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Exclusive: Starfleet's finest captains unite in IDW's new Star Trek: The Q Conflict
In a grand event that can only occur in the creative dimensions of the comic book realm, the brave Star Trek crews and gallant captains of The Next Generation, The Original Series, Voyager, and Deep Space 9 will converge in a new IDW mini-series to pool their resources and hold the galaxy together against insurmountable odds.
Written by the scribes of Star Trek: TNG: Mirror Broken, Scott Tipton & David Tipton, the bold six-part adventure premiering today is matched with soaring art by David Messina (The Bounce, Wonder Woman) and corrals this historic collection of charismatic Starfleet commanders for the first time.
SYFY WIRE has energized an exclusive five-page breakdown courtesy of the Tiptons where they reveal their favorite storytelling techniques and expound upon Messina's pencilwork and the vibrant hues of colorist Alexandra Alexakis.
The storyline unfolds as a complicated dispute between godlike beings threatening the galaxy, requiring the skills and experience of all of Starfleet’s courageous captains to stop them. James T. Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, Kathryn Janeway, and Benjamin Sisko band together and go head to head in a dire competition that will determine the fate of the planet Earth and beyond. Will they be able to emerge triumphant, or will they be torn asunder by The Q Conflict?
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Scott Tipton & David Tipton: It’s hard to get across the power and swiftness of a supernova on the printed page, but we thought David Messina did a first-rate job here. We’re asking him to do a lot of crazy things in this series, and he’s delivering like a champ. As we pull back to reveal Picard and company, both the uniforms and the lack of a VISOR on Geordi cue the reader when our story is taking place: during the era of the Next Generation films.
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ST & DT: Here we are aboard the Enterprise-E bridge. The previous bridge on the Enterprise-D from the television series was so iconic, we were counting on Messina to bring this bridge to life, since it might be a little less familiar to readers. We’re also seeing Messina’s facility with likenesses in these close-ups of Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, and Brent Spiner – we think it’s the best likeness work he’s ever done.
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ST & DT: One of our favorite storytelling devices is to make use of action happening in the background behind characters who are unaware of it in the foreground. It works really well here with Data completely missing yet another supernova. What’s up with all of these supernovae, you may ask? Faithful viewers of Star Trek: Voyager may remember another instance when this took place, and just who turned out to be behind it.
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ST & DT: Big beautiful shot here of the Enterprise-E being rocked by the subspace shockwave. It’s not often you see starships really getting tossed about on Star Trek, and we really wanted to make this have an impact, which is why you give your artist lots of room to work for something like this.
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ST & DT: Let’s talk about colors. Our colorist Alexandra Alexakis is doing some wonderful things here, the kind of subtleties that great colors bring to comics. The fading of the control panels and backgrounds on the bridge gives the location a real sense of depth, while the glowing orange corona around the Enterprise-E as she rides out the shockwave gives the moment a sense of danger that you wouldn’t get against just the cold blackness of space.
Cruise into our gallery of covers below and let us know if this illuminating dissection of the creative process inspires you to climb aboard IDW's Star Trek: The Q Conflict #1 as it docks at comic shops on Jan. 30.
