Star Trek: Early Voyages

[Phoenix219]

That's the good thing about the multiverse, they all exist side by side.

If thats what some people need to do, thats fine too.

I've accepted that both versions are the "Prime Universe" and that the timelines just been permanently changed. They exist for me to watch, but not in-universe, but since there is still a logic and narrative that I can literally watch in production order that created this situation, I'm still ok with it.

If they cross over into a universe that looks like TOS some day, then that will overwrite my ideas, and I will be okay with that as well.

I already think the Kelvin is a different pre-existing physical universe and NOT a timeline rewrite, and accept that they can coexist. I still don't like them, but their existence doesn't bother or affect the sandbox that I'm playing in lol.

I know its minutiae that i bicker about at this point. Shrug. Lol.

 

[BillJ]

I know its minutiae that i bicker about at this point. Shrug. Lol.

It is a discussion board.

 

[JD]

I am happy you have found a way to enjoy the newer material, it is something that I continue to struggle with. Especially with, funny enough, Strange New Worlds. It isn't that it is a bad TV show, it is just that I already know the ending.

There's just no sense of "what might happen?"

For me, even if we know where the story will end, and I fully accept that this is 100% the same Prime Universe we saw in TOS so that is where this will end, we still don't what will happen before the ending, and that's enough for me. And even if we know what will happen to the TOS characters, we don't know what will happen to the new characters, so there's still enough questions with there. And when the characters we know will live are in danger, I still find some suspense since we don't how they'll get out of danger.
As for it looking so different from TOS, I'm willing to allow the real world differences in a 1960s production vs a 2020s productions to overrule any in universe concerns I might have.
And I'm not really concerned with the details of the in universe references they might be contradicting, since most of what we got in TOS was rather vague, and prequels like this never line up exactly with the original. We've already gotten a storyline about Pike's accident, they've included T'Pring, and next season they're introducing Kroby, so that's enough to accept this as a direct prequel to TOS. The only things that I have trouble with are April being a white British guy in TAS and a black and American in SNW, and M'Benga seems too old and experienced to be the same character we saw in TOS.

 

[Phoenix219]

Between the aesthetic differences and blatant differences like you just pointed out, its more than enough to just say, nope, this isn't the same timeline at all, for me. Much easier than trying to figure out how the pieces could possibly fit.

But ok, i will stop beating this dead horse for today.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Just a reminder, if people want to discuss the shows, please take it to one of the forums dealing with the shows. This forum is for the literature, and this thread is specifically for the Early Voyages comic. Let's please get back to the topic at hand.

 

[Phoenix219]

Early Voyages, the comic, looks so much more era appropriate than ......

(just joking, don't ban me)

 

[Saul]

Does anyone have the Eaglemoss volumes containing these stories handy? Towards the end of that line, they published quite a bit of ephemera relating to unfinished storylines. But I packed mine up last summer and moved them to the shed, so they aren't particularly accessible at the moment.

Darn, if I had known that I would have bought them. If you decide to go near the shed again I'd be curious to know.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Darn, if I had known that I would have bought them. If you decide to go near the shed again I'd be curious to know.

I did some Googling and found this page, it doesn't seem to list anything from EV in the extra content for any of the issues.

 

[Yistaan]

There's just no way these comics can fit into a headcanon now alongside SNW. That being said, they were pretty good and their take on the Rigel VII disaster was far more compelling than the "something, something evil yeoman on amnesia planet" gobbledygook.

 

[BillJ]

There's just no way these comics can fit into a headcanon now alongside SNW.

Then I simply toss SNW.

 

[Daddy Todd]

I belatedly remembered that Rich Handley maintains an index to Star Trek comics (https://richhandley.com/TrekComics.pdf) which includes an index of the Eaglemoss volumes (he edited about half of them.) According to index, volume #138 of the Eaglemoss has an outline for an unpublished Early Voyages story.

#138 is called So Near The Touch and mostly consists of DC (second series) issues 17-21and the first annual. So, if you have the Eaglemoss series, or if you can find #138, it has an outline of unpublished Early Voyages. Is it an outline for the unpublished resolution to the cliffhanger ending of the final issue, #17? I assume so, but can’t promise, because my copy is still out in the shed…

 

[Avro Arrow]

I belatedly remembered that Rich Handley maintains an index to Star Trek comics (https://richhandley.com/TrekComics.pdf) which includes an index of the Eaglemoss volumes (he edited about half of them.) According to index, volume #138 of the Eaglemoss has an outline for an unpublished Early Voyages story.

That's interesting, the index page that I linked to in my previous post didn't mention anything about EV in #138. But the worst part is... #138 is actually one of the only two Eaglemoss collections I actually own!

(I had wanted to pick up some of those books for the bonus content. I think I had ordered five books at the time. They eventually wrote me to tell me they could only fulfill three of them. When the shipment actually arrived, there were only two in it, but I couldn't get a refund because the packing slip listed all three. It was a negative experience, so I didn't end up searching out any more of them. I would like to get some of the other bonus content issues, but I assume now they're either impossible to find, or too expensive due to being OOP.)

#138 is called So Near The Touch and mostly consists of DC (second series) issues 17-21and the first annual. So, if you have the Eaglemoss series, or if you can find #138, it has an outline of unpublished Early Voyages. Is it an outline for the unpublished resolution to the cliffhanger ending of the final issue, #17? I assume so, but can’t promise, because my copy is still out in the shed…

So I did know right where #138 was, and was able to take a look. It's no wonder that the page I linked to didn't mention EV: EV is barely touched on at all. The story "Copyright Violations" that Handley's site mentions isn't really even an EV story, it's a cross-over story that was meant to be the lead-in to Phase 3. The only mentions of EV that I could find was that they wanted to have the story for "Copyright Violations", which involved transporter duplicates, set up in the EV comic. At the time of the proposal (pre-ENT), they had assumed transporters were still fairly new in Pike's time, so they wanted to set up the transporter duplicate storyline in Pike's era. They mentioned perhaps Pike could encounter a transporter duplicate of himself, but that was basically just a mention--there was no outline or anything for the EV story itself. The "Copyright Violations" crossover itself seems to take place in the TNG movie era.

That's all I could see about EV in that issue. Nothing at all about the continuation of the unresolved cliffhanger, sorry.

 

[Daddy Todd]

Nothing at all about the continuation of the unresolved cliffhanger, sorry.

Bummer!

 

[Procutus]

Just picked up my copy from the library! Can't wait to dig into it later on this evening.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The only things that I have trouble with are April being a white British guy in TAS and a black and American in SNW

For me, the irony is that Nichelle Nichols was the voice of Dr Sarah April in TAS!

 

[Therin of Andor]

#138 is called So Near The Touch and mostly consists of DC (second series) issues 17-21and the first annual. So, if you have the Eaglemoss series, or if you can find #138, it has an outline of unpublished Early Voyages. Is it an outline for the unpublished resolution to the cliffhanger ending of the final issue, #17? I assume so, but can’t promise, because my copy is still out in the shed…

The extra text material is for:

* "TNG: Return of the Wolf". (Redjac) Story had too many similarities to the canonical "Ship in a Bottle".

* "Star Trek Phase 3" - proposal and character profiles. A crossover, "Copyright Violations" had one of its parts to appear in "Early Voyages".

* "Star Trek Unlimited: Reaping the Whirlwind" - DS9/Phase 3 crossover.

 

[JD]

The only things that I have trouble with are April being a white British guy in TAS and a black and American in SNW, and M'Benga seems too old and experienced to be the same character we saw in TOS.

Oops, that was supposed to be a black guy. And to be clear I don't have a problem with the idea of April being black, it's just that it's hard to accept that he's the exact same character we saw in TAS. If this being presented as a reboot in a new universe it wouldn't bother me at all.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Interestingly both EV and SNW went with the idea that April was an admiral during Pike's captaincy, even though he was apparently only a commodore a decade later.

Of course, April in EV seemed more like a hotheaded jerk, so you could see him ending up getting busted down a few grades.

 

[Procutus]

And the impression I got last night when I started reading is that Pike did not serve under April. Could be wrong about that though, I'm still only in Issue #1.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Oops, that was supposed to be a black guy. And to be clear I don't have a problem with the idea of April being black, it's just that it's hard to accept that he's the exact same character we saw in TAS.

TAS did have lots of colouring errors, including M'Ress's collar turning from red to black; division insignias that change within an episode; blue-faced Orions (only recently explained in LDS); a grey-faced Andorian (only explained as Aenar decades later); and a crew woman in a red uniform with a blue sleeve (or vice versa).