Villordsutch reviews Star Trek: New Visions – “The Hunger”…
For thousands of years, it had drifted above the outer rim of the Galaxy, draining life from all the worlds it found there. Now, it has learned of the banquet of populous planets near the heart of the Milky Way, and is heading there at terrifying speed—with only the Enterprise standing in its way.
In Issue#19 of John Byrne’s Star Trek: New Visions, here titled “The Hunger”, our photoplay is given practically the full issue to unfurl and thus giving Mr. Byrne ample room to not only deliver a fully fleshed out tale, but also to hone his photomontage talents too.
SEE ALSO: Check out the preview of Star Trek: New Visions – “The Hunger” here
With the Enterprise and its crew beating previously set records for intergalactic travel they come across a long-dead planet that is utterly lifeless, even down to the microorganisms. Dr. McCoy – during an Away Team mission – makes an educated guess that this planet has been eradicated of the elusive (so elusive some believe it may not exist) Leiber and Kurtzberg Energy. However, during further investigations the Away Team suddenly become weakened and have to make an emergency transport back to the ship.
Aboard the Enterprise, Dr. McCoy pleads the case for Leiber and Kurtzberg Energy, though Scotty dismisses it, Spock goes on to explain the significance of this theorised energy, and that it is needed for life to exist. Following a trail of dead planets that have been left over many thousands of years, the Enterprise comes upon a gigantic, hollow, planet-sized craft that seems to be the destroyer of worlds.
We seem to be on a winning roll with the New Visions releases recently from John Byrne. The Hunger again shows us that Mr. Byrne certainly knows how to pen a splendid slice of Trek, as he starts the issue with a mystery that grabs you, then pulls us down the rabbit hole until Kirk is faced – and tormented – with a classic Star Trek standoff; meanwhile the highly competent crew is working like well-oiled clock aboard the Enterprise. If we had a Season 4 of Star Trek: TOS, I’d nominate this as one of the scripts. We just need to find a time machine, or slingshot around the sun correctly.
However, there is a few minor visual itches within this issue. Midway through the story Sulu goes from his youthful appearance, to a few years older in a couple of panels – that or he’s been ever so slightly ‘smoothed’ (the example of this can be seen on page 16). There’s another photo manipulation issue that caught my eye on page 20, it’s the person sat next to Tommy and I’m unsure what John is going for here. On a lower panel I think, looking close at the image, he may have added hair to the hands but I can’t work out what (as said) John is attempting to do with this person at the con.
As said in previous reviews, if anyone reads the John Byrne Forums you’ll see how many minor details John actually hides into his images, details that we technically ‘do not see’. There really is talent in these pages, so at this stage in the Photoplay issues picking up on a couple of minor hiccups seems to be pretty rare.
The Hunger is a great Star Trek story. John has brought to the pages – once again – a classic piece of Trek and it’s something I’ve really enjoyed reading, not only that I also enjoyed his ‘nod and wink’ to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby too. This is certainly a Photoplay that is worth spending hard cash on.
Rating: 8/10