Star Trek: Holo-Ween #1 is written by Chris Sequeira and published by IDW Publishing. Artwork is by Joe Eisma and colours by Charlie Kirchoff. Letters are by Clayton Cowles. Main cover art (left) is by Francesco Francavilla.
Star Trek: Holo-Ween #1 is available now, in print and on digital platforms where all good comic books are sold.
Synopsis
Acclaimed writer Chris Sequeira (Justice League Adventures and Sherlock Holmes: Dark Detective) and Eisner-nominated artist Joe Eisma (Morning Glories and Engineward) are bringing horror to the holodeck in a new four-issue miniseries in the month of October! After enduring an anxiety-ridden passage through a solar storm, Captain Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise take to celebrating Halloween to reset the mood. But while the Earth holiday involves sweet treats and other festivities, they soon learn that fear is in season when crew members begin to go missing one by one.
Review
Star Trek does Halloween… now here’s a combination that I never saw coming. But over the next four weeks IDW Publishing is dipping its toe in to some classic horror via the USS Enterprise-D and its notoriously wild holodeck. But can the veteran sci-fi franchise carry off the tonal shift without becoming farcical or preposterous?
For the most part the answer is yes. Chris Sequeira opens the series by sticking closely to classic Trek storytelling. The Enterprise has been passing through a perilous solar storm whilst travelling between worlds. The crew is on edge and those feelings weigh heavy on empathic ship’s counsellor Deanna Troi, through whom we enter this story. It transpires that Troi knows her Earth history. With the crew ready to blow off some steam it just so happens that in the old Earth calendar it’s now Halloween and time for a party.
No spoilers from me but it turns out that an old foe from Star Trek: The Original Series has returned to wreak havoc on the ship. When two crew members go missing on the holodeck, Picard thinks it may be an issue with the internal sensors after their strip through the solar storms. But when more crew begin disappearing a ship-wide lockdown begins and a classic Trek adventure ensues.
I think it was right for Sequeira to maintain a sense of science to the horror. Also tying events to the holodeck, apart from opening the book up to its punny title, allows for more nonsensical elements to enter the story. At the end of the day a series like this is predominantly aimed at Star Trek fans and to have messed too much with continuity would have only alienated that audience. There are echoes of classic holodeck episodes as well as shades of Best of Both Worlds.
Joe Eisma brings a fun visual style to the book. In the past Trek comics have had a tendency to rely on overly descriptive artistic style. Stick to slavish representations of its actors and prioritising likeness over originality. Eisma falls in to none of those traps here. Whilst characters and locations are obviously familiar, this feels like a much more traditional comic book interpretation of Trek and is all the better for it.
Verdict
Star Trek: Holo-Ween #1 is a fun opening to the limited series. It legitimises its heightened sense of horror through traditional Trek means and so will fit well with the Trek audience as well as anyone looking for a little horror this Halloween season.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
