1081. Brother's KeeperPUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation Annual #5, DC Comics, November 1994
CREATORS: Howard Weinstein (writer), Rachel Ketchum, Bob Smith, and Charles Barnett III (artists)
STARDATE: 47512.3 (between Sub Rosa and Lower Decks)
PLOT: On its way to bring an admiral to a peace conference, the Enterprise stops by a damaged station sitting in front of space-time anomaly. Geordi brings over a team to investigate and stays a little too long. When the anomaly emits a burst of energy, Data is damaged, perhaps irreparably, as is the Enterprise. Geordi becomes obsessed with saving him, going as far as trying to return to the station for whatever data might be in its computers, risking a court-martial. In the end, even the rushed admiral agrees Data must be saved, and a crew manages to get the station's computer core just before it is destroyed. Data is saved by the information.
CONTINUITY: Reg Barclay appears. Geordi has a Sherlock Holmes-related dream in which Moriarty and his lady friend appear (Elementary Dear Data, Ship in a Bottle). Picard runs his equestrian holodeck program (Starship Mine).
DIVERGENCES: None.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Geordi shouldn't have accepted that invitation to Deanna's girls' night out.
REVIEW: I've been a strong critic of Howard Weinstein's writing, but Brother's Keeper features none of his usual tics and is a pretty effective Geordi story. On the series, I never managed to connect with Geordi. He was Data's straight man and none of the stories focusing on him specifically were much good. Here, the friendship that defines him is put at risk, and consequently, the story is charged with emotion. Weinstein even reverses the usual plot point about a pushy admiral who might want to take command of the ship. The art is better than usual and the characters all look and sound like they should. And great final scene, making something inevitable a little more special.
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