DC Comics's Star Trek Overview Part 8: Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989-1996)

 Hey everyone! It's Wednesday once again, which means I'm back to talk about DC Comics's Star Trek comic book line that ran from 1984 until 1996. Today we'll be heading back to 1989 to take a look at the second Star Trek: The Next Generation that DC published in tandem with their second series based on TOS. So without further ado let's get into it.

Star Trek: The Next Generation #1 came out at the same time as Star Trek #1 did. However, unlike the TOS series, this TNG series did not have an overarching story running through 24 issues of it. Instead it focused on individual story arcs and standalone issues that could be read on their own without having read previous issues. This series also took place during the TV series, starting in the time period of the show's second season which ran from 1988 to 1989. Which is odd because the date on the front cover says October 1989, which means it was published in July or August, depending on how far apart DC had the cover date from the actual publication date. Which means that it was published between the second and third seasons of the show, but it may very well have been written while the second season was still airing. As we know from the original TNG mini-series that DC published in 1988, the lead time for these writers was months away from when the issue had to be printed and published. 

The first issue starts with Picard returning to a planet that he had visited while he was the captain of the USS Stargazer. I picked this issue up a while ago since it came out when I was only two years old. I also reviewed it a few months ago, so if you wanna know what I thought of it, you can check out the review. Pablo Marcos returned as the artist from the previous series and did the art for the first six issues of this series, and then returned for several other issues throughout the series' run. Michael Jan Friedman, who had already written a few Star Trek novels in the '80s, was the primary writer for this series, with other writers only doing three of the issues.

While the TOS series mostly stayed within the time period between Star Trek V and Star Trek VI, except for the issues that took place during the TV show, the TNG jumps from season 2 to season 3 with issue 5. Which makes sense because having the comic be a direct tie-in to the TV show, while the show is airing, rather than be a tie-in to a series of movies means moving into a new season when the TV show does. 

The first story arc that had more than two or three parts to it, and the only one to have been collected in it's own trade paperback edition, was The Star Lost, which I've also reviewed on this blog. It ran from issue #20 to #24. 

As I stated in the introduction to this series, and in many other blog posts over the years, Star Trek: The Next Generation #31 is the first issue of the series I ever got when I was a kid. It, along with Star Trek #31, was my introduction to the comic book medium. The crew of the Enterprise-D, along with Captain Okona of the independent ship, Erstwhile, are looking for Commander Riker, who is stranded on a space station caught between two dimensions.

The first multi-issue storyline I read was issues #33 to #35. In it the Enterprise-D is taking a delegation from a warrior race who hate Klingons to a conference, leaving Worf without much to do on the mission. However, Picard makes the mistake of telling Worf that he wishes he had a hundred more like him onboard and Q happens to hear it, transforming everyone except for Worf who is already a Klingon, and Data, who is an Android, into Klingons. Which makes things with the delegation pretty tense and even causes Riker to take Picard out and assume command in a very un-Rikerlike manner. Which then in turn forces Worf to take actions he normally wouldn't take. I still have this arc in my collection and it's pretty great.

The first major arc I read though was an unnamed one that was told from issue #39 to #44 where the ship is investigating an artificial moon and are attacked by an aggressive alien race which forces Picard to leave the away team on the moon and order a saucer separation, which causes the saucer section, commanded by Riker on the other side of the galaxy and confronted by one of the alien ships. While characters from the show, besides the senior staff, had appeared in the comic before, this was the first time so many of them appeared at once. Keiko and Molly, Chief O'Brien, Worf's son Alexander, Mot the Barber, Lieutenant Solis from the season 1 episode "The Arsenal of Freedom", Lieutenant Burke from "The Best of Both Worlds", Lieutenant D'Sora from the season 4 episode, "In Theory", Ms. Kyle (the school teacher introduced in season 5), and Robin Lefler all showed up. As did Ensign Ro. It's one of my favourite arcs from this series and it's great. I kept it in my collection all these years.

The next major arc that was published, and the next one that I read was "The Worst of Both Worlds" follow-up to the two part TNG episode, "The Best of Both Worlds". In this story, the Enterprise-D and her crew find themselves transported to another universe where the crew failed to rescue Captain Picard from the Borg and as Locutus, he oversaw the assimilation of Earth, as well as the Federation as a whole. Riker is the captain of a battered stardrive section, Commander Shelby is his first officer, Data and many of the others such as Guinan, Keiko, Molly and others were killed when the saucer section was badly damaged in battle and had to be abandoned. And Picard has to face what he would've been responsible for had he not been rescued by the crew in "The Best of Both Worlds Part II". It's a fantastic arc.

 The final arc that I read was called "War and Madness" and deals with the Borg, the Tholians, and Riker's dad, Kyle. This arc, and the rest of the series, takes place between the series finale, "All Good Things..." and Star Trek Generations (1994).

I didn't get to read the full arc because the last issue of the series that my dad got for me was #74. So I've never read the full story, which is too bad because I was interested in seeing the return of Hugh the Borg and his fellow disconnected Borg from the season 6 finale/season 7 premiere "Descent". And as you can see from the cover of this issue, Gowron makes his first appearance in the comic for the first time. At least I think it's his first appearance as he didn't appear in any issue I had growing up, and except for issue #46, I had every issue from #31 to #74. So that was interesting.

A couple of years later a friend of mine at school gave issue #80, which was not only the final issue of the series, but also the final issue of a two part story arc where Q turns the entire crew into Androids, because Picard remarked that he wished he had more of them like Data at the funeral of a fallen crew member. You think Picard would've learned from when Q turned the crew into Klingons all the way back in issue #33. But, no, he didn't. Only this time they end up dealing with space pirates.

A few years later, sometime in the 2000s, I got issue #79 as a birthday or Christmas present from my sister. I was finally able to read the first part of the final two part crew turned into Androids by Q story. It was cool, but I do wish I could've gotten it brand new. Obviously this wasn't the final issue that I got, though it was the last one I got until I got issue #1 a while back. 

The first trade paperback collection this series had was The Star Lost which collected the story arc of the same name from issues #20 to #24. I got this trade last year and, like I said, I reviewed it on the blog earlier this year. It's a great story, but sadly this was the only arc from the series to get it's own trade paperback collection.

The final trade paperback collection for the series was The Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation published by DC in 1994. It collects issues 5, 6, and 19 and the first two annuals, so not as many issues as the earlier The Best of Star Trek collection that I talked about in my TOS segment of this overview series. I remember seeing it advertised in an issue of the TOS series, though I don't remember which one.

That's it for my look at the main TNG series. Next will be the annuals, the specials, and some miscellaneous Star Trek comics that DC published in addition to the two main series at the time. So there are still three parts of this overview to go. Until then join me tomorrow for my review of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law which has it's season/series finale dropping tomorrow on Disney+. I'm not sure when that review is coming out because I gotta go get some bloodwork done in the morning so we'll see how long that takes. Until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.