Star Trek 1177: Remembrance

1177. Remembrance / Rules of Behavior

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #31, Malibu Comics, December 1995

CREATORS: Leonard Kirk / Jason Levine (writers), Leonard Kirk / Scott Sava (artists)

STARDATE: Unknown (follows Rules of Diplomacy #1)

PLOT: In Remembrance, Dax goes back to the Klingon homeworld to take part in a ceremony to honor the fallen Kang and Koloth. Soon after she arrives, Kor is poisoned by the Albino's granddaughter, but Dax saves him. Toral of the Duras then ropes the granddaughter into planting bombs at the ceremony site so as to kill both their enemies. Dax and Kor are on the look-out, however, and stop the assassination plot before going ahead with the ceremony. In Rules of Behavior, Dax learns from her old boyfriend that an alien sect obsessed with the purity of body is on a joined Trill killing spree. She has a holographic version of herself give a speech at a conference and it is attacked. She and Gwyn then run down the cultists and Dax hopes their people, provisional members of the Federation, will not release them.

CONTINUITY: Kor appears for the first time since Blood Oath (in flashback, we also see Curzon's blood oath and of course, the Albino was in that same episode, as is the reference to his discarded wife). Toral of the Duras is here seen between Redemption and The Sword of Kahless. Gowron and Kahless (Rightful Heir) host the ceremony. Marc Okrand (Klingon Dictionary) provides a page of translations. Dax's old boyfriend and his Klingon partner were first and last seen in DS9 #18.

DIVERGENCES: Jadzia says she doesn't like blood wine.

PANEL OF THE DAY - EXTERMINATE!
REVIEW: From the outside, it looks like Malibu's DS9 license was running out at this point, so they started throwing in every story they'd paid for. This issue is #31 and double-sized, as will be the final #32, and the back pages announce both an Annual and Worf Special coming out the same month. To start with, Remembrance is a fine story, full of characters we know and love, a link to a past episode, and great art from Leonard Kirk. Dax/Kor stories are always good, and this one's no difference, with a real Klingon feel to the locations, rituals and language. As for Rules of Behavior, also a Dax solo tale, I'm less enthusiastic. Interesting colored pencil art by Scott Sava, but there's not a big reason to bring back Gwyn and the tale seems to end flatly. I think the alien cult is an interesting lot with intriguing beliefs, but they won't be explored beyond this, and hardly are at that. It's ok, but by this point, you'd like to see some of the other characters in the cast.