Villordsutch reviews Star Trek: New Visions “Time Out of Joint”…
Captain Kirk is torn from his timeline. Every corner he turns, every door he opens, throws him into a different day, a different year—and a different danger.
SEE ALSO: Check out a preview of Star Trek: New Visions: Time Out of Joint here
In Issue#16 of Star Trek: New Visions “Time Out of Joint” the master of the photoplay trade – John Byrne – is spoiling us as he packs between the covers three Trek tales (four if you count “coming next issue”). Though it’s not just in quantity in which we’re being treated here, for quality certainly comes into play with this issue’s namesake tale.
In Time Out of Joint we find Captain Kirk in Engineering, discussing the situation with Scotty as it appears the Enterprise is both currently under attack – from forces unknown – and trapped within the orbit of a strange planet that’s interfering with the ship’s systems. It’s due to the attack one of the Engine Room’s systems discharge near the Captain; though apparently unscathed it rapidly becomes apparent all is not well. for when he arrives on the Bridge he discovers they have yet to arrive at the planet they were previously locked within its orbit.
Kirk’s journey around the ship continues to baffle him, as he time jumps from one moment to the other. He discovers the entire Bridge and it’s crew are dead and gone, then they’re alive and well in the conference room. He finds himself in Sick Bay speaking with McCoy and surrounded by scores of badly injured crew members, then arrives back at Starfleet in front of his Cadet days tormentor Finnegan. Then when he finally gets the information to save both him and the ship, he discovers getting to the right moment in time seems to be impossible.
Time Out of Joint is not only an excellent Trek tale from John Byrne, but the images he’s manipulated on the page are fantastic to look at. There are some real standout scenes in this release and I’m not directing people to the destroyed Enterprise. The explosion on the Bridge is outstanding, the colours used make the page glow, and this appears again later when Scotty and Spock put their plan into place to hopeful end Kirk’s time-hopping. Along with this we’ve got some truly brilliant use of
onomatopoeia delivered on the pages, from suddenly dropping Turbolifts to engineering consoles exploding in Kirk’s face. I adored Time Out of Joint, – this story alone is worth the cover price.
On top of this we’re given two more additional stores, beginning with “Home” which sees Lt. Rand returning to the Enterprise, no longer a Yeoman. This looks like it’s going to be a rather heart-breaking tale to be honest, as Lt. Rand is attempting to catch the eye of the Captain – who is currently off the ship for ten days – and I can see that when he does return, she won’t get the response which she has wished for.
The final one page story is a humourous blast in which we find Sulu and Chekov acting like a couple of dogs on heat around the new crew members in “Those Who Play With Cats”.
As I said above Time Out of Joint is the true seller here, with Home and Those Who Play With Cats being some excellent wrapping paper and a splendid bow for this gift. John Byrne has really shown off his talents as both a Star Trek story writer and a person who knows how to do a good photoplay.
Rating: 9/10
Originally published June 7, 2017. Updated November 21, 2019.
