Star Trek vs. Transformers

Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five year mission. To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life that is... more than meets the eye.

In the waning days of its five year mission, the USS Enterprise answers a distress beacon from Cygnus Seven where the crew encounter the strangest form of life they've ever encountered. The Cybertronians.

A five issue mini-series, Star Trek vs. Transformers ran from September 26^th 2018 to February 27^th 2019.

Tropes used in Star Trek vs. Transformers include:

• Actor Allusion: "Oh my!"
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • It's not immediately clear what's up with Fortress Maximus. Ratchet says he needs Kirk to control his desire for vengeance but whether this is Maximus just needing a leash or that he suffered brain damage during his crash landing and needs extra brain power to compensate is unclear. Whatever it is, it's rectified by the end.
  • Cybertron and the Cybertronian race. Megatron and Starscream make mention of the handful of Cybertronians being the only ones in the galaxy. Whether Cybertron is beyond the point of habitability, and thus the race functionally extinct, or simply outside the Milky Way is never made explicit.
  • It's not clear if there ever was any Energon on Cygnus Seven or if Maximus just misread the energy signature of dilithium (which is established to be very similar).
• And the Adventure Continues...: Kirk invites the Autobots to seek refuge on Earth but Optimus declines, stating the Autobots' destines lies elsewhere, with them going off to explore the universe.
• Badass Boast: Throughly unimpressed with the Klingon High Council, Starscream says he's destroyed multiple High Councils.
• Blue and Orange Morality: Seems to be how Megatron and Starscream view the Klingon concept of "honor", frequently assuming that the aliens will just bend their knees to them on account of their superior power. To be fair, Klingon culture is very much Depending on the Writer in Star Trek so their believing this is totally understandable.
• Broken Pedestal: The human race to Jazz. He's noticeably more bitter and cynical towards humans than he usually is.
• Call Forward:
  • Scotty mentions that a Constitution-class ship could be crewed by about four or five people, assuming the right modifications were made.
  • Gorkon appears as the Klingon Chancellor.
• Canon Welding: The Autobots and Decepticons' adventures on Earth is a mixture of the cartoon and the Marvel comic.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Sulu identifies the Seekers' jet modes are pre-Eugenics Wars.
  • The Autobots and Decepticons left Earth due to the onset of World War III. Bumblebee even spies some soldiers dressed in the same style as Q.
  • Spock mentions Starfleet Order Two (from "One of Our Planets Is Missing") which prevents Starfleet officers from taking intelligent lives.
  • Kuri and crew reappear from "The Time Trap."
  • Zefram Cochrane and Lily Sloane saw Fortress Maximus leaving Earth back in the 21st century.
• Crossover Alternate Universe: For the Transformers anyway. As said above, it's a mix of the cartoon and comics.
• Enemy Mine: The Klingons and Decepticons join forces based on their hatred of humans. Deconstructed as the two can't stand each other at all in spite of their alliance.
• Eviler Than Thou: The Decepticons to the Klingons.
• Foregone Conclusion: Given that Kronos appears in later Star Trek media not conquered by the Decepticons, the Star Trek cast was never in danger.
• History Repeats: As Bumblebee lampshades, the Decepticons caught up with the Autobots, attacked in orbit over an undeveloped planet, and crashed the Autobot ship, trapping both sides in stasis lock for centuries.
• Honor Before Reason: As Bumblebee lampshades with respect to Optimus Prime. Before the other Autobots were healed, he rushed out to defend the Decepticons' latest batch of victims.
• Karma Houdini: The Klingons. Though they allied with the Decepticons, they aid in fighting them in issue 5 and are even allowed to keep the Decepticons prisoner.
• Mind Probe: Maximus extracts the perfectly memorized blueprints to the Enterprise from Kirk's mind for his new alternate mode.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Believe it or not, the planet Cygnus Seven is from the G1 cartoon. It's nothing like its cartoon counterpart though.
  • Optimus appears to have been Orion Pax in this continuity's past.
  • Kirk bonds with Maximus in a manner similar to binary bonding.
  • Arcee vs Airachnid.
  • Trypticon and Maximus are referred to as Titans, the IDW coined term for cityformers.
  • The Battle for Autobot City occurred in this timeline. Though Optimus, Megatron, Skywarp and Thundercracker survived.
• No Sell: The only Star Trek weapon that can hurt Cybertronians is a phaser set to full power. And even then, Optimus is mildly wounded instead of outright disintegrated.
• Outside Context Villain: Despite some Sufficiently Advanced Aliens, Star Trek is generally quite a grounded and realistic franchise. As such, both the Federation and the Klingons are caught off-guard by the fantastical biology and powers of the Cybertronians.
• Reality Ensues:
  • Though the Federation and Klingons are advanced space faring civilizations, the technology of the Cybertronians is far above theirs. Happens when going up against a race that's billions of years old.
  • While the starship modes of Maximus and Trypitcon can accommodate Cybertronians, the Autobots only fit in the Enterprise‍'‍s shuttle bay.
  • What ultimately defeats the Decepticons on Kronos? The fact that there are more Klingons than Decepticons.
• Revenge: Fortress Maximus desires some on Trypticon. Kirk's sheer force of will in the binary bond is the only thing preventing it from turning into full-on Revenge Before Reason.
• Seen It All: Subverted. Even after everything the Enterprise crew have seen, they're caught off-guard by the Cybertronians. The Cybertronians however have seen it all and don't really react to the Star Trek aliens except to comment on how ugly the Klingons are.
• Sequel Hook: The Decepticons in Klingon custody.
• Time Dissonance: None of the Cybertronians consider four million years to be a long period of time.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The dilithium survey team whose presence reactivated Fortress Maximus's autonomic systems.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The Autobots and Decepticons came to Earth, as always, aboard the Ark and the Nemesis. But neither of the two vessels make an appearance and both factions used their Titans to leave Earth.
• World War III: Outright mentioned to be why the Cybertronians left Earth. The war made the planet worthless to them.