To Boldly Pave The Way

Now that Trek film lore has been reset to begin again the early voyages of the Enterprise under the command of Cadet Captain Kirk, this might be a good time to have a look at a 1997-98 comic book series that filled a niche for those of us who hadn't seen nearly enough of Captain Christopher Pike during his one-episode appearance in the franchise:

Star Trek Early Voyages, written by Dan Agnett and Ian Edginton, features stories with the crew of the Enterprise we met in "The Cage," the pilot episode of Star Trek where Pike and his crew respond to a fake distress call sent from the planet Talos IV. The comics, of course, are no substitute for the characterization a television series might give these people--but in the comic, enough bases are covered in that respect (if perfunctorily) to steadily fill in their blanks. And actually, for a comic book with battles to fight and a quota of blam-blam to deliver, you'll be reasonably satisfied with the time spent on the variety of characters in the book--as opposed to the television episode, where we really only saw meaningful interaction between Pike and Dr. Boyce.

In addition, particularly with some of the elements of Pike's adventures we're already familiar with, the art by Patrick Zircher (who drew most of the series) blends well with the new material and offers some intriguing and at times gratifying looks at scenes with Pike and his crew:

The series came to an abrupt halt after issue #17, leaving readers with one hell of a cliffhanger and no small amount of disappointment at seeing these voyages end, just as we were enjoying the ride. If you never got to read these comics, you can find them collected in this Omnibus that packs them into a hefty 436 pages. Just remember--when you get to the final page and you realize there's no more coming, don't phaser the messenger!