1404. MedicsPUBLICATION: Star Trek: Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor #3, IDW Comics, June 2010
CREATORS: John Byrne (writer), John Byrne (artist)
STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)
PLOT: McCoy's crew is ordered to check up on a quarantined planet that's supposed to be in its bronze age, but warfare with advanced weapons is being waged on it. Their ship is destroyed, and each of them are captured by what turns out to be the clone army sent away from Earth in 1969 by Gary Seven. The latter shows up to help them escape and together, they discover that the Klingons have been fueling the war and wagering on the results. They've also created female clones and allowed them to have babies, just to raise the stakes. As things seem desperate, they are beamed away by the Yorktown. The Klingons self-destruct their ship rather than get caught. Theela and Duncan, on the cusp of getting married, ask to stay to help this nascent civilization. As they await Starfleet's permission, McCoy goes down to sickbay and meets an old friend...
CONTINUITY: Byrne continues the story of the clone army he started in Assignment: Earth #3, and continued in Crew #4. Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln from the former appear. The Yorktown is under the command of Number One as per Byrne's Romulans: Schisms. The mysterious old friend at the end can only be Christine Chapel (putting two Majel Barrett characters on the same ship).
DIVERGENCES: Byrne once again mixes the two Klingon "races" together.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Worst babysitters ever
REVIEW: Byrne's Doctors Without Borders story next takes us to a warzone, but it's unfortunately a continuation of his Vietnam War clones story from two series back. In fact, it's a sequel to Byrne's THREE other series once the Yorktown shows up. As such, while there's excitement and violence in the first half, the self-referential fanwank gets in the way in the second. Number One and her ship act as a big deus ex machina, leading only to a lot of talking. Theela and Duncan want to leave unexpectedly, like Doctor Who companions, before they really have the chance to blossom as characters (maybe they won't, it's a cliffhanger). And while I can understand the thrill of getting multiple Majels into the same story, that joke simply undercuts the warzone story that started the issue.
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