Star Trek: The Q Conflict

Star Trek: The Q Conflict #1-6

by Scott Tipton, David Tipton, David Messina (Illustrator)

"When a dispute between godlike beings threatens the galaxy, it will take all of Starfleet's best captains to stop them. James T. Kirk, Jean-Luc Picard, Kathryn Janeway, and Benjamin Sisko must go head-to-head in a competition rigged by the arrogant Q and his nigh-omnipotent cohorts."

Genres: Star Trek, Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Media Tie In

145 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 15, 2019

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Q is used as an excuse to take the crews of the first 4 Star Trek TV shows and mix them up into picked teams for some contrived contest. This is an OK series with way too many characters. No one gets much of a chance to shine when your juggling 20+ crew members plus another dozen or so guest stars from specific episodes. It all adds up to nothing more than fan service.

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growing up I enjoyed watching STNG. One of my favorite characters was the near-omnipotent Q. Well, Scott Tipton has managed to write a really good one-shot Star Trek comic. While the art is not stellar it is good and works well with this story.

Q has started a war with some other aliens of near equal power. Their war is having devastating effects on the universe at large. Starfleet sends Picard to find out what is going on. Picard stumbles across Q and gets "drafted" into the coming conflict. Along with Picard and his command crew, Q also snatches Captain's Sisko, Janeway and Kirk, along with their command crew.

The crews are divided into teams, each led by a Captain, and set out to complete trails. The winner will determine the outcome of the Q war. A fun, interesting story with the Q continuum. Star Trek fans will appreciate this comic.

Even people who aren't Trek fans might enjoy this as it is a good story, though the various Captain's and their crew may not ring a bell. A good single shot Star Trek story. Entertaining.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like with most Star Trek miniseries from IDW, The Q Conflict presents readers with a fantastic idea that doesn't get enough room to breathe or fulfill itself. Six issues is not nearly enough to tell the story of a war between the most familiar godlike creatures in the Star Trek universe fought via the proxy of its first four crews. There are too many characters, too many scenarios, too many promises made before it all ends rather abruptly in the sixth and final issue. Considering this was clearly always meant to be a miniseries, they probably could have done a better job of crafting a story that works better over such a short run. Instead it's a story that throws way too much at the wall, and while a good chunk of it sticks, it's not enough.

[Alex Boyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable stuff for any Trekker. Q is a pretty straightforward device to use in terms of bringing four prominent captains together for a few mini-adventures: Kirk, Picard, Sisko and Janeway. The art also manages good likenesses of the characters, neatly avoiding another potential downfall for a graphic novel like this.

Where this 6-issue series stumbles is that there wasn't much time allowed for a few meaningful conversations between characters we don't normally see together. Do Spock and Tuvok get a moment? Or Picard and Seven, given that Picard was captured by the Borg? Well, no.

There's a brief moment between Kirk and Worf that works quite well, and another (even briefer) moment with Riker and Kim. Picard simply saying "My God," when Kirk and company arrive on the scene is perfect. It's a fun series, but I really wanted more of that. One of the best things about the TNG episode Unification was the brief "I have no regrets" conversation between Spock and Data. There was a lot to juggle here, and if there's a next time, it might work better to simply assemble a mixed crew of some of the best-loved characters.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Talk about taking a fantastic idea and not running with it enough. While I enjoyed the store line, the plot, and the general idea I feel like what kills this book is the fact that the art style is just so terrible. I'm not talking about cover art and I'm not talking about some of the inserts at the end with some of the fantastic depictions of the story. I'm talking about the art throughout the entire comic where you cannot tell who was who. There were so many blobs with speech lines and so many characters that were drawn in a way that did not make them look anything like the original. For example they drew Tom Paris looking closer to Kirk in some scenes he also had black sides on his hair and bleached blonde top. Harry Kim look nothing like himself, every single character was affected by this. As much as I enjoyed the story it kept throwing me out because I couldn't figure out who was saying what and I had to go by uniforms. Art style can make or break a comic and in this case it's really not helping. There were several moments when the characters were really upset in the dialogue but their faces were stone cold, almost like this whole thing was acted out by wax dolls instead of people.

I'm not going to put any spoilers but the ending was really strange, and I didn't like how it ended. I don't know if some people will like it but it ended up voiding out at least three to five episodes of TNG.

Overall it's worth reading if you are a fan of this universe but I just recommend that next time that the writers go to the drawing board and try to come up with something a little bit more lifelike for art style

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as single issues #1-#6.

This was an entertaining yarn involving Q and 3 other godlike beings (all from TOS, funny that): Trelain, the Metrons, and the Organians. They bring in our four first Trek crews to fight a proxy war via a series of challenges. The twist is the god-beings choose players to work with each captain like it is a high school dodgeball game. This creates a few interesting pairings, like Worf on Kirk's bridge, and Riker working alongside Janeway.

The story wasn't anything special beyond the conceit - I think they could have done more with their efforts to fight back against Q, and we had some nice character moments but not as many as I wanted given the crew line-ups - half the time it was just window dressing and not relevant to the story or outcome.

The artwork is serviceable but some characters, such as Q, looked a little "off". Also there were a few panels with rank insignia gaffs, which bothered me but just made me feel like I caught the wardrobe department off their A game in a final cut of an episode.

Worth picking up if you want more Star Trek comics, but you might just want to save your money for the upcoming Voyager mirror universe series, if Tipton and Tipton's TNG mirror universe run is any indication.

[Mayaj · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was immensely stupid, which admittedly can be an excellent flavor of Star Trek.

[Jonathan Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second go around with this solid one. If you want the ultimate cross series mash up, this is it. Very good.

[SamB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely ridiculous, but entertaining nonetheless.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit that this was read off the back of the pocket book Q trilogy I read earlier - on googling the series (as it was published some years ago) I found reference to a new graphic novel coming out off the back of a comic book run earlier in the year.

Well as you can imagine I had to give it a go.

I will admit it was a bit varied - you see the story has all the typical aspects of a Q story including the arguments with Pickard - however the one thing I struggled with was the artwork - now I know that it can be stylised, and for all I know there may licensing issues over certain images and people.

However some characters were instantly recognisable - especially considering the extra special circumstances of how the various characters got there but there are were some I really struggled with (and I think the artists knew this and more often than not they would find ways of having the introduced just in case you were not sure).

The story however is (and yes I am no Star Trek expert) classic Q and really captured the tone and dialogue of the characters which meant at the end of the story there was no doubt of what you had just read.

I am not sure if this is a one off or the potential door opening to more stories - which I for one would happily read now i have had a chance to settle in to the books style. I suspect this is a book which polarise fans - you will either love it or hate it, I guess I am the latter but it took a little time.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just finished and loved Star Trek: Year Five - Odyssey's End, I was in the mood for the continued adventures of the Starship Enterprise. The Q Conflict is certainly a stranger tale than Year Five, with the reality-bending Q drawing the cast of the four classic TV series into a contest of wits. I haven't seen any of the TV series, so some of the ancillary characters' quirks were lost on me.

Nonetheless, I quickly found myself wrapped up in this weird adventure. The various contests are amusing and outcomes more complex than simply "set phasers to stun!" Q is a wily opponent and I appreciated that he was constantly willing to change the conditions of the contests, just as all the starship captains were happy to roll with the punches. It's nice to read about smart people solving problems logically. Oh, and the art is great, really recognizable depictions of characters from the show.

[Ella Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically the Star Trek equivalent of taking aaaaaaaall the action figures and smashing them all together.

Narrative sense?
Character consistency?
Established Canon? (at one point O'Brien refers to Bashir's enhanced abilities, something that is only reveled to everyone else in season 5, but we are led to understand that Sisko's crew are the crew from season 3 when Sisko was just made captain. You can see this in the uniforms and the fact that none of them besides O'Brien know Worf yet and Kira's hair and uniform style.)

Nope.

Big things go boom?

Yes.

A good time for concept, but not much below the surface.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that is just an excuse to put characters together that wouldn't normally get to interact (in this case, all the main crews of every Trek series before Enterprise). Some of the characters got to do just about zippo (like Deanna Troi), but there were a few interesting moments. The art was... okay. The characters' faces were dead-on about half the time and the rest of the time they were just okay. I did love the art style used for the covers. If you're a big Star Trek fan, it might be worth a quick read.

[Etienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/5. I bit light, maybe not enough room to build a complex story in such a short series (6 issues). It was enjoyable and I like that it presents various crew as well as various races, so it delivers a good overview (really an overview) of the Star Trek universe that could make it more approachable, sort of a gateway, for a younger audience and maybe bring a new generation (couldn't resist that one...) to this massive universe.

[Vail Chester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was NOT expecting a multi-installment mega-crossover event, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was.
Cosmic shenanigans ensue when the Discordant being known as Q starts warring with other glowy specks that feign omnipotence and of course, Picard's got to put a stop to those shenanigans. As is most often the case as seen by beings of great power, sometimes it's just easier to fight via lower life-form proxies. It's why things like Pokemon are still so appealing!
Thus the 4 parties of big muckety-mucks choose four Star Trek shows to represent themselves in big ol' battles of wits & resourcefulness.
As someone who only has a passing knowledge of all things Star Trek, it was a treat to see something like this since there was no REAL way of making this happen on TV. However, I'm sure mega-fans would enjoy it a LOT more since there were things, events, and concepts that pop up that would spark that Leo-DiCaprio-pointing meme in them. But for the casual, it's sci-fi goodness distilled into an easy-to-swallow story.

[goodbyewaffles]

I think I got spoiled by Star Wars comic books. This is...not good. It does, however, feature crewmembers from four Star Wars franchises playing Capture the Flag against each other at Q's behest, so...there's that.

[The Leppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a Q fan and I couldn't help my curiosity. It was neat getting to see so many Star Trek characters interact and deal with Q and the other godlings. It was a fun little diversion, time well spent. ^_^

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. fun. A little silly, but definitely Q-ish. Kinda got bored halfway through.

[Jefferson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very silly story that reads like fan fiction and (of course) suffers from having way too many characters. There were a lot of missed opportunities for interesting character interactions.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. You really had to already know all of the characters in order to enjoy the story. Some of it seemed a little contrived, but a whole lot of fun nevertheless.

[Celia · Rating 5 out of 5]

lo divertido que ha sido leer esto

[John Yelverton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a fun story which hearkened back to old "Trek" envisioned by Gene Roddenberry where man squares off against godlike beings and emerges victorious. That being said, it was so grand in scope by pulling from the first four "Star Trek" series that it practically bites off more than it can chew. Most "Star Trek" fans will just ignore this though, and enjoy it for what it is.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read a huge crossover of sorts in the form of Star Trek: Boldly Go Vol. 3 at the beginning of this week, I was surprised to get another one in The Q Conflict. We begin with the TNG crew in 2379, before the events of Nemesis. In a fashion reminiscent of Doctor Who: The Five Doctors, other crews are taken out of their time periods. The Voyager crew is taken from 2377, during Voyager season 6. The DS9 crew is taken out of 2371, shortly after Sisko's promotion to captain in the season 3 finale. (Looks like he shaved his head right after that episode.) The Original Series Crew is taken out of 2269, the year of TOS season 3.

And yes, we are missing the crews of Enterprise and Discovery. For the latter, I would've assumed that it could be due to the writers wanting to wait and see how the show continues to define its characters. For the former, I hear that it's due to Scott Bakula not wanting his likeness shown, though I do recall him appearing in Waypoint. In any case, maybe these four crews were enough, as there's not enough time to put everyone in the spotlight. I'm surprised that none of the Voyager crew asks Picard's crew whether or not they make it to Earth. Some characters are pushed to the background and don't really do anything notable. When Guinan mentioned that Picard may have more allies than he thinks, I kind of expected that the crews of Enterprise, Discovery, or even the Kelvin timeline might show up at the end. Instead, we got Wesley Crusher, The Traveler, and Amanda Rogers. I admit, it was nice seeing them again. I was actually surprised that this story resulted in Wesley agreeing to be a normal human again. (Maybe that explains his presence at the wedding in Nemesis?)

To cover all bases, it's mentioned that some characters chose to have their memories of these events wiped, while others chose to remember. Since Generations seems like the first time Kirk met Picard, I think it's safe to say that Kirk had his memories erased. And since Sisko later tries to meet Kirk for the first time in "Trials and Tribble-ations," it's safe to say that he got his memories wiped as well. Same goes for Jadxia Dax since she seems surprised by how handsome Spock looks in that episode.

As fun as this story was, there was a lot to juggle, and perhaps it could have been done better. In fact, I'd even go as far as to say that this story should have been a novel instead. That would have been a feasible way of getting around the Bakula-likeness problem. Plus, there would have been less worry about how the art is executed. I think there were too many white spaces in this. I prefer having fully illustrated panels. A fun story, but I found Boldly Go Vol. 3 to be more poignant with what it was given.

[Random Dent · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book itself is pretty average, read it if you want more Star Trek content; it's pretty short and cool to see all of the crews interact, and Q is great as always.

But! The freaking continuity is all over the place, and I hate it so much. First, they go through the trouble of having all of the TNG crew in the newer uniforms, the ones they only wore in the movies, and they have the DS9 crew in the middle uniforms that they only wore until the middle of season 5 (specifically in episode 10, "Rapture"). So, I understand why they chose the earlier DS9 outfits because they only wanted one version of Worf there, but it is beyond me why they chose to use the movie outfits for the TNG crew when he would have been much more likely to have been on DS9 at the time. But, probability aside, fine. The real problem is how he should be dating Jadzia at the time but doesn't comment on seeing her or the rest of the DS9 crew. By the way, nearly every problem that comes up could be solved by Worf being there with DS9 instead...

Anyways, the second and much more annoying problem; Bashir's genetic enhancements. The entire climax and plan hinge on everyone knowing about and deciding to use his genetically enhanced perfect aim to shoot Q. Something that wasn't revealed until season 5 episode 16 "Dr. Bashir, I presume". After the uniform change. I repeat, 6 EPISODES AFTER THE UNIFORM CHANGE. This is such a simple thing. It is so easily fixed. Just have the DS9 crew wear the newer uniforms. It's so easy, which is why I think this is driving me mad so much. This is not only a problem with the art of course; the book also opens by saying that the DS9 people are specifically taken from 8 years earlier than the TNG people. Why? Beats me. They could have just NOT DONE THAT. Like, why.

Why not just have Worf be with DS9 in the newer uniforms instead? It changes nothing about the story, the only major cast change is Ezri, and that's not until season 7. Also, the little buttons that signal rank are very inconsistent and often not even right. But at this point like whatever man that's the least of the problems. And due to the 8 years earlier, Bashir and O'Brien technically shouldnt've been friends yet. Whatever.

Other than that, fine book, could have given more page space to character interactions.

[tony dillard jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

We've had other comics join together the Original Series and the Next Gen universes- but never to this scope!

The Q Continuum is at war! Q is involved in a struggle for control of the 4 quadrants with a pair of omnipotent races. The battle is threatening the fabric of time and space. Thus to save reality, Captain Picard offers to mediate between the three entities.

In typical Q fashion, the demigod takes up Picard's offer but he twists it in his own warped way. In a 'fwash', the crews of the Enterprise D, Deep Space 9, Voyager and the original Enterprise are sorted into teams and must act as champions for the 3 combatants with the safety of all known time and space at risk!

This was a book that I had to pick up new! I could not wait for a used copy to go on sale! I really wanted to read this book. I know I could have read it earlier in individual issues. But the scale of this book was so massive, I knew that to read over a span of 2-3 months as individual issues would have resulted in something being lost over that time period.

I was right!

There's so many cameos and Easter Eggs in this book. Reading this as a collected edition, I am pretty sure I caught all of them. Though there was at least one egg that I didn't quite understand. At the end of issue/chapter one, there's a ghostly image of some man in the distance. I've tried but I can't figure out who that is. I hope it's not Gene Roddenberry. Not that he doesn't deserve the respect but to pay homage to him in the story instead of an afterward on the last page of the book, would be a massive disruption of the fourth wall.

As for the book, I loved it. And I wanted more. Not only that, I know that there's going to be more. If you think IDW is going to stop at Q Conflict, you are completely fooling yourself. The publisher is going to milk this cash cow- and I'm okay with it!

I want to see everyone in the sequel. The crew of Discovery. Captain Archer and his crew. Chris Pike and Number One. The older versions of Kirk and Spock. Saavik. David. And the Kelvin Enterprise Crew.

Come on, IDW! Let's make Q Conflict II the Crisis of the Star Trek universe! It will be the ultimate crossover and a guaranteed moneymaker! And I WILL BUY IT!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

More of a 4.5 Stars but I'm rounding up. I really loved the premise of this comic! There was so much that could be done with having all the crews meet each other. And that's where the negative comes in. It was much too rushed, it all went by so fast with little chance to focus on the characters and all the fun interactions we could have had. Especially between characters from different times that could never have met otherwise. Like Spock and Seven of Nine. Or Uhura and Kira. Combos like that that could never be without Q intervention to explain it away. There were fun little moments but they were gone in the blink of an eye. I feel this really should have been expanded and been given at least 10 more issues to properly explore everything. Give the all the characters a chance to shine and interact with each other in some way. Like Quark for example, he had a funny line at the start questioning why he was there when he wasn't Starfleet only to essentially fade into the background for the most part. I also think this would do well to be adapted and expanded into a written story, to really get into the characters heads and flesh things out more. So overall this was a fun ride and I recommend it, just don't expect it to take things slow. I personally loved the art style, which helped make up for a lot for me. While I thoroughly enjoyed this comic for what it was, I am still disappointed at the wasted potential of what could have been.

[Adan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun little bit of fluff. Q forces the first four Trek crews (TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY) from different points in time to have a proxy competition to avert war between four god-like beings/races, but the crews get all jumbled up as they’re chosen for teams playground-style (it’s hilarious that the last two picked are Harry Kim then Quark). There are a lot of fun references and Easter eggs from all four series, but the real fun comes from the different crews interacting with each other (like TOS-era Kirk and Nemesis-era Worf or Spock and Odo). Unfortunately, there isn’t enough time given to that as Q throws ever more ludicrous challenges at them. I would love to see a sort of sequel to this, but with ENT, DIS, LDS, SNW, PRO, and PIC crews thrown in as well (it’s okay to have multiple versions of the same characters, like SNW Uhura and TOS Uhura, VOY Seven and PIC Seven, and VOY Janeway and PRO Janeway), and maybe different eras for the crews that already did this (like film TOS crew, S1 TNG so Tasha Yar can be there, S7 DS9 so we can get Ezri and another Worf, and a VOY crew between E1 and E2 of S4 so we get Kes and a just un-hived Seven). And man how awesome would a team of the genetically enhanced Una, Bashir, and Dal be?

I mean, we all want more fan fic, right?

[Carol Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever imagined what would happen if the advanced races in the Star Trek universe had a disagreement? Picard and the crew of the Enterprise find out and when Picard steps into try and mediate a solution that is where things get interesting.

Four captains and their senior officers are pulled from different times to "help" out with the issue. The four captains Kirk, Picard, Sisko and Janeway are each picked to represent one of the advanced races.

Next issue we get to see how they feel about this and watch out how each of the remaining crews are divided up on the teams. I am looking forward to that seeing these separate crews have to work with some unfamiliar people.

I love crossovers and stories like this even if once they are returned to their timelines don't remember. I find them enjoyable wondering what a conversation between Bashir and McCoy would be like or Spock and Tuvok.

If you are a Trek fan I highly recommend this series of comics.

[Nick Katsaras · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining and enjoyable!

I loved the story and most of the art very much. The writing is very creative. However, I would have liked to see more of what the other godlike beings could do with their powers.

Also, for some reason the artist did a phenomenal job on all the star ships, scenes, and most of the characters look very reminiscent of the actors who played the parts, all with the exception of captain Kirk who looks nothing like William Shatner. I wonder why that is?

Overall, this was one of the most fun comics I've read in a few years. I only wish it was longer. I would love to see more or a sequel where maybe they all have to team up against some even greater threat!

[Yosef Shapiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very ambitious undertaking. A team up of the crews from TOS, TNG, DS9, and Voyager. Forced to play a game involving Q, Trelane, the Metrons, and the Organians. Ther are just two many characters to allow for all of them to have a good part in the story. The captains do come off better than their supporting cast. We do see Kirk, Picard, Jane way, and Sisko featured well. But, many of the key crew members are hardly featured. On the opposition’s side, Q and Trelane are focused on and we hardly see the Myron’s and the Organians.
I do applaud the attempt. The basic and the basic plot is a goo one. However, there are too many characters to do justice to all of them.