Star Trek 1292: N-Vector, Chapter 4

1292. N-Vector, Chapter 4

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - N-Vector #4, Wildstorm Comics, November 2000

CREATORS: K.W. Jeter (writer), Toby Cypress and Jason Martin (artists)

STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)

PLOT: The Romulan scientist claims to know the viroid's plans and if given command of the mission, he'll reveal them. Turns out he gave it the ability to change shape while experimenting on it and knows it will use infected DS9 parts to create its own station where it can infect everything that comes into contact with it. He and a team fly to the viroid station's coordinates where Quark (who has been infected before, so cannot be again) is walking the corridors looking for Viqtor (who appears to also be viroid matter). The viroid is cornered, but not ready to send out its spores, so it goes dormant. The Romulans stays aboard as it implodes out of the universe.

CONTINUITY: See previous issues (Jast, Nog, O'Brien).

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - That is not how loans work.
REVIEW: I can't believe I was so positive with issue 1. With the DS9 characters all acting like ciphers (really, where are their personalities?), they allow themselves to be strong-armed by one of two "mysterious men who know everything but aren't telling" in the story. Viqtor may or may not be the viroid, as his disappearance is rather bizarrely staged. The Romulan, for his part, is annoyingly knowledgeable, and really more of a deus ex machina. He caused the dilemma and knows how to get everyone out of it in a purely magical way. The cast is just there to witness it, basically. Jeter throws in viroid duplicates of the crew, which Quark avoids, but when he meets the real ones, there isn't even a test. He can tell a copy from the original and that is that. No tension, no danger, no conflict. The art, which at first I thought was interesting and unusual, has proven to be detrimental in the end. The characters are mostly devoid of expression, the action is confused, and the backgrounds are often completely missing. We get a nice two-page spread of the viroid station, but we got that in issue 3 already. Definitely not enough to dazzle you into ignoring how the story just doesn't make even internal sense before the viroid simply vanishes from our universe (for good, one hopes).