Villordsutch reviews Star Trek: New Visions “The Traveler”…
A mysterious Traveler is pursued by a ruthless robotic horde. Or is he? Jim Kirk must answer that question before his ship and crew are lost!
SEE ALSO: Check out a preview of Star Trek: New Visions: The Traveler here
Continuing our Bi-Monthly adventures in the Photomontage realm of Star Trek from the master of manipulation that is John Byrne, we see within Issue #15 titled “The Traveler” a starship whose innards are not to dissimilar to that of a twin-hearted Time Lord’s craft, for it is somewhat bigger on the inside.
With a small craft, measuring no more than a hundred meters, suddenly appearing in front of the Enterprise the crew take to investigating it further. Rather surprisingly once aboard they not only discover one humanoid – in a protective stasis – but the inside of the ship is roughly the size of a small planet.
The crew bring the humanoid back on board the Enterprise where he reveals himself to be called the Traveler (his name too difficult to pronounce) and that the crew of this Federation vessel are in grave danger, as a race called the Q’al are expected soon to follow; however the Traveler has aboard his craft something he’s been working on for a thousand years to combat the Q’al. With Kirk’s permission, defensive droids are brought on board and several adjustments are made to the Enterprise, but it rapidly becomes apparent that the Traveler’s assistance may not be completely towards the crew’s best intentions.
There is an excellent story running along here. The idea of the ultra-compressed Traveler’s vessel initially appearing first made me smile because I thought of the TARDIS (obviously), but I then thought how splendid an idea of John’s to bring in this interstellar Traveler. Not to completely give away too many spoilers, but the story does continue to stay strong, and though my brief synopsis appears to paint Kirk and Co. in a blasé light towards the Traveler’s adjustments on the Enterprise, they do question his actions repeatedly along the way, which I considered to be excellent.
Turning to the ar, I’m on two-sides here. There are some fantastic pieces being delivered from the crafting table of John. Take the wireframe design of the Enterprise – I can recall this being displayed on his forum many months back and here it is in all its glory. Along with this we have numerous detailed additions that look just perfect, subtly merged in with the world of classic Trek, but then we turn to the not so great parts and unfortunately these are really “no so great”.
There is always going to be a slightly distorted image, a ‘squished Spock’ here or a ‘skewed Kirk’ there, and you can be a polite reader and look the other way, for John is delivering nearly mostly solid work. However, the inclusion of the Traveler as a character really isn’t his best work at all. The panels are rolling along splendidly, everything looks great and then “WHAM!”, on the top-right of Page 11 a large – slightly off-centre – face is looming at you. The Traveler’s head and face become beacons from that point on, within each panel they occupy, which attempt to pull you from the story. For all the delicate and hard work John has placed into this issue, it truly baffles me why he would then finish it all off by poorly adding the Traveler’s head over it.
There is a glimpse of two tales given at the end: a Rand story “Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot” and “Time Out of Joint”. Both have already sparked interest in me and I’m looking forward to see what they deliver in Issue #16. Overall The Traveler is a good release that is worth picking up; yes it is slightly let down by one recurring problem, but this shouldn’t sway you away from it.
Rating: 7/10
Originally published April 19, 2017. Updated November 14, 2019.
