IDW Publishing releases the second issue of John Byrne’s Star Trek: Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor this week, wherein McCoy and his medical team respond to a call for assistance from an old friend. Spoilers ahead in our review, along with an update on Star Trek: Captain’s Log comics.
Star Trek: Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor #2 "Error"
written and illustrated by John Byrne, colors by Lovern Kindzierski
In another letter to Jim Kirk, McCoy tells the tale of his latest adventure. Theela has settled in comfortably with McCoy and Duncan, eagerly listening to the veteran doctor’s stories and finding a little romance with the younger doctor. Arriving on Gamma Tarses VII at the request of Montgomery Scott, McCoy encounters the Tarseans, whose rigid cultural protocols make investigating deaths from a mysterious ailment, very difficult. Forced to take a break from his research for a holy day, McCoy stumbles on a secret, then he and his team deduce the stunning cause of the deaths from Scotty’s remarks about the Tarsean transporters.
I found John Byrne‘s latest McCoy tale both fascinating and disappointing. I’m fascinated with the technological transporter twist conceived by the Tarsean culture that’s ultimately driving them to extinction. I don’t know if this concept has ever been articulated in Trek literature or other media, but it’s a clever idea for a story. I’m disappointed that our visit with McCoy, Scotty, Theela and Duncan is so brief. Byrne is giving us revealing glimpses of their lives aboard Joanna and I feel right at home with them. I’d like to learn more, but Byrne only has twenty-two pages to tell a story. Good thing there are two more issues remaining in this mini-series.
Sharing a drink.
Byrne’s art, colored by Lovern Kindzierski, contributes to the comfortable familiarity of Leonard McCoy, arguably the most accessible, perhaps the most human, of the original series characters. The finely detailed exterior and interior views of the Tarsean city and the Joanna contrast nicely with the closeups of McCoy and his crew. Byrne gives us a lot of dialogue to read and the overall layout makes it easy to follow the story. Two issues of McCoy out and Byrne has hit two in a row out of the park.
Sh’hal’aba!
Star Trek: Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor #2 ships with two regular covers illustrated by Byrne and colored by Kindzierski. Cover A features McCoy, Theela and Duncan surrounded by angry Tarsean security guards. Cover B is a keyhole cover featuring McCoy dispensing sound medical advice to an alien patient of unidentified origin. Both regular covers have the same design motif as the A and B covers for issue #1, and are as entertaining as the story they front. A retailer incentive cover featuring the black & white art for cover B is also available for purchase. Out of curiosity, do any TrekMovie readers buy the incentive covers? How much do they cost? Let me know in the comments. My local comic shop doesn’t buy enough copies of Star Trek comics to get the incentives. A larger comic shop, in a bigger city an hour away, puts a $10 price tag on the retailer incentive covers.
Cover A: John Byrne, Cover B: John Byrne, colors by Lovern Kindzierski
Retailer Incentive Cover: John Byrne
If you have to use a transporter to get to your local comic shop this Wednesday, keep in mind that it may be hazardous to your health and the health of all your descendants. Byrne’s McCoy comics can also be purchased online without a transporter at TFAW.
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The trade paperback collection of Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor is scheduled for publication October 2010 and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.
Update & preview on Captain’s Log series
The last TrekInk column revealed details the three remaining Captain’s Log comics coming from IDW Publishing this year. That article had J. K. Woodward listed for doing the art for the Pike comic, but as it turns out he is is doing double duty and will also be doing the art for the Jellico comic. Here is the updated list.
- September: em>Pike by Stuart Moore, art by J. K. Woodward
- October/November: Jellico, by Keith R. A. DeCandido, art by J. K. Woodward
- November/December: Garrett, by Robert Greenberger, art by George Freeman
Woodward has also pointed TrekMovie to some preview pages of his artwork for the Pike and Jellico comics, check it out.
J.K. Woodward’s "Captains Log: Pike" previews
J.K. Woodward’s "Captains Log: Jellico" previews
Mark Martinez is an obsessive-compulsive Star Trek comics reader and collector. You can visit his website, the Star Trek Comics Checklist for more than you ever needed to know about Star Trek comics.
The Captain Pike and Gellico issues look AMAZING.
Need these on Iphone quicker!!
addicted
please help
please
I’d also LOVE to see J.K. Woodward illustrate Captain Robau and Captain Demora Sulu tales…or maybe even mini-series?
a better idea… why cant they do a live action mini-series of this, a 4 episode special, or made-for-tv movie about this…
Thanks for the informative review. Great job! Also thanks for the previews and the amazing sneak peak artwork.
But I’ll have to nitpick that Pike didn’t fly this version of the Enterprise. His version had the larger dish, bridge dome and the spikes on the warp nacelles.
I am going to get those Pike and Jellico comics- the artwork is incredible.
The Frontier Doctor series may turn out to be one of my favourites, if the first was any sign of things to come. The artwork in the Captain’s Log Pike comic is immaculate, but does anyone else think it seems to be a little washed out with ‘lens flares’… Pretty sure its just some bright ‘phenomenon’, but it smacks of Abrams-Trek!
That is ARTwork. Incredible stuff.
Jellico Rocks! He put some discipline in the lax 1701D crew.
I also have really enjoyed this McCoy series. I love all the little nods to all things familiar from the original show, and I like his natural and instinctive ability to show the progression of things that would have been. I think he has a good feel for that…one of his gifts. I also dig the heck out of the fact that he feels the Gary Seven character was something that should have been played out – as I do. He feels it so strongly, again as I do, that he incorporates it into other story ideas. ( I really feel that says something there) and I look forward to the issue in this series, I’ve heard about, that features “the mysterious Mr. Seven” again.
I again want to know why I can’t order these from IDW as I used to. I don’t even see this listed on their website. What’s up?
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Frank Frazetta 1928-2010 – RIP
The artwork for the Pike and Jellico comics look stunning. As does the McCoy comics. I have to say IDW has done a marvelous job overall with the Trek line. Can’t wait to see what the Garrett issue looks like.
And I wonder if IDW will do another “Alien Spotlight” series.
I would also like to see issues devoted to the Ferengi, the Jem’ Hadar, origins of the Borg and the Hirogen.
@12. ryanhuyton
Not so interested in any more ‘alien spotlight’ issues on those major races, but I would really like to see something along the lines of: revisiting some of the ‘1-episode’ races in Star Trek, to see the full consequences from those episodes. I know it was done in some of the old DC comics (Gamma Trianguli VI played a big part), but I what about: the planet from TNG Thine Own Self, Mintaka III (TNG Who Watches The Watchers) or the planet from the TNG EPISODE First Contact. These would all, by their nature, have to be told from the alien’s perspective, and (for the episodes quoted here) would be highly imperfect accounts of occurrences… but wouldn’t it be interesting to hear what strange stories are being told of ‘Jayden’ the ice-man?
#13
Or how about an issue or two devoted to the alien parasites from the TNG episode “Conspiracy”? :-)
Jellico got Deanna out of those dresses and into the sleeker Starfleet uniforms. Thanks Cap’n!
@Andy Patterson
If you’re determined to buy from the online IDW store, McCoy comics are at https://shop.idwpublishing.com/comics/series/star-trek/mccoy.html but so far only issue #1 is listed. IDW also sells variant cover issues on eBay at http://myworld.ebay.com/idw_publishing/
I have to read that Frontier Doctor series!! I love all the Doc’s on Star Trek, but the classic-ness of Bones has always captured my heart. He’s just super. And we always saw a lack of him between the end of TOS and TMP.. I mean, for obvious reasons, but he’s a great character. :D
I need to get my butt to the comics store, pronto!
16
“Determined” is not the word, or the point. I just don’t understand why another site features and sells their stuff more than they do, or why it’s different than it used to be. That just doesn’t make sense to me. But what do I know?
As good a job as John Byrne is doing, Woodward’s artworkblows him out of the water. WOW.
I like the Woodward art too, but what happened the Gordon Purcell drawing one of these Captain’s Logs? He’s my all time favorite of the Trek artists!
The artwork for the Pike comic is outstanding. More complex than Brown…much superior.
9, 15: I loved the scene where Jellico “asked” (I think in fact he ordered) Troi to wear a regulation uniform.
I liked Jellico. If ever there was a case of a character outstripping the way he was written, it was this one!
Jellico turned up as Captain with short notice, having his own way of going about things, only to have to put up with a petulant XO (possibly jealous that he hadn’t been made Captain!) Riker came out of Chain of Command very badly: he was supposed to look like a bold officer standing up to a selfish captain. Instead, he came over as a spoilt brat!
Ronny Cox was great. I would happily have accepted him as Picard’s successor post The Best of Both Worlds, if they’d killed off Jean-Luc!
23: The show would have continued on very interesting ways then. By the time of Chain of Command TNG was sort of declining, anyway.
Yeah. I’m one of those people who think TNG should never have gone into the cinema: I reckon it could have lasted another seven seasons if the cast ahad been a bit more subject to change.
New characters could have been added to the mix, a couple left or killed off, the sets redesigned, maybe the Enterprise-D could have been replaced with the -E at some point. A rougher, spikier Captain with Data as XO might have been a lot of fun!
Some shows moving from TV to cinema aren’t really being ‘promoted’ so much as cast out into an unfamiliar, unsuitable medium.