Star Trek 1012: Whoever Fights Monsters

1012. Whoever Fights Monsters

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation #12, DC Comics, September 1990

CREATORS: Michael Jan Friedman (writer), Pablo Marcos (artist)

STARDATE: 43270.4 (follows the last issue)

PLOT: Only by playing musical chairs can the bridge crew of the Enterprise-D keep ahead of the ship's twin. When the bogus Enterprise is damaged, it starts repairing itself, at which point sensors detect it is a single life-form animated by sentient energy. Incapable of believing that matter can be alive, it does not recognize humanoids as life-forms and is simply playing a game. Troi risks brain damage to empathically project her outrage at the death of more than a thousand people. The creature responds with remorse, abandons its shape and leaves the area.

CONTINUITY: None.

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Just another reason why we hate Wesley.
REVIEW: A very Trekkie ending that is more about communicating than it is about fighting, it also includes Nietzschean lessons and Wizard of Oz references directed at Data. In other words, it very much feels like a TNG story of its time.Pablo Marcos goes cosmic on the art in places, going abstract when moments call for it. I like it. The final revelation doesn't quite answer every question, but it does the job.