April
2 Review: Star Trek: Year Four — The Enterprise Experiment #1

Creators: D.C. Fontana and Derek Chester, writers; Gordon Purcell and Terry Pallot, artists
IDW, 32 pages, color, $3,99
So? As a longtime fan of Star Trek, comicbooks and Star Trek comicbooks, this is a very good mixture of all the things that Trek fans like about Trek. The second Year Four series — remember, the U.S.S. Enterprise was originally on a five-year mission that was cut short after three by NBC — this story is a sequel to a Year Three TV episode in which Captain Kirk steals an experimental Romulan cloaking device from a very attractive female Romulan commander. That episode was written by D.C. Fontana, who has written episodes of almost every TV incarnation of the show and makes her debut as comics writer here. The art team of Purcell and Pallot also has a lot of experience with Trek, with each having drawn dozens of Trek comics for previous publishers. Not surprisingly, this ends up being a satisfying tale that hits all the right buttons for the die-hard Trek fan, even as its fan-friendliness makes it less likely to bring in casual or new fans. Given the number of bad Trek comics that have been published (Gold Key and Marvel, I'm talking mostly about you), that's more than good enough for now as we wait to see how much the new movie due out next year can revive interest in the Trek brand. Grade: B-