Review: Star Trek DS9: Too Long A Sacrifice #1 (of 4)

Apparently it has been 10 years since the last DS9 comic series.Â My, how time flies when you are not dealing with the Prophets of Bajor or the Dominion War!Â It’s been an odd (not Odo) period for Trek over that time, with the Abrams-verse, Enterprise, Discovery and Picard all boldly going in new directions, with some success without managing to cover all the starbases.Â Seems like it it’s a good time to revisit Deep Space 9.

Firmly set after the Way of the Warrior start of season 4, this story sees an act of terrorism affect the Promenade, the official retail come social quarter of the station.Â With the usual comings and goings, there are a lot of suspects to consider and that’s not including the usual scoundrels Quark and Garak.Â This being early on in the setting of boundaries, there is also the fun, meant in the best way, challenge between Odo and former security officer Worf.Â The fish of out water element of Worf made his introduction into the series interesting and gave the character a much more rounded personality.Â Still to catch the mad bomber of DS9, Odo is going to need all his crew mates special skills and qualities.

Long time Trek writers, Scott Tipton and David Tipton take the helm for this Whodunit in Space.Â The pair have worked on every Trek iteration for IDW, with various measures of success.Â I always think it’s difficult to try and transcend the various virtues of each series into the comics.Â With that said, the pair have delivered a great start to their effectively closed room crime book.Â There is a genuine sense of claustrophobia, caused in part by the bombing as well as the ever present threat of the Dominion.Â Â Of all the Trek shows, DS9 is the one that straddles the grey; this book encapsulates this nuance well.Â The dialogue works well, with characters sounding like their TV selves, with the not quite bickering between Odo and Worf the best part.

The art is supplied by Greg Scott who is known as a bit of noir specialist.Â A good fit then for this book.Â For the most part the art works really well.Â There is an odd element to the faces of the characters, with a heavy amount of detail which is not continued through the rest of the body or frame which can give the figures a kind of marionette /puppet feel.Â This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as once you get used to it, you can’t help but get drawn into the stations shenanigans.Â The colors by Felipe SobreiroÂ further escalate that feeling that there is a darkness encroaching on the station, especially given how the scheme is darker than that on the show.Â Finally, letters are provided by Neil Uyetake who does well with the amount of dialogue he has to contend with.

Thanks to the lock-down, I have been on a bit of Trek-a-thon, covering Classic, Next Gen, Picard and the new-ish movie.Â I have yet to make it out past Bajor.Â Reading this though, has made me realise how intricate this series became with the war, Worf and the secession of Bajor from it’ s FederationÂ application; not to mention changes in crew.Â Scott Tipton and David Tipton have managed to mine the show effectively with an engaging story of what could have happened between episodes.

Writing – 5 Stars

Art – 4.5 Stars

Colors – 5 Stars

Overall – 4.5 Stars

Written by; Scott Tipton & David Tipton
Art by; Greg Scott
Colors by; Felipe Sobreiro
Letters by; Neil Uyetake
Published by; IDW Publishing

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network