Review: Star Trek #8

Writer: Mike Johnson

Artist: Joe Phillips

Kirk and McCoy take a prisoner into the heart of the Romulan Empire on the trail of the stolen Narada plans and the last piece of red matter…

A much stronger conclusion than the opening part of this story sees certain loose ends from the first movie tied off. If Spock was happy to see Nero killed at the end of that film, what did that say about how other Vulcans reacted to the loss of their planet? I’m still not totally convinced that Sarek would have gone along with the plan that’s revealed here, but his change of heart (and that of one of the other Vulcan conspirators involved) is rather more credible.

The byplay between Kirk, Spock and McCoy nicely walks the fine line between echoing the original series trio and capturing the nuances of the Pine/Quinto/Urban variant. This tale replaces the original Balance of Terror – the first encounter between Romulans and Starfleet in the prime timeline since the Earth-Romulan Wars – taking into account what humanity learned of the Romulans during the events of the film, but still preserving the balance of power between the Star Empire and the Federation.

Verdict: More like this please.  8/10

Paul Simpson