Customer Reviews

Star Trek: Assignment Earth (Star Trek (IDW))

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If not for the artwork, I'd give writer/artist John Byrne's STAR TREK - ASSIGNMENT: EARTH a full 5 stars. This is an excellent furthering of the original series episode "Assignment: Earth", in which agent Gary Seven, his assistant Roberta, and cat (more or less) Isis, must avert threats to the existence of the human race. That episode was intended as a pilot for an unrealized spin-off series, and the 5 stories collected here fill the void wonderfully with a stab at what might have been. Gary and his companions battle nuclear saboteurs, mad geneticists, and Richard Nixon in their mission, and they even become mixed into another Trek episode. The actions of some characters do get a bit repetitive, such as Seven's heavy reliance on his servo device to get them out of jams, or Roberta's worried cries of "Ooohhhh... Mr. Seven!", but when you're working with a property like Star Trek, I guess it's best to make it as familiar as possible to the fans. But while Byrne's stories are right on the money, his art is really rough. It looks rushed and sketchy, and not at all what I would expect from someone who loves Star Trek as much as he claims. Oh, to see a talented inker enhance those lines...

Star Trek's second season finale was an episode entitled "Assignment: Earth," in which Kirk and Spock ceded much of the spotlight to Robert Lansing's Gary Seven, a sort of interstellar secret agent who has come to Earth to protect humanity from itself. Gene Roddenberry feared that Star Trek was on its last legs and so used an episode of its second season as a backdoor pilot for a new series, but the next season it was Kirk and Spock, not Gary Seven who had a place on America's airwaves.

I was a latecomer to John Byrne's Star Trek: Assignment: Earth, missing the trade paperback collection in its original release, and I hate that I deprived myself of these really fun stories for almost a year. These aren't exactly Star Trek stories. Instead, they're Byrne's vision of what the Gary Seven series might have been, and if his vision was accurate, we probably missed out on a very cool series.

Ultimately, though, Star Trek: Assignment: Earth is not quite Star Trek, and while Byrne paints a tantalizing picture of a series that wasn't, I've enjoyed his recent comics which are more firmly entrenched in traditional Star Trek settings and situations more satisfying, though this collection remains well worth purchasing for any Trek fan. As an added bonus one story in Star Trek: Assignment: Earth is the direct prequel to a story in Byrne's incredible Star Trek: Crew collection, demonstrating one the the strengths of the comic-book format -- crossover potential unlimited by concerns of budget or the availability of actors.

I've been a fan of comic book writer/artist John Byrne's work since the late 1970's, and I've been a "Star Trek" fan about the same amount of time. This trade paperback collects Byrne's follow-up to the "Assignment: Earth" episode of the original "Star Trek" series, which was to serve as a pilot for a series featuring the time-traveling Gary-7, Roberta Lincoln, and Isis. It's a lot of fun, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

(Incidentally, I bought the trade paperback as a gift for a friend; I read the five original comic books.)

I have no doubt in proclaiming Assignment: Earth the best Star Trek comics IDW have done to date, surpassing (by a narrow margin maybe) even Klingons: Blood Will Tell and the first Alien Spotlight series. My first impression of John Byrne in Alien Spotlight: Romulans was that his story telling is superb but his art a little dated; and from that I anticipated a 20th century Earth setting would play better for his art style, that seems to have been very true and indeed I have become so impressed by his artistic abilities that I now have a much greater appreciation for his comics in the 23rd century too. Byrne, in art and story telling rarely seems to go wrong, every issue is packed full story (while many other IDW comics have suffered from seeming to skip through a story not squeezing any depth into the 22 pages), remarkably in several issues of the series Byrne doesn't even use all 22 pages, and provides additional 2 and 3 page stories on top of the main feature. His artwork has a definite style that did take me a while to get used to, his way of drawing people is very much his own, but once you do get the hang of it is really quite fantastic; pages of dynamic and interesting panel layout, action and ideas. In short I am fully converted Byrne fan; if his name is on the comic I know it's going to be pretty damned good.

The notion behind this series is that it is the Gary Seven TV series that never was, and for this series it really works; the pacing and the framing of certain shots (while not sacrificing anything from the comic book format) really give a sense of television. However we also get the added benefit of looking back at the setting from a modern perspective, allowing the books to be peppered with historical references and give some really nice incites into the era. The stories fit with the era and the themes of Assignment: Earth; lots of espionage, conspiracy, futuristic technology and alien intervention. We get an issue tying in with Tomorrow is Yesterday, and a sequel to the episode Assignment: Earth.

I think the balance of this series just right, we get a really good mixture of history, fun spy stories, exciting science fiction ideas and a general sense of fun. I cannot wait for the next series Assignment: Earth stories; this one was practically flawless and fun throughout.

After a recent purchase of the digitally remastered Star Trek, I discovered "Assignment Earth" an episode of Trek that was supposed to be a pilot for another show by Roddenberry. I was delighted to find this comix collection based on that episode!