BotTalk Reviews

In space the Enterprise is pummelled by the drones but Uhura manages to send out a signal.  The drones begin to target each other.  On the planet Spock, Scotty and D-6 sink further underwater and discover a plant enveloped spaceship while Chapel battles The Seed.  Spock mind melds with a giant octopus that gives the backstory of The Seed.  Chapel is beaten and imprisoned as The Seed prison ship rises from the depths to confront the Enterprise, with a possessed Una in command. This is the most interesting issue of Seeds of Salvation thus far.  D-6 continues to feel like an annoying Star Wars character, making wisecracks constantly.  We get a callback to better Trek with Spock mind melding with a non-humanoid lifeform here.  The Seed backstory is unremarkable really.  The stakes were raised this issue on multiple fronts though.     six out of ten.

Here she comes, an underwater tree again! Sentient vines that control minds this gonna conclude this time or is gonna continue to another issue again? ahhhhh ahhhh ahhhhh ahhhhh  Underwater Sentient vines woman! And it will! It will continue to issue 5, but we have a moving plot now. So we continue underwater with Christine Chapel fighting the vine people while Spock, Scotty, and D6 fight then make contact with the giant squid in only the way Spock would. In space Enterprise works out a solution to stop the Arken drones, then come face to face with another larger ship, which is where we will have to wait for the next issue. This actually a pretty good story that would have been a good addition to season 3 instead of some of the episodes we got. Vine woman is hell bent on some good old fashioned vengeance! 8.932/10

Star Trek’s first-ever interactive original graphic novel!  “Meet the new GOD of Cats!” Finally a Lower decks story where we can make T'Ana a godlike being while Brad Boimler is turned into a borg and Andy Billups is eaten by a chest bursting alien or “nutrek gorn hatchling”.  What the causality loop crazed scientist experiment was that?! Well what it is, is a choose your own adventure style story that leaves you turning to the pages you’re given until it finally leads down the path toward a very good conclusion. Along the way it gets a little confusing and would probably work better as a physical book and it could just be that way because I’m reading off a pdf file and for all I know the digital copy lets you click on the page option. It doesn’t take away from the issue itself though, which is very good. Good issue and somehow a 10/10

As this is a TPB (Collects Star Trek: Lower Decks #1-3 (2022)) this is going to be a list of initial thoughts. Starfleet has other captains but you wouldn’t know it by how it acts. Photons be free, Mariner! Photons be free! Love that these specific writers for this story organically referenced Voyager’s EMH and his fight for photonic rights. Good reference that actively fits in with the universe. Dracula holoprogram being the A story meanwhile the B story is second contact goes bad, are they on the right planet or did they end up somehow on the wrong planet, a planet where they’re closeted furries? Love that even here they give Shaxs Drazon a best day. And the plot twists wherein they landed on the wrong side of the planet/Dracula has slowly taken over the ship. Love that it all ties together in the end and Dracula goes off to join the Emergency Hologram Academy run by Voyager’s Emergency Medical Hologram (love that for him). It’s a good story that fits better as a TPB, which is why I ...

T'Lyn being the best character? Laapeerians vanished? T'Ana playing a prank on the captain? It must be issue 14! The Cerritos visits neighbouring Laapoonia to find out why the Laapeerians disappeared suddenly, Jack Ransom and an away team including T'Lyn, D'Vana Tendi and Brad Boimler beam down and are suddenly greeted by people who fan worship Vulcans which makes Tendi mad and more jealous. Meanwhile on the ship Carol Freeman handles the laapoonian ambassadorial team. All of which eventually ties together to lead us to our cliffhanger, which swoops down like some dark and mysterious bird of prey and now all we have to do is wait until next month! Is it worth it? Lower Decks seems to be regaining its momentum again after several less than stellar issues. This is part two of a plot that started in last issue and will continue into the next, and maybe one after that. Who knows! Lower Decks comics work better when they actually seem like they could fit into the show. 8.572...

Raad manages to sow some discontent between the Klingons and Romulans.  She challenges the Romulan commander to single combat.  When it appears she has the upper hand Miller takes a disruptor and kills her.  He is actually a Romulan agent.  The Klingons get the data they were promised, but are destroyed by the Romulans.  Miller is eventually rescued by the Enterprise and names Raad as the spy. This final issue stinks.  The single combat sequence is built up only for it to be rendered useless by the reveal of Miller being a spy.  This completely falls flat for me.  It doesn't make me want to go back and reread the previous issues for clues.  It just makes me want to forget about this entire mini series.  The promise of a mini devoted to no-name red shirts getting killed off was interesting, but it was a complete letdown.  And I say that as someone who enjoys horror films, there were one or two interesting kills.  But it all just...

Kathryn Janeway and the rest manage to escape from Species 8472 in a shuttle and head back to Voyager.  They find a cave and decide to hide so a new deflector can be built.  Sending out a probe, they find wreckage from a Borg cube, destroyed during the invasion of  several years ago.  Seven discovers Borg drones, cut off from the Collective, who have a working deflector.  8472 make contact with Janeway.  They want the deflector.  Janeway can either ally with them, or the Borg... The Borg drones who survived the 8472/Borg war and just happen to have a working deflector is very convenient.  At least they remembered Voyager's upgrades provided by Future Janeway.  This issue moves at a fairly brisk pace, only giving us a few pages to spend time with The Doctor and Tuvok.  It does give the feeling of a Voyager season finale though.   seven out of ten. 

A crew in cryosleep wakes up and eventually begins the explore a planet.  As they talk the things they mention seemingly appear, although alien and distorted in nature.  Eventually they come upon two lifeforms, one beating the other.  One of the crew intervenes and they are soon overwhelmed by aliens and taken into custody.  Placed in a holding cell they attack the wall and it reacts.  They escape and eventually the real aliens show themselves.  They state that the planet can read their minds, that the planet is for relaxation and therapy.  They offer to start over and go through a reconfigured therapy but it will take centuries.  The crew, except for one, agree.  Alone, he returns to Earth but those in charge refuse to believe his story. In every aspect this has the feel of the original Twilight Zone.  The black and white art.  The designs of the space suits and spaceship.  The aliens.  The ending.  I expected nothin...

James T. Kirk and Captain Sato discuss classic literature while the command crew arrives.  They make final preparations to engage Transwarp drive when a fleet of Klingon ships are detected.  The Borg-enhanced Omega arrives and immediately comes under attack.  As the Omega fights for its life Kirk begins to flashback to the death of his son (David Marcus in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock).  As a Klingon boarding party breaches the hull Kirk appears on the bridge, reporting for duty and wearing a Starfleet uniform. We see the polarity between a resurrected Kirk and Sato, his modern counterpart.  Sato knows little of war while Kirk is more than experienced, Sato even giving Kirk a specific number of people who died as a result of orders he gave.  We get some time with the crew of the Omega... but not much.  A few even appear to have been killed off during the battle.  This is still the most engaged, to pardon a pun, I've felt with an IDW Trek c...

As the landing party tries to avoid The Seed they become separated.  Spock and D-6 encounter Scotty and the trio manage to escape in a mini sub as the underwater complex is destroyed.  Underground, Chapel comes face to face with La'an Noonien-Singh and Number One, now possessed by The Seed.   Again, a lot going on this issue... and again, very little seems to happen.  The cliffhanger of the Enterprise being surrounded is followed up on by only a few pages.  The action of this issue is focused on the surface, with Chapel having several conversations with her old friend, now possessed by The Seed.  It is the old routine of a friend telling someone things they don't want to hear or don't want to admit.  Seen it before a thousand times.  D-6 continues to feel like a Star Wars character and Scotty hardly registers to me as actually acting like Scotty. six out of ten.

Part 3 starts with a quick flashback scene with Christine Chapel and Jinare before returning to the present with the plant terror trying to coax chapel to join, but is stopped by Una Chin-Riley.  Una and Chapel stay behind to buy time for the rest of the landing party, meanwhile in orbit the ship is about to be attacked by an alien race. Spock and D-16 make it to the sub but are stopped by the returning giant squid from issue one.  In between space and underwater we learn the vine creatures were imprisoned by an ancient race called the Arken (who are surrounding the Enterprise) who have less than benevolent reasons for imprisoning the vine people, the vine people are pissed and we’re left in another cliffhanger. One of the many things I’ve always liked about Star Trek, they introduce an alien race that’s considered ancient and give you enough information that leaves you wanting more. And with this issue specifically they are doing just that while keeping the pacing moving alo...

Brad Boimler and Sam Rutherford ordered an android from Harry Mudd Companions! Beckett Mariner tries to avoid going to the dentist! Cerritos is visiting Laaperia for second contact! Surely this is a normal day for the Cerritos! And it kind of is, Boimler and Rutherford’s android goes on a rampage while Shaxs Drazon chases down Mariner to drag her to see the dentist. Eventually the Cerritos arrives to make second contact with the Laaperians, but when the away team beams down, they arrive into a... to be continued! A good issue after a string of not great issues, and is a day in the life type story that eventually reaches the overarching plot, a plot that is a mystery for the crew to solve.  So a good story, decent art as always.  It’s about as Rick Berman era trek as you can get. 7/10

The Klingons torture the captured Starfleet personnel while, in space, they face off against the Romulans.  Neither willing to make the first move.  On the surface the trapped personnel manage to raise the buried ship from the swamp and blast off.  The captured Starfleet crew turn the tide on their captors and escape.  The buried ship is eventually destroyed by the Romulans and later the Klingons and Romulans agree to meet, and the Romulans ask them to bring the recaptured Starfleet personnel with them.   This issue was better than the previous ones.  The stakes feel higher with Klingons and Romulans getting involved.  Red shirt crew continue to get killed off though, and two are tortured by the Klingons with painstiks.  Honestly, I was expecting more gore once the Klingons showed up, but that was not the case. six out of ten.

Make A Mark Story & Art By Buster Moody Color Flats By Ludwig Olimbo Tornado Watch  Story & Layouts By Freddie E. Williams II Finishing Inks By Buster Moody Colors By Andrew Dalhouse Local Flavor  Story By Kyle Strahm & Jake Smith Script By Kyle Strahm Art By Jake Smith Colors By Valentina Pinto Lost In The Sauce Story By Kyle Strahm & Baldemar Rivas  Script By Kyle Strahm Art By Baldemar Rivas Colors By Heather Breckel

The Voyager crew meet in sickbay and discuss the situation.  Part of the command crew attempt to retake Main Engineering.  B'Elanna Torres hits a plasma conduit that should disintegrate Species 8472 on contact, but fails.  8472 destroy the main deflector, rendering Voyager unable to open a rift back home.  The team surrenders and, leaving Seven of Nine behind, are taken to meet the Hierarch of Species 8472.  Kathryn Janeway's meeting does not go well and after B'Elanna finds the data they need to open a rift home Janeway tells her to delete it. Species 8472 kinda has a point here.  Janeway aided the Borg in their conflict.  They didn't follow First Contact procedures.  They also never bothered to learn their real name, they just continue to use the Borg designation.  This issue feels somewhat rushed but it does make Species 8472 seem as threatening as they were during their first appearance.  Though, you would think they would have more...