I’ve really been looking forward to Issue #2 of Star Trek: Year Five, the new Original Series ongoing comic set during the final year of Captain Kirk’s original tour aboard the Enterprise.

The first one really captured my attention with its emotional resonance and intensity of the original show. In fact, the intensity started to hit me as soon as I turned to page … and the pace didn’t let up.

Last we left, after the completion of a vital mission, preventing a stellar catastrophe, the crew of the Enterprise discover the remains of a Tholian colony. After rescuing a surviving child, the Enterprise is approached by a hailed by an approaching Tholian starship, its captain accusing the Enterprise of destroying the colony and abducting one of its citizens. This book has an intensive start as the USS Enterprise prepares for battle.

Like I said, the pace of this story that really stands out. Jackson Lanzing and Colin Kelly really have the cadence of the best episodes in their writing. The minor plot of establishing the Einstein-Rosen Ouroboros device in the first issue gives way to the mystery of the Tholian colony in the first issue, but returns to play a major role in the encounter with the attacking ship in the second issue in an unexpected way. The conceit of the plot has a rhythm to itself that takes skill in displaying, and Lanzing and Kelly clearly have it.

It’s that rhythm that is reassuringly familiar to Trek fans but is also consistent with the emotionality of the characters. I absolutely love how Kirk asks for McCoy and Spock to join him the briefing room for their counsel, for instance. While Kirk is the daring tactician, it is also the loyalty he has for his friends that is one of his most striking virtues and the combination of these two attributes help to set up that familiar rhythm for readers who are used to it.

The interaction among Kirk, Spock and McCoy is the foundational emotional layer to this series and, at times, I think has been undervalued as a storytelling tool. Lanzing and Kelly haven’t forgotten this, I’m happy to say.

As much as things are supposed to be enlightened in the 23^rd century, there’s no escaping the human need for the advice of those closest to them. I have told my students that Shakespeare matters because even though his works were written in the 17^th century, people don’t change! It’s the same in the 23^rd, 24^th or — with the new Picard show coming up — even the 25^th century. Humanity will always be governed by loves, hates, prejudices, and the basic emotions that guide us.

They, unlike us, are eternal and even though Star Trek espouses that people will be better, they are still guided by these basic drives. Friendship matters, even in the 23^rd century, and I like how Kelly and Lanzing pay heed to that notion in this story.

As a personal aside, I have to say that I even liked the thought to include Cyrillic in Chekov’s suggestion in how to combat Tholian weapons. I studied Russian for two years and can read it Cyrillic! What a cool surprise to be able to actually make sense of a foreign language in something I love!

In any event, while they capture the right spirit of Kirk’s “cowboy diplomacy”, they also capture that need to secure the counsel of the people who are closest to him. But they also recognize Uhura’s gifted linguistic genius and the that the experience and that the talents of the bridge crew of the Enterprise manage to methodically come up with a solution to pacify the Tholians through the combination of resolve and Starfleet protocols. It’s entirely Star Trek, in my eyes.

Stephen Thompson has become a fast favourite of Trek art for me. I am loving his work. Not only is it straightforward and easy to understand, but the positioning of the characters – as well as the background characters – is perfect. I love his sense of dynamism as well as the way that he manages to capture the emotional intensity that is so key to the plot of this book. In that sense alone, he has managed to add to the storytelling and has found a fan in me.

The covers for this book are few in number, but when has quality ever been an impediment to quantity?

• Cover ‘A’ is a wonderful collaboration between Stephen Thompson and Charlie Kirchoff, the colorist on this book. It’s a great stylistic piece that represents the emotional mood of the story rather than an episodic one. I’d love to have this on my wall.
   
• Cover ‘B’ is a retailer-incentive edition by J.J. Lendl. It’s a mock travel advertisement poster and while I have to admire the boldly stark interpretation of the work, I also have to accept a mild “tongue-in-cheek” style of humour behind it. It doesn’t halt my enjoyment of it in any way, but it’s a type of irreverence that I think most Trek fans would enjoy.

Remember: this is a Kirk who is at the end of his five-year stint. I think that’s the way we need to appreciate this book. Of course, as a Kirk fan, that’s easy for me to do so. I think Kirk is integral to any story within the Original Series continuum. It makes sense as Kirk was the focal point and his decisions accelerated the plot.

Given the relatively short, near three-year lifespan of classic Trek, it’s absolutely amazing how much has been extrapolated out of it, including novels, comics and six motion pictures; I thoroughly endorse and enjoy how much has been distilled into this series.

Again: it’s the pace. When you read this, I think that’s what comes to mind. It’s a subtle thing, but integral and undervalued – but it’s there, and any reader and Trek-fan will love it, just the same.