STAR TREK: THE MANGA UCHU

This is volume three in Tokyopops' Star Strek Manga series.

Five stories this time Art of War by Wil Wheaton, Bandi by David Gerrold, The Humanitarian by Luis A. Reyes, Inalienable Rights by Nathaniel Bowden and Infinity's Prism which is a short test story from the Star Trek Myriad Universes series.

The first story, Art of War comes from uber-geek, Wil Wheaton who of course played the part of Wesley Crusher in The Next Generation. It's a great story with takes two avenues and simultaneously tells the story of Kirk and Klingon, Kring. Both men are on trial - Kirk for willingly failing to capture an enemy Klingon ship and Kring for cowardice. It works well and shows the differences in both cultures with Kirk escaping a minor reprimand but Kring facing the ultimate justice.

Then we have Bandi by David Gerrold who wrote, among other episodes, the Tribbles story in the second season of the original series. The trouble with this story for me is that it's too much like the Tribbles episode and the Bandai creature is just too cute to be threatening. Still that's just my tastes and the story certainly has the feel of classic Trek about it.

Luis Reyes' Humanitarian is the stand out story but then it concentrates on Spock who was always the most interesting character in the Star Trek universe. It's a damn fine piece that explores the character of Spock in great detail.

This is followed by the final comic strip, Inalienable Rights by Nathaniel Bowden in which the crew meet a new species but,a s always trouble is just around the corner. Another excellent tale.

The whole thing is rounded up with a text story from the Myriad Universes series and the lead character is T'pol, the sole surviving member of the original Starship Enterprise. This tale is penned by William Leisner and although it's only a preview of a much larger work it sits well in ending this excellent collection.