Colonies are kinda the redshirts of the broader federation system. It feels like they are constantly being destroyed by one hostile force or another. You'd think people would eventually stop starting them! Though there is sometimes a suggestion that they are established beyond federation boundaries against federation will, even if it then feels the need to protect them. Some uncomfortable echoes of the american west or Israeli settlements there... I'm sure there's a "federation colonists as settler-colonialists" thesis to be written.
Early Voyages ranked high in my memory. When I reread it last year, I was pleased to find that it was still very enjoyable. I like when Star Trek comics feel like a secret season of TV.
I like your comparisons to SNW, especially critiquing the presentations of Pike. I think the comic manages a more natural sense of an ensemble cast than SNW does.
It says something about these kinds of franchise story-spaces when various spin-offs, adaptations, etc. seem via convergent evolution to hit on the same points. With recent Trek, it's not always safe to assume that's purely convergent, of course--Akiva Goldsman and his collaborators are adept at recycling everything they can get their hands on. But I think you can argue that a franchise creates a closed architecture for permissible moves on the board until or unless the rules get reset. With Pike and the pilot, the interesting thing might be that the infamously off-model Spock requires any narrative address at all, but arguably that's what the reuse of the pilot in TOS forced--it made it "canon.
I think more interesting are those imaginative moves that get shut down by later 'canon' productions. In the case of Star Wars, famously, everything in Splinter of the Mind's Eye (mostly for the better, but there's a few bits that would have been interesting to carry over--not the least that Luke/Leia are not related and Vader is not Luke's father). In Star Trek, I think the thing I miss most is the comic versioning of Kirk's time in Starfleet Academy--as a strict regulation-Charlie, Mitchell as his very-Heinlein-juveniles 'working-class' buddy, Carol Marcus as a complicated but serious love affair, Sulu and Uhura as acquaintances during his Academy years, etc.
Colonies are kinda the redshirts of the broader federation system. It feels like they are constantly being destroyed by one hostile force or another. You'd think people would eventually stop starting them! Though there is sometimes a suggestion that they are established beyond federation boundaries against federation will, even if it then feels the need to protect them. Some uncomfortable echoes of the american west or Israeli settlements there... I'm sure there's a "federation colonists as settler-colonialists" thesis to be written.
Oh, I'm sure there are dozens of such theses out there!
Early Voyages ranked high in my memory. When I reread it last year, I was pleased to find that it was still very enjoyable. I like when Star Trek comics feel like a secret season of TV.
I like your comparisons to SNW, especially critiquing the presentations of Pike. I think the comic manages a more natural sense of an ensemble cast than SNW does.
I've never read this, but it sounds intriguing enough that i might try and track it down
Is it available as an omnibus? I'm only finding single issues. BTW I did not know the existence of this until today!
There's an IDW omnibus out there. I purchased it a few years ago.
It says something about these kinds of franchise story-spaces when various spin-offs, adaptations, etc. seem via convergent evolution to hit on the same points. With recent Trek, it's not always safe to assume that's purely convergent, of course--Akiva Goldsman and his collaborators are adept at recycling everything they can get their hands on. But I think you can argue that a franchise creates a closed architecture for permissible moves on the board until or unless the rules get reset. With Pike and the pilot, the interesting thing might be that the infamously off-model Spock requires any narrative address at all, but arguably that's what the reuse of the pilot in TOS forced--it made it "canon.
I think more interesting are those imaginative moves that get shut down by later 'canon' productions. In the case of Star Wars, famously, everything in Splinter of the Mind's Eye (mostly for the better, but there's a few bits that would have been interesting to carry over--not the least that Luke/Leia are not related and Vader is not Luke's father). In Star Trek, I think the thing I miss most is the comic versioning of Kirk's time in Starfleet Academy--as a strict regulation-Charlie, Mitchell as his very-Heinlein-juveniles 'working-class' buddy, Carol Marcus as a complicated but serious love affair, Sulu and Uhura as acquaintances during his Academy years, etc.