Star Trek 1028: Thin Ice

1028. Thin Ice

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation Annual #2, DC Comics, 1991

CREATORS: Michael Jan Friedman (writer), Matt Haley and Carlos Garzon (artists)

STARDATE: 44612.3 (between Galaxy's Child and Night Terrors)

PLOT: The Enterprise-D gets a distress call from Captain Halk of the USS Marco Polo. Halk is a childhood friend of Riker's, and as we find out in a series of flashbacks, has always been one for taking risks while Riker took the safer road. When the Enterprise finds the Marco Polo, it is surrounded by hostile robot ships, it is dead in the water, and most of its crew is dead. As the Enterprise begins an evacuation, the enemy ships attack and almost destroys the flagship. It's up to Riker and Geordi to get the Marco Polo back in working order and warp out of there. Unable to shake the attackers, Riker takes a big risk by flying through black hole filaments the Enterprise had encountered earlier, banking no the robot ships slower response time. He admits to Halk that he learned something about risk-taking from her, and she admits her risks caused the death of her crew and that he was right all along.

CONTINUITY: None.

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Innuendo of the Week
REVIEW: It's not the first time Friedman dares fill in Riker's back story, and it may be a little sad that it was never contradicted by the show in any way. Poor Riker. Of course, the flashbacks are a whole lot more about Captain Halk's character than they are about Riker, and I'm not sure we can infer from his "by the book the Captain stays on the ship" policy that he wasn't a risk-taker. I guess it does play into his refusal to take a command of his own. So only a fair character story, but the plot can't be strong either. The robot ships are never really given a back story, and the black hole strings are an obvious deus ex machina. The art is good without being spectacular, which goes perfectly with this story. Everything is "almost good" and that's why it's frustrating.