Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm going to be doing a comic book review and the comic I'll be reviewing is a trade paperback which collects issues #20-24 of DC Comics's 1989 Star Trek: The Next Generation and came out in April, 1993. It's also a more recent addition to my comic book collection. So let's get into it.
According to the DC Comics TNG Timeline, which was published in the letters column of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Volume 2) #'s 1, 37, and 69, and recreated on Memory Alpha (the Star Trek Wiki), this story takes place during the show's fourth season, between the episodes, "Future Imperfect" and "The Final Mission" as Wesley Crusher is an Ensign and is in the story, and the stardates presented in the story bridge the gap between those two television episodes. Which is interesting. And, no, Wesley is more in line with his Ensign era version from the show's third and fourth seasons, rather than how he was portrayed in the earlier mini-series that DC published in 1988.
I got this comic back in November when Brad and I went to the Ottawa Comic and Card Show for the first time in almost two years. It was a pretty cool find since I never see Star Trek trades out in the wild like that, mostly the single issues. And it was cheap too. If I remember correctly it was only like $5 or $10, which is pretty good for an out of print trade paperback collection.
While the Enterprise is delivering medical supplies to a Federation colony, a shuttlecraft carrying Commander Riker, Lieutenant Worf, Ensign Crusher, Doctor Selar, and some medical ensigns, who we never see again in this comic, and don't see on the TV show, are pulled through some sort of subspace vortex that transports them to an unknown part of the galaxy, where they discover this space station made up of dozens of starships from all over the galaxy. Riker is injured so it's up to Worf to take command and figure out a way back to Federation space, where they're all presumed to be dead by the Enterprise and her crew, which are on another mission.
The B-plot with Worf and Wesley is actually very similar not only to the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode, "The Time Trap", but also issue #6 of DC's original Star Trek: The Next Generation mini-series from 1988. Not exactly the same plot of course, but similar in that the crew finds themselves in an alternate dimension, where races from all over the galaxy have congregated and they all have to find a way home again. And actually, the "space station" made up of many different ships in this book reminds me of the scavenger base level from Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force which is now more than 21 years old, though in that game the scavenger base is much smaller than the station in this book.
While I enjoy the Wesley/Worf plot, the one that's more interesting is the story that takes place on the Enterprise with Picard, Data, Troi, Crusher, and La Forge. After the ship had successfully delivered the medical supplies to the two colonies, including the one the shuttlecraft was trying to deliver them to before getting sucked into the vortex, the Enterprise is sent to evacuate a planet that is on the verge of destruction due to a rogue comet heading it's way. If this was in the DC Universe, Superman could just divert the course of the comet no problem, but this is Star Trek, and as we saw from the TNG season 3 episode, "Deja Q", diverting a comet from it's trajectory of crashing into a planet is pretty difficult and the Enterprise probably doesn't have that kind of time at this point.
However, the species they're evacuating, the Lanatosians, value property and things instead of people, which frustrates the Enterprise crew to no end. Especially when another species, that resembles sea dragons, is revealed to be living on the planet as well. Because, naturally both races live underwater, which isn't something we've actually never seen on Star Trek except for the Voyager episode, "Thirty Days".
What makes this story interesting though is how we get into Picard's head about the situation with the missing crew members. When Tasha Yar was killed in "Skin of Evil" we don't really get Picard's reaction to it, even at her memorial service at the end of the episode. We got everyone else's, but not Picard's. Here though, we get Picard's. He's torn because he doesn't want to believe that his friends are dead. Particularly Wesley, because if Wesley is dead then Picard has to inform Beverly, which he already had to do when her husband, Jack Crusher, was killed during a mission on the Stargazer, long before the start of TNG. But at the same time, he knows their chances of finding the missing crew aren't good and he really has to let his missing crew go and assign people to the now vacant posts in the ship's command structure.
I also love the nods to TNG continuity in this book too. Doctor Pulaski, Deanna's mother, Lwaxana Troi, and Riker's father, Kyle, are all shown when they're informed of Riker, Worf, Wesley, and Selar's disappearance and of course Selar is in the issue as well, so that's cool. And as Ron Moore pointed out in his introduction to the book, the comics medium allowed them to do this story, free of the constraints of a TV show budget, particularly a '90s TV show budget. It allowed them to do the Lanatosians and the Skriiti (the sea dragon creatures) as well as the vast ocean world of Lanatos. Definitely not something you could do on TNG's budget in 1991 when these issues were originally published.
This book was produced by the regular TNG comic book crowd. Michael Jan Friedman is the writer, Peter Krause is the penciller, and Pablo Marcos is the inker and I absolutely love their work on this series. There are a couple of shots of the Enterprise where her neck is slightly longer than it should be, and Data is manning the CONN station in the first bridge shot of the book, but otherwise the artwork is pretty great. And as usual Friedman really gets the voices of these beloved characters in his writing. Which I love.
Overall, this is a pretty great book. The issues come from before I got into this comic book series, but they're actually pretty good with a story that fits the comic book medium, which is always good. As I said earlier, it's been out of print for at least 25 years. It never got a second printing, nor did it ever get another edition from DC Comics. However the five issues got recollected in volume 58 of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection released by Eaglemoss Collections, the same company that does all of the current Star Trek starships line of diecast models. That edition should be available somehow. Or just find this original collection at your local comic book store or at a geek sale or comic book sale or even at a used bookstore.
Alright folks that's gonna be it for me for today. But I will be back either tomorrow or Friday with my review of Radio Fifth Grade. So until then have a wonderful night, stay safe, and I will talk to you all later. Take care!
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