1008. The Pay Off!PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation #9, DC Comics, June 1990
CREATORS: Michael Jan Friedman (writer), Pablo Marcos (artist)
STARDATE: 43268.1 (follows the last issue)
PLOT: The Enterprise-D is accused of having violated Ferengi space when it was nowhere near it, and Picard is ordered to starbase for the investigation. However, Dr. Crusher falls ill from a slow-incubating virus she caught on the planet Onorrh on her first tour of duty, so Picard immediately goes there. It's now unfortunately controlled by the Ferengi who refuse to give away the cure, but will trade it for plans of the Enterprise's engines. It's Wesley who finds a way to stick to the agreement while not giving the Ferengi an advantage over Starfleet - they send down the plans to the original 1701 Enterprise's engines. As they prepare to leave orbit and the angry Ferengi, two Starfleet ships show up and accuse Picard of having destroyed the USS Nairobi...
CONTINUITY: This is the first appearance of the Ferengi in the comics. One of the ships come to escort the Enterprise is the USS Hood, on which Riker used to serve (Encounter at Farpoint, next chronologically seen in The Defector).
DIVERGENCES: Admiral Rosenstrum has a very strange uniform.
PANEL OF THE DAY - And here it is.
REVIEW: Marcos is back on pencils as well as inks, and right away, the pages are more lively (with an opening fencing sequence). The subplot about a faux-Enterprise causing mayhem deepens, and the Crusher plot isn't half-bad. The way the Ferengi are tricked is clever and the illness-of-the-week isn't particularly far-fetched for once. Has Data's big brother subplot already paid off last issue? It's not at all featured here. I don't miss it, mind you, but I still wonder. Overall, Friedman continues to write the characters well, and features different cast members in different stories to give everyone their due despite the 24-page format.
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