Star Trek Miniseries from Arrow Co-Creator Set During The Motion Picture Era Announced

Star Trek is returning to the era of the original Star Trek movie with Star Trek: The Motion Picture — Echoes, IDW Publishing’s upcoming comic book miniseries written by Marc Guggenheim (The CW’s Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca). The series takes place immediately after the end of the 1979 film, with artwork by Oleg Chudakov and colors by DC Alonso. The series sees Adm. James T. Kirk and his crew battling new and old enemies, all in those iconic Star Trek: The Motion Picture-era Starfleet uniforms. IDW Publishing offered a synopsis for the upcoming series:

When a space anomaly thrusts a criminal mastermind — pursued by a very determined pilot on a mission — into our universe, the Enterprise must stop them from unintentionally starting a war with the Romulans and unleashing a superweapon of foreign technology into the system. But things get infinitely more complicated when these newcomers to our reality remove their helmets, revealing that they’re doppelgängers of our beloved heroes!

“Despite watching the occasional fragment of a Star Trek episode here and there with my father, my true introduction was going to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture with my grandparents — I was entranced. I’m thrilled that IDW and Paramount Global have allowed me to revisit that time period, which was so impactful to me and my love of Star Trek,” says Guggenheim in a statement. “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.”

“What does it mean to draw this new Star Trek adventure? It’s like revisiting my childhood, but at the same time learning something new. It’s amazing!” adds Chudakov.

“When everything in life feels like it’s moving too fast towards the future, it’s always important to step back and revisit where it all came from. And that’s exactly what we’re doing with this comic focusing on the Star Trek: The Motion Picture time frame,” says series editor Heather Antos, who also hints that this series could include connections to other current IDW Star Trek comics. “No one knows more about this period in Trek history than Guggenheim, we’ve learned…and we could think of no one better suited to take Kirk and his crew on this wild adventure. Paired with Chudakov’s energetic, character-driven inks, this is one mission that the crew of the Enterprise soon won’t forget. Oh, and did we mention that there are possible easter eggs to some of our other Trek books, too?”

Star Trek: The Motion Picture — Echoes #1 goes on sale in May. It will ship with multiple variants, including Cover A by Jake Bartok, Cover B by series artist Oleg Chudakov, and retailer incentive variants by Luke Sparrow and Rod Reis.