930. The Price of Admission!PUBLICATION: Star Trek v.2 #29, DC Comics, March 1992
CREATORS: Timothy de Haas (writer), James W. Fry and Bud La Rosa (artists)
STARDATE: 8827.3 (follows the last issue)
PLOT: The Enterprise goes out to planet Zuyna to pick up an observer and see if the world is ready to join the Federation. The Zuynans have discovered a rare mineral used in computer processors on a continent inhabited by another species they've termed animals, something the observer condemns. She knows they're intelligent because... she's one of them! This shapeshifter took the observer's place when she was killed before she could speak out against the impending genocide. In a final melee, the alien takes one of the Zuynan leaders' place, hoping to build a peace from the other side.
CONTINUITY: None.
DIVERGENCES: The stardate is too late for the series' time frame.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Tentacle love
REVIEW: The guest team does a fair job of providing a self-contained story, with a solid twist and a look into the Federation's humane policies. Fry's art is more cartoony than the usual, sometimes reminding me of Cully Hamner's, which isn't a bad thing at all. The issue does have some significant problems, however: The old cliché of a super-rare substance being key to making starships work; McCoy finding out the observer isn't human when she's drawn and colored as an obvious alien (if not of Zuyna's two species); and some extreme acting from Kirk when the Romulans are mentioned ("nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!" - busted the Shatner-meter, that one). Just a notch under ordinary.
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