Star Trek: The Next Generation #1

17 Nov 1990; Cover price 55p.
32 pages. Colour.
Marvel Comics Ltd.

Free Star Fleet sew-on insignia.

Contents:

.2 Bridge Level Introduction / Trekkie Trivia / Indicia.

.3 Star Trek: The Next Generation Where No One Has Gone Before w: Michael Carlin; p: Pablo Marcos, i: Carlos Garzon & Arne Starr, lettering by Bob Pinaha, colouring by Carl Gafford.

r: Star Trek: The Next Generation (DC Comics) #01 (Feb 1988).

.7 The Knights of Pendragon in-house advertisement.

26 Titan Books Presents Star Trek advertisement.

27 Mission Report "Datalore" text feature by Robert Greenberger.

r: Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine (O'Quinn Studios) #06 (Apr 1989).

31 Classified advertisements.

32 Data photo pin-up.

In the extended absence of Star Trek: The Next Generation from terrestrial screening, to ensure Sky's ratings and shift over-priced videos, the comic was the next best thing. Of course, novels had been appearing regularly from Titan Books, with Howard Weinstein's Exiles getting a free plug in Trekkie Trivia, so it wasn't as if Britain was starved of material.

Under a hideous mash-up cover, which would have been better served without the pasted-in crew, the contents aren't at all bad. Unfortunately for those collecting anything with a Starfleet logo plastered on, the contents aren't at all original either, being reprints from US publications. There's a degree of sense in adding TNG to a line-up which included Blake's 7, and which continued to have Doctor Who Magazine appearing, it is difficult to see how it could have competed without something fresh to add.

The strip is often awkwardly drawn, with none of the flair the series exhibited, and is presented throughout with a star-field border rather than being resized. To say that this is a disappointment is understating just how poorly Star Trek: The Next Generation managed to sell itself off a show which had a built-in audience. With even titles such as Look-In offering posters, the fact that this contains but a single pin-up, and of Data, is surprising.

This is why tie-in titles have a bad name.