Star Trek/Doctor Who: Assimilation 2 #1
Written by Scott & David Tipton with Tony Lee
Art by JK Woodward
Lettering by Shawn Lee & Robbie Robbins
Covers by JK Woodward, David Messina & Joe Corroney
IDW Publishing
Release Date: May 30, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

As the world’s first and foremost NON fan of Doctor Who, I went into Star Trek/Doctor Who: Assimilation 2 #1 expecting to like the Star Trek parts and hate the Doctor Who parts. Well, you learn something new every day, right? While I’m not going to go out and buy one of those weird R2-D2-like trashcan things from Doctor Who, I now have a different view of the franchise than I did before.

What I loved about this issue is that it starts off with NONSTOP action, something that’s not really the norm in the Star Trek universe, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun. This issue, the Star Trek part anyway, takes place in the Next Generation universe. Writers Scott & David Tipton, accompanied by Tony Lee, lay out a really interesting comic here. There’s two big A-List villains teaming up, but we’re not sure how or why – a nice mystery that will come into play later in the series, I’m sure. Then, we switch over to the Doctor Who half of the story. I found this surprisingly entertaining. Again, I know next to nothing about Doctor Who and I came away from this issue actually liking the character of The Doctor. Now THAT’S writing! If you can make a reader interested in a character that they had NO interest in, you’ve done your job and then some.

But, back to the issue itself. The Doctor Who half of the story is a lot of fun. Time travel, action, adventure – good stuff. Of course I won’t give away the ending, but it’s a shocker, and one that will please fans of either or both franchises. This is honestly one of the better written crossovers that I’ve read in a while.

JK Woodward is an interesting choice for this book. I’d love to know why he was chosen for art duties here. This book looks to be 100% painted. And it’s painted beautifully. However, this is a big action book and I think maybe it would’ve been better served by a more traditional pencil and ink style of art. Again, I’m not saying that Woodward’s art is bad or underwhelming by any means, in fact, quite the opposite. I just think that maybe it’s not the style for this book. That being said, this book is gorgeous!! Especially the Doctor Who half, which takes place in the ancient past, and is filled with fantastic, lavish detail and beautifully painted. Woodward hits all the likenesses dead-on. You know who everyone is immediately, yet it’s not distracting or drawn from production stills, which is a nice treat.

All in all, a great start to what’s sure to be an epic crossover. It’s got everything that you need. Both franchises get equal screen time, and the crossover doesn’t seem forced in the least at all. Wonderfully written and beautifully rendered, if you’re a fan of either property, you’ll definitely want to pick this up.