Villordsutch reviews Star Trek: Starfleet Academy #3…
The all-new hit STAR TREK mini-series continues here, as Uhura and Kirk draw closer to uncovering the truth surrounding a century-old mystery. Meanwhile, T’Laan and the new cadets find themselves on the brink of elimination from the Centennial Competition!
Over the past couple of months I’ve enjoyed Star Trek: Starfleet Academy from Mike Johnson & Ryan Parrott; it hasn’t been overly ground shaking, but it has been just the right amount of “enjoyable” and with Derek Charm’s spot on artwork the whole package has received my thumbs up. Yet here in Issue#3 something has happened. Something changed in the opening pages that really made me look at this comic book differently.
Uhura discovers what really happened to the USS Slayton. Returning to nearly a century back we finally get to witness the Starship which has been hidden in Starfleet’s records. Marooned within an anomaly – at Wagner-219 – for well over a month, they’ve practically exhausted all options of escape. With food running out and life support failing a mutiny led by Jack Somers is initiated, as they believe the Captain Hendricks is no longer fit for purpose.
Leaping ahead to our new run of Cadets and they are still in action with the Inter-Academy Exploratory Competition, though all is not going too well. K’Bentayr performed an excellent medical procedure, that while it would have saved the patient’s life, didn’t fulfil the required wants of the test and T’Laan failed in the transporter section of the competition, which added even more weight to her argument for her wanting to leave Starfleet for New Vulcan.
It’s after this we this we return back to Uhura’s Starfleet days to discover why the mutiny secret was kept buried and what it would actually do to Starfleet if it came out for all to see, we return then to the new Cadets as they set off for their final event on an away mission.
There are some excellent moments within this issue. The ones I’d like to highlight though mainly revolve around the conspiracy of the USS Slayton; here it wasn’t only brilliant to watch a non-Starfleet Captain lose their will to care about crew morale – after a mere month – but something else really pricked my interest. When the mutiny began Hyun transmitted what was occurring on the Bridge, the terminal was then destroyed by phaser fire and Somers enquired who he was talking to? We then discover in the future – from Admiral Marcus – that when other Starfleet vessels went to the last location of the USS Slayton there was no sign of it.
Mike Johnson and Ryan Parrott have hooked me in now! They’ve really got me, here’s something I want to know more about. Where has the Slayton gone? Who was Hyun talking to? This is possibly the start of something rather special.
Derek Charm again scores huge points for his art delivered in these pages. Not wanting to bang on about the USS Slayton again, but the opening pages with the blue tone were rather fantastic too. I really do think that somebody at IDW should slide this under the CBS executive’s noses; it’s working for Star Wars Rebels, why can’t it work for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy? I’d just like to staple on here that I’m also a fan of the retailer incentive cover this month from Adam Rosenlund too, which looks quite splendid.
Issue #3 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is quite excellent! It’s good to see the Cadets are not infallible, but at the same time they are grounded with morality, compassion and the want to put themselves on the line for others. Along with the USS Slayton conspiracy being brought into the light, this comic is fantastic read.
Rating:- 9/10
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&v=2bSRrPDqhqo
Originally published February 10, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
