Star Trek 1359: What Happens Now

1359. What Happens Now

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Last Generation #3, IDW Comics, January 2009

CREATORS: Andrew Steven Harris (writer), Gordon Purcell and Bob Almond (artists)

STARDATE: Unknown (follows the last issue)

PLOT: Picard's plan is to use a mysterious Klingon ally to get access to a bird-of-prey and slingshot his crew back in time. Wesley wants none of it and takes his own little band to destroy said bird-of-prey before Picard can use it to create a timeline where the Federation and Klingons are friends. He buys his supplies from Letek the Ferengi, who promptly sells the information to Worf (who kills him). When Picard's team enters the Klingon hangar, Wesley's surprises them just before a Klingon ambush. In the melee, Wesley drops a live grenade and Ro jumps on it to save the group. Data accesses a transporter and gets everyone out of there. Picard then "punishes" Wesley by leaving him behind to take care of René, hoping the responsibility will make a man, just as the resistance made him a soldier.

CONTINUITY: See previous issues. Annika Hansen is part of Picard's cell - she never became Seven on Nine. Letek (The Last Outpost) is working as a bartender and looks a lot like Quark (he was also played by Armin Shimmerman).

DIVERGENCES: The cover puts Worf's eyepatch on the wrong side.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Bearded Wil Wheaton: Cool. Mohawk Wil Wheaton: I don't know what to think about that.
REVIEW: Ok, there are iffy bits in this one, like the mohawk and the definitely unearned gay relationship between Ro and Tasha (can't women be tough without being recast as raging lesbians?). And since the mission is a bust and Picard must start again, the plot isn't advanced very much. But here's the thing. There's a real character-driven core to this mini-series and issue 3 is all about Wesley and his resentment. He's lost friends and now a lover, and he can't see the shiny new timeline that's offered him as a positive. Picard, for his part, regrets having made Wesley into the kind of person he's become, fixated on revenge and not working towards a higher purpose. It's as much his dilemma as it is Wesley's, and it mirrors the falling out they had in Journey's End. I'm left wondering who the Klingon benefactor was. My money's on K'Elehyr. We'll see.