Star Trek #1444: Hive Part 1

1444. Hive Part 1

PUBLICATION:
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Hive #1, IDW Comics, September 2012

CREATORS: Brannon Braga, Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett (writers), Joe Corroney (artist)

STARDATE: 59844.9 (three years after Nemesis); and 500 years in a possible future.

PLOT: 500 years in the future, Locutus of Borg faces the Collective's existential crisis. In the present, the Borg show up on Starfleet's doorstep to ally against Species 1881, bringers of chaos threatening the entire galaxy.

CONTINUITY: There's a Lt. Archer on the bridge, probably a descendent of the Enterprise NX-01's captain. Picard can still invoke booty calls with Vash (Captain's Holiday et al.) and meets her on Rigel 3 (All Good Things...) where they find evidence of early Vulcan settlements. The Borg turned Picard into Locutus in The Best of Both Worlds, and here use every manner of spacecraft seen in Voyager. The Borg Queen (First Contact, et al.) also appears. Riker still commands the USS Titan (Nemesis). The 7th feet includes a number of Intrepid-class ships (Voyager's model) and Delta Flyers (Voyager). Seven of Nine appears in her original Borg form (Scorpion; has yet to be explained). Data is reconstructed by the Borg 500 years hence (after his destruction in Nemesis, or if you will, long after his return in the Titan novels).

DIVERGENCES: While Data's appearance doesn't necessarily contradict the Titan novels, Seven of Nine's re-Borgification in the present isn't substantiated by her appearances in the later Voyager novels. Species 1881 has a designation that seems much earlier than Species 8472's, and yet has a similar premise. Why are they only a problem now? Or aren't Borg species designations chronological with their discovery?

PANEL OF THE DAY - Jean-Luc Picard is... Locutus. And Locutus is... Metron.
REVIEW: Former Voyager show runner Brannon Braga is credited for this story, so of course his favorite toys - the Borg and temporal paradoxes - have been taken out for a spin. As you might imagine, there's a lot of "cool" referencing to elements of the past, but no real indication that they might all come together as a whole. But I remain hopeful, and in any case, I really don't need to see Vash again. I dislike the character immensely, always have, and making her Picard's friend with benefits (to put it politely) is at once dull and icky. Like Vash herself. Aside from that, Hive seems to be predicated on one shocking revelation after another. Picard is Locutus again in 5 centuries time and the Borg have failed to find perfection. He's rebuilt Data with a Borged-up body. Seven is back in the Borg. The Borg are being decimated by a more powerful enemy from another dimension... Well, that last one isn't much of a shocker because it is exactly the plot from Voyager's "Scorpion", in which the Borg require Starfleet's help (with Seven joining the crew) to defeat Species 8472, weird creatures from another dimension whose biology and technology is un-assimilatable. That's just what Species 1881 (the Voldranaii) are like. The twist, if it is one, is that they mean to bring chaos to our universe and are disrupting space (and time? could account for some of the anomalies and paradoxes). They're played as something out of Moorcock. I'm interested, but it does seem like a TNG rehash of a Voyager story. As far as the art goes, Corroney's is serviceable, but his characters are awkwardly posed and largely expressionless. He's better at technology, especially ships. However, the script's a bit thin, forcing him to draw a half-dozen splash pages, which is too much for a standard-sized comic.

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