Star Trek 894: Here Today

894. Here Today

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation #6, DC Comics, July 1988

CREATORS: Michael Carlin (writer), Pablo Marcos (artist)

STARDATE: 41753.8 (follows the last issue)

PLOT: The Enterprise-D is searching for the mythical planet Faltos when suddenly Data disobeys Picard's directives by order of Starfleet Command. He gets the ship to Faltos which lies in another dimension, but they are trapped there. Everyone on this paradise planet is equally trapped, and the ruling Tribunal instructs the crew to deplane and allow them to dismantle the ship. Because the buildings and one of the Tribunal are made of crystal, Data surmises that the Crystalline Entity once escaped from here. Chief Engineer Argyle gets the info on the Entity from Data's databanks and they use it to break free of the planet. They can never return however because the Tribunal has gotten into Data's head and taken the information, intent on not letting their population know there is an escape route.

CONTINUITY: Bele is on the Tribunal (Let This Be Your Last Battlefield). He's gone bald since we last saw him. Faltos is apparently the birthplace of the Crystalline Entity (Datalore).

DIVERGENCES: The stardate puts this adventures a couple hours into the end of the last. Starfleet has the ability to pre-program Data. Riker mentions the Federation's willingness to give a species warp technology. Bele is black on the wrong side. Data is filled with remorse and later, embarrassment. Bizarrely, the combadge acts as a two-way viewscreen. Soong was apparently studying the Crystalline Entity, which is what led it to the colony (contradicting Datalore).

PANEL OF THE DAY - Turn ons and turn offs
REVIEW: This story is complete nonsense, and it was clearly a mistake for Carlin to try and use a continuity that he knew so little about. Mischaracterizations can be forgiven (though making all the heroes unlikable, bickering fools was the wrong thing to do), but he goes out of his way to use storylines from the ongoing season as springboards. And either he's working from rough drafts of scripts or from a memory of having seen the shows, because he keeps getting it wrong. Soong responsible for his colony's destruction instead of Lore? That's pretty far off the track. Not that the conclusion that the Crystalline Entity has anything to do with the planet as pictured makes any sense. Or Starfleet hiding things from Picard, but not Data. Bele's appearance is wasted. All I can say is: Thank God it's over. And I don't really care if we never see the Bickleys again.