Villordsutch reviews Star Trek #31…
“Captain Kirk and the crew have never faced a threat like the one they face now: their own ship. Don’t miss the first chapter of I, Enterprise, overseen by Star Trek writer-producer Roberto Orci!”
“Space… The final frontier… These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: To explore strange new worlds… To seek out new life; new civilisations… To boldly go where no one has gone before!”
This bit: “To seek out new life” – issue #31 turns to tackling this line from our very well-known opening monologue and it does ever so nicely; in this case Science Officer 0718 – or in my case, “Is that a Borg?” For those unsure of who 0718 is I’ve included a handy picture of him just below.
He (0718) was first shown in Star Trek Into Darkness and not really introduced or expanded upon. People – well Trekkies / Trekkers (I shan’t enter that battle) – were obviously interested for here stood a humanoid with clear cybernetic implants stuck in him and when his name was given as 0718 that prickled the interests of more people (T/T’s). Who is this person!?
Here in this issue Mike Johnson starts to give us 0718’s genesis, showing us his duties on board the ship which in this case is the first humanoid interface with the ship’s computer, his thoughts and his off duty likes for which 0718 likes to hang around the Botanical Bay. This may not sound altogether like the most exciting comic, but here we get a rather large black spherical mystery and the birth of 0718. This comic is light years ahead of the previous two issues that Mike Johnson gave us; this is what a Star Trek comic should be.
The story is exceptionally busy and my brief overview above barely does it justice as to what is going on. 0718 describes his routine and we’re shown the crew in panels doing their daily duties and during the black sphere mystery again it’s not just left to action on the bridge as the drama unfolds across the ship and we get to see it happening; we even get to see an Enterprise saucer separation.
The artwork is good too with the characters and sets holding shape. Erfan Fajar has done a fine job in that department and so has Sakti Yuwono and Ifansyah Noor with the colours which are strong and powerful throughout. So with this and Mike Johnson’s rather great story, issue #31 has turned out to be a rather superb issue.
I really would love to see where this is all going and what the future plans are with 0718. Could this be the genesis of the Borg is this time-line of Trek or the new V’Ger? I’m rather excited by what the future could hold with this character.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
Originally published March 12, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
