Review of Star Trek: Crew #1 (IDW Publishing).........“Trek or Treat?”

Review By Eddie

For years, there have been 2 constants in my life to which I would consider myself a geek.

One is comic books, the second is Star Trek.

The first time I saw The Original Series was when I was a kid, around 3 or 4. My grandfather and I would watch it together. Over time, I lost interest. Then when I started working in my teens, and started coming home late, after a very miserable day, I would catch the show playing late night... This became my comfort food, so to speak. I would take in every detail about the show (the sets, the characters, the plotlines, the drama, ect...). And for years I thought I was unique in this sense.

Until I read Star Trek: Crew #1

Set 8 years before “The Cage”, Star Trek: Crew follows the story of a female Starfleet Cadet who will eventually evolve to become the character “Number One”, played by Majel Barrett Roddenberry, in the original Star trek pilot episode way back in the 60’s.

Even back then, a strong female lead was frowned up by TV execs. But Star Treks creator, Gene Roddenberry, wanted to take a more realistic and progressive approach to what the future might look like... The network didn’t.
Although they gave Gene a second chance with another pilot, the network brass told him he had to make some revisions to his show. One of which was dropping the female second in command (a.k.a Number One)... For anyone who has seen the episode “The Cage”, that short sightedness on the networks part at that time, has always been a sore spot in the “What could have been?” department.

I am glad to say to my fellow fans, you may now rejoice in knowing that both Number One, and Majel Barrett Roddenberry, both get the treatment they deserve thanks to one man: John Byrne.

As I mentioned before, I always thought my attention to details concerning Star Trek was unique. But Mr. Byrne just proved to me that not only is he THE artist and writer for subject material like this, you can honestly feel the love he has for the history and characters of the Star trek Universe.

From his renderings of the interiors of the U.S.S Enterprise, to the uniforms, props, character details, and ongoing dialogue peppered with subtle references, which will have any fan reaching for their favorite source of Trek reference material, all the while wanting first time readers to learn more, John Byrne delivers what looks to be both an amazing start off to a great 6 part series.

This series looks like is will both be quite a Trek and a treat indeed. 9/ 10