BotTalk Reviews

The Romulans open the story by plotting and right at the outset we learn Captain Chip Miller (last seen in Star Trek: Red Shirts #5) is an asset. A group of redshirts walk into a bar, one says he's gonna ask out this Andorian science officer, another laughs at him. He's run off after her but the other redshirts are called off to do a mission. That same mission goes sideways nightmarishly, our lone redshirt, Harry Deubert, survived but ends up having to clean the shuttle. And he's sick of how redshirts are treated so he tries to contact Starfleet but Miller intercepts him! Dun dun dun! but hey at least redshirt got his date. Too bad she's Andorian security. To be continued! First of all I like that it takes place during the latter decades of the 23rd century, I don't think Star Trek really touches on that era outside the novels and even then... anyways the comic... So sounds like Captain Miller is our big bad for how ever many issues... and it's a good set up, ab...

"The power transfer beam! I can travel on it" And so Cadet Reymi sends the photonic Sam to the planet to save the day. He successfully sends her to the planet but is immediately busted by Chancellor Ake. Meanwhile on the planet! With the shield down the cadets can talk to each other again, which immediately makes the aliens hostile so Sam comes up with a distraction to buy the others time to escape. And while Genesis is feeling sorry for herself Sam figures out a way to communicate with the aliens. To be concluded next issue when they Starfleet a solution! It's a decent story that would've made a decent episode in the short and soon to be lamented Academy series on streaming. We finally have the whole cast working on a solution that honestly was the whole point of the exercise.  And Genesis Lythe learns a lesson. She needs to chill. 7.5/10

Commander Kelrec has crashed, and unconscious, he is taken by the alien race that still inhabits the planet ruined by the Burn. Meanwhile our three cadets settle for sign language until Caleb reveals he hacked their systems to allow them to communicate in text because this is the 32nd century not some ancient savage era. Our cadets are off while Genesis continues to narrate what still alludes to this mission getting worse.  One the ship Nahla just gets to wait with her crew and the EMH, while Kelrec is unconscious and leaned against a device while the alien dance around both in some ritual. The cadets show up to rescue Kelrec which ends in the device being damaged.  Turns out it is the shield generator keeping the area habitable. Oops! Three issues in and you want this to start wrapping up. Once again this is the issue I have with modern comics: truncated story to make room for ads, especially when it’s one story spread through multiple issues. And it’s a good story, it’s inte...

A one-shot that celebrates characters and their respective relationships during pride month. So first up, Mariner and Jennifer in Lower Decks! Mariner takes Jennifer to a bar not long after Jennifer dragged Mariner to her friend’s salon, at the bar Jennifer says ‘we need to talk’, Mariner freaks out so she enlists Boimler to help her keep Jennifer, with hilarious result. Okay, this doesn’t work. Especially if you’ve seen the last season and we know Mariner bows out from Jennifer without actually dumping her and then spends a whole episode avoiding her, so what was the point of this story? I mean it’s a quick kind of fun, I guess, but it’s pointless and doesn’t reveal anything about either character that we don’t already know. 4/10 Next! T'Lir and Lily Sato go after a Vulcan extremist! Hey remember the Theseus? Remember Star Trek Omega? Well post omega T'Lir is helping Lily who’s left the fleet and is now helping the Fenris Rangers……the story wraps up with them capturing the Vul...

Last time on hit Paramount plus Streaming show Star Trek Academy (caaaaaaancelled)! Our cadets are marooned on a planet that had been devastated by the Burn, meanwhile our officers were on the ship with nary an option in how to rescue them. So the kids are still on the planet, they argue amongst each other. The adults are on the ship also arguing amongst each other.  Jayden and Caleb agree that Genesis doesn’t listen and going alone is dangerous. Meanwhile on the ship the chancellor of the war college decides to take a shuttle and find the kids himself. His attempt to go is dangerous as the planet wrecks his shields. And there is more than one stranger on the planet. Who could they be? Guess we’ll find out in issue 3. This comic manages to tell a story planet-side without dialogue, they have to communicate by writing in the dirt while also holding to convention on the ship.  It may not seem like it but this does move the story forward, albeit slowly.  See, again this stor...

And now with the latest hit paramount plus tv show Starfleet Academy (cancelled) comes the latest in tie in properties in the form of an all new comic series Starfleet Academy. And thus we begin with Genesis Lythe narrating, they disembark on a training exercise that combines both academy and war college on a mission to survive in different environments on a planet we learn was devastated by the burn. Everything seems like it would be fairly straightforward where both academy and war college would learn to work together as a team as they did in the days before the burn. But that would be boring so they find a random alien of unknown origin, a storm of some kind is coming in that disrupts all electronic signals, and the cadets are really unprepared because this is freshman year. But I’m sure they’ll figure something out. Okay let’s start with what I did like : I like that we’re going to get more stories in the 32nd century so automatically I hope IDW continues on in this timeframe and ...

Okay first off let's talk about this issue's cover. This is the image for a season six we SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN. So IDW did it for this issue and good on them. This was something we needed and I like that they homaged the Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) movie poster. Okay and now the thrilling conclusion! The Enterprise's cloak is malfunctioning. Katherine Pulaski comes to save the day. Crew reunited with each other.  Another happy ending. This is a solid issue wrapping up the five issue story arc. The writing fits the tone of how Lower Decks should be so hopefully we get more from these current writers and hopefully they keep it at this level.  I make no secret that I trash these comics monthly, but I am also honest enough to admit when one is good, and this Laapoonia arc was actually good. I laughed at the notes daring people to send in hate mail. And the next time on Star Trek but not really page was just great. However this was a five issue arc that essential...

Last time in the continuing saga of Laapoonia!  Cerritos was docked for repairs, the away team shuttle blew up, Freeman and crew stole the Illinois and mariner stole a shuttle and made her way to the unknown ship. And now the saga of Laapoonia is far from over. Turns out Mariner stealing a shuttle was all part of the plan to get Mariner on the ship to find and rescue the missing and presumed dead away team. Mariner does what Mariner does, rescuing kidnapped Laaperians and Laapoonians, but finding no away team she and her rescued group storm the bridge only to find out that... something is revealed in next month's issue. Meanwhile on the Illinois, Freeman and crew calmly wait for Mariner's signal, and once that happens they go on the attack and are about to beam over a security team when they suddenly hit an invisible force in space that makes a complete left turn into spoilers I’m not revealing. This has been a pretty fun story so far. It still carries that lighter tone the iss...

Uhura falls through the Guardian of Forever and ends up in 1963 America’s south to quickly learn about the injustices black Americans suffered in that time (and beyond, but yeah) meanwhile Kirk and Spock also go back in time to retrieve her in the most middling story about racism and how things eventually get better because of the foundations laid by men like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the people who followed him. Okay first thing, this was something I could’ve lived without but Discovery demanded we needed it: Carl. It made sense in a galaxy post time wars, but does not in a time when they met the Guardian of Forever and it was a giant stone portal not Carl. Next, there are better ways to tackle prejudice and racism than this comic based off of a TV show that tackled racism and prejudice far better.  One store employee gets mad at Uhura for being there and there’s a sign? And that’s all the injustice they show. She meets Dr. King, neat. And in the middle of a protest (that loo...

Last time on lower decks!  The away team had attempted to escape the planet by commandeering a shuttle on Laapoonia, the Cerritos, hanging in space having dealt several blows on an attacking ship, and having taken a pounding, saw the shuttle carrying the away blow up, and withdrew to safety. And now issue sixteen. The surviving Cerritos crew are grounded at a fleet scrapyard starbase. The admiral and his wife are coming to visit so Captain Carol Freeman hatches a plan to steal an old starship, her first assignment, and go find her crew she doesn’t believe are dead, though Starfleet has them already listed as K.I.A. I feel like this is a good issue that gets dragged a bit in the middle and toward the end just for the sake of having sexbot jokes, but otherwise it’s a decent continuation of a story that being a TPB will help. So far the overall story is good, but with each individual issue being slightly bumpy they need to get to the destination faster. But! 7/10

Is this the end of Angry Vine Woman? So Chapel rescues her friend, her team, and La'An Noonien-Singh and they are then rescued by Spock and Anime drawing Scotty. Meanwhile in space the crew work to solve the mystery of the Arken and work toward a solution for the angry vine woman, all of which tie up nicely. And good thing too, because this is the type of story that would get old if it got dragged out. And the solution and how they worked it all out is classic Star Trek, and then how it wrapped up with the plant creature by working out a deal instead of running in with phaser firing and blowing everything up, was also very good. Again this would’ve been better as a 5 part season 3 story instead of the seasons more weaker episodes. 8/10

Last time on issue 14! The Cerritos visited Laapoonia, sent down an away team led by Jack Ransom where they were suddenly trapped on planet as Cerritos was suddenly attacked by a strange battleship. And now here is 15 with the away still on the planet attempting to find a way off, in orbit Cerritos is getting slaughtered by the much more advanced strange ship.  Eventually a small shuttle from the planet commanded by the away team attacks the strange ship, and Cerritos makes its escape straight into a cliffhanger. So here we are with part two and we seemed to have forgotten all about D'Vana Tendi being mad about T’Lyn for some reason, and the senior officers on the planet are now stupid. But only we can follow the lower decks main characters of course. We still learn nothing about the mystery ship except that it’s advanced. Well advanced compared to Cerritos, which is not a Prometheus class ship or anything. Really the thing hurting the story is the truncated length of comic books o...

Here she comes, an underwater tree again! Sentient vines that control minds this gonna conclude this time or is gonna continue to another issue again? ahhhhh ahhhh ahhhhh ahhhhh  Underwater Sentient vines woman! And it will! It will continue to issue 5, but we have a moving plot now. So we continue underwater with Christine Chapel fighting the vine people while Spock, Scotty, and D6 fight then make contact with the giant squid in only the way Spock would. In space Enterprise works out a solution to stop the Arken drones, then come face to face with another larger ship, which is where we will have to wait for the next issue. This actually a pretty good story that would have been a good addition to season 3 instead of some of the episodes we got. Vine woman is hell bent on some good old fashioned vengeance! 8.932/10

Star Trek’s first-ever interactive original graphic novel!  “Meet the new GOD of Cats!” Finally a Lower decks story where we can make T'Ana a godlike being while Brad Boimler is turned into a borg and Andy Billups is eaten by a chest bursting alien or “nutrek gorn hatchling”.  What the causality loop crazed scientist experiment was that?! Well what it is, is a choose your own adventure style story that leaves you turning to the pages you’re given until it finally leads down the path toward a very good conclusion. Along the way it gets a little confusing and would probably work better as a physical book and it could just be that way because I’m reading off a pdf file and for all I know the digital copy lets you click on the page option. It doesn’t take away from the issue itself though, which is very good. Good issue and somehow a 10/10

As this is a TPB (Collects Star Trek: Lower Decks #1-3 (2022)) this is going to be a list of initial thoughts. Starfleet has other captains but you wouldn’t know it by how it acts. Photons be free, Mariner! Photons be free! Love that these specific writers for this story organically referenced Voyager’s EMH and his fight for photonic rights. Good reference that actively fits in with the universe. Dracula holoprogram being the A story meanwhile the B story is second contact goes bad, are they on the right planet or did they end up somehow on the wrong planet, a planet where they’re closeted furries? Love that even here they give Shaxs Drazon a best day. And the plot twists wherein they landed on the wrong side of the planet/Dracula has slowly taken over the ship. Love that it all ties together in the end and Dracula goes off to join the Emergency Hologram Academy run by Voyager’s Emergency Medical Hologram (love that for him). It’s a good story that fits better as a TPB, which is why I ...

T'Lyn being the best character? Laapeerians vanished? T'Ana playing a prank on the captain? It must be issue 14! The Cerritos visits neighbouring Laapoonia to find out why the Laapeerians disappeared suddenly, Jack Ransom and an away team including T'Lyn, D'Vana Tendi and Brad Boimler beam down and are suddenly greeted by people who fan worship Vulcans which makes Tendi mad and more jealous. Meanwhile on the ship Carol Freeman handles the laapoonian ambassadorial team. All of which eventually ties together to lead us to our cliffhanger, which swoops down like some dark and mysterious bird of prey and now all we have to do is wait until next month! Is it worth it? Lower Decks seems to be regaining its momentum again after several less than stellar issues. This is part two of a plot that started in last issue and will continue into the next, and maybe one after that. Who knows! Lower Decks comics work better when they actually seem like they could fit into the show. 8.572...

Part 3 starts with a quick flashback scene with Christine Chapel and Jinare before returning to the present with the plant terror trying to coax chapel to join, but is stopped by Una Chin-Riley.  Una and Chapel stay behind to buy time for the rest of the landing party, meanwhile in orbit the ship is about to be attacked by an alien race. Spock and D-16 make it to the sub but are stopped by the returning giant squid from issue one.  In between space and underwater we learn the vine creatures were imprisoned by an ancient race called the Arken (who are surrounding the Enterprise) who have less than benevolent reasons for imprisoning the vine people, the vine people are pissed and we’re left in another cliffhanger. One of the many things I’ve always liked about Star Trek, they introduce an alien race that’s considered ancient and give you enough information that leaves you wanting more. And with this issue specifically they are doing just that while keeping the pacing moving alo...

Brad Boimler and Sam Rutherford ordered an android from Harry Mudd Companions! Beckett Mariner tries to avoid going to the dentist! Cerritos is visiting Laaperia for second contact! Surely this is a normal day for the Cerritos! And it kind of is, Boimler and Rutherford’s android goes on a rampage while Shaxs Drazon chases down Mariner to drag her to see the dentist. Eventually the Cerritos arrives to make second contact with the Laaperians, but when the away team beams down, they arrive into a... to be continued! A good issue after a string of not great issues, and is a day in the life type story that eventually reaches the overarching plot, a plot that is a mystery for the crew to solve.  So a good story, decent art as always.  It’s about as Rick Berman era trek as you can get. 7/10

And now in part 2, the away team goes deep underwater only to discover a city ruled by... vines? Meanwhile on the ship, Uhura attempts to translate writing the sensors picked up in the ice, writing that could signal doom for them all! And here we are with part two in which they go looking for Jinare only to find The Terror Beneath the Seas. But at least no one’s bored at this point. Meanwhile in space the Enterprise faces its own problems and crises to solve. It keeps the pace from the first issue while giving us a mystery on the planet for both ship and away team to solve. 8/10

And now the conclusion! The crew is in 1985 on Earth attempting to find extra whales to help keep the species alive in the 24th century, along for the journey are the two beluga whales, will they find these whales and make it back? For some reason there’s a Klingon ship in orbit! For reasons! This second part is an improvement over the first part if nothing else. The landing party manage to find a way out to sea, they manage to wrap everything up and for some reason there’s a Klingon ship in orbit as well that they dispatch easily as it’s a 20th century Klingon ship. For all that, the plot is pointless and throwing in a Klingon ship (for reasons!) doesn’t add anything to the story, not even tension, it’s at least an enjoyable read where you’re at least not bored and just wondering when it ends. At least it moves along if just a bit rushed, but they only have so many pages to wrap this story up, at least this time they avoided the usual time tropes of pointing out how weird and crazy th...