Customer Reviews

Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between (Star Trek (IDW))

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STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION re-energized the Star Trek fan base -- coinciding with the theatrical films based (at the time) of the original Star Trek company of Kirk & friends -- but, eventually, broke out of the carbon copy mold of its first televised season and became its own entity. The continuing adventures of the starship Enterprise (now the 1701-D) under the leadership of Captain Jean-Luc Picard was a phenomenon in its own right; but THE SPACE BETWEEN -- a collected trade paperback of six individual issues relaunching the TNG comic property under new licensing -- fits far more in the mold of the show's first season, meaning mostly forgettable plots and not quite squeaky clean mechanism that the show became over seven seasons.

These six adventures are labelled as separate chapters in one central mystery that very loosely (and mostly unsuccessfully) ties them together under a conclusion that feels more like a set-up for more installments to follow than it does a complete entity: perhaps that's why they've titled it "The Space Between," meaning the graphic novel is essentially only filling the void left by the end of the TNG movies and whatever comic stories may come next. The best that can be said is that it's truly inspired to see these characters again; Jean-Luc Picard, William Riker, Beverly Crusher, Commander Worf, Deanna Troi, Data, and Geordi LaForge all look good in this quick tales, though many of them are given very little to do. Even fan-favorites like Ensign Ro and the oft-maligned Dr. Pulaski (thankfully) only phones in a cameo via the ship's intercom, and, to my surprise, Wesley Crusher comes off as much more a Paul Walker wannabe than he did the whining brainiac he was portrayed as in the television show.

Still, outside of revising the crew during their original seven year television run, there's not much meat on these bones, and, hopefully, THE SPACE BETWEEN won't be their last comic outing. Let's get back to the business of boldly going where no one has gone before ... let's just make sure it's worth where we're going.

This book is a beautiful sight; the art is truly stunning.
The story is so confusing though. The individual chapters are all meant to tie together and they don't. And the first story, involving a race that alters records and memory to record history according to their wills, is extremely confusing.
And, what's up with the cover? Pictured are all incarnations of the Enterprise, including Kirk's. Yet the TNG crew and the Ent-D are the only stars. That's fine, but the cover suggests a cross-over of some sort.
I'd like to see more from this creative team, I think they just need to work out the kinks in their plotting.

Good stories and beautiful drawing/color, but the finale that would tie everything together seems contrived and inconclusive. Will there be a follow-up? I don't see any indication of that, which is disappointing.

It was mediocre, i wasnt happy with the quality of the art either. Not nearly as good as the cover art.

There are a few things that this series does very well: the characters are all faithfully portrayed, and the creators (particularly the artist) does an amazing job, not only of capturing the feel of the Star Trek The Next Generation TV series, but, incredibly, of each of the individual seasons as well (to the point that I almost expected the stories to break into TV commercials from the early 90s).
Then, alas, there is plot. Issues 1, 2 and 5 are not so bad in this regard; they feel a bit too decompressed, but they are all intesting science fiction stories which leave very few loose ends. As for the rest: issue 3 features a mysterious hybrid ship that comes out of nowhere and attacks the Enterprise-D, apparently specifically targeting Counselor Troi. Why does it do this? Who sent it? It is never explained; the whole scenario is played as a pretext for some spacebattles and not much else. Issue 4 features an abandoned monastery full of radioactive algae that apparently causes mutations. They manage to figure this out in two lines of handwavey dialogue without even needing to use their tricorders; the whole thing seems, once again, like a pretext for a zombie plague storyline.
And finally, issue 6 is just horrendous; who are these people? How do they know where their secret base is? How will it affect Picard's carreer now that Admiral Nacheyev has tried to assassinate him? Are there missing pages here? How come Picard just abandons his crusade against this shadowy organization when he had just risked life and limb to seek it out? Why is the sky blue? ARRRRRGH!

The Space Between was IDW's first Star Trek miniseries - It was a reasonable start to their output, but vastly superior comics have followed. Each issue of the six issues of the series was a more or less standalone story dotted about the TV era of TNG, with an attempt to pull them together in the final issue.

The final chapter of the series tries to tie the series together into a neat cohesive whole. However the story is so full of holes and far from clear as to exactly who the adversary lurking in the shadows of the events shown in other issues of the series is that it really disappoints.

Aside from that final issue the other stories in the book are quite nice little stand-alone tales: A season one visit to a strange new world; A Picard-centered archaeology murder mystery (the best story in the book); A battle with a robot hybrid starship; A planet full of zombie monks, and an agricultural disaster mystery.

David Tischman really has a talent for capturing the voices of the TNG characters, and his stories are nicely conceived if sometimes a little bumpy from the occasional plot-hole.

The art throughout the series was generally excellent. Casey Maloney produces scenery that is consistently fabulous, the books feels lavish in its rich painterly style. For some readers the characters likenesses might seem a little off on occasion, particularly Riker, but I didn't find this distracting, especially amongst the beauty of the rest of the artwork.

Overall this isn't IDW strongest Star Trek comic, but it has some nice stories and should at the very least provide an enjoyable distraction for any TNG fans.