Star Trek: Countdown #1 - IDW Publishing

STAR TREK: COUNTDOWN No. 1, January 2009

Publicised as “the official prequel to the upcoming [2009 “Star Trek”] motion picture”, this opening instalment to a four-issue mini-series rather slowly, almost painfully, lays the foundation for “The Next Generation” characters to “pass the baton” back to the ‘original crew’ of the starship Enterprise by ponderously focusing upon Romulan mining captain Nero’s first encounter with the Federation Ambassador Spock. Indeed, if J. J. Abrams had incorporated any of this twenty-two page periodical’s plodding plot into his silver screen production it’s arguable as to whether the reboot would have grossed anywhere near the $385.7 million sales it achieved worldwide…

For starters Mike Johnson and Tim Jones’ tale does little but leap from lengthy conversational piece to dialogue-heavy discussion, as it depicts the Star Empire’s tolerance of immigrants, its senate’s prolonged diplomatic debates and the blessed home life of a man who would go on to ultimately destroy the Kelvin timeline planet of Vulcan; “Your point of order is noted in the record. These proceedings are now closed.” The writing partnership even goes so far as to regrettably squander a dozen or so panels simply describing how the Narada’s commander is so infatuated with his pregnant wife, that he swiftly falls to his knees in emotional shock when Spock simply invites him to “open your mind”…

Admittedly, Nero’s irrational, pain stricken motivation within the Star Trek film franchise’s eleventh movie, is central to Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman’s blockbuster screenplay, and, it’s clear from this comic’s storyline that its authors had been “allowed to read parts of the script and watch parts of the film to understand” the central villain better. But no-where does the ‘flick’ suggest that the late 24th century captain was actually a traitor to Romulus, and sided with the elderly Starfleet officer against his own government. Nor did it imply that the miner actually took his vessel into combat against three Reman battleships whilst drilling for “the rare isotope Decalithium” in the Kimben System..?

Disconcertingly, David Messina’s simplistic-looking artwork for Issue One of “Star Trek: Countdown” probably didn’t assist this book’s 14,585 readers navigating its mind-numbing narrative in January 2009 either, as despite the Italian’s evident potential to pencil a building or spacefaring vessel, his figures are horribly one-dimensional. In fact, even when the erstwhile graphic designer attempts to replicate ‘cinematic shots’, such as a close-up of a resolute Reman soldier or sympathetically-faced Spock, there’s little in the way of physical depth on show in the individuals’ sketching.

Story: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, and Writers: Mike Johnson & Tim Jones