Star Trek: The Next Generation: Through The Mirror #2 - IDW Publishing

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION: THROUGH THE MIRROR No. 2, May 2018

On the face of it, David and Scott Tipton’s script for Issue Two of “Star Trek: The Next Generation: Through The Mirror” is a fairly standard story which could easily have appeared on the small screen during the American science-fiction television programme’s Late Eighties run. In fact, besides the U.S.S. Enterprise rescue mission involving an Andorian Battle Cruiser, a rather enjoyable nod back to the franchise’s original series, the collaborative couple’s narrative contains few innovative surprises until the sixteen-page periodical’s penultimate panel when an astonished Captain Picard and his bearded Commander witness their dark universe counterparts stealing equipment from the blue-coloured aliens’ ransacked vessel via the Shashpar’s security recordings.

Admittedly, that isn’t to say that this second instalment to the weekly “IDW Publishing” mini-series didn’t probably provide its audience with plenty of entertainment, as Lieutenant Commander Throllob attempts to slice the “pink-skin” William Riker “for your crimes” with a seriously-sharp looking bladed weapon and a heavily perspiring Geordi La Forge waits until the very last second before ejecting the damaged spacecraft’s warp core; “You have to remember, Data, as a Chief Engineer, I spend all of my time trying to make sure we don’t eject a warp core.” But such trials ("and tribble-ations") have undoubtedly been seen more than once before, and as a result suggest that the writing team were simply going through the motions when they penned this particular publication…

Similarly as straightforward is Chris Johnson’s pencilling, which whilst of a tolerable, high(ish) standard, occasionally must have arguably struck a reader as being somewhat overly cartoonish in its execution, especially whenever the California-born illustrator sketches actor Jonathan Frakes’ character or imbues Data with one of the android’s more ‘human’ facial expressions. Such stylistic quibbles however, are rather minor in the grand scheme of things, as the professional digital artist indubitably provides this comic book with a thoroughly enjoyable pace, courtesy of his speedy story-boarding and dynamically-drawn figures, as well as an ability to depict a seriously dilapidated spaceship, complete with wrecked “junction blockers”, numerous corpses, and buckets of blood splatters.  

Undoubtedly disconcertingly dimmer though, is this magazine’s secondary tale “Ripe For Plunder”, which being set “months earlier, and an alternate universe away” supposedly establishes a precursory plot involving Doctor Noonian Soong’s creation searching the Terran records keeping repository “for all the information you can supply me on the life and times of Emperor Spock.” Essentially little more than a carousel of planetary visits and unheard conversations with some of the viciously violent galaxy’s more nefarious information dealers, this four-page short can’t sadly even be saved by J.K.Woodward’s paintings...

Writers: David Tipton & Scott Tipton, and Artist: Chris Johnson