Villordsutch reviews Star Trek: Waypoint #1…
To celebrate 50 years of STAR TREK, IDW Publishing, under license by CBS Consumer Products, will boldly launch a new series in September which honors the legacy of the various Starfleet crews which have inhabited the Star Trek universe over the past five decades.
With Star Trek ongoing now parked up in space dock and Star Trek: To Boldly Go due to debut in October, our latest offering from IDW’s Trek library is Star Trek: Waypoint, which is a bi-monthly series that will be dropping into different time periods within the fifty of years Trek. We will be seeing tales that take place in the Federation’s past with Captain Archer and crew or as in the case with Issue #1 in The Next Generation’s future with Captain La Forge and a bridge full of Datas.
In our opener titled Puzzles – which is written by Donny Cates and with the art being provided by Mack Chater -we find Captain La Forge and the bridge full of holographic Datas. The Enterprise has been sent to a sector of space to investigate what looks like an extremely smooth Borg cube, one that’s emitting a message that Starfleet are have trouble deciphering. After further inspection it becomes apparent that what they thought at first was a distress call, is actually a message to other ships. The message is the guiding principle of the United Federation of Planets, and it’s due to this message this enigmatic ship isn’t letting anyone off or on.
Our second tale takes us back to the original Star Trek days and it’s a quiet one, and also a rather melancholy one. In Daylily Lt. Uhura has been stranded alone in an oasis bordering a desert due to a transporter malfunction and it doesn’t take long before she draws the attention of an inquisitive local. With the story and art being delivered here by Sandra Lanz, it’s an excellently drawn tale and one that you can see the end coming, but this doesn’t stop the impact leaving you feeling ever so downhearted.
Both Puzzles and Daylily are excellent starting tales. I have to admit I had reservations about the upcoming Star Trek: Waypoint, seeing the images of Data in previews had me mentally stoking the coals! I was ready to start typing about “The Measure of a Man”, however Donny Cates brings into play the reasons for the final upload and the holograms, to which I rather happily accepted them. Thumbs up too for the name of the cube ship Donny. Also I appreciate Mack Chater’s artwork, it reminds me of Star Trek: TNG comics from the DC days (back in the late 80’s to mid 90’s); they have a great pen and pencil feel to the lines, and each panel looks like it’s been drawn on paper rather than a screen (though I’m no screen snob! I’ve nerded out many times at numerous splendid artists of different skill sets. Horses for courses etc.).
With Puzzles and Daylily we have a decent level of maturity already flowing through the comic, which is great to see. If this six-part series continues on the path it’s treading then I can see Star Trek: Waypoint becoming an excellent series, so you’re going to want to make sure you pick this up.
Rating: 9/10
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Originally published September 28, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
