Star Trek Captains Log – Pike: Is It All Worth It?

In this one-shot story featuring Captain Pike, the creative team attempts to both shine some light on the crucial events that led to Pike’s eventual condition and also humanize the rather ostracized character to show some heart. While they do find some success in this, the issue does have some problems.

As a characterization of Pike, this one-shot Star Trek story works just fine. It’s not groundbreaking, but it has a worthy story to tell and it seems as though the creative team was aware of this. It feels like Star Trek. It looks like Star Trek. But it’s simply lacking in execution. There are haphazard instances in writing from rather vague connections to the series to visuals that pull you out of the story. The end result is a book that you want to love more than you actually do.

Captains Log is a series that truly is a great concept. The Pike one-shot shows that a book needs more than that though. The stylistic artwork could have worked really well, but much like the script, it feels rather basic or bland. Maybe the team just needed more time to develop, but it just didn’t reach the potential that it obviously had.

Regardless, Pike is a character that means a lot to many Star Trek fans and the opportunity to explore his origins and prominence in Starfleet will undoubtedly pull in some fans. Those looking to dive into the lore surrounding this character are sure to find plenty to love. It offers quiet a few answers that you won’t find anywhere else and gives some interesting depth to Pike’s eventual situation. The ending finally strikes a chord of emotion that the rest of the issue should have been capable of, but it is still worthwhile and helps to end on a real high note.

If the classic Star Trek series just didn’t go deep enough into what happened to Pike, this is definitely one to read. Just be sure to manage your expectations, it will make it easier to enjoy the lore being presented.