Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Echoes #3 - IDW Publishing

STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE No. 3, July 2023

Having arguably established plenty of tension with Admiral James T. Kirk and some of his bridge crew being held captive aboard Commander Toth’s Romulan Bird-of-Prey, Marc Guggenheim’s script for Issue Three “Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Echoes” probably ‘fumbled the ball’ for many of its readers with a series of somewhat corny and unspontaneous sequences which appear to have been manufactured solely to keep the mini-series going for two more editions. In fact, on one occasion some of the comic’s characters actually poke fun at themselves during these silly shenanigans when they use “literally the oldest trick in the book” to escape a prison cell by suddenly pretending to be dying.

One such plot point is surely the inconsistent gun skills of Lieutenant Uhura’s supposedly super-deadly double, who within the blink of an eye is prodigiously pencilled by Russian artist Oleg Chudakov literally blasting away the four Romulan Guards surrounding her with a savagely smooth circle of shots. This pulse-pounding panel then leaves the hard-nosed General staring down an unarmed Akris at point blank range. But rather than blast her arch-nemesis as she did her quartet of subjugators, this publication’s audience are nonsensically meant to believe the sharpshooter becomes so angry that she inadvertently misses her hapless target so he can run off and escape; “Sweet Nyota. Always indulging your emotions at the expense of your aim…”

However, the gravest contrivance is probably Pavel Chekov’s injury which apparently can’t be regenerated by a strangely self-doubting Doctor McCoy and resultantly needs to be stitched back together “the old-fashioned way” by Christine Chapel. To make matters worse the U.S.S. Enterprise's navigator can’t simply receive a blood transfusion of synthplasma either as he inconveniently suffers “from something called Dythraxis”, and sadly the Constitution-class starship is in breach of Starfleet Regulation 4587 by not storing a supply of his blood on board because they were originally on “a shakedown cruise where combat isn’t anticipated.” None of these narratives are compellingly delivered, and simply all lead to the inevitable conclusion that the Federation officers must now return to the Romulan Neutral Zone to somehow get hold of Pavel’s ‘maniacal doppelganger from a parallel universe’ alive.

Writer: Marc Guggenheim, Artist: Oleg Chudakov, and Colorist: DC Alonso