Star Trek: Year Four was a six-part comic miniseries written by David Tischman and published by IDW Publishing. It was be IDW's third Star Trek miniseries, the second TOS miniseries and second project by David Tischman following his work on IDW's premier series The Space Between. It was published in an omnibus book in March 2008.

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 been Star Trek: The Original Series' fourth season, continuing the five year mission of the USS Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk. The series acknowledges Star Trek: The Animated Series, also set in the fourth year of the Enterprise's mission, with appearances by Arex and M'Ress.

The series was illustrated by several artists; Steve Conley, Gordon Purcell, and Rob Sharp & Joe Sharp, all colored by Leonard 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 1960s The 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 many TOS episodes, several issues were commentaries on present-day issues, including cloning, reality television, oil and the Iraq War, or a look at present day science, with a 23rd century take on particle accelerators.

A continuation of the series began in May 2008 in Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment, by D.C. Fontana and Derek Chester. Beyond that IDW have vague plans for two more Year Four miniseries, making a total of twenty-two issues, equivalent to a full season of The Original Series, after which they plan to continue on to Year 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 July 2007	5 September 2007	3 October 2007	17 October 2007	19 December 2007	23 January 2008
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 by Steve Conley (with colors by Leonard O'Grady) and Joe 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 in Focus on... Star Trek. The story was written by David Tischman with art by Leonard O'Grady and acted as both an epilogue to the final TOS episode: "Turnabout Intruder" and a teaser for the ongoing voyages of the Enterprise depicted in this series.

Appendices[]

IDW Publishing miniseries
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	Lower Decks
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 Publishing omnibuses
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) • Mirror Universe Collection • Library Collection (1 • 2 • 3) • Star Trek (IDW 2022) (Godshock • The Red Path • Day of Blood • Glass and Bone) • Defiant (1 • Another Piece of the Action)
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 at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
• Year Four page at the Star Trek Comics Checklist
• Artist Steve Conley discusses the series here at Newsarama.
• Writer David Tischman discusses the series here at Comic Book Resources.