IDW Publishing originally scheduled release of Star Trek #19 for next week, but Diamond Comic Distributors had other plans and everyone gets to learn a little about Montgomery Scott’s background this week. Spoilers and more ahead.
Star Trek #19
Written by Mike Johnson, story consultant Roberto Orci, art by Claudia Balboni, inks by Erica Durante, colors by Arianna Florean, color supervisor Claudia SGC, letters by Neil Uyetake, edited by Scott Dunbier
Story
During a raging storm aboard HMS Enterprise in 1787, Mister Scott vows “If we go down today, we go down with sails full!” An exciting legacy for young Monty who’s been taught that engineering is in his blood. So why is fixing his grandfather’s old bagpipes so difficult? Young Monty learns another lesson during a clandestine visit to the nearby shipyard where his father works. Is he too smart for his own good? A few years later, his enthusiasm for destructive experimentation results in a rejected application to Starfleet Academy. Later, while working on a freighter, he assists a Starfleet ship in distress and finally makes his way to the Academy. An experiment with a homemade transporter and a beagle demonstrates once again that he might be too smart for his own good. At an icy cold backwater assignment, Monty’s buddy Keenser finally fixes those old bagpipes and Montgomery Scott worries that they might be related.
Where no little devil has gone before!
Review
Continuing their look at the rest of the original series bridge crew, Mike Johnson and Roberto Orci tell us a little about Montgomery Scott’s family, childhood, and occasional misbehavior. In the original series, we never learned very much about Scott’s past. In fact, it’s mostly in comics and novels where Montgomery Scott has any kind of life before the Enterprise. I found this retrospective helpful, filling out a character that I didn’t really know very well. It’s difficult not to compare Scott’s story with those of McCoy and Uhura in the previous two issues of the ongoing series. McCoy’s story was uninformative. Uhura’s story was poignant and satisfying. And Scott’s story? Amusing, but I still don’t understand how he’s managed to avoid being thrown in the brig. Nevertheless, this is the first comic in the ongoing series that explains why Scott is the person he is. The writers and artists have done their job well.
I really enjoyed the artwork by Claudia Balboni and Erica Durante in this issue. In particular, young Monty Scott looks just like the older version we know from the film. They also do a fine, if somewhat unfortunate, beagle. Their colleagues, Arianna Florean and Claudia SGC, also do a good job coloring the events of Scott’s life, meshing well with the tone of the storytelling. All three covers for Star Trek #19 feature Montgomery Scott. On Tim Bradstreet’s art cover, Scott looks like he’s up to some mischief and on the retailer incentive photo cover, it looks like the mischief has blown up in his face. Very appropriate for this character.
Cover: Art by Tim Bradstreet
Cover RI A: Art by Tim Bradstreet, Cover RI B: Photo cover
Star Trek #19 was released Wednesday, March 27, in print and digital format. This issue will be collected in a trade paperback this summer, Star Trek, Volume 5, July 2013.
Preview of Star Trek #19
Also released this week
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Hive
Story by Brannon Braga, script by Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett, art by Joe Corroney, ink assists by Matt Fillbach and Shawn Fillbach, color by Hi-Fi, letters by Shawn Lee, edited by Scott Dunbier
In the distant future the entire galaxy has been completely assimilated by Borg and it’s king… Locutus! The only hope for the future lies in the past, in the hands of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise—as Picard faces off against the Borg collective in one final, terrifying, and definitive encounter!
TPB • FC • $17.99 • 104 pages • ISBN 978-1-61377-566-0
Cover: Art by Joe Corroney
In other news: Next Generation/Doctor Who artist raising funds
Artist J.K. Woodward and his family lost their home last November in Hurricane Sandy. He is selling signed and numbered 11×17 prints of his artwork at very reasonable prices to raise some funds for a new home. Three of the ten prints, displayed below, have a Star Trek/Doctor Who theme. You can order these prints and more from Woodward’s blog at http://jkwoodwardart.blogspot.com/2013/03/2-week-limited-print-run.html.
Ponds on the Edge of Forever, art by J.K Woodward
Bad Wolf 359, art by J.K Woodward
The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Ood, art by J.K Woodward
And one more tidbit about some forthcoming Star Trek comics
Later this year, IDW Limited, an imprint of IDW Publishing, is planning to release the first volume in what appears to be a series of deluxe limited edition hardcover books featuring Star Trek comics. For more information, here is the Spring 2013 launch schedule where you can also sign up for the IDW Limited newsletter. Apparently a second volume is already in the works. Artist Joe Corroney mentioned that he is working on some sketches for Star Trek Volume Two Deluxe Limited Edition in an interview at StarTrek.com. IDW Limited editions come in Red Label and Black Label varieties. Red Label editions have a print run of several hundred copies priced at $100 or $125, while the Black Label editions may be limited to as few as five or ten copies and come with original art drawn by artists like Corroney. Black Label editions are priced from $325 to $425.
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.
Happy Easter, friends!
So we get Scotty in April, leaving Sulu and Chekov to squeeze in before the movie opens. Wonder which one is going to get left out before the film opens?
It’s interesting they gave us Bones first before Uhura considering the dismissed role he plays in the movies. A respectful nod to the hard core fans who are the primary demographic buying these comics? Still sad Scotty took a backseat to Uhura, but that’s progress I suppose.
My bet is Sulu for May and Checkov in June. Unless … There is something in Chekov’s past that ties into the movie (considering we see him in two different uniforms), in which case reverse it.
Love Scotty, and I love the idea that generations of Scotts have been into sailing and travel of all sorts. From these preview pages, the story looks like it’ll be fun, although some of the ‘future’ backgrounds are a little bland.
Being British Royal Navy Historian, I have to nitpick just a smidge.
The ship is wrong for the 1780’s, the Captain’s uniform isn’t right for the era depicted either… though I like the artistic touch of the Trek arrowhead logo on his epaulettes.
It would have been more along the lines of THIS:
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/71232.html
I need more out of these sails, Mr. Scott….
Bad dialog. Bad, bad…
Nice to see the space shuttle in there a few times. And Christopher being one of Scotty’s names; never knew that. A neat nod to Chris Doohan perhaps?
@3. Doctor Roberts,
“I love the idea that generations of Scotts have been into sailing and travel of all sorts … Being British Royal Navy Historian, I have to nitpick just a smidge.”
I don’t know why but I always thought it had been said Scotty was descended from generations of engineers. In fact I thought it had been spoken in an episode of TOS, but perhaps it was my own inferred backstory.
As for being accurate, considering it is an imagined flashback during a bedtime story, perhaps Monty’s own imagination at work, it’s probably OK. It would certainly explain why the epaulets have the Trek shield on them. Same for the dialogue. Neither mum, nor Monty likely know the exact terminology used …
@2 Curious Cadet: Star Trek #20, tentatively scheduled for release mid-April , will look at both Sulu and Chekov.
Bob Orci.
Can’t wait to read this one. My twin brother ( Monty ) will get a kick out of it as well.
I too think it is kind of sad that Doctor McCoy was dismissed from the Triad in the first of the new movies in favor of Uhura.
It is the one thing that sets this Trek apart from the original and it is pandering of the worst sort.
8 – I believe that horse is dead
I don’t really understand where this idea that Uhura supplanted McCoy comes from, apart from her being on posters. The movie is about the forming of relationships… and McCoy has more lines and, I think, more screen time than Uhura. Sure there was a bit of a weak romantic triangle, mostly in Kirk’s, er, head, going on. Are we saying it should be have been a K/S/Mc triangle?
These one-off character back-story comics are HORRENDOUS. If there was a way to get my money back, I would. The art/storytelling is so bland that the English language should protest over being forced to be used in such a manner to tell these inane stories.
@3 Fair point….
Although… I would suggest that, since this is being portrayed (apparently — although I’m not going to assert that was deliberate on the part of the artist) as being from young Monty’s imagination of the story being told — rather than a true “this is the way it was at the time — a little license is reasonable.
Capt: I need more from the sails, Mr. Scott!
Scott: I’m blowin as hard as I can, sir!
Gotta love oral history….
@7. Mark Martinez,
“Star Trek #20, tentatively scheduled for release mid-April , will look at both Sulu and Chekov.”
Wow. How sad for already marginalized characters to be slighted yet again. While this works for the timing of the movie, surely there is more to these two characters deserving of their own full single issues.
Also the idea that they somehow belong together in the same issue simply because they sat at the same workstation on the bridge for two seasons is kind of specious. Especially considering their roles in the new film — Chekov obviously had a very different journey in the alternate universe, it being implied he was already serving onboard the Enterprise with Pike, while Sulu was a backup helmsman right out of the Academy.
@11. Jack,
“I don’t really understand where this idea that Uhura supplanted McCoy comes from, apart from her being on posters.”
I think Uhura’s role is much more important in ST09 than McCoy’s whether he had more screen time or not. And she looks to be much more integral in the forthcoming film than McCoy, at least from what I have seen in the trailers. Making her the third image on the posters sort of reinforces this idea. Indeed she seems to have become the moral compass, not McCoy. And she’s already working on the bridge where she can readily interject herself (something Prime Uhura rarely did), a place McCoy really never had any reason to be most of the time he was there.
Of course, we know this Kirk has a thing for kinky threesomes now, so who knows maybe it makes sense to form a new triangular relationship with Uhura. I mean Did Kirk ever really lose his sexual interest in Uhura? Perhaps that’s why Kirk is working so hard to be Spock’s friend — a few Romulan ales late one night between the three of them and who knows? /s
Yup. Doctor McCoy looses when compared to all of the possibilities having a sexually available woman in the trio gives writers in terms of pandering to the general intellectually challenged audience. This is no longer science fiction, dear boys, you may as well stop mourning the loss.
There is a picture of a beagle in the article. A Porthos descendant?
Kirk needs a dog – a beagle mascot…you read it here first!…:)
(Never been more serious).
Speak for yourself, Iva…oops, forgive me, you were, as in one of the intellectually challenged audience you so glibly refer to.
Rory in a Red Shirt is so perfect the mind boggles.
I see that Linlithgow has been “officially” recognised as Mr. Scott’s birthplace. I recall that several Scottish towns were arguing about where it …er…will be.
@8 – Chris,do you have a bigger role in the new movie? I hope so!
I love these character back stories! McCoy one was uninformative!?! Nah,it was good. Also enjoying Countdown to Darkness,just read issue 3,and the Scotty one…issue 19…today. And it’s still March,lol! Some other back stories in April and May I hope.
J-R!
Hive was godawful. I don’t understand how that one was greenlighted. IDW used to give a damn about quality.
man I couldn’t wait for the comics about Uhura and Mccoy and was so eager to get my hands on those but I have to admit that I totally forgot about they’d release one about Scotty too. Sorry Scotty. Countdown to darkness #4 has distracted me also. I’m not thaaaaat interested in this one tbh but I’m here to say thank you to the writers for the comics, these ones about the backstories of the characters had been a good idea.
@ 23. BatlethInTheGroin – March 29, 2013
“Hive was godawful. I don’t understand how that one was greenlighted. IDW used to give a damn about quality.”
I didn’t read the Hive yet, but is planning to buy it. What is so bad about it ?
19: lolz I’m laughing at the “sexually available woman in the trio” and “pandering to the general intellectually challenged audience” (repeat with me: general. intellectually. challenged. audience)
judging from the first sentence, the latter could be autobiographical.
Amazed at the few individuals who seem to feel that watching Star Trek adds IQ points. Really?
It’s just a tv show,or movie,lol! I watched a lot of things,dumb 80’s stuff like Knight Rider,Greatest American Hero,Automan,Doctor Who,ST TNG and so on,but they’re just fun old stuff. IQ points!? NO WAY! lol! No tv show can do that,still fun though.
J-R!
#27
Yes, really.
Can’t speak for others, but as a kid growing up in rural America in the late ’80s and early ’90s, I can tell you watching Trek did teach me quite a few things. I mean, I wasn’t exposed to Shakespeare, Melville, Milton, and a encyclopedia of scientific terms and theories by watching Sesame Street and Ninja Turtles. And I certainly did learn those things in my small, underfunded school.
Correction: “…DID NOT learn those things in my small, underfunded school.”
29. Agreed. And inspiration to learn.
I think this is why the extreme technobabble later on started to bug me (because the science turned entirely into magic to do whatever the plot required) — of course the original trek wasn’t perfectly accurate and some of the science was preposterous — but you had the sense that they really were trying.
I know these comics are short. But, yes, reducing entire personalities and life choices to a single childhood experience (yes, Uhura’s was huge) seems a little, er, easy. Sure, you can say they’re representative of their entire childhoods and lives, but…
That said, they’re fun and pretty clever.
Hey, cc. I don’t see how Uhura is the moral center. Sure, she was comforting Spock and will have all sorts of heart-to-hearts with him, I’m sure (which McCoy never did with Spock). Again, this next one might be different, but we just don’t know yet.
And McCoy was constantly on the bridge in TOS. Does giving Uhura more to do necessarily steal from McCoy? I think it’s a separate argument (not liking Uhura’s expanded role / and wanting McCoy to do more). Sure, more McCoy would be terrific. But why blame that on the Uhura character? Should McCoy have been fighting with Kirk on the drilling platform? Should he have been the whiz kid?
Kelly, Nimoy and Shatner (in reverse order) were the stars of the show, sure. And they were often featured together. But I think the triad gets exaggerated. Urban did some of what Kelly’s McCoy did — he challenged Spock, he supported (sort of) Kirk (and I wish we’d gotten a “Dammit Jim,
you know damned well why you need to beat this test, and it has nothing to do with fairness.” or something that shows a bit of a closer relationship.)
Remember that Spock had just met both of them.
Heck, even if you’d written Uhura out of the last one entirely, it wouldn’t have done much for McCoy’s character.
She didn’t do anything, I think, that McCoy would have traditionally done.
That said, you feel the way you feel. But I wonder if some people are just annoyed that Uhura was made an important character and not just a leggy switchboard operator. Is it because she’s a woman? or a black woman? I have no idea.
BTW, I don’t think this is honestly about sexism or any ism. And I do agree that the Uhura bit seemed calculated to add a little sexy to the proceedings. I’m hoping she’s more than that.
Nice Story, But In the original timeline didn’t Scotty have a Sister & not a brother?
Trek #19 was a lot of fun. I really like this incarnation of Scotty.
Bad writing. Why is this one so bad?
Only thing I did not like about this Story was the HMS Enterprise bit, so Scotty is telling a Story to Keesner about being told a story from his Mother.
Nice though they gave Scotty 2 middle names.
Didn’t Bob Orci lie to us about the new Trek Movie. I know he did. But. Since he Lied then he told the Truth. But if he told us the Truth then how could he Lie. But since he Lied he told the Truth!. So how did he Lie and tell the Truth about Lying!!!!!!!!. I mean Come on!!!! How did he Lie when ye told us the Truth!!!! He Lied to us all!!!. But he Told the Truth!!!!. Illogical! Illogical!!!!! Please Explain!!. Only an Orci can Explain!!!!!!.
@29. Perhaps, to clarify – beliving Trek to be superior broadcasting, that watching it makes one superior as well. The elitism oozing from that ‘general intellectually challenged audience’ crack rubbed me the wrong way. This ‘my $hit doesn’t stink’ attitude wasn’t something I got out of Trek.
#38 calm down and don’t think too hard, or you’ll give your positronic net a cascade failure ;) LOL
The only thing that would have made that Ponds On The Edge of Forever artwork even more poignant, would have been if there’d been Weeping Angels on the other side of the Guardian instead of a Borg and a Dalek.
The Scotty story was lightweight but gave us a bit of insight into his lack of boundaries in his research. It’s nonsense to suggest he should not to take risks to carry out research – his problem is that he takes those risks without regard for safety even for animal life. A bit like the idiot scientists in Prometheus – and nobody wants that!
The story also highlights the oddity of Keenser being a senior officer (a lieutenant) again rather than a non-commissioned officer, which have made more sense. Keenser had functioned as the chief engineer at the outpost for years according to his own origin comic but Scotty is then posted there straight from the Academy as a punishment and yet it seems like Keenser is not his superior? Talented or not, it’s clear that Keenser should be in charge. Looks like racism to me!
A few more women featured in this one though, including a captain – so I’m pleased at their efforts on that front!
I’m also enjoying Countdown to Darkness. I wish they’d run some longer 4 issue stories in the ongoing title too. I’m glad it’s running parallel to the origin stories or I’d be fed up getting so many short stories in a row.
39. Fair enough. I get irked by people who think they helped solve racism and ended the Cold War by watching a TV show.
#39
Yeah, no argument here.
Wouldn’t say it makes one superior. A little wiser maybe.
@32 Jack,
“not liking Uhura’s expanded role / and wanting McCoy to do more”
This may be the crux of the issue. However, this is essentially replacing McCoy as far as the story is concerned. Had they written Uhura out, it would have been a different story, perhaps without the Uhura/Spock romance, the three boys would have gotten to know each other better and you would have gotten a few more of those classic lines. The story and the characters’ place in it are not mutually exclusive. A perfect example of this is where Uhura steals a classic McCoy line after Spock relinquishes command and Kirk takes the big chair — “I hope you know what you’re doing”. I believe McCoy said exactly that at least once in an episode of TOS. I’m all for giving Uhura more to do, but by inserting her into a romance with Spock, it necessarily monopolizes some of his time he would have otherwise spent dealing with McCoy and Kirk. Plus, it’s a relationship!! How would your wife or girlfriend feel if you wanted to spend every night with your buddy Bones and Jim? It necessarily elevates her to the second most important person in Spock’s life, followed by Kirk. Obviously McCoy comes in 4th in that equation.
But your point is taken, Uhura is more like a less annoying counselor Troi, empathic, but not necessarily a moral compass. However, if you break the formula down to Logos, Ethos and Pathos, then Uhura is definitely competing with McCoy for that 3rd spot. Perhaps Uhura and McCu can share that role. Who knows. But I’d sure like to see more McCoy/Spock and less Uhura/Spock. Send Uhura on away missions with Kirk and Spock — McCoy had no business on most of those adventures anyway, except to temper Kirk and Spock’s decisions. And I really don’t understand why he’s on Nibiru with Kirk. But when they’re on the ship, I don’t need Uhura monopolizing Spock’s time from interacting with McCoy. As much as McCoy hung around the bridge, Spock seemed to spend a lot of time hanging around SickBay — something I would have enjoyed seeing in the last film.
Weird night.
Wife was watching a General Hospital marathon and I noticed Walter Koenig was on the premier episode.
So was Roy Thinnes from The Invaders …
Never knew that.
Regards.
39. Phil
I wholeheartedly agree with you. There seems to be this mentality among Trekkies/Trekkers that Star Trek was made literally just for them, that Gene Roddenberry designed it to appeal only to a certain select group of people, and that if you don’t like it, you must not be very smart. To believe (even subconsciously) that liking Star Trek is some proof of intellectual superiority, even when one’s enjoyment is purely subjective, is naive at best and supremely arrogant at worst. Roddenberry wanted Star Trek to be something that would elevate people, not pander to a self-styled intellectual minority. I think part of Star Trek’s appeal is that it could tackle important issues but in a style and format that is easily accessible. You don’t have to be very smart to watch and appreciate Star Trek, but I think it helps you appreciate a little differently than you would otherwise. Whether you were smart or dumb, if it made you think (and entertained you at the same time), then Star Trek was successful.
“There seems to be this mentality among Trekkies/Trekkers that Star Trek was made literally just for them, that Gene Roddenberry designed it to appeal only to a certain select group of people, and that if you don’t like it, you must not be very smart.”
Bang on. And dare to criticize Trek or some of Roddenberry’s more enterprenierial-motivitated ideaa and you’re accused of insulting everyone who’s ever watched the show, and that guy who invented the cellphone.
In one frame there’s not a thread on the spars. In the next, they’re at full sail in a hurricane. Huh?? How do you have a continuity error on two adjoining frames of a comic book?
It’s just a comic. And no,it wasn’t boring,lol! But that’s just an opinion of course. I always look forward to a new issue since it’s just a fun read. I get other comics as well though.
J-R!