Braga’s Back!
3 min read
Fans of Brannon Braga (Star Trek: The Next Generation through Star Trek: Enterprise) are pleased that he is again involved with a Star Trek project.
This time, Braga has been working with Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett to pen IDW Publishing’s Hive comic book series.
“There was no arm twisting necessary [to get me to return to Trek],” said Braga. “I think IDW contacted me; I don’t actually remember. But I’d had this story in the back of my mind already because I’d always wanted to do the final chapter in the Borg saga, as I saw it, as it exists in the mythology that’s in my brain.”
Braga had no trouble getting back into the groove of writing for Star Trek characters. “It’d been a long time since I’d written Next Generation, but the characters came back quickly,” he said. “I remember, when I was conceiving the story, it just amazed me how fluidly it came back … and how much I missed it. The thing that was interesting is there are fewer words used in comic books. There’s less talking and more visuals. So it was important to me that the voices of the characters sounded like the characters and weren’t just interchangeable. That, to me, was part of the fun, because it’s the closest you’re going to get to seeing these characters alive again.”
Fans should not be surprised to find time travel in this story. “…there is time travel and the Borg, and they’re elements I’d toyed with in the Star Trek universe for a long time,” said Braga. “But this is a different story. I’d never done a story that took place five hundred years in the future, after the Borg have assimilated the galaxy. I don’t think we’ve seen that. Seven of Nine made a brief appearance at the end of Issue #1, but she actually has a really interesting character arc that’s very resonant.”
The second issue of Hive has been released and some may see a resemblance to a Voyager episode. “The reviews that I’ve read online have generally been very positive,” said Braga, “but if there’s one criticism, it’s that there’s some resemblance to the Voyager episode Scorpion that I did. The answer is, yes, there is a resemblance in that we’re making a deal with the Borg to defeat an enemy from another dimension.
“But the story veers into radically new territory in Issue #2. Everything is not what it seems with the Borg, and there’s a much larger game being played. Issue #2 is quite action-packed. There’s some really cool stuff and, as the series goes on – and I’m literally working on Issue #4 right now – it really, ultimately dips into some moral quandary for Picard having to do with committing an act of genocide and whether or not genocide is justifiable in any circumstance. It’s just classic Star Trek stuff.”
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Hive #3 will release next month, and #4 will follow in December.
About The Author
Oh yeah, we’re thrilled….
You know, there’s just something about how Braga comes across that makes me think he’s an arrogant, egocentric person. Maybe I read too much into his comments, or perhaps he’s built up a shell to ward off the negativity, but there’s just something “off” to me about how he presents himself.
When I read he was doing this project for IDW I wasn’t surprised in the LEAST that it had to do with the Borg or time travel. The only other Braga-ism, of course, is his fondness for alternate realities/perceptions. Since I won’t likely read the graphic novel–as I really don’t read them, anyway–someone else will have to see if he throws in that old chestnut. Love him or hate him, Braga wrote some great Trek episodes over the years, so perhaps the comic will be well-received.
That said, if Ron Moore got involved in a graphic novel, I MIGHT just have to buy it. I love RDM’s take on the characters, and he was often willing to take on issues such as religion that were antithetical to the typical Trek approach. It’d be a brilliant move to see RDM and Ira Behr get together for some Star Trek graphic novels, if they had the time.
Damn if this doesn’t remind me how much I miss having a Star Trek TV series in production!
Brannon Braga is the worst. I will not be purchasing this.
Yeah, his name was enough for me to pass over the project without a second thought. No thanks.
Braga has fans?
“We’re all very pleased.”
His mom said he’s a good boy…
Ronald D. Moore + Brannon Braga = Disaster for everything that is Star Trek and science fiction related.
Generations, Insurrection, Nemesis, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, and Rick Berman are also signs of such franchise mishandling.
They must have taken their cues from Fred Freiberger.
Now we also know where Farragut Films and their business partner got their inspirations from.
That fill your daily quota of inserting Farragut Films-bashing into posts on unrelated subject material? Or can we look forward to more?
You know what’s a real disaster? Abrams & Co.
Those people you mention at least knew how to make good Star Trek.
Cool. Nice to see this Trek veteran back.
500 years in the future…
It would be nice if the next Star Trek series took place in that time. And even better if Braga worked on it. 🙂
Tangent time. Your comment made me think about Futurama and heads in jars.
I can imagine an episode where Brannon Braga’s head is in a Jar and Fry, after rambling to the head about various Star Trek time travel episodes that bothered him, accidentally knocks Brannon’s head into a nearby wormhole. Transported light years away, Braga’s head lands on the unoccupied body of a Borg Queen. Braga, finding the biomechanical zombie body irresistible, begins to fondle the various Borg-bits before the real Borg Queen’s head arrives and vaporizes him.
Don’t wake me up! This is my favorite dream episode.
More like how to ruin Star Trek by mishandling the franchise. Remember, Moore and Braga had written Kirk’s death scene in a less than graceful fashion. Even after the scene was re-written and re-shot, it was still less than graceful. The destruction of the Enterprise-D was nothing more than a repeat of the original Enterprise’s self-destruction in The Search For Spock.
Rick Berman literally drove the Star Trek franchise into the ground by recycling the same old BS over and over again with those unecessary spin-offs DS9 and Voyager. Even Enterprise didn’t help matters much.
And if that were not enough – Insurrection was nothing more than a NG version of The Omega Glory. Nemesis a NG welding of The Wrath Of Khan and The Undiscovered Country.
As for Fred Freiberger….uh, Spock’s Brain anyone? And The Children Shall Lead? Turnabout Intruder?
Abrams brought life back into Star Trek. I don’t know why you people have to act so ‘Edward Jellico’ about his efforts(i.e. be arrogant, close-minded and not face the truth).
Egotistical purists, fan or otherwise, certainly have a bad habit of turning something cool into something bad. Star Trek is not a social country club, but you arrogant close-minded types certainly are turning Roddenberry’s sci-fi classic into such a pigmire!
That would be a nice parody!
Voyager I understand, it felt like TNG re-runs with minor twists. Enterprise was just a train wreck until the final season. DS9 however, remains my favorite series in the franchise. It’s okay to be different from the source status quo, as long as the story is deep and well-written. It did a lot of new things and pushed the boundaries in a generally positive fashion, the opposite of the close-minded you accuse the creative minds behind it of being.
While I think Abrams produced an entertaining film, I think it lacked the depth and subtletly of the best of Trek. Was it a waste? Maybe not, especially if the next movie hits the ground running and gives us more meaty plot, but there is something to the style of all Abrams’ productions that ring of “all polish and no substance” and his Trek had some of those same problems. It did, however, revitalize the franchise and bring in new fans, and for that I’m very happy with the end product.
Win.
Braga’s simplistic, 8 year old child view of the universe has tainted everything he has done since he was promoted to show runner/creator. Yes, he wrote AMAZING episodes like TNG’s “Schisms” and VGR’s “Projections”. But he also ran the franchise into the ground by constantly striving for the lowest common denominator and dumbing down trek until we got the crap that was ENT’s “Stigma” and pretty much all of season two and three. It was only Manny Coto who delivered an excellent season four of Enterprise. Braga is a hack and should never be allowed NEAR Trek again. Now if RDM or Coto put out a mini series, I’d be all over that. But as it stands, after picking up issue 1, this will be the first Trek book that I wont buy since 1991 (when I was 11).
Holy crap, Braga’s writing Trek again? How am I just hearing about this now? Definitely gonna pick this up.
This isn’t his first comic project, btw. Turns out he’s a big Iron Man fan; he recently got to write a miniseries, “Iron Man Vs. Whiplash”, to coincide with Iron Man 2. (Marvel decided it would be wise to introduce a new Whiplash in the comics, since the original character was nothing like the one in the film. Also, he was dead.)