Villordsutch reviews Star Trek: New Visions – “The Survival Equation″…
Andrea, Ruk, Exo III — names that conjure grim memories for James Kirk. What, then, happens when the killer androids start showing up by the dozen? Plus, a special guest star who’s bound to surprise!
To get it on record, as I know what is bound to appear soon, the past couple of Star Trek Photoplays I’ve truly enjoyed, and I’ve said so here at Flickering Myth. I thought “Resistance“ was “Quite Excellent”, and felt that, “John Byrne has given [the Borg] back a boost of power and mystery”. Then in the last issue, “1971/4860.2“ Byrne actually took a Star Trek story “Assignment: Earth” which I wasn’t a fan of (one that I originally found extremely dull), but I highlighted that John had – in his tale 1971 – “…given life to lifelessness.” As said, I do want to make these points before I proceed with this review.
The Survival Equation is an extension of the episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”. With Kirk and McCoy arriving on Wrigley’s Pleasure Planet, Kirk instantly notices the android Andrea from the aforementioned episode. Transporting her to the Enterprise against her wishes, to check she is an android, Nurse Chapel recounts the story to Dr. McCoy. Shortly after an examination of Andrea. Kirk and Co. return to the planet to investigate where Andrea came from, and in the process they discover that the Space-Pimp has sixteen copies of Andrea, with Kirk taking them all into custody. It’s here a furious Space-Pimp lets it be known that he’s not happy about this and he has the transaction recorded between him and Kirk’s brother, who is very much alive. The story continues on Exo III with an appearance once again from the space con-artist Harry Mudd and numerous androids.
Four issues ago we met Harry in “Made out of Mudd” and once again he’s wheeled out to cause confusion in this tiny quadrant for Kirk and Co. The con man with the face of the most well-known Captain in Starfleet doesn’t make it to the Rehab Colony, yet nobody thought of looking for him or at least letting Kirk know there is trouble out there for him!? This story – if you’re not picking up my vibrations – isn’t overly great, and if anything it’s a bit of a chore. We seem to trudge along at tediously slow pace, until Mudd arrives and then you feel slightly cheated as this card was played four issues ago. Thinking even harder, a duplicate Kirk was played also back in issue #1 “The Mirror, Cracked”. JB seems to really love playing the Double Kirk card trick.
What really finishes this issue off is the look of issue #8. I have stated in my previous reviews that John is becoming more proficient with his photo manipulation skills. Also watching his forum posts regarding his designs, I am truly taken back by them, along with his subtle additions we don’t even notice. However, here in this issue I’m unsure what’s gone wrong? It looks extremely rushed, characters looked badly pasted into panels, eye-levels are wrong, no time appears to have been taken to blend characters in with any sort of care, heads are smudged to a severe level on some fight / motion scenes, characters appear to have had pieces sliced from them in some panels along with heads occasionally oddly kinked, the bizarre odd power source looks vulgar and the four figures poorly pasted underneath make it appear even more so. The strange thing is I recently watched JB complete work on a holographic representation of the NCC-1701 and I’m more than aware he’s capable of pulling off some excellent computer generated art. This feels like one John’s early photoplays, when he was still finding his way around the toolbox, not a more recent release.
I’m sorry to say that The Survival Equation isn’t a photoplay to show as a piece of John Byrne’s excellent work. If you did plan on introducing a friend to New Visions step back to issues #6 and #7.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&t=1145&v=qvTY7eXXIMg
Originally published September 9, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
