1228. Heart of DarknessPUBLICATION: Star Trek Unlimited #6, Marvel Comics, November 1997
CREATORS: Dan Abnett and Ian Edginton (writers), Ron Randall and Art Nichols (artists)
STARDATE: 50976.4 (soon after First Contact)
PLOT: The Enterprise-E, along with a fleet of Starfleet and Klingon ships, enters the Gamma Quadrant under the leadership of Admiral Decker. En route, Troi is empathically attacked so that she sees friends as foes and vice-versa. Decker turns out to be a changeling who has led the fleet into a Jem'Hadar trap, but the cavalry arrives in the shape of a cloaked Romulan fleet out to avenge their countrymen lost in their attack on the Founders' first homeworld. While the tables are turned outside the ship, the crew defeats the Decker changeling aboard, from whom they learn this was all a diversion to get the flagship far from Earth...
CONTINUITY: The story features a new Intrepid-class USS Stargazer-A. Gowron is part of the pursuing fleet. Odo and Omega Squad's Pava and Decker guest-star. Nurse Ogawa appears. The Dominion seems to be using warbirds captured in The Die Is Cast. A character that seems to be Sam Lavelle appears (Lower Decks, but see below).
DIVERGENCES: If that IS Sam Lavelle, he's changed from helm to tactical (possible) and doesn't look a thing like the actor who played him.
PANEL OF THE DAY - At the end of a long shift on the bridge of the Enterprise...
REVIEW: Abnett and Edginton certainly don't skimp on the outer space battles in this issue! Bonus points for heavily involving a number of ships and making the choreography clear. Troi's mysterious illness remains unexplained at this point, but no doubt connects to the concept of the Telepathy War, fated to only really be explored in special of the same name. I'm not knocking the crossover itself, which has been pretty well done to date, but its title takes a while to come to fruition. The TNG chapter is high on action, and while there's no real surprise to Admiral Decker being a changeling (any other jerks want to step up? we know it's you), that conflict is well handled too. Fun, even if the focus is on the broader canvas and not the TNG crew per se. Hey, where else will you see Data beat up a Jem'Hadar?
Comments
That was supposed to be Sam but we had to imagine what he would have looked like since time had passed since "Lower Decks" and his character was not bound by strict likeness approval.