Star Trek/Planet of the Apes Comic Crossover

A comic that crosses the original series Star Trek with the original movie Planet of the Apes? Jim Kirk teams up with astronaut George Taylor to fight Klingons AND those dirty apes?

Welcome back sixties’ sci-fi!

IDW Publishing and Boom! Studios announced this exciting Star Trek crossover at San Diego Comic-Con yesterday with a press release and the concept has set off a rapturous buzz among sci-fi fans and comic book geeks everywhere.

The Primate Directive will be written by IDW Star Trek crossover veterans Scott and David Tipton, who previously brought us the Star Trek: Next Generation/Doctor Who comic Assimilation 2, which features the 11th Doctor with his companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams in a storyline where they encounter the Enterprise-D and Captain Picard. The time travelers work with the Enterprise’s crew to stop an alliance between the Borg and the Cybermen, a monstrous match made in cyborg heaven. Joining these laudable writers is newbie Rachael Stott, who will be inking the interior and the covers.

This marks the first time Boom! Studios has partnered up with another publisher and it looks like it could be a real winner. Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive is already being called the crossover event of the year with a plot that pits humans and intelligent orangutans against a Klingon/gorilla alliance.

Both the original series of Star Trek and the first Planet of the Apes movie were, in their heyday, the ground-breaking rightful descendants of Atom Age science fiction, a time of nuclear monsters, bug-eyed aliens, and he-men exploring space. Science fiction heroes in the sixties took their cue from the likes of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. William Shatner’s James T. Kirk and Charlton Heston’s George Taylor were two alpha males of the genre in the late 1960s, when the U.S. was embroiled in Vietnam and still fighting a Cold War under the threat of nuclear-based mutual destruction.

The special effects were cheesy, the make-up was questionable, and the background was made of cardboard, but it was science fiction and it opened a lot of doors, daring to delve into the topic of humanity reaching beyond itself to communicate with other species, primate and alien alike.

Back then, it was about the story. And it’s still about the story now.

The Primate Directive is scheduled for release later this year in time to become the ultimate stocking stuffer on someone’s holiday gift list. Hint-hint. It seems the sky is the limit when it comes to Star Trek comics. We may even see Captain Kirk kiss a sentient ape.

And for those who need a deeper peek into this phenomenal series, here’s the full press release from IDW Publications:

Star Trek™ Meets Planet Of The Apes!

IDW Publishing Partners With BOOM! Studios For Epic Crossover

San Diego, CA (July 25, 2014) – Have you ever wondered what it would be like to “mind-meld” with a sentient ape? Or wanted to see a Klingon on horseback, brandishing a rifle? Readers will soon have a chance to peek into just such an alternate future, as IDW Publishing partners with BOOM! Studios for the crossover event of the year: Star Trek/Planet of the Apes.

IDW will publish the crossover, which will mark the first time BOOM! Studios has partnered with another publisher on a series. Together they will bring Star Trek, licensed by CBS Consumer Products, and 20th Century Fox’s Planet of the Apes together in a way that is sure to delight existing fans and make new ones. The series will pair the original U.S.S. Enterprise crew with Taylor, Nova and the cast from the original Planet of the Apes film.

“Planet of the Apes and Star Trek are groundbreaking science-fiction properties and both deal with many of the same social issues and themes,” says Greg Goldstein IDW President & Chief Operating Officer. “A crossover between the two is a natural and long overdue.”

“Before I could read comic books as a child, I could watch science fiction on my television. My dad used to wake me up way past my bedtime to watch Star Trek in syndication—it came on after the nightly news—and I took a Planet of the Apes lunchbox with me to kindergarten every day,” says BOOM! Studios Founder and CEO Ross Richie. “Suffice to say, teaming up these two titans of science fiction on the page in a way that they probably will never meet each other on the silver screen is a huge moment for me personally and emotionally.”

The creative team will be a mix of proven experience and new blood with scripts by beloved Star Trek scribes Scott and David Tipton (Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation 2) and interior art and covers by the British newcomer Rachael Stott.

“With the Klingons secretly backing a renegade gorilla general in a coup for control of Ape City, Captain Kirk finds himself in the uncomfortable position of having to help out Dr. Zaius’ orangutans,” explains David Tipton. “Taylor won’t be happy with that!”

“What an epic pairing! I’m so excited to see Taylor, Kirk…and those d*mned dirty apes…in our upcoming comic,” says IDW editor Sarah Gaydos, “We’re eager to team up these exciting creative forces to bring this to life.”

In a month that has seen the theater release of the newest version of the Planet of the Apes franchise, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, this is golden news.

[Image courtesy of io9.com]