If there’s one medium people can have in which two well-loved franchises can team up, it has always been comics! Despite them being on a roll at the movies, TV and video games, comics seem to be lucrative enough while not too costly at making some nerds’ dreams come true. For me, Star Trek has been on the ropes after Enterprise left the air. Sure there was fatigue from one show or another being on the air for 17 years but maybe we would’ve changed our minds if we knew about the crappy movies and no new weekly program for the indefinite future.
Thankfully IDW has the license and they do a pretty decent job. They let John Byrne do original stuff with the Sixties era. They also did an illustrated version of Harlan Ellison’s pre-modified “City on the Edge of Forever.” I never thought I’d ever find myself saying I liked his story better yet I have to defer to Roddenberry’s changes since the events leading up to trip back in time were out of character for the vision of what the 23rd century would be like.
What I do want to cover are the crossovers IDW managed to publish. Two have been over for a while and another is ongoing. I’ll go in reverse (chronological) order.
This team-up probably only appeals to people around my age and older. Regardless, it’s awesome! When I was growing up in the Midwest in the Seventies, Star Trek was already syndicated and the Apes films were frequently on TV alongside the short-lived action show and Saturday-morning cartoon. Mego also manufactured toys of both.
So how do these very disparate universes collide? The Enterprise is sent on an intelligence-gathering mission to ensure the Klingons aren’t violating the Organian Peace Treaty. Thanks to Uhuru and Sulu’s infiltration skills, they discover a weird portal defended by two Klingon cruisers. Starfleet gives Kirk the go ahead and the Enterprise proceeds in, arriving at a parallel Earth over 1500 years in their future. What takes them by surprise is the dominant residents…Apes.
It’s not a terribly original story since the overall premise matches the episode “A Private Little War,” one of the show’s obvious warnings over Vietnam. I did like how they brought back Hodgkin’s Law on Parallel Development as a possible explanation. Despite the “recycling,” I’m enjoying Kirk’s interactions with Taylor. Two characters first portrayed by hammy actors.
The bonus element in the series is afterwards written by Apes fanatic, comedian/writer Dana Gould!
This team up is probably the longest in the making and most overdue. A mashup of America’s most beloved Sci-Fi TV franchise with the UK’s most beloved Sci-Fantasy TV franchise. Doctor Who finally gaining near-mainstream success in America is probably what made it finally happen.
The Enterprise (D) and the Eleventh Doctor with Amy and Rory in tow, accidentally meet when the TARDIS lands in the holodeck during Data’s Sherlock Holmes’ adventuring. Seems the Doctor has been pulled into an alternate universe because his adversaries the Cybermen crossed over to ally with the Borg. Those cybernetic races are the equivalent of two scorpions trapped in a jar so the heroes don’t need to work too hard, betrayal is encoded in both of their programming.
In the middle of the story, Data discovers that the Doctor and possibly the Cybermen have visited before. Enter a one-issue flashback of Kirk and Spock teaming up with the Fourth Doctor to rescue a remote colony being assimilated by a Cybermen scouting team.
The oldest and last crossover is probably the most obscure for most audiences. For me it was the oddest but it ended up being the most creative, especially when both mythologies have numerous parallels. The Legion’s core five heroes are returning home to the 30th century after visiting Earth’s past and the Enterprise is making a routine patrol. With the latter, another transporter accident has Kirk and the gang materializing in a mirror universe. Initially Kirk thinks it’s the same one from “Mirror, Mirror”until he realizes this empire’s logo being different inhabited by alien races he’s never seen before: Khunds, Dominators, Coluuans and other DC residents. Like all comic traditions, the Legion and Federation teams fight against each other and then team up to get back to their respective universes and just maybe, defeat the emperor, his Fearsome Five bodyguards and set free the source of the emperor’s power.
I can only recommend the Legion crossover to diehard fans of the DC universe. Sure they’ve made appearances in Smallville and the Nineties Superman cartoon but the comic book has often been a third-tier title. Legion has also been a frequent victim of DC’s numerous reboots including the upcoming Convergence.
