Star Trek (IDW)

After 2009's reboot film, IDW Publishing launched Star Trek, an adaptation/reimagining of TOS set in the new timeline.

The series ran from 2010 to 2018. Issues #1-60 were published under Star Trek with a further eighteen issues published under the title of Star Trek: Boldly Go.

Tropes used in Star Trek include:

• A God Am I:
  • Q says he can manipulate reality as easily as Kirk could change the water in a fishbowl. Later subverted since that only applies in the 3-D universes. In his own 5-D universe, he's not a god.
  • Gary Mitchell claims to be more powerful than the whole of the Q Continuum.
• Aborted Arc:
  • After The Khitomer Incident, Section 31 is quietly dropped.
  • Valas owing to the series' cancellation.
• Action Girl:
  • Uhura in a great example of Adaptational Badass.
  • Zahra. So much so that Kirk makes it a point to bring her along when the away team is going to be fighting.
  • Carol Marcus.
• Adaptation Species Change: Despite the fact that the timeline diverges from the prime universe in 2233, Landru, who was a Human Alien that lived around 3733 BCE in the original timeline, is now a human scientist from the 22nd century.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • The United Federation of Planets to some extent. They're not The Empire but they're much more willing to indulge in Realpolitik as opposed to their squeaky clean TOS counterparts.
  • Countdown to Darkness reimagines the heroic Robert April (the original captain of the Enterprise) as an Anti-Villain.
  • Gul Dukat. He wasn't a hero before but he has none of his sympathetic qualities here.
• Adaptational Wimp: The Borg. While a single sphere can total the totality of the Romulan fleet, Federation weapons can still dent their shields and photon torpedoes destroyed the sphere.
• Alpha Bitch: Amy McKenna. Gets a nice dose of Laser-Guided Karma when she loses her post on the Enterprise due to lungworm.
• Alternate History: Khan and his followers launched nuclear strikes on Washington D.C. and Moscow in 1992. That is all that needs saying.
• Alternate Reality Episode:
  • The Mirrored arc focuses on a Mirror Universe.
  • Parallel Lives starts with a Rule 63 version of the Enterprise crew.
  • Connection has the crew swapping minds, and working, with their TOS counterparts.
• Alternate Universe: They pop up fairly frequently. The final arc is built around them.
• Ascended Extra: Both with respect to the film and the original series, Hendorff. Despite being a Red Shirt, he's more of a Mauve Shirt.
• Bad Future: The 24th century shown in The Q Conflict. It's Evil Versus Evil with the Dominion against the Klingon Empire, Earth was been conquered by the Klingons, Romulus has been destroyed, and Gul Dukat is on the verge of becoming a Pah-Wraith.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • As Kirk reflects, the Khan miniseries ends with Khan reuniting with his crew.
    • The first Alternate Universe in the IDIC arc features a reality where Khan won the Eugenics Wars.
  • The Khitomer Conflict sees Section 31 reclaim the red matter, ravage Kronos and the Klingon fleet, cripple the Romulan armada, and get off scot-free... all before they've finished beaming Kirk back aboard the Enterprise.
• Batman Gambit: The appropriately named Q Gambit arc. Q knew he couldn't find a way out but with Kirk's history with no-win scenarios, he was quite sure that the good captain would find the path to victory.
• Berserk Button: Do not call Hendorff "cupcake." Kirk turns this into an Exploited Trope to trigger Hendorff's Unstoppable Rage when they get captured.
• Blue and Orange Morality: Something that comes up rather regularly. Everyone looks at the world in a different way.
• Bluff the Impostor: Unable to distinguish between Garth and Kirk, Sulu asks what his daughter's name is. The answer doesn't even matter given that Garth's panicking at not knowing is simply so Out of Character for Kirk.
• Both Sides Have a Point:
  • The Prime Directive is debated a lot. With everything that Starfleet can do, it wouldn't harm anyone to give a few worlds some nudges in the right direction but then again, those beings aren't ready to see aliens.
  • Section 31's militarization of Starfleet. One must be conscious of He Who Fights Monsters but at the same time, the Federation is surrounded on all sides by hostile powers.
• Brick Joke: At the end of the Tribbles arc, Scotty finally rematerializes Porthos.
• Call Forward: Carol notes she's interested in using torpedo technology for more constructive and creation based uses. Spock Prime urges the Vulcan race to not settle on Ceti Alpha V.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • That tribble that Scotty had on Delta Vega? It nearly unleashes an ecological disaster in San Francisco.
  • Countdown showed that Borg technology was used to retrofit the Narada into a warship. The first arc of Boldly Go features the cyborgs coming into the Alpha Quadrant to try and find it.
• Continuity Snarl: Malik, one of Soong's Augments from Star Trek: Enterprise is among Khan's crew despite having been born nearly two centuries afterwards. Though it's not impossible that the STE Augments were clones.
• Crossover:
  • Had two with, of all properties, Green Lantern.
  • Like its fellow IDW properties at the time, it had covers celebrating the 75th anniversary of Archie Comics and the launch of ROM.
  • The Q Gambit is TOS meets DS9.
• Curb Stomp Battle:
  • The USS Vengeance derived Romulan warbrids make quick work of the Klingon fleet.
  • Though not seen, Spock notes the ISS Enterprise likely made short work of the S.S. Botany Bay.
  • As always, the Borg are very good at this.
• Dark Is Evil:
  • The Knight Templars of Section 31 operate a fleet of black painted ships with cloaking devices contrasting the snow white ships of the ordinary Starfleet.
  • The Terran Empire has black warships with red running lights.
• Death by Adaptation: Kor is gunned down by Section 31.
• Deity of Human Origin: Gary Mitchell. He was once just a standard human but contact with the galactic barrier gave him power that he claims puts him beyond Q. Though the series is a bit ambiguous on whether the entity opposing Kirk is actually a Drunk on the Dark Side Gary or just a Jerkass God puppeteering his corpse.
• Demoted to Extra: Janice Rand wasn't exactly a major player in TOS but she does even less here.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The Klingons regard the Tribbles as such menaces that they set up bombs across the Tribble homeworld to enact this. Too bad that the Enterprise butted in.
• The Empire:
  • The Klingon Empire.
  • The Romluan Empire.
  • The Terran Empire.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Something Uhura notes about the Klingons. By all metrics they're quite an unlikeable species but their twisted code of honor is proof that they're not complete monsters.
• Everyone Has Standards: During the crew's time at the academy, Kirk was a smug bastard who smooth talked Chekov into helping him hack the Kobayashi Maru scenario. That said, he refused to be a Jerk Jock and advised Chekov to not sink to the Alpha Bitch's level.
• Everyone Went to School Together: Justified since there's only one school, Starfleet Academy.
• Fallen Hero:
  • Gary Mitchell.
  • Garth of Izar.
• The Federation: Well duh. Though there's a bit more Realpolitik than in the prime reality.
• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: Gary Mitchell feels this way towards Kirk.
• For Want of a Nail: The Borg show up in the 23rd century because they detected the arrival of the Narada which incorporated Borg technology.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Gary Mitchell, aside from being angry at losing, feels that he's become this, despite Kirk's insistence otherwise.
• Freudian Excuse: Spock's more emotional and irrational actions are derived from his sense of failure at saving his mother when Vulcan was destroyed.
• Half-Identifying Hybrid: Spock as always but the final arc gives us "Simon Grayson", a version of Spock who identifies as human to the point of having his ear surgically altered.
• Hand Wave: How Steve Cory got to Hinrichs V isn't really explained.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Unable to deter the Mechanical Lifeforms from killing off the crew, the Enterprise deletes his sentience, without having made a back-up, to save his friends.
• Hidden Depths: Kirk has a few.
  • When Ambassador Ferris tries to get Kirk to abandon Murasaki 312, Kirk perfectly quotes a massively long regulation that lets them stay. Ferris' jaw is on the floor.
  • Scotty assumes that Kirk wants to meet his female counterpart to invoke Screw Yourself. Nope, he wants to scientifically examine the Rule 63 universe for similarities and differences.
• Higher-Tech Species:
  • The Borg are far ahead of both the Federation and the Romulan Empire.
  • In the second Green Lantern crossover, the Guardians of Oa claim to be the most advanced race in the known universe.
• I Want Grandkids: Hilariously enough, Sarek seems to be pushing for this trope.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite the stories being set around ten years before TOS, the same events happen to the same people at the same places. Gary Mitchell still get cosmic powers from the barrier and the blastoneuron parasites still invaded Deneva where Sam Kirk set up shop.
  • The Mirror Universe as always. Despite everything, the same people end up in the same places. This fact is hugely worrisome to Kirk as he wonders how far removed the Federation and the Terran Empire actually are.
  • The Rule 63 universe. Downright eerily so. The only real difference is that Jane Tiberia Kirk has a more pronounced Inferiority Superiority Complex than James.
• Interquel:
  • The Khan miniseries has Khan's trial act as a Framing Device and takes place within the last ten minutes of Into Darkness.
  • Boldly Go takes place during the 5 minute time lapsed sequence in Beyond when the Enterprise-A is being built.
• Irony: As Eurydice points out, despite the Federation being a moneyless society, their flagship is called Enterprise.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Kirk comes to consider this about Robert April. You get to be a captain if you demonstrate exemplary skill and creativity... then you're stuck in a chair forced to follow orders, doing nothing while you watch countless injustices, that you could easily prevent, play out.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: After Section 31 figured out who Khan was, they changed his appearance from Indian to British and wiped his mind, though it was noted that the slightly different Augment neural net might allow him to regain them. Spoiler alert, he did.
• Lost Colony: Beta III is reimagined as one where the Federation attempted population control.
• Lower Deck Episode: Issue #13.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: In the grand tradition of Trek. A few of them even comment that it's not a good idea to keep sending the upper echelons of command into dangerous situations.
• Mechanical Lifeforms:
  • The I, Enterprise arc features a planet whose inhabitants began as organics, then became androids, then uploaded their minds into a gigantic server. They try to bestow this power onto the Enterprise.
  • Humans in an alternate reality.
• Mirror Universe: There are two. One is shown in the Mirrored arc, and the other in the Live Evil arc (only this time, the Enterprise physically crosses over into the Mirror 'Verse).
• Muggles Do It Better: The USS Vengeance derived Romulan fleet overpowers the Narada derived Klingon ships.
• The Multiverse: Gary Mitchell has been exploring it since his "death."
• Mundane Solution: The Q Gambit. Why don't the Q and the Prophets just team up?
• Mythology Gag:
  • In the Bad Future, Starfleet made its last stand at Wolf 359.
  • The Hunter destroys Behemoth in the same manner that Decker tried to destroy the Doomsday machine.
  • A Federation starship is thrown into the Delta Quadrant via a massive shockwave.
  • The first two issues of Boldly Go have lots of references to Q Who?
  • Gary Mitchell saw an Enterprise that run on mushrooms.
• "No. Just... No" Reaction: Picard doesn't want to know how Q merged with a Prophet.
• No Name Given: To identify oneself beyond Section 31 to outside individuals carries with it a meaningless risk.
• Not Me This Time: Twice. Kirk first thinks he's swapped minds with Prime!Kirk due to Q (and Prime!Kirk thinks that it's Trelane) but it's due to an energy creature trapped between realities. He later thinks Q is the Big Bad of the final arc but it's in fact Gary Mitchell.
• Origins Episode:
  • Issue 17 for Bones, 18 for Uhura, 19 for Scotty, and 20 for Sulu and Chekov.
  • I, Enterprise for 0718.
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • How the early issues tackled the TOS episodes they were based off of.
  • The Q Gambit is essentially this for the latter half of DS9.
• Precursors: Nero notes that both V'Ger and the Borg are descended from the same ancient species.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Gary Mitchell.
• Reality Ensues: A constant one is that the fear of annihilation is going to cause technological surges in offensive and defensive technology. More specific ones:
  • When Vulcan was destroyed, the Romulans jumped at the chance to exterminate the survivors.
    • Likewise, the destruction of one its key planets pushed Section 31 to begin a more aggressive expansion. The writers outright compare Vulcan's demise to 9/11.
  • When Khan got his memory back, he was understandably pissed at the Laser-Guided Amnesia and having his face reconstructed.
  • The Klingons had the Narada impounded for over two decades. Even they managed to gleam some of its technology.
  • Marcus may be dead, but Section 31 still exists. Likewise, the Vengeance may have been destroyed, but its blueprints still exist.
  • A 23^rd century exploration ship is no match for 24^th century warships.
  • As Q is dismayed to learn, a single Prophet cannot defeat all the Pah-wraiths.
  • Just because the Borg are a powerful Enemy Mine, that doesn't mean the Romulans and Federation are suddenly best friends.
  • Related to the Green Lantern crossovers, the Central Power Batteries didn't make the trip over meaning the Lantern rings are running low on juice.
  • The modern USS Endeavour has the clear edge over the decades old USS Heisenberg.
• Reality Warper:
  • Q of course, though he clarifies that him and those like him only qualify as this in the three-dimensional universe.
  • Being like him, the Pah-Wraiths and the Prophets.
  • Gary Mitchell. He claims to be more powerful than all of the Q.
• Refusal of the Call: Section 31 tried to recruit Sulu but he refused.
• Rule 63: The Parallel Lives arc.
• Sentient Vehicle: The I, Enterprise arc sees the Enterprise briefly become one.
• Ship Tease: Before What Happened to the Mouse? kicked in, Jim/Carol.
• Shipper on Deck: Both Kirk and Sarek clearly support Spock and Uhura's romance.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Constantly brought up and discussed. The general feel seems to be that you need both to survive.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Kirk's brother, sister-in-law, and nephew survive the retelling of Operation Annihilate!
  • The Redshirt's Tale (issue #13) adapts The Apple and spares the lives of all the red shirts who met gruesome demises in that episode.
• Sufficiently Advanced Alien: The take on Q and all those like him. In their own dimension, they're most emphatically not gods and as mortal as any human.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth:
  • V'Ger tries to merge with Nero but finds itself unable to grasp his sheer hatred for Spock and the Vulcan race.
  • The Borg try to assimilate Spock but finds his mixed neurology too much to handle.
• Trapped in the Past: Spock Prime and Nero's crew.
• Trickster Mentor: As always, Q.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Even after he's twice saved them, the Romulans will not treat Kirk as anything but a terrorist.
• Unreliable Narrator: Khan throughout the whole of his Villain Episode with regards to his backstory. Kirk is sure that most, if not all, of what Khan said was reinterpreted to paint himself as the true hero of his life story. Kirk even postulates, based on Khan's new appearance, that the Big Bad of Star Trek: Into Darkness might not have actually been the actual Khan Noonien Singh
• We Are Everywhere: As Spock deduces, this is how Section 31 is still operating despite being publicly outed and supposedly shut down in Into Darkness.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Carol Marcus disappears from the series after Lost Apollo.
• The Worf Effect: As any Trekkie worth their salt with tell you, the Borg Spheres are reconnaissance scouts and auxiliary craft. One Sphere still manages to total the Romulus Defence Fleet.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: System Wagner-219. It's essentially "time quicksand." The more fuel you burn, the faster times moves outside the solar system.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Section 31 tolerated the Romulans for as long as they needed to and then blew up all the ships they provided them with.
• Younger and Hipper: Everyone is ten years younger than their counterparts in Star Trek: The Original Series.
• Zerg Rush: Why the Chinese were the first to overthrow their Augment rulers. There were simply more Chinese than Augments.