1305. DeathPUBLICATION: Star Trek: Voyager - Planet Killer #3, Wildstorm Comics, May 2001
CREATORS: Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith (writers), Robert Teranishi and Claude St. Aubin (artists)
STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)
PLOT: Though their plan to deactivate the Planet Killer didn't work, Seven did pick up enough readings to design nanoprobes that could infect and stop it. However, Voyager is never able to deliver the nanoprobes into the weapon's mouth because all its probes get destroyed. The Doctor volunteers to be beamed inside where he thinks a hologram will not be detected. While Voyager provides a diversion, the Delta Flyer beams the Doctor in. He injects the Planet Killer even as Voyager gets caught in its tractor beam and the Flyer loses its lock on the Doctor. But then, it works and the weapon goes dead. Tam's people collect the useless, dead Planet Killer, perhaps to do as Kirk did with his, turn it into a memorial for its victims.
CONTINUITY: See previous issues (Planet Killer).
DIVERGENCES: None.
PANEL OF THE DAY - The Doctor walks the belly of the beast.
REVIEW: Finally, the plot comes to a head (I have a hard time believing this was originally slated to be a 4-issue mini-series when it hardly should have been more than two). It's the usual Voyager techno-solutions, but the writers at least throw logical problems at the crew. Ultimately, the resolution suffers from the tension being ramped up so high, and then the nanoprobes working after all. It's an anti-climax, albeit a telegraphed one. I do like hearing about what Kirk did with the Planet Killer after it was made derelict, a question I was asking myself earlier in the issue. The art continues to be the best thing here, but I do wish the artists had been given a story with more scope. All they got to draw was the same old things over the course of three issues.And so ends Wildstorm's Star Trek effort, and it was a good one which focused on getting good artists and writers (often from outside the medium) to tell stories published in luscious self-contained formats rather than continuing series. In a short two years, they managed to produce some memorable stuff. The next of the journey will bring us to today, as IDW takes over the license (after a 6-year hiatus for Star Trek comics).
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