This May, Star Trek: The Motion Picture will get a direct sequel starring the original cast and set in the same era in a brand new comic miniseries from IDW.
Titled Star Trek: The Motion Picture–Echoes, the five-issue miniseries will pick up after the events of the film and will see Admiral Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise confront doppelgängers of themselves from another universe. The series will be written by Marc Guggenheim and illustrated by Oleg Chudakov, with the first cover art and official plot synopsis now available below.
Featuring spectacular artwork by Oleg Chudakov and colors by DC Alonso, Echoes pits the venerated Captain James T. Kirk and his crew against enemies both terrifying and shockingly familiar! 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!
Star Trek's Original Cast Will Meet Their Doppelgangers
According to the first official plot synopsis, Star Trek: The Motion Picture–Echoes opens not long after the film’s conclusion, giving Kirk and the crew of the newly-refitted USS Enterprise a new mission to prevent war against the Romulans. But when strange visitors from across the multiverse are revealed to be doppelgängers of Kirk and his crew, things take a turn deep into one of the most iconic corners of Trek lore.
In explaining the story, writer Guggenheim said most Star Trek stories are told from the perspective of the Enterprise’s crew, and he desired to tell a story from the “perspective of an outsider.” Guggenheim credits The Motion Picture as being crucial to his love of the franchise; likewise, artist Chudakov likened Echoes to “revisiting [his] childhood.”
The Years After Star Trek's First Movie Are Still Unexplored
Despite failing to land critically, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is nonetheless critical to the franchise. It brought live-action Star Trek back, and set the stage for future movies–which in turn paved the way for more television shows; in short, Star Trek: The Motion Picture saved the franchise. As stated earlier, its follow-up was set 15 years later–-meaning this era is ripe with new stories and missions. The era The Motion Picture was set in has been seen in various tie-in media, namely the recently concluded Star Trek: Year Five, but still represented an untapped vein of stories. Fans can expect to see Kirk struggle to balance being an Admiral with commanding his own starship; Kirk would take the Enterprise on a whole other five-year mission after this movie... and now, fans can see it.
Star Trek was unceremoniously canceled by NBC in 1969 and attempts to revive it began almost immediately; Paramount greenlit a new Star Trek show to be titled Phase II, but after the success of Star Wars, reversed course and opted to make a big-budget Trek film instead–and the result was 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The movie saw Kirk reassume command of the Enterprise and confront an alien object headed straight towards Earth. Despite stunning visual effects from Douglas Trumbull and solid direction from Robert Wise, Star Trek: The Motion Picture was not exactly a hit with critics, although it fared well at the box office to warrant a follow-up. However, when the next Star Trek film, The Wrath of Khan, arrived three years later, 15 years had passed since the first movie, leaving the era of The Motion Picture largely unexplored.
Now, Marc Guggenheim and Oleg Chudakov are set to rectify this, with an all-new miniseries set immediately after the movie, one that will pick up story threads from that film. Editor Heather Antos praises Guggenheim for his knowledge of this particular era of Star Trek, so between this and Chudakov’s love for the franchise, fans can expect another winner in IDW’s line of Star Trek comics, as Star Trek: The Motion Picture gets an all-new direct sequel with the original cast.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture--Echoes #1 goes on sale this May from IDW Publishing.