Star Trek: The Key Collection, Vol. 5
Mia Voelker 12/24/2007 Star Trek: The Key Collection 1 difficult to remember what it was like back in the days when the show had first begun airing on TV and it hadn t evolved into the phenomenon it was destined to become. In 1969 the first Star Trek companion comic books were issued and while they mostly stayed true to the world the series had given birth to, and did their best to deepen and expand upon its characters and storylines, they were also home to some of the most glaring blunders in the Star Trek universe. The Key Collection combines these first comic books into one convenient graphic novel so they can be experienced for the first time by new fans or once again like old friends. Unfortunately while some elements still work after all of these years, others just don t hold up to the test of time. The collected stories in this volume range from The Planet of No Return, where Captain Kirk and his crew face deadly man-eating plants, to The Devil s Isle of Space where they are almost tricked into helping convicted criminals stranded on a doomed planet. They explore a planet that constantly changes, another covered in machine built cities, and yet another where two dueling twin leaders wage a constant war against each other. Many of the characters from the TV series make an appearance, including Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, Sulu, and Scotty. There were some glaring omissions of ubiquitous plot points that kind of threw me as I was reading. First of all there were no red shirt deaths - a staple for every away mission in early Enterprise history. There was also no respect for the prime directive (or maybe it hadn t been created yet), everyone happened to speak Universal Esperanta so Kirk and Co. could communicate on any world they came upon even when the races of those worlds were previously undiscovered so it made no sense they knew this universal language as well. Also Spock felt terror in several cases even though he is a Vulcan (at least half) and should feel almost no emotions. The last thing was that they came out of every situation victorious no matter how dire their chances may have seemed at one point. Even back in the beginning of the Star Trek series they technically lost a battle or two. By the middle of the collection I grew kind of bored. Every story was the same basically: the Enterprise ended up somewhere it probably shouldn t be, Captain and crew butted into someone else s business, ending up in situations that looked pretty dire but saved the day in the nick of time. It would have been nice to read a story that didn t end so well for Jim Kirk and his crew, or to see a big space battle or something instead of just more people running around on yet another random planet. The art is very rudimentary. In most cases you can t tell one character apart from another, except for Mr. Spock who has pointed ears and a blue shirt. In several stories Dr. McCoy looks just like Captain Kirk. It even happens with Sulu when he finally makes an appearance. The colors are very basic and detail is pretty non-existent. I don t want to judge the artwork too harshly, however, as this series did originally come out almost 40 years ago and there were different standards back then. This was a time of growth for the Star Trek universe as the writers were figuring things out and trying to create a believable science fiction universe. You can see signs of this process in little things, such as calling the place they beam in and out of the teleportation chamber in the early issues and then changing to the transporter room later on. Because of this many of the things they did that mowadays look just plain silly are quite forgivable. --Paperback ReaderMark Rollins 1/28/2008 Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection, Volume 1: Checker Book Publishing has shown that there is no school like the old school. They were smart enough to compile a very old Star Trek series of comics that were first printed in the late sixties, when the original television series was still on the air and at its peak. This is assuming that the original Star Trek series had a peak, because I believe the show didn't really develop its Trekkie following until it was in syndication. The series was printed by a comic book company called Gold Key, which I remember from my youth as printing Tom and Jerry and other cartoon character comics. I can only assume that they went out of business, but Checker Book Publishing has somehow salvaged them for reprints. I'll bet you anything those issues are worth a bunch now with their photo covers and all. The stories in this Star Trek collection are as dated at the original series, however, they have the advantage of more realistic special effects. As you may recall, the TV show's special effects weren't exactly Industrial Light and Magic, and I think the Enterprise was just a toy that was superimposed around a globe or something. Of course, the late sixties special effects artists are excused, as no one knew anything about that back then. Fortunately, when you're in a comic book, the only limit is your imagination, and you can do anything you want. For example, the comic depicts Enterprise literally stopping two planets form colliding, and it looks as real as the artist could draw it, which isn't really realistic at all, unfortunately. Not only are the "effects" fake, but the science is too. I mean, the Enterprise somehow stops two planets from colliding with some magnetic repulsion thing. Man, is all the science on Star Trek science fiction? Not only do these old stories imitate the look of the old series, but the doctrines as well. For example, the first story features the crew landing on a planet inhabited by living plants, and Captain Kirk destroys them all! I couldn't help but think of what Captain Picard would do. He'd probably sit back in his ready room and tell Commander Riker: "Destroy the plants? What would we do that? They have done nothing wrong! If anything, we are villains who fail to water them and give them proper sunlight. No, number one, we must find a scientific way to help them." Still, you have give these Star Trek comics points for originality. There are some pretty cool stories. For example, there is one where this race creates these machines that build cities, but then the machines rebel and can't stop building cities. So it's up to the crew of the Starship Enterprise to stop it! Yeah, it's typical Star Trek plots, and it feels like something the original TV show could have done with a little more imagination and more special effects. If you loved the original show, you will love this graphic novel collection. --Associated Content