The main current Star Trek title has been a lot of fun, as has Defiant. The ST:TMP follow-up book hasn’t been as good. Sometimes the characters don’t look much like the actors. Still, IDW has been doing a good job overall with Trek, so I’m absolutely going to give this new one a chance.
Thats probably because they don’t have the rights to use the actors likeness in those books, happens to comics a lot. Actors in the newer shows probably have rights to use their likeness in further material as part of the terms.
Where are you getting the information about contractual rights on likenesses?
I’m curious to know if actors’ contracts have evolved on this over time. I would have thought Paramount would be the exclusive rights holder.
Marina Sirtis, for example, has commented that she wasn’t even informed in advance about her image as Troi being on a recent UK stamp. She says that she has no rights in relation to her likeness as Troi, the rights remain entirely with Paramount.