INTERVIEW: Scott Tipton enters the Mirror Universe for ‘TNG’ comics
Star Trek news is coming in fast and furious. There has been news of two new movies and the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, and now comic fans will have their thirst quenched with several IDW projects from brothers Scott Tipton and David Tipton, and artist Tony Shasteen.
The comic writers are the creatives behind Star Trek: The Next Generation: Mirror Broken, which found version 2.0’s of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Worf, Will Riker, Deanna Troi and so many others on the crew. This May finds the Tiptons returning to the mirror universe in Through the Mirror, a five-week event. Then, this summer, they release Star Trek: The Next Generation: Terra Incognita, which finds the IDW comics returning to TNG prime for a series of episodic adventures.
“Well, this is the kind of thing where it just sort of fell on our lap where CBS was already working with J.K. Woodward to create this style guide for mirrored versions of The Next Gen characters to use in licensing and merchandising, and then as J.K. was redesigning all of the characters, CBS and IDW said, ‘Boy, we need to get some comics out about this,'” Scott Tipton said in a recent phone interview. “And so here we are with these amazing new designs, and they just said, ‘All right, now tell us what you want to do with it.’ The designs came to us completed, and then we had just full freedom to figure out the characters in the story, which was a great opportunity.”
The Tiptons waited to see what the reaction would be after Mirror Broken. They hoped that Trekkies and Trekkers would like the comic arcs, but there was always that chance the fanbase would disapprove.
“It always depends on reaction,” Scott said. “We hoped people would like it, but you never know. But when the reaction was so good for Mirror Broken, definitely the plan was to do something else with this new universe we have. We decided to go with Through the Mirror, the crossover.”
Scott grew up watching Star Trek: The Original Series, but TNG was the series he watched religiously. He said because of his viewing habits, he has a strong kinship with the characters of Picard and company.
“I grew along with them week by week as new episodes came along,” he said. “The voices of TNG come easier for me than other series because I just feel like I know the characters so well from the seven years of new episodes.”
For him, writing for Picard and Riker brings the most joy, but he likes to rotate the creative spotlight. For example, writing for Worf usually gets a chuckle from him.
“Getting used to Worf is great because Worf is hilarious,” Scott said. “Worf’s motivations and Worf’s reactions … you can have fun with that for humor because he’s predictable in the best way. His reaction to something, to a situation or a predicament is going to be different than anyone else in the crew.”
For the new series, to be released in May, Scott said the story can be experienced on two different planes.
“With this series, since it involves the prime crew as well, what we’re going to be seeing is a bit more of a mystery story as the prime crew kind of learns of the incursion into their universe by the mirror crew,” he said. “But the really fun thing, too, for people who like Mirror Broken, is that every issue has a backup story by J.K., and the backup story will tell the backstory of how the mirror crew found a way into the prime universe. So for people who really loved Mirror Broken, J.K. has done some great stuff in these stories.”
The Tiptons should be well known to Star Trek comic fans. They were the forces behind the successful crossovers with Doctor Who and Planet of the Apes. They also had their hands in Deep Space Nine stories and the reimagining of The City on the Edge of Forever with Harlan Ellison.
“We have the most fun with these because we do get to do the really way-out stuff like the crossovers,” Scott said. “We did Doctor Who, and we did Planet of the Apes. I love those, but we also really enjoy just getting to tell basic Star Trek stories, trying to tell good Star Trek stories that could have been episodes. That’s kind of the feel we’re going for [in Terra Incognita]. These are episodes that you just missed. They feel like they could have been on the series, so we’re trying to do some of that and then still weave in the backstory. In the background there’s some more of the Mirror Universe stuff, without giving too much away from what’s going to happen in the weekly.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Mirror Broken is now available. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Through the Mirror will start releasing new books in May. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Terra Incognita will start releasing new books this summer. Click here for more information.
