Year Four

   

Year Four

Introduction[]

Space. The final frontier. This is the voyage of the Starship Enterprise. Her five-year mission to explore strange new worlds? It continues here, with the launch of "Year Four" in the Original Series' five-year mission.

Overview[]

The series is set in what would have beenStar Trek: The Original Series' fourth season, continuing the five year mission of theUSSEnterprise underCaptainJames T. Kirk. The series acknowledgesStar Trek: The Animated Series, also set in the fourth year of theEnterprise's mission, with appearances byArex andM'Ress.

The series was illustrated by several artists;Steve Conley,Gordon Purcell, andRob Sharp &Joe Sharp, all colored byLeonard O'Grady. All issues stuck to a strict panel layout, with four wide panels per page, intended to emulate a widescreen television screen to try and make the issues feel more like episodes of the series (though of course being filmed in the 1960sThe Original Series episodes are not widescreen). The layout was only occasionally broken to include larger full page illustration of key dramatic moments.

Drawing inspiration from manyTOS episodes, several issues were commentaries on present-day issues, includingcloning, realitytelevision,oil and theIraq War, or a look at present day science, with a23rd century take onparticle accelerators.

A continuation of the series began in May 2008 inYear Four: The Enterprise Experiment, byD.C. Fontana andDerek Chester. Beyond that IDW have vague plans for two moreYear Four miniseries, making a total of twenty-two issues, equivalent to a full season ofThe Original Series, after which they plan to continue on toYear Five miniseries’.^[1]

Issues[]

Title/Number	Issue 1	Issue 2	Issue 3	Issue 4	Issue 5	Issue 6
Writer	David Tischman
Artist(s)	Steve Conley		Gordon Purcell	Rob & Joe Sharp	Steve Conley	Gordon Purcell
Published	25 July2007	5 September 2007	3 October 2007	17 October 2007	19 December 2007	23 January2008
Steve Conley covers
Joe Corroney covers
Retail incentive covers

Each issue of this series was available in three covers. Two covers were distributed in equally wide availability, one each bySteve Conley (with colors byLeonard O'Grady) andJoe Corroney. The third cover for each issue was a more limited availability retail incentive cover, which was either a sketch version of the Corroney cover or a photo-cover.

In addition to the six full issues, the series was preceded by "Captain's Personal Log", a short comic published inFocus on... Star Trek. The story was written byDavid Tischman with art byLeonard O'Grady and acted as both an epilogue to the finalTOSepisode: "Turnabout Intruder" and a teaser for the ongoing voyages of theEnterprise depicted in this series.

Appendices[]

IDW Publishingminiseries
TOS	Klingons: Blood Will Tell •Year Four •The Enterprise Experiment •Assignment: Earth •Mirror Images •Romulans: The Hollow Crown •Crew •Mission's End •The Wrath of Khan •Romulans: Schism •Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor •Burden of Knowledge •Khan: Ruling in Hell •Infestation •Star Trek—Legion of Super-Heroes •Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever •The Primate Directive •Star Trek vs. Transformers •The Motion Picture: Echoes
	Star Trek (2009) tie-in:	Countdown •Spock: Reflections •Nero •The Official Motion Picture Adaptation •Countdown to Darkness •Khan •Starfleet Academy •The Spectrum War •Manifest Destiny •Stranger Worlds
TNG	The Space Between •Intelligence Gathering •The Last Generation •Ghosts •Assimilation² •Hive •Deviations •Mirror Broken •Through the Mirror •Terra Incognita •The Mirror War •Warriors of the Mirror War •Holo-Ween
DS9	Fool's Gold •Too Long a Sacrifice •The Dog of War
VOY	Seven's Reckoning
DSC	The Light of Kahless •Succession •Aftermath •Adventures in the 32nd Century
PIC	Picard: Countdown •Stargazer
LD	All in a Sea of Wonders •Second Contact
SNW	The Illyrian Enigma •The Scorpius Run
Other	Turnaround •Alien Spotlight •Alien Spotlight II •Captain's Log •Waypoint •The Q Conflict •Aliens •Resurgence •Defiant •Picard's Academy •Sons of Star Trek

IDW Publishingomnibuses
IDW collections	IDW Ongoing (1 •2 •3 •4 •5 •6 •7 •8 •9 •10 •11 •12 •13) •Romulans: Pawns of War •100-Page Spectacular (2011 •2012 •Winter 2012) •The John Byrne Collection •New Visions (1 •2 •3 •4 •5 •6 •7 •8 •The Hollow Man and Other Stories) •The New Adventures (1 •2 •3 •4 •5) •Countdown Collection (1 •2) •Boldly Go (1 •2 •IDIC) •The Missions Continue •Year Five (Odyssey's End •The Wine-Dark Deep •Weaker Than Man •Experienced in Loss •Deluxe Edition, Volume 1 •Deluxe Edition, Volume 2) •Mirror Universe Collection •Library Collection (1 •2 •3) •Star Trek (IDW 2022) (Godshock •The Red Path •Day of Blood •Glass and Bone •Pleroma •When the Walls Fell) •Defiant (1 •Another Piece of the Action •Hell Is Only a Word •The Stars of Home •No Old Warriors) •Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Omnibus, Vol. 1 •Star Trek: Voyager Omnibus •Star Trek: Picard Omnibus •Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Omnibus
Archive material	Star Trek Archives (Best of Peter David •Best of the Borg •Best of Gary Seven •Best of DS9 •Best of Captain Kirk •Best of Alternate Universes) •Best of Klingons •Star Trek Omnibus (Volume 1 •Volume 2 •The Original Series •Movie Omnibus •TNG Omnibus) •Motion Picture Trilogy •100-Page Spectacular (Summer 2012 •Gold Key) •Newspaper Comics (1 •2) •The Stardate Collection (1 •2) •Gold Key Archives (1 •2 •3 •4 •5) •Classic UK Comics (1 •2 •3) •Best of Picard •The Mirror Universe Saga

External links[]

• Year Four article atMemory Alpha, the wiki for canonStar Trek.
• Year Four page at theStar Trek Comics Checklist
• Artist Steve Conley discusses the serieshere at Newsarama.
• Writer David Tischman discusses the serieshere at Comic Book Resources.