1395. Ghosts, Issue 3PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation - Ghosts #3, IDW Comics, January 2010
CREATORS: Zander Cannon (writer), Javier Aranda and Marc Rueda (artists)
STARDATE: 44751.5 (follows the last issue)
PLOT: Worf stands falsely accused of the Dorosshian leader's murder and is held at ransom in exchange for the Juuletian craft being removed from orbit and the Juuletian leaders delivered to them. Picard doesn't deal with terrorists and his show of honor makes the Dorosshians question their tactics. Data comes back from the planet with the whole of the Juuletian archives, extensive though they don't contain any information on the Zoor ore or energy. The Juuletian leaders stop the craft's survivor from revealing its mission was military in nature and silence him with a threat disguised as a prayer. Troi uses Data's new info to bring up the survivor's dead wife, vaporized by Zoor energy years ago and one of the ghosts haunting him. Following Data's clues, an away team finds the original Zoor research lab empty. The new Dorosshian leadership below grows impatient and fires a battery of nuclear missiles at the Juulietian craft and the Enterprise interposes itself, easily protecting it. The ship is however defenseless against a beam of Zoor energy that comes out of nowhere and passes through the Enterprise on its way to the Juuletian craft. Captain Picard is apparently vaporized in the process...
CONTINUITY: See previous issues (O'Brien).
DIVERGENCES: See previous issue (stardates).
PANEL OF THE DAY - Hey! This isn't BSG!
REVIEW: I guess I'd lost track of Data due to the story's denseness - he was in the Juulet Republic all along - but it still uses the character badly. He's only hear to bring even more information to bear as things get revealed on all fronts at once. For example, we're told Geordi has assessed the Juuletian craft as military, just as its survivor lets slip the same thing. The plot has built-in redundancies so that everyone is at the same place at the same thing, even if a quick tap of the combadge would have done the same (I mean, why does Riker have to be informed by Data about Geordi's findings when the latter's been on the ship all along and former's been away?). That said, there are some very cool things in this issue. Worf's defiance and Picard's speech warrior heaven. The prayer as threat. A useful Troi. And that cliffhanger.
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