Moby Dick in space, Tholians, and more nuTrek comics news

Ahead of the release of Behemoth, part one, next week, the first story in the new 5 Year Mission era of the nuTrek ongoing series, the creative team have been busy spreading the word about what we have to look forward to. Highlights continue after the jump below:

In a recent interview with Comic Book Resources the series writer, Mike Johnson, gave this summary of that first two-part story in the new 5 Year Mission series:

I've been thinking a lot about the voyage of the Enterprise as a futuristic parallel to the voyages of the great oceanic explorers of history, from all cultures. (Watch "Master and Commander" if you haven't seen it already, a great "secretly 'Star Trek'" movie with the interplay between Crowe and Bettany as Kirk and Spock.) Many historical accounts documented "sea monsters" that were simply organisms as alien to them as new species would be to Kirk & Co. "Behemoth" is a look at how one of those encounters unfolds in the twenty-third century. It's unashamedly a "Trek" take on "Moby Dick," complete with an alien Ahab.

He also revealed plans for a new TOS episode re-imagining coming up in the series:

The next [revisit] will be "The Tholian Webs," a 2-part story coming in issues #46 and #47. And yes, that's "Webs," plural. We don't want every story to be a re-imagining of an old episode, but it's so much fun to show how the new crew reacts to iconic characters and threats from the original series. We choose carefully and make sure we bring something new to the story.

Mike Johnson, and editor, Sarah Gaydos, were also interviewed on Visionary Trek's The Holodeck podcast recently, and Johnson made an interesting note about the shape of the series as it moves between stories:

...each two or three part story is going to role into the next one. Each story wont be hermetically sealed, they are actually going to effect and kick start the next story as we go. So it's almost like an ongoing TV series, but instead of just stand-alone episodes, there's going to be ongoing subplots, and themes, and characters. So, the idea of trying to really heighten the feeling of it being a TV show on the page is what we're aiming for, with the ultimate aim of leading into the next movie in 2016.

Back on CBR, Johnson expanded on that a little, in particular when it comes to the cast of characters, which will soon be including Irina Galliulin from The Way to Eden:

My goal for the next year of the comics is to show a wider slice of life aboard the Enterprise, at all levels of the ship, and that means introducing new faces. I like to give a nod to the original timeline when I can, so I brought back Irina, who was once a love interest for Chekov. There's a hint of that when we first meet her in the comic, but she's really here to add a new voice to the cast with unique scientific expertise of her own, not to be somebody's girlfriend.

Meanwhile on The Holodeck podcast Sarah Gaydos made some interesting notes about artists working on the series. Apparently Tony Shasteen, who illustrated the six-part DS9 crossover The Q Gambit, is now pretty much considered the ongoing artist for the series. But his work will be broken up by other artists along the way; for instance he has a three month gap before returning on issue forty-four in April.

Gaydos also hopes to bring back Rachael Stott for more Star Trek work once she completed work on the Planet of the Apes crossover. And Joe Corroney was noted as the go to cover artist - And indeed the image to the right here is his latest preview post on Facebook, of part of a cover for issue forty-five.

Gaydos also hinted at plans for the wider Star Trek comics line. With plans to tie-in with the release of the next movie once more, plus things underway to celebrate both the fiftieth anniversary next year, and TNG's thirtieth in 2017. She also cryptically noted that she is planning a series that will "have a role" in celebrating this year's twentieth anniversary of Voyager.

For much more from both Johnson and Gaydos, check out the original interviews at Comic Book Resources, and Visionary Treks' The Holodeck.

And for listings of all the latest Star Trek comics, hit the comics button on my 2015 schedule pages, where you'll also find links to all my previous coverage.