This Was A Missed Opportunity

Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness 1-4
IDW Publishing
Mike Johnson and Roberto Orci, writers
David Messina, artist

Let me start by saying that this was a good story within the ongoing IDW Star Trek series. Let me also say up front that the film this series leads into, "Star Trek Into Darkness," was good, and I very much enjoyed it.

Neither of those statements changes the fact that the film did have a few issues here and there, and that this comic series doesn't lead into the film as smoothly as its predecessor did.

Back in 2009, IDW published a four-issue prequel comic to the J.J. Abrams Trek reboot called Star Trek: Countdown. This series told in detail how Ambassador Spock's plan to use the "red matter" to save the Romulan homeworld from its sun going supernova went awry, and how Spock incurred the wrath of Romulan miner Nero and his crew, the sole surviving Romulans in the universe. Those events were recapped in the film as flashbacks when "old" Spock and "new" Kirk first meet, so no movie-goer could feel they didn't get a full story. But for comics fans, this was a fleshed-out portrayal of those events, a bonus, if you will.

Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness was supposed to do the same type of thing for the 2009 film's sequel. It does flesh out ideas discussed in the film, but no action in the comic series directly leads to actions on the screen this time around. That was a little disappointing, especially when the opening scenes of the new film could use a little fleshing out.

For instance, why was the Enterprise underwater to observe the alien culture at the opening of the film? The Enterprise has always been portrayed as an orbiting starship not designed to enter an atmosphere. In fact, any time the Enterprise has entered a planet's atmosphere in the past, it is a sign of very real distress. An orbiting starship wouldn't risk exposure to a pre-space flight civilization like one submerged in its oceans would. In fact, how did the Enterprise get into the ocean in the first place if taking her out of the ocean was such a risk?

Also from the opening scenes, why does Kirk take a scroll from these aliens, an action that sets up the chase scene to follow? Sure that scene provides most of the film's lighter moments, which are needed to offset the darker tone of the bulk of the film, but we are never given a reason why Kirk would risk exposure to take the scroll, especially when he so quickly abandons his find at the end of the chase.

While certainly a fun part of the movie, this entire opening sequence is poorly explained or justified beyond moving the action toward the bulk of the film. A prequel comic series could have explained any or all of these silly questions.

Instead, this mini takes the Enterprise crew to survey the planet Phaedus IV and check in on another pre-space flight culture. Once there, however, the crew finds the aliens much more advanced than they should be. Debating the rightness or wrongness of the Federation's Prime Directive of non-interference quickly takes center stage as the Enterprise crew discovers that both the Klingons and Federation members are arming different factions in a planetwide civil war. Debating the Prime Directive is a topic in many classic "Trek" episodes, and humans and Klingons fighting through proxies on primitive planets is also a frequent theme of the series. Other nice touches in this comic series include familiar names from past incarnations of the show such as Capt. Robert April, Harry Mudd and Klingon Commander Kor.

As I said, it's a good comic, and the film is good, too. But the comic could have been so much more and helped the film out of a tight spot or two, as well.