don’t think that was officially a Relaunch book, but it was also set after the TV show ended.
I really enjoy the Star Trek comics. Looking forward to DC Fontana’s upcoming mini-series, “The Enterprise Experiment” as well as “Mirror Images.
I don’t know who at first says that I colored the second issue of ST:intelligence gathering, but I’m sure that I DIDN’T IT! I never colored any issue of ST! Please Alex correct this review, the official colorist of this comic book series is ILARIA TRAVERSI, only she! I do the same in all the website I find this wrong information.
Thanks! :)