Customer Reviews

Star Trek: Klingons - Blood Will Tell (Graphic Novel)

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Kahnrah, an important leader in the Klingon High Council must cast a vote on a historic initiative, and so he turns to the reports and journals of members of his house. And through those entries we get to see a number of events from Star Trek, the original series, through Klingon eyes. Herein we see what Kor thought, and what brought a young Klingon to be disguised as a human named Baris, what Krell was doing on the planet Neural, and what happened to Kang's crew at Beta XII-A. But, this is also the story of Kahnrah and his momentous decision, and what it will cost him.

I must say that I really liked this graphic novel. It does a very good job of taking what is familiar (from the old series), and presenting it in a new and interesting perspective. Plus, (what can I say?) I like Klingons! This is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it to all Star Trek fans!

See classic stories from the Klingon perspective. A series of excellent tales that give you insight into the Klingon way of life and prove the old adage that there are 2 sides to ever story.

This graphic novel is a filler item in the plotline of the movie "The Undiscovered Country", the last movie starring the entire original cast. The timeframe is between the destruction of Praxis and when the Klingon leadership made the decision to seek peace with the Federation. The storyline is the internal debate whether the Klingons should go to war with the Federation or seek peace. Specifically the head of the house of Kahnrah is discussing the issue with his granddaughter. The Klingon leadership is evenly divided and his vote will break the tie.
The Klingons were introduced to the world in the episode "Errand of Mercy" of the original series and they appeared in three other episodes. The other episodes are "The Trouble with Tribbles", "Day of the Dove" and "Balance of Terror." Each of these episodes is recalled from the perspective of the Klingons and some additional background information revealed. There is even a brief explanation why the early Klingons had smooth foreheads and the later version possessed the severely wrinkled foreheads.
As a longtime fan (addict) of Star Trek one thing that I love the most is when informational inconsistencies or inadequacies are filled in. This one does exactly that and it also presents the struggle between the Klingon Empire and the Federation from the perspective of the Klingons. I strongly recommend this book to all Star Trek fans.

So far, KLINGONS: BLOOD WILL TELL is my favorite original Star Trek miniseries from IDW that has no involvement from John Byrne. A cumbersome qualifier like that may sound like backhanded praise; however, it's anything but, as Byrne has set the bar pretty high. Over the last several years, I've been consistently amazed with Byrne's work on Trek, but what I've seen and read of IDW's various other projects hasn't looked good at all: a lot of amateurish writing and art that make me wonder how they ever could have been approved. BLOOD WILL TELL is a notable exception.

Authors Scott and David Tipton do an inspired job with this story. It's set just before the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, where the economically-important Klingon moon of Praxis has exploded, the homeworld of Qo'noS faces environmental disaster, and the Empire is crippled. Chancellor Gorkon proposes something unheard of - to ask the Federation for help - and a final vote from council member Kahnrah will determine the future of the Empire. In a framing sequence, Kahnrah relates to his granddaughter a handful of early Klingon encounters with the Federation, and anyone familiar with The Original Series will recognize them as the episodes "Errand of Mercy", "The Trouble With Tribbles", "A Private Little War", and "Day of the Dove", but told from the Klingon perspective. This provides some interesting history to the episodes, and it helped me to gain a clearer understanding of the progression from smooth to crested Klingons over the course of the series and movies - something that has only served to confuse me in other resources. But, this isn't just a recap of TOS episodes, as evidenced by the excellent final chapter.

David Messina's art is slightly cartoonish, but it looks great with its smooth lines, defined outlines, and subtle shading/coloring. His style certainly has more visual appeal than the other work I've seen. If the Tiptons and Messina will collaborate on more Trek projects, I'll be the first in line... oh, wait, looky here! See you folks later.