Star Trek 1027: Homecoming

1027. Homecoming

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation #24, DC Comics, October 1991

CREATORS: Michael Jan Friedman (writer), Peter Krause and Pablo Marcos (artists)

STARDATE: 44298.2 (follows the last issue)

PLOT: The Einstein crew and its allies push back the hostiles and manage to get the shuttle into range of the warp ship at the edge of the makeshift space station's range. They then show the hostiles mercy and beam them into the ship's cargo bay. Wesley figures out how to fly the ship, but while it is impossibly fast, he can't really slow it down, just stop and hope he's near Federation space. It pops out near the Klingon homeworld where the Klingons surround it. The Enterprise, fresh off resettling two marine species, is in the area and called to investigate. Picard beams aboard the unknown warp ship after Troi detects humans and other species aboard and makes them drop their shields, a prearranged signal to the Klingons that the ship is no enemy. Its engines being on overload, the ship explodes, but everyone made it out alive and taken home.

CONTINUITY: Ensign Tess Allenby is at the helm (Final Mission).

DIVERGENCES: The title is very close to DS9's The Homecoming. Ensign Allenby should be blond, not brunette.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Who knew Groucho Marx had played a Romulan?
REVIEW: The series celebrates its 2-year anniversary with a double-sized issue and the end its longest story arc to date. As usual, there's a good balance of action and drama, and the characters are well written. It's really too bad our investment in the Einstein crew's original characters doesn't pay off. One of the girls shares an attraction with Wesley, but he's off to the Academy after this, so who cares, and the other characters don't really do anything. I'm registering mild disappointment.

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