1037. Wet Behind the EarsPUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation #32, DC Comics, June 1992
CREATORS: Michael Jan Friedman (writer), Peter Krause and Pablo Marcos (artists)
STARDATE: Unknown (between Conundrum and Power Play)
PLOT: To bolster Sonya Gomez' confidence, Geordi brings her along on a cadet training mission that merely requires them to supervise the students while they get their old ship working and fly it through an asteroid field. Inside, they find a secret Catarr base from which comes a ship that attacks them. Geordi is knocked out and Gomez must take command. With some ingenious tactics, such as using probes as torpedo decoys and beaming rocks into the Catarrs' engines, she defeats them before the Enterprise even answers her distress call.
CONTINUITY: Sonya Gomez appeared in Q Who? and Samaritan Snare, and later became a regular in the S.C.E. book series. Duffy (Hollow Pursuits and also S.C.E.) is also mentioned. According to the TNG Tech Manual, class-8 probes DO look just like photon torpedoes.
DIVERGENCES: Though Picard promises the training mission will use a Constitution-class, the exterior and interior design is nothing like either the original or refit Enterprise (closer to a Constellation-class, in fact). Not sure who those ladies are on the cover. Ensign Ro's not in the comic and the Gomez character has a completely different hairdo. For that matter, the Catarr ship on the cover bears little resemblance to the one in the story.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Ow. Just ow.
REVIEW: Despite focusing on a returning guest-star (and one whose likeness isn't at all captured), this a fun and clever issue! As I've been following the SCE books recently (one Sunday a month on the SBG, folks), I feel like I have more of a stake in seeing her develop here, but Gomez was an entertaining character even in her two television appearances, and one it would have been fun to see as a recurring character. Seeing her take charge here makes her SCE journey quite believable.
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