971. Door in the CagePUBLICATION: Star Trek v.2 #61, DC Comics, July 1994
CREATORS: Steven H. Wilson (writer), Rod Whigham and Arne Starr (artists)
STARDATE: 8684.2 (follows the last issue)
PLOT: The Federation may have found a way to place a human brain in a synthetic body and Spock goes to Talos IV to offer Captain Pike that chance. Over the last 20 years, Pike and Vina have managed to learn the art of illusion-casting, been given control of Talosian technology, reclaimed the surface of the planet, built a house and garden, and had a son. Spock is wary of all this, since he assumes Pike and Vina would be sterile. He is wrong, however, and Pike's son Philip casts a number of illusions designed to send Spock away, afraid to lose his father. But Pike is already determined to stay and, as promised, help the Talosians rejoin the galactic community. Spock has his active status restored as a specialist on a world that might one day join the Federation.
CONTINUITY: Talos IV, Captain Pike, Vina and Number One (who appears as an illusion) first appeared in The Cage and were last seen in The Menagerie.
DIVERGENCES: The novel Q & A has the ban lifted on Talos IV much later than this issue.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Spock vs. Battlecat
REVIEW: Now here's a story that might have made a worthy Annual! Spock returns to Captain Pike and finds something he really didn't expect, so immediately distrusts. Is it all part of a Talosian illusion? Is Pike deluding himself? Is there someone more nefarious at work? Or is it all real? For once, a story full of illusions doesn't become a surreal mess with no real stakes. The stakes are personal for Spock and for Pike, and the love story between the latter and Vina is really rather sweet. A classic story revisited and actually ADDED to successfully, science fantasy notwithstanding.
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