1096. GatewayPUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation #77, DC Comics, November 1995
CREATORS: Michael Jan Friedman (writer), Gordon Purcell and Terry Pallot (artists)
STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)
PLOT: The Enterprise and the Hornet both investigate a station apparently hit by Solanagen-based aliens from another subspace domain - the Enterprise because it's her sector to patrol, the Hornet because its captain lost a brother to those aliens. They follow a trail to one of the aliens' ships, at which point Captain Hagler attacks, seeking revenge. That ship loses its hold on a probe, and another Solanagen ship arrives to help it, tractoring the Hornet into a subspace rift...
CONTINUITY: The Solanagen aliens appeared in Schisms. Captain Hagler's brother Eddie died in that same episode. Ensign Rager is at the conn (also a victim of the aliens in Schisms, though she appears in a handful of other episodes). The Enterprise teamed up with the USS Hornet before, in Redemption Part II. The insecure McRobb from first year of the current TNG series (starting with Return to Raimon) is now a Lt. Commander on the Hornet. He's dressed in the DS9/Voyager style uniforms being phased in as per Generations.
DIVERGENCES: A station of "unknown design" looks just like a Starfleet station we've often seen.
PANEL OF THE DAY - The artist gives himself a knowing meta-textual look.
REVIEW: For a one-off, Schisms is a rather memorable and creepy episode, so I'm happy to see Friedman give it a sequel. No doubt we'll end up learning more about these mysterious aliens, and he has fun bringing back a number of characters from the episode, including Ensign Rager and Hagler, in the form of his big sister. Plus McRobb, who I don't think we've seen since around issue #11. In these closing chapters of the series, it's nice to see Friedman bring back his first original cast member and give him a little closure.
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