Star Trek 1258: Immortal Wounds

1258. Immortal Wounds

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Early Voyages #8, Marvel Comics, September 1997

CREATORS: Ian Edginton and Dan Abnett (writers), Patrick Zircher and Greg Adams (artists)

STARDATE: 2360.3 (follows the last issue)

PLOT: Dr. Boyce is accused of the murder of a Neydan, one of many to die during a plague outbreak. The Neydans have footage of Boyce killing the patient on the table, and a Vulcan ambassador is called in to represent him. Boyce, however, confesses to hearing voices and killing the man during a psychotic break. He escapes custody, possessed, and Pike catches up to him before he is shot by the authorities. The Vulcan ambassador has mindmelded with him and reveals the truth. As a young man, Boyce came upon a crash site and inherited the entire crew's equivalent of their katra. He was plagued by their thoughts and voices until they drove him to kill the leader of the Orion raiders responsible for their deaths. The Vulcan takes their souls with him back to their homeworld and Boyce is exonerated.

CONTINUITY: The existence of the Vulcan katra was first revealed in The Search for Spock.

DIVERGENCES: See previous issue (stardate). The stardate later jumps to 860.5. The leader of the Orion raiders is not an Orion.

PANEL OF THE DAY - On Kirk's Enterprise, this would be prelude to something.
REVIEW: I'm less than enthusiastic about the revelation that Boyce was carrying the souls of an hitherto unknown psionic species. Maybe because it all comes out in exposition. Maybe because Boyce never showed symptoms in his original characterization and it seems to come out of left field. Maybe because his finding the crew's murderer is a fantastic coincidence (and redundant since he was dying from the plague). Not to mention the good luck of having a Vulcan on hand to solve the mystery for us. It makes the cast ineffectual as well. At least he didn't kill Claire Thorn (which I feared) though she doesn't appear and may never do so (which I feared). Much better are the character moments, with José laying some moves on Yeoman Colt and getting stone cold rejected (ouch!) and Nurse Carlotti getting a little more to do and say. The writers also sow the seeds of Spock's eventual Kolinar studies and his use of the katra on another Starfleet doctor.

Comments

hiikeeba said…
Back in "Dagger of the Mind" Spock said the mind meld was a little known, seldom used technique. If by "seldom used" he meant "every time we see a Vulcan" than that's proof that Vulcans can and do lie. So I find a mind meld to often be a deus ex machina thrown in by a writer who can't be bothered to work his way out of the corner he painted himself in. That's why I liked how the Vulcans were treated in Enterprise. But I guess I'm in the minority on that one.
May 19, 2010 at 9:55 AM
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