Review: Star Trek #3

Writer: Mike Johnson

Artists: Stephen Molnar and Joe Phillips

Issue 3 of Star Trek begins a new story arc as the crew continue their on-going adventures based on the original series episodes. This new arc is based on the first season episode The Galileo Seven (first aired January 5, 1967) written by Oliver Crawford and directed by Robert Gist.  En route to deliver medical supplies to Makus III the Enterprise encounters a quasar-like formation and stops to investigate.

Although this issue may be the start of a new story arc the development of the characters continues from the previous two issues. Issues that the Prime Timeline characters didn’t have to deal with are beginning to come through in the story and add some unexpected touches. I was interested to see the question of how Spock feels about Kirk having been promoted over him come up in conversation and I imagine this is something we’ll see more of. In this issue we learn that Kirk is already beginning to develop a bit of reputation as a maverick who will flaunt the rules when it suits him just like his double in the original timeline. Mike Johnson weaves all of these little differences into the familiar story arc to create a narrative that is both familiar and new. I was particularly excited to see Janice Rand make an appearance and can only hope that her inclusion here foreshadows her addition to the cast of the next film!

Stephen Molnar continues his work with the series on pencils. As usual his efforts in this issue were excellent and he does a great job of capturing the hyper-shiny bridge environment. Occasionally I thought the characterisations were a little off, particularly when it came to Scotty. There were some panels where I wouldn’t have known the character shown was Scotty were it not mentioned in nearby dialogue. Otherwise though the art in this issue was very enjoyable.

This series developing into not only a loving homage to the original show but also an opportunity to further build on the characters shown in the 2009 film and to find out how they differ from their counterparts in the 1960s series. Johnson is in no hurry though and seems to have settled in to let Kirk and his crew develop naturally through these stories.  7/10

Bernice Watson