Star Trek 1029: Wayward Son

1029. Wayward Son

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation #25, DC Comics, November 1991

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

STARDATE: 44698.7 (between Identity Crisis and The Nth Degree)

PLOT: Back on Earth, Worf's adopted son, Jeremy Aster, is meeting Alexander for the first time. He finds out that the ¾-Klingon boy would rather live his life as a human. On the Enterprise, Worf wishes he could be there, but that's just not possible. The starship has just found the outrageous Okona's ship empty. They follow back its course to a planet where he is the only life-sign. Troi, Crusher, Data and Worf beam down, but find themselves dressed in ancient clothes. Okona has a lot of explaining to do...

CONTINUITY: Captain Okona and the Erstwhile are from The Outrageous Okona. Jeremy Aster is from The Bonding. Worf's parents appeared in Family. And Alexander was sent to Earth in Reunion.

DIVERGENCES: The colorist has inverted the Ops and Conn positions on the bridge, and thus, Alleby's uniform color.

PANEL OF THE DAY - And it's not just the coloring that's interfering with the costumes...
REVIEW: Because comics remove the actor and his or her performance from the equation, it's actually possible to have a story that is a perfect storm of annoying characters. Jeremy Aster, Alexander and Okona?! I wouldn't advertise that on the cover. Where's Lwaxana and the TNG Ferengi while we're at it? But in the comics, they're not so bad. The Jeremy-Alexander match-up is a natural one. The human character wants to be Klingon and the Klingon wants to be human. I wonder where this subplot will lead. The Okona stuff is only just starting, so it's too soon to really comment, though what's there works, and the characters involved are all well characterised.