How's it goin' everybody?
Sebastian here, bringing you another unboxing. And, if you haven't guessed it by now, it is for my beloved
Star Trek. It is the Star Trek graphic novel collection subscription service from Eaglemoss and I'm really
excited to check this out. So what exactly do you get for your money? Well, the first month is $4.95 for one
hardcover book and then every month after that, there are two tiers. There is two books a month at $17.40
each for the regular tier, and two books a month at $18.90 each for the premium tier. Now, both of these
tiers get you four gifts that you will receive over time--a lapel pin, a tin featuring miniature movie posters, two
reproduction metal signs of some classic Star Trek Comics covers and, lastly, a set of book ends.
And then if you order the premium tier, on top of that, the fifth gift are four extra hardcovers that they're calling
photographic novels. Basically, they've taken production stills and stills from different episodes and rearranged
them into brand new Star Trek stories, which is actually very interesting, so I'd like to give those a look-see.
So, with all of that said and done, let's check out what we got in month number one.
Alrighty, guys. Here we have the incredibly nondescript box for the graphic novel collection. All I did was take off
the label with the address on it. And let's get inside, c'mon. [Box cutter slicing through tape]
Okay, we have some little air bags and inside the box, we have a copy of Star Trek: Countdown and what looks to
be a catalog. Let's take a look at both of these and I will go grab MY copy of Star Trek: Countdown
that I bought when it first came out.
Alrighty, guys. Now that we've got everything out of the box, let's start off with the catalog very briefly.
"Eaglemoss Collections Celebrating 50 years of Star Trek." Let's see what we have--oh--that is a nice
collection of books, if I do say so myself. We have the Enterprise-E, we have what looks to be a Maquis
Fighter here. The Akira-class starship, probably the Thunderchild. We have Voyager, we have the refit
Enterprise, or the Enterprise-A. Looks like we've got a Nebula-class starship there, some Birds of Prey and
some Borg Spheres and Cubes. Very, very nice. On the inside here, we have...
"Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission:
to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations.
To boldly go where no one has gone before."
And on the inside of this foldout we have a lovely timeline of Star Trek comics, starting at Gold Key.
At the very beginning we've got British Strips, we've got Marvel comics, DC comics, Malibu comics as well--
they published the original Men in Black comics--Paramount comics at Marvel, Wildstorm over there,
Tokyopop and IDW. Very, very cool. I cannot wait to see the rest of these books. And then next up we've got
classic Trek and a few previews of what is to come, hopefully. Ah, including Harlan Ellison's "City on the
Edge of Forever," a teleplay that was turned into a comic series with the help of, I believe, Scott Tipton--
one of my favorite Star Trek writers. Very, very cool. Ah, and here we go! Here are the rest of the gifts.
We've got the lapel pin here, we've got the tin featuring the movie posters, these Star Trek bookends, the classic
covers printed in metal (from the Gold Key era) and, if you upgrade your subscription, you'll recieve four
amazing photonovels that use doctored photographs to create new stories featuring Captain Kirk and his crew.
Very, very cool. Alrighty, let's move on to Star Trek: Countdown. Now, I do have a version of this hardcover
that came out in 2009 with the film and, that is it, this is my copy on the side here. But before we dive into the
new introduction, I just wanted to take a look at the hardcovers. And I do like they do clearly state that it is
the Eaglemoss collection down here along with the IDW logo. Let's take off this shrink wrap.
Alrighty, guys. With the shrink wrap removed and the magic of editing, I have reread Star Trek: Countdown and
it was thoroughly enjoyable. So let's take a closer look. "Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection
Volume 1: Countdown" And what I really dig is that each one of these images was one of the covers for the single
issues of the series. We've got Nero, Data, Spock and Captain Picard. It was also styled after the movie
posters for the 2009 film. Very nice. On the back here, we have Worf in his Klingon armor and a
little bit of copy to read.
"The year is 2387. The galaxy is threatened by the Hobus star, which will soon go supernova and destroy the
surrounding planets if nothing is done. Spock, now the official Federation ambassador to the Romulans,
finds an ally in Nero. Together they must persuade the Romulan Senate to take measures to save their planet.
In this gripping prelude to J.J. Abrams' 2009 blockbuster Star Trek, we discover the circumstances that drove
Nero and Spock to travel back to the 23rd century to confront the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise."
Very nice! Now let us move on to the interior of the book. First, we have this lovely image of the Enterprise-E.
Now, there are a few differences from this hardcover to the original one that I do own. Firstly, there is an
introduction page. There is also a "Story So Far" recap page and a reprint of Gold Key Comics Star Trek
Number One: "The Planet of No Return", written by Dick Wood with art by Nevio Zeccara. Very, very nice.
But before we dive deeper into this, we have Countdown, a story by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman,
written by Mike Johnson and Tim Jones with art by David Messina, who's done a lot of great Star Trek
work for IDW. Then we have our introduction page talking about how this book lines up with not only the
prime timeline but the J.J. Abrams universe, its creation, discussing a little bit of the motivations to expound on
them for the character of Nero. Setting the stage for the creation of the book, a little bit about the movie itself,
Star Trek by J.J. Abrams. And a little blurb about the sequel mini-series, Star Trek: Nero, that describes the
thirty-year-long gap in the film within Nero's life. So we see Nero at the very beginning of the film and then we
jump forward in time to when Captain Kirk is an adult and takes command of the Enterprise. So this book
details that and, last time I read it, I remember it being pretty good. So hopefully they'll include this as one
of the collections in the subscription. Now, we have "The Story So Far..." page.
"Years have passed since STAR TREK: NEMESIS, when Captain Jean Luc Picard and the crew of the U.S.S.
Enterprise NCC-1701-E battle the dictator Shinzon and his army of Remans. That battle cost the life of Picard's
trusted colleague and friend, the android Data, and set many of Picard's crew on paths away from the Enterprise."
Now, let us do a little bit of a review since it's been many, many moons since I read this book. In fact, I think the
last time I did read it was when I purchased the hardcover so long ago. But I dig this book a lot, I think
this was a great way to bridge the gap between the prime universe--the prime timeline--and the J.J. Abrams
alternate reality. Now, if you are intrigued somewhat by the idea of the prime timeline continuing, there is a new
show coming out, Star Trek: Discovery for CBS All Access. But the post-generations--the Next Generation
crew stuff--does continue in Star Trek Online, the MMORPG. And the jumping off point for reference is
that, in the prime timeline, Spock is presumed to have failed his mission of saving Romulus and is killed in
the process. And the Romulans have been scattered throughout the galaxy. It was actually very, very
interesting stuff what they've done and it's a nice parallel to the J.J. Abrams film in which Vulcan is destroyed.
Now, the main thing about his book that I do enjoy is there is a better characterization for the character of
Nero; we learn more about his relationship with his wife, to his government and his dreams of saving his
homeworld with Spock, who becomes a very, very good friend. And you understand that disappointment,
not only in himself, but in the Federation and Spock--and there is a lot of that pent up rage and anger--so you
understand the vengeance a little bit more. And that is, unfortunately, not seen very much in the film.
The character of Spock is very, very nice. He does feel very "Spock-ian" and is very much the Spock of the
Next Generation, especially the episodes in which he appears where he is doing his best to reunify the
Vulcan and the Romulan peoples. Also, the Next Generation crew in this book has a great voice and I
really, really liked their characterizations here. Of course, this is canon or not canon, depending on how you want
to sort of take things. But as far as MOST of the story within this is concerned, it does continue on in Star Trek
Online. But since we don't have any official film or television shows in that era, it's really, really hard to know
how CBS is really picking and choosing their canon. There are some heart-wrenching moments for the Next
Generation crew. But Data as he is now, especially post-Nemesis where he's taken over the body of before is
really, really well-written. I love this, I love Astrometrics and I'm glad that they used the Generations film version
of Astrometrics. Captain Picard is great; an older, more weathered Captain who has basically gone into
retirement and has decided to help out his friend Data. And of course, they also enlist the help of Geordi
and Worf. Geordi helps to build the Jellyfish ship and modify it so Spock can go on his mission to
save Romulus. And Worf makes an appearance in this book as well, especially because the character of Worf
has decided to go back to the Klingon Empire and decide to rebuild the ties between the Klingon Empire
and the Federation. So there's some really, really cool stuff in this book, he plays a great role. And his character
does come through a more savage Worf, especially one who's been hanging around with a lot of Klingons.
And the artwork is top-notch. I really love the artwork in this book. Like I said, David Messina has done
a lot of great work for IDW on their Star Trek books with Scott Tipton. So there is a lot of beautiful, beautiful
stuff in this book, so I dig it quite a bit. Beautiful--look at that! The Jellyfish comes through nicely, he's really, really
good at blending not only the reality of the J.J. Abrams universe--the designs--but merging them with the prime
timeline look as well, and I dig that. And these uniforms that you see here are used in Star Trek Online,
the video game. So there's a lot of really, really great stuff in this book, I enjoy it. So if you're coming at this
for the first time, reading this in the subscription service, or you're intrigued enough to go check it out, I do
wholeheartedly recommend it. Now we've got some great concept art here for the book. We have our
finishing page. And we also have some great designs for the characters. We have the young Nero, the Nero as he
appears as Eric Bana in the film, and of course Spock. And we also get this--Star Trek Gold Key Comics
Number One. And there is something incredibly interesting about this book--we used to have a copy of
this at the comic book store that I did work at--and the one thing I was always fascinated by is that the photo
of Spock is from a production still taken from before this series was shot and the uniform is slightly different,
so I've always wanted to know more about this uniform in particular. He's holding a flask here, looking very
science-y, potentially in a lab, something that the prop department probably put together or the set dresser did.
But the collar is much higher than they ended up being and the band on his arm, not only doesn't match his
proper rank from the series, but it is a solid gold band. And what's interesting enough is that they did something
very similar to this in the J.J. Abrams films for the rank braids. So I though that was very interesting.
Now, onto the story itself, there is a great little introduction to the story, "The Planet of No Return"
with monstrous plants, a planet of no return indeed. This man is about to be eaten by a giant fly-trap. That is
really, really cool stuff, so this is a great throwback to the comics of yore, especially to get the opportunity to read
a Star Trek comic from the 1960s. They've done a lot of reprints, they've done a lot of omnibuses of these
comics, but it's always good to see them. Plus, the artwork is just great. And, c'mon, I love the phaser
designs, the uniform designs. They are green, which is interesting enough that the uniforms themselves--
especially the command uniforms--the physical props were green. But when they were shot under the lighting
and the way the cameras and television systems worked, they ended up being yellow. So, that is how the
suits came to be yellow. But I dig this a lot and I think you will enjoy it as well. This is a great little colleciton
to have. And I'm kinda hopin' that they do more of these Gold Key issues either as reprints in the backs of the
books or as completed books themselves. And I think, with that, we're gonna call it a night.
Thank you very much for watching, guys. As always, it is much appreciated and I will catch you next time.
[Cheerful music]