1222. GhostsPUBLICATION: Star Trek: Voyager #10, Marvel Comics, October 1997
CREATORS: Laurie S. Sutton (writer), Jesus Redondo and Sergio Melia (artists)
STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)
PLOT: Voyager comes upon a time rift through which they can see the Battle of Wolf 359, and which regurgitates escape pods filled with survivors who have just spent months inside it. Voyager takes the survivors in, many of which have personal links to the crew. The Doctor and B'Elanna find, but do not perfect, a technique to keep them from being dragged back into the rift to which they are linked. Unfortunately, they can't do it in time and the rift returns and threatens to engulf Voyager. The survivors make the ultimate sacrifice by sending their pods back into the rift hoping to perfect the technique themselves. Lt. Rand of Voyager follows them in with the proper equipment.
CONTINUITY: The Battle of Wolf 359 occured in The Best of Both Worlds (and seen in Emissary). The Melbourne and Admiral Hanson are both mentioned (TBoBW). Pods are also rescued from the Saratoga, Sisko's ship (Emissary). Lt. Rand serving in Security in the last few comics (and his aunt Athena, commander on the Melbourne) are apparently related to Janice Rand (TOS, Flashback). Chakotay claims to have been in the same class as Sisko. There are also survivors from the Roosevelt (Unity).
DIVERGENCES: There are Klingon ships at Wolf 359, but no filmed sequences showed them, and TBoBW has dialog about the Empire dispatching ships to help, but not reaching the battle. Lt. Rand is clearly aboard a shuttle, though the text says it's an escape pod.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Tuvok's gang signs
REVIEW: A very "Voyager" type of premise, but not a bad one. On tv, it might have been an intriguing way to get new characters on the show. Of course, here in non-canon land, they have to go soon after they arrive. I'm happy to see that original characters seeded earlier in the series are getting a payoff, though these are pretty vanilla to start with. Rand was basically a named extra before this point and still doesn't get much development either way. I expect the same from the one called Barrston. And while I enjoy a good sacrifice for the good of the many as much as the next man, Sutton doesn't do all that much with the Wolf 359 survivors before they have to make that fateful choice. I like the Klingon hyperbole going on the background, but otherwise, the conversations don't add a whole lot and no one gets a proper subplot. I'm getting used to Sutton's florid narration, but that doesn't mean it's getting better. A fair entertainment, but perhaps a missed opportunity.
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