Star Trek 1333: Matters of the Mind

1333. Matters of the Mind

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation - Intelligence Gathering #4, IDW Comics, April 2008

CREATORS: Scott Tipton and David Tipton (writers), David Messina (artist)

STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)

PLOT: Sabotage has diverted the Enterprise to a certain sector where it is attacked by witless Pakleds. These ram themselves against the Enterprise's shields and are destroyed. Troi is convinced they were controlled somehow. The Enterprise follows the ships' ion trails to a nearby planet where an away team beams down. The men are all killed, but the women - Ro, Crusher and Troi - all return possessed. They violently make their way to the battle bridge where they input new coordinates. Riker gets through to his Imzadi and makes her snap out of it, while the other ladies are more forcibly subdued, and a thought maker is found to be responsible on the planet. The culprits have gotten away, however, and the coordinates input into the battle bridge computer might lead to their location...

CONTINUITY: Features an early look at the stellar cartography lab (Generations). The Enterprise met the Pakleds in Samaritan Snare. Ro, Selar and O'Brien appear. A thought maker was used by Bok in The Battle.

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - When women sync up.
REVIEW: Well, I'm certainly glad the Pakled aren't the big bad of the mini-series, although the thought maker isn't a huge step above. Fun to see the Enterprise's leading ladies kicking ass, even if they had to be possessed to do it. There's a line that justifies why the thought maker isn't working like it did the first/last time we saw it, but it's a bit of a cheat anyway. And even the script acknowledges that we've seen this sort of thing before (i.e. in Power Play, which is recent history for the characters). Quite the convoluted plot to get our heroes in a certain system. It all hinges on the finale now.