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Star Trek: The Next Generation (IDW) #3
Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Last Generation
For the first time ever, IDW Publishing proudly joins forces with Simon & Shuster's Pocket Books division to deliver a Myriad Universe title in conjunction with the Star Trek alternate-universe prose novels of the same name.
Starfleet is no more. The Federation lies in ruin & the Klingons have conquered Earth. But a resistance, led by Jean-Luc Picard, seeks to free humanity from Klingon rule. Now, finally, it may have the means to do it: An android named Data, who has scrutinized the timeline & discovered that things are not as they should be. A crucial moment, buried in the past, has gone awry and as the Klingon warlord Worf closes in, time itself is running out...
Starfleet is no more. The Federation lies in ruin & the Klingons have conquered Earth. But a resistance, led by Jean-Luc Picard, seeks to free humanity from Klingon rule. Now, finally, it may have the means to do it: An android named Data, who has scrutinized the timeline & discovered that things are not as they should be. A crucial moment, buried in the past, has gone awry and as the Klingon warlord Worf closes in, time itself is running out...
128 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 30, 2021
Well.
I am always in favour of parallel universe or "what if" stories.
And the idea behind this is quite good.
We get a dystopian Earth which had been destroyed and conquered by the Klingons.
The Klingons have established a brutal tyrannical regime and have no qualms killing off anybody who opposes them. Picard and a ragtag group pose as the resistance.
Also, Sulu is the last surviving Starfleet captain with his own ship, and the still eludes the Klingons and does little raiding runs against them.
My favorite parts of this books were indeed the parts including Sulu. I think he was the best realized character.
All the others were more or less out of character, including Picard, and especially Wesley (as a boy genious who has saved the Enterprise on multiple occasions, he is pretty un-genious here and used pretty badly. Especially when he does his ridiculous dramatic costume change. What was that about?).
Also, this book tried to cram as many known Star Trek characters in as was possible, and this ranged from contrived to completely unrealistic. They even include Voyagers EMH as a joke, seemingly only to include him somehow, even if it serves no purpose. The likelyhood of someone like Dr. Zimmerman spending his time on Vulcan programming holographic software while every other human is oppressed on Earth surpasses my ability to suspend disbelief. And how Annika Hansen has joined a resistance cell with Chief o'Brien of all people will forever be anybodies guess. Highly unlikely, Seven would say.
Otherwise, the art was quite good and even the random side characters were instantly recognizable.
I am always in favour of parallel universe or "what if" stories.
And the idea behind this is quite good.
We get a dystopian Earth which had been destroyed and conquered by the Klingons.
The Klingons have established a brutal tyrannical regime and have no qualms killing off anybody who opposes them. Picard and a ragtag group pose as the resistance.
Also, Sulu is the last surviving Starfleet captain with his own ship, and the still eludes the Klingons and does little raiding runs against them.
My favorite parts of this books were indeed the parts including Sulu. I think he was the best realized character.
All the others were more or less out of character, including Picard, and especially Wesley (as a boy genious who has saved the Enterprise on multiple occasions, he is pretty un-genious here and used pretty badly. Especially when he does his ridiculous dramatic costume change. What was that about?).
Also, this book tried to cram as many known Star Trek characters in as was possible, and this ranged from contrived to completely unrealistic. They even include Voyagers EMH as a joke, seemingly only to include him somehow, even if it serves no purpose. The likelyhood of someone like Dr. Zimmerman spending his time on Vulcan programming holographic software while every other human is oppressed on Earth surpasses my ability to suspend disbelief. And how Annika Hansen has joined a resistance cell with Chief o'Brien of all people will forever be anybodies guess. Highly unlikely, Seven would say.
Otherwise, the art was quite good and even the random side characters were instantly recognizable.
November 11, 2019
Re-read. It gets rather convoluted at the end (sometimes that works sometimes that doesn't, here it's so-so). It's still interesting but honestly the Pocket Book Myriad Universes stand better. Still a decent read.
January 27, 2020
As a Myriad Universes entry, this is kind of slight. There's a great idea here that really deserves a longer telling. While I liked this, I'd love to see it expanded into a novella or even a full novel.
January 10, 2022
An interesting parallel universe tale. While it's interesting to see Sulu in the same space as Picard in this parallel universe, and the use of familiar mechanics of time travel to set time right, the lack of potential continuity makes this an interesting, but short, trip into that universe.
May 28, 2013
(A version of this review was posted at the Trek Literature forum at trekbbs.com.)
The Last Generation , an entry in the Myriad Universes line scripted by Andrew Steven Harris and illustrated by Gordon Purcell, stands out for a few reasons. For starters, it's the only graphic novel entry in the Myriad Universes series, the only one published by IDW instead of Pocket, and--so far as I can tell--the only Myriad Universes entry lacking a full review thread here in the Trek Literature forum. Googling trekbbs.com, I've found a September 2008 post by the author introducing his series and two posts--one in November 2008 and September 2009--reacting very briefly to elements of the series, but nothing more substantial. Since I recently bought the IDW omnibus containing this and other Trek graphic novels, it struck me as incumbent upon me to start one.
This Myriad Universes entry is set in the context of the Klingon conquest of Earth, following the successful assassination of the Federation president by the Khitomer plotters in 2293. The eventual war isn't explored in detail, although we do know that Earth fell sometime in the 2240s (alt-Riker saw the Klingon destruction of the lunar cities as a small child) and that by the time of the graphic novel, Vulcan is an independent state with a High Command that provides material support to the Terran rebels, particularly to the Excelsior commander by Hikaru Sulu and his first officer Rachel Garrett. On the Earth, Picard, leading a resistance cell including his lover a blinded Guinan, lovers Ro Laren and Tasha Yar, his maimed nephew, and an angry young Wesley Crusher who wants to prove himself in battle, acquires an advanced android, Data, to determine possible weaknesses to be used against the Klingons (Worf is the warlord in control of Earth, incidentally). When Data's analysis reveals that the current timeline is the product of tampering by the 29th century temporal agent Braxton, Picard sets out to fix the timeline. But can he?
At least one of the reviews over at Goodreads criticizes The Last Generation as being little more than fan fiction, a transposition of known characters into different situations. This is a true, but I think this criticism misses that such is the whole point of the Myriad Universe series. How would the Interstellar Union's Hikaru Sulu fare in rescuing his daughter from the savages of 40 Eridani A-II? What if Janeway's great gamble with the Borg against Species 8472 failed? What would Kirk do in the service of a United Earth after Terra Prime forced a rupture with the emergent Coalition species? The Myriad Universes stories play upon the established convention in Trek of the same people getting together to do things in any number of different timelines, and The Last Generation is no different. Others suggest that this timeline borrows heavily from "Yesterday's Enterprise", but I don't see it; without going into too much revealing detail, the causal mechanisms behind the timelines resulting in the Klingon conquests are rather different, as are the timelines themselves.
I enjoyed The Last Generation quite a bit. Gordon Purcell's art was familiar to me from his years working on DC Comics' lines, while I quite liked Harris' writing with its twists and turns. Harris successfully used characters from across the series--Janeway, Vaughn, and Jellico are mentioned in passing as members of other resistance cells, Wesley gets O'Brien and Annika Hansen and Hawk to work with him, Picard even has a Xenexian ally with a scarred face--to explore a very different timeline and the possibilities of fixing it. (I quite liked seeing Rachel Garrett feature prominently, not least since I liked Well of Souls. Also, I think that The Last Generation confirms that, without human foster parents to take him through the processes described by Norbert Elias, Worf would have become a monster.)
A 2008 interview with Harris suggests that The Last Generation was intended to be the first in a series of IDW-Pocket collaborations, building upon and exploring the universe created in the novels. This doesn't seem to have come to pass. Based on the successes of The Last Generation, it's a pity that's the case.
The Last Generation , an entry in the Myriad Universes line scripted by Andrew Steven Harris and illustrated by Gordon Purcell, stands out for a few reasons. For starters, it's the only graphic novel entry in the Myriad Universes series, the only one published by IDW instead of Pocket, and--so far as I can tell--the only Myriad Universes entry lacking a full review thread here in the Trek Literature forum. Googling trekbbs.com, I've found a September 2008 post by the author introducing his series and two posts--one in November 2008 and September 2009--reacting very briefly to elements of the series, but nothing more substantial. Since I recently bought the IDW omnibus containing this and other Trek graphic novels, it struck me as incumbent upon me to start one.
This Myriad Universes entry is set in the context of the Klingon conquest of Earth, following the successful assassination of the Federation president by the Khitomer plotters in 2293. The eventual war isn't explored in detail, although we do know that Earth fell sometime in the 2240s (alt-Riker saw the Klingon destruction of the lunar cities as a small child) and that by the time of the graphic novel, Vulcan is an independent state with a High Command that provides material support to the Terran rebels, particularly to the Excelsior commander by Hikaru Sulu and his first officer Rachel Garrett. On the Earth, Picard, leading a resistance cell including his lover a blinded Guinan, lovers Ro Laren and Tasha Yar, his maimed nephew, and an angry young Wesley Crusher who wants to prove himself in battle, acquires an advanced android, Data, to determine possible weaknesses to be used against the Klingons (Worf is the warlord in control of Earth, incidentally). When Data's analysis reveals that the current timeline is the product of tampering by the 29th century temporal agent Braxton, Picard sets out to fix the timeline. But can he?
At least one of the reviews over at Goodreads criticizes The Last Generation as being little more than fan fiction, a transposition of known characters into different situations. This is a true, but I think this criticism misses that such is the whole point of the Myriad Universe series. How would the Interstellar Union's Hikaru Sulu fare in rescuing his daughter from the savages of 40 Eridani A-II? What if Janeway's great gamble with the Borg against Species 8472 failed? What would Kirk do in the service of a United Earth after Terra Prime forced a rupture with the emergent Coalition species? The Myriad Universes stories play upon the established convention in Trek of the same people getting together to do things in any number of different timelines, and The Last Generation is no different. Others suggest that this timeline borrows heavily from "Yesterday's Enterprise", but I don't see it; without going into too much revealing detail, the causal mechanisms behind the timelines resulting in the Klingon conquests are rather different, as are the timelines themselves.
I enjoyed The Last Generation quite a bit. Gordon Purcell's art was familiar to me from his years working on DC Comics' lines, while I quite liked Harris' writing with its twists and turns. Harris successfully used characters from across the series--Janeway, Vaughn, and Jellico are mentioned in passing as members of other resistance cells, Wesley gets O'Brien and Annika Hansen and Hawk to work with him, Picard even has a Xenexian ally with a scarred face--to explore a very different timeline and the possibilities of fixing it. (I quite liked seeing Rachel Garrett feature prominently, not least since I liked Well of Souls. Also, I think that The Last Generation confirms that, without human foster parents to take him through the processes described by Norbert Elias, Worf would have become a monster.)
A 2008 interview with Harris suggests that The Last Generation was intended to be the first in a series of IDW-Pocket collaborations, building upon and exploring the universe created in the novels. This doesn't seem to have come to pass. Based on the successes of The Last Generation, it's a pity that's the case.
June 23, 2019
This TNG story features an alternative timeline in which Kirk fails to save the Federation President from being assassinated as depicted in a Star Trek 6.
September 17, 2020
It’s just everywhere. The art was good but the story was convoluted.
December 27, 2024
I’ve been trying to find this one for ages oh my god
March 11, 2017
wonderful read. I'm going to have to get back into reading the trek comics. a few tweaks to the relationships and timeline I grew up with made my heart skip a few beats, but well worth it (especially having grown up watching STVI so many times...)
March 21, 2010
I love "what if" stories. So, I really liked the myriad universes. It was like the mirror universe but things changed at different points. The art in this is also excellent.
This universe is caused by Kirk failing to save the president from being shot at the Khitomer convention and Klingons have taken over Earth. Things are bad but the Silver Ghost gives the rebels hope. Geordi and Riker are sent to find something that can help while Picard leads attacks on the Klingons on Earth.
This universe is caused by Kirk failing to save the president from being shot at the Khitomer convention and Klingons have taken over Earth. Things are bad but the Silver Ghost gives the rebels hope. Geordi and Riker are sent to find something that can help while Picard leads attacks on the Klingons on Earth.
May 18, 2012
An interesting novel to say the least, but it was far from my favorite.
September 23, 2012
It was just kind of... silly, honestly. It's on a par with fan fic and not even very good fan fic at that.
Read
December 27, 2013Love alternate timelines!
October 1, 2016
Not bad, not great though either.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews