Kirsten BeyerCritiques

D (Bad).

Even after the first two awful series, it still manages to be surprising how badly written this show is. It just doesn't make sense that a human person without a major head injury could write this. That's not even hyperbole. I'm legitimately confused by how bad it is.

(Nov. 2023)½

Fun, action-packed!

Great art, and great backstory for the new series. I need to get the final installment now, darn it! :)

Good lead in to the next season of Picard. Also good is the Santiago book.

Mirror universe shenanigans are fun but the Stamets one-shot is perfect.

A short showing us how Tal Shiar end up working at Chateau Picard. A quick, enjoyable read but nothing special.

This book actually starts out relatively well. Issue 2 in particular gives us a sense that it could be a great prequel, but then it peters out. There's just not a lot going on besides T'Kuvma being etched in stone as a paragon of Klingon virtue. There are two concluding revelations, about Voq and the ship that sparks the battle of the binary stars. But only the latter is engaging and it makes you wonder if there could have been so much more to this series than Klingons reenacting scenes from Hamlet.

Holy crap, this book is brilliant! Don't hold the first Discovery comics against this one. The art is cinematic and captures the quick pacing of the TV shows. Better yet, the resolution of the Shenzou's captain... might be one of the best moments in Trek!

Kirsten Beyer & Mike Johnson’s Star Trek: Picard – Countdown features art by Angel Hernandez, colors by Joana Lafuente, and letters by Neil Uyetake. The story takes place prior to the events of Star Trek: Picard roughly sometime during the course of Una McCormack’s prequel novel, The Last Best Hope. The story follows Admiral Jean-Luc Picard aboard the U.S.S. Verity with Lieutenant Commander Raffi Musiker as they attempt to work with Romulus to evacuate Romulan citizens on colony worlds in the radius of an impending supernova. Despite the Federation beginning to normalize relations with Romulus following the Dominion War and the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, Picard still finds suspicion in every dealing. Meanwhile, Commander Geordi LaForge works at the Utopia Planitia shipyards to rapidly build the evacuation ships. Meanwhile, Picard discovers secrets that the Romulans were trying to hide and unlikely allies among Laris and Zhaban, two members of the Tal Shiar. Beyer and Johnson’s work nicely introduces characters and themes that Picard season one explored while further expanding upon the Romulan supernova that Ambassador Spock from the Prime universe spoke of in the Kelvin films. Hernandez’ art stands out in particular, perfectly capturing the likeness of familiar characters and ships as well as developing new ones that appear distinct and memorable for this story. A good addition to Trekkers’ comic book collections, especially those seeking more Picard content.

A TV series starring Patrick Stewart (Paramount, 2022).

Picard tries to use a hobbled Borg queen to fix time.

C- (Meh).

It's watchable, and bingeable, as long as you don't mind yelling at your TV a lot about how awful the writers are.

(Nov. 2022)

I've never read a piece of Star Trek fiction before. Well, unless you count that weird crossover comic with Doctor Who from 2012/2013. In fact, my only real exposure to Star Trek, in general, comes from a handful of episodes of The Next Generation, the first two JJ Abrams movies, and general cultural osmosis. But when the trailers for Star Trek: Picard started dropping, I found my interest piqued. It looked like the kind of show I'd be interested in, so I made a point of watching it. At this point, several episodes have aired and I'm really enjoying the show, so I went and looked to see if anything had been released to tie into the show. And lo, and behold, there was this three-issue prequel comic from IDW, written by Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson and illustrated by Angel Hernandez, that promised to reveal some of the events that happened prior to the start of the show. It sounded like the kind of thing I'd be interested in, so I picked up the issues and gave them a read and, I gotta say, it's really solid. Though a bit short, Star Trek: Picard - Countdown tells a really good story that shines a bit of light on Picard's history before the beginning of Star Trek: Picard.

If you, like me, found yourself wanting to know more about Picard's time working with Starfleet to try and evacuate the Romulan people prior to their sun going supernova, then this is the comic for you. If you were wanted to know more about the backstory of characters like Zhaban, Laris, and Raffi, then this is the story for you. If you wanted to know more about what Next Generation characters like La Forge were up to between the end of that series and the beginning of Picard, then this is the story for you. It's actually impressive how much is crammed into these three issues. Star Trek: Picard - Countdown isn't a long story and it never goes as in-depth as you'd like it to, but it does a good job at introducing, and contextualizing, some of the new characters in Star Trek: Picard to readers while also letting us see what some fan-favorites, like Picard and La Forge, were up to during the Romulan evacuation.

In Picard: Countdown, we follow Picard and Raffi as they travel to one of the Romulan colony planets to try and make a deal with the governor to evacuate those on the planet. Once they get there, they quickly learn that the governor has no intention of making a deal with Starfleet but intends to derail the entire operation. To say any more would be to venture too far into spoiler territory, but needless to say it's a pretty exciting ride. One of the coolest things about the story is getting to see how some of the Romulans reacted to Starfleet's efforts to save them from dying in the aftermath of their sun going supernova. It's interesting that the Romulans treated Starfleet about as suspiciously as some of Starfleet have treated the Romulans - but I suppose that makes sense given their history of conflict. Of equal coolness is getting to see Zhaban and Laris, who act as Picard's house staff during the series and are later revealed to be members of the Tal Shiar, in proper action. We also get a hint of why they ultimately decided to live with Picard on his vineyard and that's really cool. Overall, it's totally not a necessary read in order to understand the show, but those who find themselves craving new information will definitely find some here.

While the story is extremely solid, I do have one complaint: it's so short! I understand that comics are usually pretty fast-paced, but this one moves at the speed of a freight train and never lets up. While that works for keeping the energy and excitement up, it does rob some of the quieter moments of the chance to breathe a little. It's clear that Beyer and Johnson know ho wot write a Star Trek story and have perfectly captured the voices of these characters, so it would have been nice for them to have been given a chance to do a little bit more with them. It's a solid story, but I can't help but think a fourth issue might have given it the room to be even better, allowing it to space things out just a bit better and giving everything the room to breathe.

What's probably most impressive about this comic is Angel Hernandez's artwork. Hernandez is able to perfectly capture the feeling of Star Trek while bringing their own style to the mix. All of the characters are immediately identifiable as their on-screen counterparts, but where Hernandez lets loose is with the background designs. Hernandez makes the various starships look that perfect mixture of clinical and homely; they still look like an important government machine but they also feel lived in. The same is true for the colony planet Picard and Raffi visit. This planet is sort of weird-looking, but it also makes sense. Hernandez even gets to design some new creatures, too, in the form of the planet's indigenous lifeform. And those designs are excellent - they look suitably alien without feeling cliche. On the whole, Hernandez's artwork breathes a lot of life into this comic and ends up stealing the show.

At the end of the day, Star Trek: Picard - Countdown isn't essential reading, but it sure is fun. It's a very solid story, very competently told by two writers intimately involved with the creation of numerous Star Trek stories. While the comic feels a bit too short, it's still extremely entertaining and provides some insights on many of the characters and ideas that the Picard show explores. Hernandez's artwork gives the whole affair a beautiful sheen, breathing life into Beyer and Jonhson's words and tying everything together with a very cohesive look. While I don't know how Picard: Countdown stacks up alongside other Star Trek comics and stories, I can't say I wasn't thoroughly entertained by it. I'm really enjoying Star Trek: Picard and this comic honestly furthered my enjoyment of the show. I hope IDW continues to make comics set around Picard - they're a lot of fun!

Si os ha gustado la primera temporada de Star Trek: Discovery, este cómic es un excelente complemento para revisitar la serie antes de La Batalla en las Estrellas Binarias; descubrimos más sobre la vida de T'Kuvma, cómo consiguió la nave y quizás algo más sobre el pasado de Voq.

This book was worth the wait, and was a satisfying possible conclusion to the series. While there is good reason to believe there won't be any more of this series, there is no final conclusion. The story was written so it wouldn't end on a cliff-hanger, but it leaves enough possibilities for a dozen more books. Actually, there are possibilities for at least two separate and divergent series.

Kristen Beyer really knows her characters, both the original Voyager crew and the new folks, and it shows in this book. (Eh-hum, Christie Golden in Homecoming. Though I should probably blame the editors for this as well.) Each character acts and reacts true to their nature, and grows a bit, too.

The story moves along at the action-packed pace of the relaunch books. I had a hard time putting it down. I felt some things got a bit far-fetched in the middle, and a few scenes felt extraneous, but I figure they will impact future books. All of the far-fetched stuff eventually resolved itself in a believable manner.

Thank you, Kristen, for being a JetC fan and providing satisfaction to the rest of us.

A retired spaceship captain uncovers a conspiracy of AI research, and a conspiracy of anti-AI fanatics who secretly rule the galaxy or something?

1/4 (Bad).

Wow, what a mess. It's hard to believe, but I think this might be the worst Star Trek ever. Lazier than season two of the Animated Series, less entertaining than season one of Enterprise, more frustratingly misguided than Nemesis... even The Final Frontier had the mercy of only being two hours long.½

Wow, its like a weak Voyager episode turned into a novel. I found the Devi plotline to be frustrating and not very believable.

I really enjoyed this one, particularly the Samantha Wildman and Doctor Sharak storyline.

This was not really up to Beyer's normal standards. There were a lot of aspects of the plot that did not make sense, and I felt she was losing the voice of many characters which is usually the thing Beyer does really well.

I mean - the scene where Harry rants about how dumb Tom is? That did not sound like Harry, even when extremely upset. And how super smart and capable Agent Dayne confuses Kathryn's sister with her dog and then mistakenly names his own daughter the wrong thing? All of the Dayne related stuff was pretty awful. And having Obrist be his brother who kills him at the end....so weird. Like Obrist is a small part in one two-part episode, but based on what we know of him that was completely out of character. Obrist deserved better.

I was happy to have more Krenim action, but on the whole it was a pretty disapointing installment.

This one took me a while to finish. I really adored the Samantha Wildman/Doctor Sharak storyline - their dialog was great. I always liked Samantha and seeing her do stuff related to her xenobiology expertise and not just being a mom was so excellent. And the Naomi and Gres bits were lovely too.

I actually glossed over paragraphs in the Paris custody hearing storyline without reading them, I rarely do that but I found those sections extremely boring and trite. But the main story in the delta quadrant and the Wildman bits were enough to carry it along. The resolution of Seven/Axum was disappointing, but I wasn't expecting otherwise. Overall a solid installment.

Continuing the saga of Voyager.

Lots of Voyager drama. My knowledge of the complete television series and the novels was a bit of a handicap, but Beyer does well in filling in what I don't know. I've already got the next book queued up and I look forward to it.

Very nice prequel to Discovery - backstory to the spore drive, not to mention Hugh and Paul's romance. Recommended for Star Trek Disco fans!

This series continues to be engaging and well-written, but I can't help but be bothered by a glaring plot hole regarding the return of Janeway in an earlier installment that resurface in this one. (Namely: we are told that all versions of Janeway died at the same moment, yet in the original "Year of Hell" as depicted in "Before and After" we see Janeway dying at a much earlier date. I think there are other times that Janeway dies, too.)

Nevertheless, putting that question aside, I am able to thoroughly enjoy the adventure this book and the rest of the series presents.

What do you call a reboot that gets rebooted? That's what this book was for the Voyager novel series.

The Borg have been neutralized, again, (and maybe only for the moment? Are TPTB really gonna totally get rid of one of their best and most creepy villain ever?) And so Voyager and a bunch of other ships go back into the Delta Quadrant. They have all the new toys. Slipstream drives, and a whole ship that can be crewed with holograms, the Galen.

Honestly, the characters on Voyager and on Galen (including Reginald Barclay on the Galen) were my favorite, well, they andthe stowaways from the Torres family.

I think that they have done a great job combining the TV Voyager characters, like Paris, Kim, Torres,with the new characters like Voyager's new Captain, and the Admiral of the fleet, and even a character from a different Star Trek Original Novel Series, the SCE series, Nancy Conlan.

The plots and subplots aren't too surprising. They stumble upon the Indign, a cooperative species that has quite the story. They also bump into Species 8472 (Really, isn't the Delta Quadrant bigger than a bread box?) I wasn't surprised by most of the twist, but, it was a well written and well plotted book that was a fun and quick read.

This book starts Voyager's second journey into the Delta Quadrant. Beyer does not limit herself to that which TV shows are limited to. Unworthy is more imaginative than the show could have been in many ways, but the pace is slow at times.

The first of Kirsten Beyer's books in the Voyager Relaunch series is a good, but is a bit difficult to get thorough. It's really two books that were combined into one with almost two completely different plot lines. It is still worth reading. It is a great series. You do not need to have read the previous books in the series, but it'll help.

I'm continuing to enjoy Kirsten Beyer's Voyager Relaunch series. This one was not as good as previous installments, but still enjoyable. It did not make me immediately want to move onto the next.½