Long before William Shatner was an astronaut, he played this character called Captain James T. Kirk in a science fiction TV series called Star Trek. Then he took that character as an Admiral to the big screen in a movie called Star Trek: The Motion Picture. That was 1979. But you know that. What you may not know is that screenwriter, producer, and comic book writer Marc Guggenheim (CW’s Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca) has written a sequel to the movie that takes place right after the events of the movie (and before Star Trek II), and it’s coming to comic shops this Spring. Star Trek: The Motion Picture—Echoes is a limited, five-issue series taking the crew of the refit Enterprise back to its muted-colored uniform glory. Take a look at a preview of what’s to come below.
Featuring artwork by Oleg Chudakov and grey, white, and tan uniform colors by DC Alonso, Echoes introduces a new space anomaly that puts the Enterprise at odds with the Romulans. Will it be some kind of mirror universe for the Motion Picture-era crew? According to Guggenheim, “Almost all Trek stories are told from the point of view of the Enterprise crew, but I was interested in telling a story from the perspective of an outsider as a means of recapturing how it felt for me when I first saw Star Trek: The Motion Picture.”
Star Trek: The Motion Picture famously introduced the Class A, B, C, and D uniforms for the crew, designed by Robert Fletcher. They were fitted with brown and black, stomach-level biomonitors, some with the rank on shoulder tabs, others with the TV series braids at the wrists. Communicators were worn on the wrists. The medical team had their own white uniforms, with Dr. McCoy in his own butterfly collar variant tunic. Probably most memorable and iconic was Scotty in a new engineering uniform, the radiological suit. Some of these uniforms would be used as-is in the movie sequel, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Lt. Saavik wears a variant of the Motion Picture uniform when she encounters Spock in a turbolift). But many more were dyed red and tan and modified further for use as the crew uniforms, which would be used through Star Trek Generations–that’s seven movies these uniforms would be re-used in by the production. The film also introduced new security uniforms, with helmets that looked like vintage football helmets.
The first issue will be available with multiple cover variants, from artists Jake Bartok, Chudakov, Luke Sparrow, and Rod Reis. Here is a first look at the covers for the first issue:
Could that be Seven of Nine from the future on the last three covers? The helmet could be from the Voyager era, or possibly the reboot movies or later. Is it a Kelvin timeline outfit? Anything is possible. Find out in May!
Add Star Trek: The Motion Picture—Echoes to your pull list at Elite Comics or your local comic shop now.
C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg
