Comic book series
Star Trek: Countdown
is a four-issue
comic book
prequel
to the 2009 film
Star Trek
by
IDW Publishing
. It follows the characters of
Spock
and the
Romulan
Nero
during the year 2387, detailing the events that cause them to travel to the 23rd century. The story serves as both a lead up to the film, and as a continuation of the
Star Trek: The Next Generation
franchise.
Publication history
[
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]
The comic came about because Anthony Pascale, editor of TrekMovie.com, kept requesting to the film's co-writer
Roberto Orci
a way of having
The Next Generation
characters "pass the baton" back to the originals.
[1]
Writers Tim Jones and Mike Johnson were fans of
The Next Generation
and worked for Orci and Kurtzman's production company. They were allowed to read parts of the script and watch parts of the film to understand Nero more. They chose to give his Romulan crew informal dialogue to reflect that they are miners, not politicians or warriors. In figuring out where
The Next Generation
characters would be eight years after
Star Trek: Nemesis
, Jones and Johnson decided if Picard had left the
Enterprise
, then Data ? whose resurrection in B-4's body was heavily hinted at the end of
Nemesis
? would become captain since he is
Starfleet
's most capable strategist. The writers made an error of Spock stating he had lived on Romulus for forty years, which the writers tried to explain by saying Spock might have visited the planet before "
Unification
".
[2]
The word
forty
was later changed to
twenty
in the trade paperback.
[3]
The
Starfleet uniforms
seen in the comic resemble those developed for
Star Trek Online
.
[4]
Cryptic Studios
is tying into the comic by including Picard's promotion to ambassador to Vulcan and Data's resurrection and promotion in the backstory to its game.
[5]
[6]
Another in-joke in the comic is the inclusion of the mascot from
Bad Robot
?
J. J. Abrams
' production company ? in Picard's quarters.
[7]
The third issue of
Star Trek Countdown
was the first comic to be released in stores and on the
iPhone
on the same day.
[8]
The four-issue comic series
Star Trek: Nero
takes place shortly after the events in
Countdown
.
In 2013, IDW published the official
Star Trek Into Darkness
prequel, the 4-issue mini-series
Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness
, and the official sequel, the 4-issue mini-series
Star Trek: Khan
.
Plot
[
edit
]
The comic is set in 2387, eight years after the film
Star Trek: Nemesis
.
Federation
and
Romulan
tensions have generally subsided, with
Spock
the Federation ambassador to the Romulans.
Data
is still alive and has become the captain of the
Enterprise
-E
after successfully imprinting his memories onto the prototype android B-4.
Jean-Luc Picard
is the Federation ambassador to
Vulcan
,
Geordi La Forge
has retired to develop his own ships, and
Worf
is a general in the
Klingon
Empire.
The galaxy is threatened by the Hobus star, which will become a
supernova
. Spock proposes that the Romulans transport the precious mineral decalithium to Vulcan, where it can be converted into red matter capable of turning the star into a short-lived
black hole
, therefore ending its threat. The Romulan Senate opposes Spock, but he finds a comrade in Nero, the leader of the miners. Nero witnessed the Hobus supernova consume a planet first-hand and offers to secretly transport decalithium, noting it would be better than doing nothing and then leaving his wife and unborn son to die. Nero's ship, the
Narada
, is attacked by the
Remans
, but the
Enterprise
rescues them and escorts them to Vulcan with decalithium taken from the Reman ships. The Vulcan Council opposes Romulan use of red matter, infuriating Nero; he vows if Romulus is destroyed, he shall hold them accountable.
Nero returns to Romulus to discover Hobus has gone supernova and destroyed his home world. Driven mad by his loss, he attacks Federation
Olympic
class hospital ships that have arrived to give aid, believing they have come to claim his people's territory. He beams surviving Romulan senators onto his ship and kills them for not listening to Spock, and then claims the Praetor's ancient trident, the
Debrune Teral'n
, which is the greatest symbol of Romulus. He and his crew then shave their heads and apply tattoos to signify their loss. Nero goes to the
Vault
, a secretive Romulan base, and has the
Narada
outfitted with
Borg
technology to begin a rampage against his perceived enemies.
With the supernova expanding, Spock decides to deploy the red matter weapon. He takes the
Jellyfish
, a ship developed by La Forge that can withstand extreme environmental conditions. The
Narada
goes about destroying Federation, Klingon, and
Cardassian
ships alike, wounding Worf and damaging the
Enterprise
in the process. When Spock successfully destroys the supernova, the
Narada
appears to attack when the black hole flings it and the
Jellyfish
back in time, leaving Picard and the crew of the
Enterprise
as witnesses to Spock's sacrifice.
Reception
[
edit
]
Reviews of the first issue of
Countdown
by
IGN
,
Ain't It Cool News
, TrekMovie.com and TrekWeb were positive.
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
IDW editor-in-chief Chris Ryall blogged that although more than the intended volume had been printed,
Countdown
sold out within two weeks of its publication.
[13]
IGN
also positively reviewed the third and fourth issues,
[14]
[15]
while
io9
also published a positive review of the entire series.
[16]
Canonicity
[
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]
When asked whether the filmmakers' involvement in the comic made it
canonical
,
Roberto Orci
stated he was in no position to declare whether it was, though he felt it could easily remain as such unless it was contradicted in a future film.
[17]
The first season of
Star Trek: Picard
contradicts several plot points of
Countdown
, making the supernova the Romulan sun rather than the Hobus star, and establishes that Data's memories were never successfully imprinted into B-4, who was disassembled after a ban on synthetics in 2385. The ban prompted Picard, an admiral rather than an ambassador, to resign from Starfleet. The third season of
Picard
also states that Worf, rather than Data, succeeded Picard as the captain of the
Enterprise
-E and later worked for Starfleet Intelligence rather than becoming a Klingon general.
[18]
Collected editions
[
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]
The series has been collected into
trade paperback
and
hardcover
editions:
- Star Trek: Countdown
(104 pages, April 21, 2009,
ISBN
1-60010-420-7
)
- Star Trek: Countdown
(104 pages, November 25, 2009,
ISBN
1-60010-639-0
)
- Star Trek: Countdown
(104 pages, November 12, 2009, Amazon.co.uk Exclusive packaged with Blu-ray release Star Trek 2009)
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
Star Trek
reboot (
Kelvin
Timeline) series
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