Darn Dirty Klingons: GothamGal on Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive

GothamGal is a devoted comic fan. Reading comics from an early age (TinTin, Archie, Katie Keene and much more), she has recently revisited her old interest and is branching out into the streets of unread comics and graphic novels! While she favors DC Comics, Marvel is slowly winning her over—but Vertigo, Image and IDW have so many new things to offer, she might just say she’s a comic fan—with no labels. She fights for literature, education and the right for ALL to read comics!

Now, as a geek, I have a confession to make. I am not a huge Star Trek the Original Series fan, but I do love the original Planet of the Apes movies. I have yet to see the new movies, but I do like the Star Trek reboot movies. So this IDW Published graphic novel was a no brainer for me—they have great storylines, and I really enjoyed their Star Trek : Next Generation/Doctor Who crossover.

The Enterprise follows a Klingon ship into a mysterious portal, landing them in an alternate universe, populated by talking apes (with humans incapable of speech), the crew of the Enterprise have to decide if the Prime Directive comes into play or if they need to worry about the bigger issue—Klingons providing munitions to the residents of the planet populated by apes. The crew of the Enterprise meets Colonel Taylor, a ‘thinking’ human and his friends, part of the population of apes (including Doctors Zira and Zaius!), to  try and work together to stop the Klingon threat. Kor and his Klingon comrades work with the Gorillas (including Marius) and to insure the Gorillas maintain their place at the top of the foodchain on the Planet of the Apes. War among the apes is unthinkable, but the threat is real—the crew of the Enterprise and their new friends will have to think of something, and fast, to get this taken care of.

I really enjoyed reading Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive. I was provided an electronic copy of this by IDW in exchange for my honest review. So, here it is…

I thought this was a well-written and well-drawn story, with a twist at the end that was both unexpected and expected—but nonetheless exciting.

I love the character of Doctor Zira, and I loved that she got so much time on the page within this graphic novel. Additionally, I did not mind Captain Kirk during the reading of this book—which is VERY strange. I normally do not like his cavalier attitude. Scotty and Spock are, as always, great characters. And Colonel Taylor’s character was very close to what we saw in the movies. Charlton Heston’s voice played in my head each time Taylor said something.

I think part of the strength of this is how iconic both fandoms are, and fans of either, both or neither can find some sort of common ground with the story and the archetypes presented within. Rachael Stott’s illustrations pair so well with Scott and David Tipton’s script/writing and coloring by Charlie Kirchoff.

Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive will be released in paperback and available at your favorite retailer (or comic book shop!) on August 27, 2015. Be sure to check it out! If you want to help support this site, and pick it up on Amazon, please purchase by clicking this affiliate link.