10 Star Trek Comics Fans Need To Read

This series picks up where TOS left off, continuing the five year mission with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest of the original crew. While the first volume is a straight forward revisit of TOS storytelling, it has some pacing issues. It's very episodic, which is fine, but the individual stories often feel rushed through.

While the first six issues are entertaining and present interesting ideas, the writers ultimately fail to fully explore most of those ideas. These issues spend a lot of time setting up the plot and then end abruptly, spending very little time on character. Though it does make a point of bringing back Arex and M'Ress from TAS.

However, the second volume "The Enterprise Experiment" takes a sharp turn in its approach by handing the reigns over to the legendary D.C. Fontana. In what would be her final Star Trek story, Fontana seeks to introduce some much needed continuity to the original series and brings together several hanging plot threads.

The story serves as a direct sequel to "The Enterprise Incident", which was originally written by Fontana and an indirect prequel to the TNG episode "The Pegasus." In the story, a test of the stolen cloaking device leads to an accident in which the ship and crew begin to phase uncontrollably. The potential tactical advantage of this as a perfected technology is not lost on either the Federation or the Romulans, and leads to political consequences well after the experiment.

Fontana not only brings back fan favorite characters like her Romulan Commander and Kor but makes a serious effort to provide explanations for many longstanding fan questions, one of the most important of which is why the Organians stopped enforcing their treaty.

Sadly this last, excellent story by D.C. Fontana has flown under the radar of most fans and deserves far more attention than it's gotten. Superbly written and essentially a love letter to the fans, this series is a fitting capstone to her illustrious career.