1343. The Enterprise Experiment, Part 4PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Year Four - The Enterprise Experiment #14 IDW Comics, July 2008
CREATORS: D.C. Fontana and Derek Chester (writers), Gordon Purcell (artist)
STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)
PLOT: Kirk and Spock investigate the alien city and find Preserver technology there. But it seems that Kor has stolen something, a machine that contains the Preservers' knowledge, though the Klingons must experiment with it to make it compatible with their brains. The Enterprise learns as much from interrogating their Klingon prisoner. Somewhere else, the Romulan Tal is brought to a Starfleet officer who wants to make a deal. Back at the dilithium mining planet, Kirk decides to set a trap for Kor by having Sulu impersonate a Klingon and deliver him and Spock into enemy hands. While Kor is distracted by the ensuing interrogation, Sulu gets to the Preserver machine and steals it. The Enterprise hides behind a moon while a landing party breaks Kirk and Spock out. Kor vows revenge.
CONTINUITY: See previous issues (Arex, Kor, Tal). The Preservers left an identical obelisk on Amerind (The Paradise Syndrome). McCoy reflects on seeing his daughter Joanna (the Animated series) graduate.
DIVERGENCES: None.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Preserver obelisks are just big data sticks, aren't they?
REVIEW: Flipping quickly through the next issue, I see that all plot threads converge there. So this is the penultimate issue, and there's a lot of exposition to set things up. I find that the various threads are awkwardly juxtaposed here. McCoy thinks about his daughter, part of the "family" thread running through past issues, but it fails to truly connect with the series' other themes. McCoy is suddenly protagonist and just as quickly, isn't. The scene with the Romulan comes out of nowhere, and characters are never named in it. Frustrating even if I can guess that's Tal. The Preserver stuff turns out to be a big technobabble party, and a padded one at that. My eyes glazed over. Only the rematch between Kirk and Kor holds any real interest. Kirk exchanges a few fun barbs with his Klingon homologue, and uses subterfuge to defeat him. Unfortunately, too few pages are devoted to it.
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