#assimilation squared

[galahadwilder]

Okay so we know that if the Borg meet the Cybermen, they get along really well and sort of… blend. They assimilate each other and become a big cybernetic mass. This is canon.

What happens if either of those factions meets the Phyrexians?

[nerdandtie]

Casual Trek: 84. TNG/Doctor Who: Assmilation Squared - The TARDIS Enters Data

[ugh-nerds-blog]

The Greatest Disappointment Of This Generation: The Doctor Who/Star Trek Crossover Comic

The Doctor Who/ Star Trek crossover comic book Assimilation Squared wrapped up this last Wednesday with a bang. Unfortunately, this was the only bang in the entire run. 

What should have been the geek-out event of this or any year ended up thinner than a crepe and not nearly as delicious. 

The story, involving a combined universe (since we've established in DW canon that Star Trek as a fiction exists in the Whoniverse) where the the Doctor, Rory, and Amy must work with the Enterprise crew from Next Generation to fight the Cybermen team-up with the Borg should have been excellent.

And it might have been, in a different medium. The art looked like a paint-by-numbers watercolor. The dialogue, which in both series is full of quasi-sensical techno-babble that lends itself well to the ear, was overwhelming to read, covering entire halves of panels. 

At first, I defended it (A DOCTOR WHO/STAR TREK CROSSOVER! THIS IS THE PINNACLE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION!) as it was slow to start. Then, four issues in when it was still slowly starting, I said "well, both shows have wooden dialogue too, so, you know..."

And then by the last few issues I was reading it out of a sense of obligation. 

There was a moment between the Doctor and Worf that made me laugh, because those characters have such diametrically opposed personalities it was ripe for comedy, but this was only taken advantage of once, and then the Doctor gets to chiding the Enterprise crew for using phasers. In character, but boring in a medium where every panel counts. Midway through the story, we're shown a new memory the Doctor has of himself (in his Fourth, scarfy incarnation) interacting with the crew of the original series, which was a semi-interesting diversion, if badly paced within the plot. There's another good bit in the last issue where the Doctor contemplates asking Geordie to be a companion (and really, how awesome would that be?) and Picard tells him not even to think about it. 

The ending was decent, and I'm not just saying that because I was relieved it was finally over. What could have been a fantastic sequence involving Data absorbing the TARDIS fizzled itself out in two pages. "Oh Data absorbed the TARDIS. Cool. This means nothing apparently."

Doctor Who beat out Star Trek to television by a few scant years, and watching Star Trek, the original series especially, it's pretty clear that the creators of the show were heavily influenced by Doctor Who. There are many thematically similar elements, and the bridge crew went to planets that were suspiciously identical to past or future Earth (that one with the anti-Cold War message ages particularly well) with little to no explanation. A crossover between the two seems as natural as breathing, but in practice turned into a boring kind of nightmare; one that costs like $4 every issue and never seems to end.

It felt like this entire endeavor was the product of a late night and an impending deadline. The characters, who already exist as fully fleshed out individuals given the immense body of work they appear in between the two series, feel like watery mock-ups, like a bad fan fiction. Which is disparaging to fan fiction as a whole, because I've read Star Trek/Doctor Who crossover fics that blow this out of the water. 

Final judgement: WHAT? HOW COULD YOU SCREW THIS UP? DO BETTER!

[ramuneicepop]

When the Eleventh Doctor first met Guinan, I wonder if the first thought through each of their heads was "What the fuck happened to your eyebrows?"

[witch-niko]

The correct way to pronounce the title of the Doctor Who/Star Trek TNG comic

Would it be 'Assimilation Squared', 'Assimilation Two', or would it be alright to just call it 'Assimilation'?

[jamiemccrimmon]

[jamiemccrimmon]

[jamiemccrimmon]