1069. Bodies of EvidencePUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation #58, DC Comics, April 1994
CREATORS: Michael Jan Friedman (writer), Deryl Skelton (artist)
STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)
PLOT: The telepathic personalities of the combined crewmen locate each of their bodies in sacred temples across Eregeus. Landing parties go in to rescue those bodies, but as they are beamed up, Lt. Barclay realizes the original beam-out could only have come from a ship or space station, not the planet. That's how Picard discovers a rival species, not wanting to see the Eregeans join the Federation, used Eregean mercenaries and techniques to stage the abductions (AND have been polluting the Eregean atmosphere to weaken the race). With the help of the Eregean Triumvirate, the culprits are exposed and all minds returned to their rightful bodies.
CONTINUITY: See previous issue. Reg Barclay was last seen in Ship in a Bottle. Among the landing parties, we find Robin Lefler (The Game), Jenna D'Sora (In Theory) and Alyssa Ogawa (plenty of episodes) in her first comic book appearance.
DIVERGENCES: None, unless you count Barclay's characterization.
PANEL OF THE DAY - How to avoid drawing likenesses.
REVIEW: First, the good. I'm always happy to see the extended crew, and the characters that were combined get to have a light-hearted moment at the end. Worf is always comedy gold on the show, here too. But there's the bad. The ridiculously convoluted conspiracy at work is so twisted, villains need to expose their entire plan in a long babble-a-thon. Don't worry, the heroes' rescue plan has the same requirements. Reg Barclay is a particular sore point. He acts NOTHING like he should. I don't mind making D'Sora or even Ro a cipher, but Barclay absolutely cannot be written at "just another engineer". You don't get points for calling your engineering extra "Barclay", is what I'm saying. The art, for its part, is getting rougher and rougher. I mean, look at these awkward poses:
Skelton seems to be using photocopied material in his work, or perhaps light sketching likenesses through thin paper. The coloring does have the job of realizing actual shapes. Action scenes are still haphazard, and the farther away you are from a character's close-up, the less likely it is to look like that character. And if it was only technique, but there are also Deannalexander's goggles who appear and disappear from panel to panel... It just looks rushed.
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