What do we have here? Another romp in cross-over territory I see. Star Trek The Original Series and the original Transformers cartoon? This could prove interesting… oh… wait.

I guess that is an accurate portrayal of what Gene Rodenberry would have wrote back during the motion picture days of TOS… that doesn’t make it good. I sometimes forget how bad television used to be when I was younger. You didn’t care about production value. You didn’t care about… well honestly anything, because your options were so few.

I see where this is going for me. Here’s the one sentence review:

Klingons team up with Decepticons to fight the Autobots and the crew of the Enterprise.

That's about it. Seems cool on the surface, but once your done reading it, you feel duped.

I have written about the nostalgia trap many times before. It is rather easy to tap into the fond memories of pop culture from a consumers youth and sell it back to them. When that well begins to run a little dry, you can tap into the cross-over reservoir (which contains almost infinite possibilities to slake a consumers thirst for the innocence of their childhood). When it works, it can become masterful. When it doesn’t… well… it becomes this.

First off, the source material doesn’t really overlap. Star Trek TOS ran from 1966-1969 and Transformers ran from 1984-1987; almost an entire generation separates them from when they first aired. Growing up in the 80’s, Star Trek TOS wasn’t even rerun on the four channels my parents television picked up. In fact, the last episode of Transformers aired just a month after Star Trek TNG premiered. This doesn’t resonate with me like it may have for those who watched TOS before it went out of syndication.

I will mention that the artwork is based on Star Trek The Animated Series which ran prior to TOS release and , and the original Transformers cartoon show. The comic perfectly matches the awkward poses and low quality of the shows which it emulates. Again, accuracy doesn’t equate to good. All this did was remind me how far we have come. To make a comparison: I’ll watch a Super Friends now and again, and come to the realization how good Young Justice is.

So… Should you buy this book? I would have advised myself against it. Some things go well together: like peanut butter and chocolate… others are like peanut butter and sauerkraut. You might find somebody that likes it, but most should avoid it.

Rating: 5/10 Human Robot Relations