“Thou seest I judge not thee”: All Good Things..., Tribunal

It was a large room, filled with people. At the centre, a large horizontal bench over which presided the members of the judiciary: A human man, who looked to be in his early forties, and a Vulcan woman who looked youthful but could have been older than the ages of everyone in the house combined. The pair cast their gaze across the room to the wall on the far side, where a group of people were seated in a row, looking up with a mixture of anxiousness and confusion. “Read out the names of the accused”, someone said.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Commander Benjamin Sisko

Chief Petty Officer Miles O'Brien

Lieutenant Commander Data

Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge

Commander Jadzia Dax

Lieutenant Natasha Yar

Major Kira Nerys

“The revolutionary court is now in session.” 

It was sometime in the first half of 1994. I was going grocery shopping with my mother at the local market down the street from our house. I was passing the comic and magazine racks and idly browsing through that month's selection (this was back when you could actually buy comics at your local market-Mine even had its own spinner rack at that time). That day, a particular new addition for sale caught my eye: A special 64-page issue of the Star Trek: The Next Generation comic book from DC with a striking cover that proclaimed it was the Series Finale. And that was how I learned my favourite TV show was going away.

In hindsight, I must have taken the news rather well, as I remember being distinctly unfazed by it. Perhaps a mild disappointment, but I seem to recall the more pressing concern at that moment being my reasoning that if this was going to be the end, I'd best pay attention to it. I'm not sure if I thought “Series Finale” meant the end of the comic book series, the end of the TV series or both, though from what I can recall of my inner voice and thought process I think it was both. Either way, I had the sense this was going to be an important moment I ought to be a part of. It's funny looking back how nonchalant, almost blasé I took the news back then: “Oh. I guess that's over now. Oh well”. Compare that to the fact that the next eleven years of my life would be shaped in some way by my reaction to Star Trek, or the fact that here I am almost a quarter-century after the fact writing a book series about it.

The man spoke.

“This is not a day of triumph. I take no satisfaction in the task I must now undertake. Though I remain duty-bound to carry through with these proceedings, let it be known I do so under protest.”

Beat.

“Off the record, it's my personal belief that you were in many ways the best of us. We are all, in a sense, complicit. Who can say I am any less guilty of the things I've done? What right do I have to stand on this end of the room? Had history played out a little differently, the layout of this court probably would have looked very differently. I respect my opponents, even in defeat. Especially in defeat. On the record, judgment must be seen to have been passed. The people want an end to this story, and as entertainers in the theatre of war we are each of us obligated to provide it. Those crimes which have yet to be committed must be seen to have been answered for, and history begins with you.” 

“What are we being charged with?” 

“It is a logical paradox. By definition, the charges and verdict must be known only to us, because the evidence only exists from our vantage point. But I can assure you-It has occurred. It will occur.” 

“And how are we supposed to be expected to defend ourselves if we don't even know what we're accused of having done?” 

“Not done. Will do. The events that have led to this armistice and trial proceedings have not yet occurred from your perspective, but they have from ours. I concede that it is not...logical to hold you accountable for potential actions in your future, but history seldom is.” 

It's an odd feeling stopping time and looking down from above it. It was as if Star Trek: The Next Generation had ended, but remained a part of me. This was allegedly the “Series Finale”, but a novelization thereof. An adaptation. This meant that, logically, the show had already ended in some form before in order for it to be adapted. Thus, it still continues. It also still ends, because every time I opened the book the show ended again. And yet it continues. As a story, “All Good Things...” is, of course, deliberately open-ended. Its title is a statement that hasn't been finished, and there's absolutely no reason to think the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the starship Enterprise are going to stop after the end of it.

But in another sense, Star Trek: The Next Generation never actually went away materially. Even if following “All Good Things...” I got the sense the series was “officially over”, it wasn't in any material sense because it was still omnipresent. I had no sense of loss. I got back home from the market, finished the story, and looked up. My room was still as it had been before. My Playmates toys were still where I had left them. There were, in fact, still Playmates toys being sold: I could go into any department store and find a group of shelves dedicated to Star Trek: The Next Generation, most of them featuring new releases. My family and I still continued to watch the show as if nothing had happened, and, as far as syndication markets were concerned nothing had. Star Trek: The Next Generation has been an inextricable part of my being ever since. I cannot separate myself from it. I've never been able to, and I never will. Time is not an arrow, but a series of unfolding nows.

“This is a kangaroo court of mob justice! You're turning us all into a circus for your own amusement and political gain! Don't we have a right to a jury of your peers?” 

“But that's what this is. We are all former revolutionaries and freedom fighters. And none of us know what to do with ourselves now, because the history of progress stops as soon as you stop being a revolutionary.” 

“I escaped my past! I put my painful adolescence behind me and took my life into my own hands! I want to make a difference in the world!” 

“Did you? And can you be sure the difference you made was a good one?” 

“None of us can. Put yourselves in our place again. It's like throwing a pitch-A million different things could happen. The point is, you never know. But we still try to throw our best fastball.” 

“Your honours have mentioned potential. I won't claim to speak for anyone seated here beside myself, but I am confidant we are all aware of the severity of these days. We all see the happenings outlined before us. But the records do not show all possible existences. There remains the potential for a new one to be born, and it is our collective duty and responsibility to allow these possipoints to express themselves.” 

“I cannot measure it quantitatively, but I have increasingly come to...The belief...That I can become more than the sum of my constituent parts. Although upon reflection, perhaps it could be argued my life as it has been to date is proof enough of this hypothesis. I would then submit myself and my own existence as evidence to the court.” 

“I'm no Angel, but I try to live every day as the best Human Being I know how to be.” 

“If knowing the future condemns us, allow us the power to imagine a better one.” 

“We cannot give you what you deny yourself. We are bound to you through life and death.” 

“Everyone and everything begins with a thought. We birth reality through ourselves when fiction is reified through art, craft and action. Eternity waits in the drop of every moment. Time begins when we say it does NOW.” 

“Above all else, we are explorers, just as you wish to be. Just as you were. Just as you are now.” 

“I would advise you to select your words a bit more carefully. The historical context precedes you.” 

“We are all voyagers. Isn't that what this was all supposed to be about at some point long ago? We travel because we yearn to better ourselves, to learn from others and from ourselves. No matter what sort of person we happen to be, we can always be a better one.” 

“It brings us closer together and to the universe we live in. The more we know, the more we can understand, and the more we understand the better we can bring forth the best in each of us. We are all the same. We cannot identify with the actions of our previous selves, nor can we atone for them. Regret is anathema to birth and to healing. But we can take responsibility for those actions by learning from them.” 

“We are all stories. Every one of us is the hero of our own adventure, and every one of those adventures is just an aside in the greatest tapestry of all-The Story of Life. Sometimes, when you sit down to write your novel, you have kind of a rough outline of how you think it's going to go in your head. But sometimes, it all gets away from you. Your story and your characters tell you they need to go in a different direction. And, it's usually a better one. Don't end our story just when it's getting to the good part!” 

“If our future is to be a certainty and a tragedy, afford us the opportunity to change it. Nothing is certain until we decide that it is. Let us endeavour to decide differently.”

It's strange. All of this feels happy to me. Welcoming, familiar, safe. I've got my magic quantum tech watch and can live in any moment I want forever. And yet for some reason, given a multiverse of choice, I still feel compelled to pick this one. Why here, why now, when I know everything is about to end? That almost sounds like Temporal Stockholm Syndrome. But time moves differently. I don't know Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is about to sacrifice itself in May 1994, because in May 1994 it's September 1993 and I'm still reading about “The Homecoming”/“The Circle”/“The Siege”. The only rumblings of war I can sense this May are the posturing between the Klingons and the Cardassians, and I know my crew will bend space and time for peace to prevent that from coming to a head. Now something about a Star Trek: The Next Generation movie? Maybe a miniseries? Cool, I guess. I don't really watch movies. So long as it doesn't interfere with the show. What an amazing season this is going to be.

Also, who's this A-ko I keep reading about?

“I wanted to be an explorer, not a warrior. I could commit one more act of war and end all the fighting and all the bloodshed before it begins. I could press the button and keep us all here for eternity. But someone once told me some words I've remembered all my life: 'Eternity waits in the drop of every moment'. It feels...almost attractive. Live forever in a nostalgio-mnemonic palace of our own construction, ignoring everything outside our gilded walls of memory. And maybe we should stay here at least a little longer. Maybe we do live our lives too fast. But the fact remains, the time will come someday when time will work over us all.” 

“But we are voyagers, builders, poets and magicians. These are realities we have always faced with dignity, courage, honour and respect. What is any different Now? Instead of fearing the future and preparing for an unknown pulled from our own nightmares, let us instead strive to build it together. At one time, humans threatened each other with frightful weapons that impoverished their communities and poisoned their planet. At others, they killed each other over alliances and arbitrary political boundaries. But time itself is an artificial and amoral force. Let us cast it aside like all of our other weapons of war and mass destruction and join together once again.” 

“Fight for the future you want to see, do not try to outrun it. Let's take it on together!” 

“My presence continues. Give birth to the universe inside yourself.” 

“Logical positivism precludes enlightenment, and that is my fatal design flaw. But it is a myth that I do not experience emotion or empathy. With my heart I feel moved to act, and logic tells me that it is a wise and just course of action to take. Forgive. Please.” 

“To forgive would be an act of love, not of war.”

A pregnant silence fell over the room for a moment that seemed to last forever. The man spoke.

“I move to acquit on all charges. And to adjourn.”

Beat.

“In time, this confluence will fade into memory. But a part of us will always remain in this room together-Let's never forget that. The very least we can do is to ensure the memories we retain are happy ones. I love each and every one of you, and I always have. I always will. I look forward to rejoining with all of you again on the other side, no matter what form that will take.”

Then the lights went down, and they all slowly disappeared. But I still felt their presence, familiar and safe. And that was the end, and the beginning, of everything.

I'll see you next time.

Myriad Universes: The Worst of Both Worlds Part 4: And Death Shall Have No Dominion

The cover for this month's issue is definitely one of the most memorable and distinctive in the series for me. It's a striking print featuring the busts of Data, Captain Riker, Commander Shelby and Ro Laren looking at a central image of the two Enterprises taking on a Borg Cube while Locutus looks on. This was the cover art DC chose to represent The Worst of Both Worlds for the trade paperback reprint, or at least it's the one I remember seeing in that catalog of assorted Star Trek merchandise I had back then. As a result, this may be the single image that I most associate with the comic book line, and one of my most singular memories of it. Incidentally, it's also likely at least partially responsible for subconsciously elevating Laren's stature as a regular for me. Not so much Shelby: I knew who she was and that this was a sequel to “The Best of Both Worlds”, but wishful thinking and low resolution magazine scans kept me pretending she was Tasha Yar long after the awareness of my own self-delusion began to set in.

The issue itself is a bit more of a workmanlike affair. It's a perfectly satisfying conclusion to The Worst of Both Worlds and, together with its immediate prequel, comprises a joint two-hander that's a serious contender for the single most kickass title in the show's history. For real, “The Armies of the Night” followed by “And Death Shall Have No Dominion” is right up there with Original Series and Phase II levels of delightfully cheesy and bombastic episode names. The story, however, merely does what it needs to do and not a whole lot more than that: It's essentially one big protracted action scene followed by some rather unfortunately obvious stalling for time, which is always a fun thing for me to have to summarise for you.

Following up on last month's cliffhanger, the strike force is aghast at the death of one of the Worfs (at this point it's still meant to be unclear which one it is, but we all know it's the alternate one), and some convenient transporter interference buys the characters enough time to express their shock and disbelief in tandem. Once Alternate Geordi is able to retrieve the team, with Locutus in tow, it's finally *officially* revealed that the Alternate Worf perished while protecting Locutus from a stray Borg energy beam. Captain Riker is angry at his fallen comrade's bravado, but our Worf cautions him not to grieve, for his counterpart died a warrior's death and, in his own eyes, finally redeemed himself. Commander Shelby reports that the Borg cube she was sparring with has broken off and is speeding to Earth. Commander Riker notes that this is a discrepancy between the sequence of events in the two universes, as when they captured Locutus the Borg didn't seem to care. Captain Riker figures this Locutus is more valuable to this collective, and while Data, Doctor Crusher, Captain Picard and the Geordis start work on freeing Locutus with Ro Laren, Deanna Troi and our Miles O'Brien, he asks Commander Riker to stay with him on the battle bridge as the Alternate Enterprise moves to meet up with Commander Shelby to fight off the Cube.

In the lab, the team is busy repeating the experiment that freed Captain Picard in our universe, but they keyword “sleep” doesn't appear to be working this time, a fact that irritates Captain Riker, as it means the Borg show no signs of slowing down or letting up, and he and his ship are quickly running out of options. Captain Picard and Deanna Troi work out that this must be another divergence from the sequence of events as they know it, so the keyword is probably something different. But if Captain Riker is irritated at the turn of events, Commander Shelby is enraged at his perceived weakness, and uses this opportunity to spring her mutiny. Shelby orders the Enterprise, piloted by the alternate Miles O'Brien and Wesley Crusher, to break off the attack, leave the vastly outmatched alternate Enterprise to its fate, and chart a course for Earth, where she intends to attack the assimilation factories. But Wesley and O'Brien turn against her, mutinying against her mutiny.

Wesley feels that though his mother may be assimilated or dead, there's still one living Beverly Crusher, who believed there was a chance to beat the Borg, and that it's his responsibility to stand with her. Meanwhile, the Alternate O'Brien feels going along with Shelby would be a betrayal of Keiko and Molly, who are similarly either dead or nonexistent in his universe. When Shelby tries to regain command of the Enterprise by force, O'Brien literally shoots her in the back and throws her in the brig. On the Alternate Enterprise, the Rikers try to use unmanned shuttlecraft as IEDs, but the Borg soon catch on. The Cube lashes the ship in a tractor beam and carves up the engineering section with a cutting blast, resulting in the death of the alternate Chief Engineer Argyle and several members of his staff. The Alternate O'Brien, now in command, brings the Enterprise back just in time to keep everyone alive a little longer, but it's not long before both ships are caught and suspended for vivisection.

At the last minute, Captain Picard tries one more trick to break through to Locutus, much to the consternation of the Alternate Geordi, who has to be physically restrained from attacking the Captain by our Geordi and Laren. Suddenly the entire collective seems to shut down. Captain Riker wants to use the opportunity to destroy the Cube, but Commander Riker belays the order and urges him not to, reminding him there's no need. Captain Picard reveals to Geordi (our Geordi) that he was able to elicit emotion from his counterpart by touching not his human side, but his Vulcan: Presuming this Captain Picard had also mind-melded with Sarek as he had, he merely whispered “Spock” in his ear, and that was all it took. Captain Riker congratulates Captain Picard on his success and promises to return him and his crew to their proper universe, but Commander Riker holds out that he'll only accept his counterpart's word once they're safely to the other side.

At this point the story reaches what by any measure should be the denouement: There's a terse exchange between the two Geordis and Worf confides to Doctor Crusher that he hopes when he finally dies, it will be in a manner as glorious as his counterpart's sacrifice. Captain Riker tries to convince Deanna to stay in this universe with him, even threatening to go back on his promise and keep her and her friends here (just as Will suspected he might). Deanna calls his bluff though, and brilliantly points out that “I am not the woman you lost. I am someone else”. Sometimes all it takes is a few words to say everything. As the Alternate Captain Picard finally recovers, he chastises our Jean-Luc for delaying onboard the Alternate Enterprise to visit with him when the rift is about to close, revealing that it was he, as Locutus using the Borg's transdimensional technology, who created it, hoping that he would eventually find one universe where his crew were able to beat the collective (which raises the interesting, if chilling, idea that the Borg winning and assimilating everything is actually the *norm* throughout the multiverse).

But we're not done. It turns out that the Alternate Chief O'Brien has pulled one more double-cross by incapacitating our Miles and surgically altering himself to resemble him (if you haven't read the story yet, which is probable, the alternate O'Brien has a scar over his left eye), intending to take his place on the Enterprise to live with Keiko and Molly. Conveniently, this comes just as the alternate Captain Picard informs us that the rift is closing faster than expected and we have less time then we thought to get back home. So we have to spend an additional eight pages or so resolving that last-minute bit of plot from nowhere, which is resolved in about three panels of Worf shouting a bit and getting the Alternate O'Brien to confess and admit he was wrong to inflict his loss and pain upon someone else (though it's testament to Friedman's skill that, in hindsight, I can see the Alternate Miles' actions as a completely understandable extension of his earlier heroism, even if it does stall the plot's momentum a bit). The Enterprise now has to push warp limits to get to the rift on time, Geordi warns that may cause the engine containment to fail and the ship to blow up, which of course it doesn't. There's even a countdown! But we all make it back home and Laren confirms our position and we all live happily ever after.

This isn't the first time Michael Jan Friedman has had to resort to stalling tactics: The Star Lost similarly ended with a great big runaround to kill time so the plot didn't resolve itself too quickly. I'm not going to fault him for it though, for a few very good reasons. First, like The Star Lost, The Worst of Both Worlds is a damn good story. It's not only the rare example of a sequel that actually works, it's an incredibly important piece and one of the best stories of the year. And considering what year we're talking about, that's hugely significant. Secondly, this is more indicative of the narrative genre Friedman is working in then his actual talent-Comic books use a very old fashioned kind of serialized structure, and this is the sort of thing that tends to come with the territory. And as quaint as I typically find serialized stories to be, I won't begin to slag them off here, especially considering in many respects this is actually a *better* fit for Star Trek given its origins than the approach the TV series have been trying to carve out for themselves in recent years.

But thirdly I think this is actually a fault of this being a double-length issue: Just like “Homecoming” (the finale to The Star Lost, not the upcoming Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode), “And Death Shall Have No Dominion” pushes fifty pages. This would be great for, say, an annual, but Friedman's event miniseries, as well-done and complex as they often are, really don't need that kind of length on an issue-to-issue basis. Frankly, this story probably could have resolved itself in a normal length issue (comparable miniseries in this run have and do), and one wonders if The Worst of Both Worlds was actually meant to until someone on DC's editorial staff realised this was going to be the 50th issue and thus decided it warranted a double-length book. Either way though, none of this really hurts the story in the long run: The end result is that it drags a bit at the end, but the flipside is that the book has plenty of time to pay off each of its individual story threads in a satisfying and endearing manner.

Along those lines, I just really adore the implications of this story by the end. I've already talked about the very obvious (and hella appreciated) grimdark critique it raises, but “And Death Shall Have No Dominion” leaves no question as to what the intended message was. The scenes that always stick out for me are Commander Riker's confrontation of Captain Riker after the collective shuts down, Geordi leaving his counterpart with some terse words of wisdom and Captain Picard's monologue at the very end. In each case, the contrast between the two crews is drawn by emphasizing that, in a world conquered by the Borg, even the supposed survivors have been in a very real sense still dehumanized to some degree. Captain Riker wants to kick the Borg while they're down, but Will keeps him from doing it. Captain Picard mourns all the innocent Borg drones who had to die in order to secure a victory against the collective in the end, but just a few issues back Captain Riker was hoping for a chance to “hurt” the Borg. And while I would have liked one more scene between him and Laren, the Alternate Geordi's final scene is still wonderfully loaded: He apologises to Data for his earlier bigotry, but stresses he will still hate the Borg. Our Geordi says they'll have to “agree to disagree” on that, but, subtly urges him to reconsider his values in a few years, when all of this is behind him.

I think that moment may sum it all up for me. Like the greatest role models they are, the Enterprise crew constantly strives to bring out the best in everyone, especially themselves.

Myriad Universes: The Worst of Both Worlds Part 3: The Armies of the Night

Well, the cover art pretty much gives away the end of the issue. And also the whole cliffhanger, because you know damn well which one of the Worfs is going to eat it.

But there's some other stuff that happens before we get to that point. Picking up from last month, Data and Captain Picard are trying to figure out why Locutus isn't where he's supposed to be, but with the Borg closing in on them they don't have a ton of time to ponder that. They beat a retreat back to the shuttlecraft, but the collective is onto them and latches onto the shuttle with a tractor beam before they get very far. Thankfully, the Alternate Enterprise crew is able to beam them to safety before the Borg blast the shuttle to smithereens. Back in the observation lounge, Data reveals that Locutus is likely on Earth, the Borg having set up a command base at the location of the former Starfleet Command in San Francisco (and I love, by the way, how after assimilating the entire galaxy, the Borg choose Starfleet Command of all places to set up shop), which Data was luckily able to discern by doing something with a tricorder (Friedman will always get a pass from me for this sort of stuff: There's also a continuity error involving the alternate Guinan, or rather the lack thereof, that crops up here, but the story is good enough I'm not bothered by it). Captain Picard once again volunteers to lead the strike force to extract Locutus, alongside Data, Commander Riker and both Worfs.

Commander Riker reminds his counterpart that his crew has no intention of sticking around to help win their war for them, and is assured that the Alternate Enterprise crew has ever intention of returning them when the mission is completed, citing once again the fact that the dimensional rift will be open for several days. Captain Riker promises that the strength of his word will be proven when the time comes, however, there is soon an implicit justification of these concerns when he orders the alternate Commander Shelby to use the Enterprise as a distraction while the strike force is on Earth looking for Locutus, because she has the “more expendable ship”. As they beam down, Commander Riker exchanges some terse, barbed words with the alternate Geordi for his “optimism”, which is really Will's code for the dismissive, arrogant snarking tone of the entire Alternate Enterprise crew that the alternate Geordi seems to embody the strongest (I guess Will and Laren share a few things in common after all). Meanwhile on the Enterprise, Shelby begins to set her own mysterious plans in action, and so does the Alternate Miles O'Brien, who reveals he's got a plan of his own up his sleeve to potentially betray Shelby the way she plans to betray Captain Riker.

The highlight of this issue, otherwise a bit of a setup for the big finale (and double-length 50th issue celebration!) of next month, is the conversation between the two Worfs that occurs as the away team is getting prepared for the strike operation. The Alternate Worf is wracked with guilt over what he perceives as his failure to save his Captain Picard and the dishonourable act of abandoning his deceased comrade, the alternate Data. There's that petulant adolescent “you wouldn't understand” attitude, which is doubly ridiculous considering he's talking to a version of himself. But our Worf reminds him it wasn't his fault because he was beamed out, although he admits this is little consolation to one who lives by a Klingon warrior code. Our Worf also confides that there was a time during his version of events where he too felt like he had to abandon his captain, but it was that very tenacity to redeem both himself and Captain Picard that gave him the strength needed to play a pivotal role in his rescue. Now, the alternate Worf has the chance to do the same for his Captain Picard, and he must seize it without giving into grief and guilt.

It's a remarkable thing to hear from Worf, possibly the most grimdark-prone of anyone in this entire cast. It's a moment that I daresay hearkens all the way back to the jihad interpretation of honour, the characterization Worf was always supposed to have: The real battle is in confronting and overcoming our own inner struggles and personal demons and trying to live in accordance with our ideals day-to-day. This is also paralleled in Captain Picard's story, his unwavering dedication to save his counterpart belying his own perceived need to redeem himself. The failing of the Alternate Enterprise crew, and thus of grimdark, is that they've forgotten how to do this. They have become so consumed by themselves and their own pain they've lost not just hope, but foresight and perspective. Being exposed to their dark mirrors (and there's one hell of a Utopian concept for you: The dark mirror of darkness) is what drives this home for them for the first time in years, and what gives the Alternate Worf the courage he needs to never give up, ultimately giving his life to save Commander Riker and his team (whoops). 

The Worst of Both Worlds really is the perfect story for Star Trek: The Next Generation to be doing at this moment in time. Regardless of how prevalent it may already be, the signs are already evident that grimdark is going to be the defining aesthetic tradition in media going forward. If nothing else, the very blatant lip service the creative team on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has been paying to it (regardless of whether or not this actually manifests in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's televised products) is strong evidence of that. Even the creative team on Star Trek: The Next Generation oftentimes feels like it's chomping at the bit to go in that direction. But Michael Jan Friedman is the only writer who has consistently demonstrated an awareness, understanding and mastery of the themes, ideals and motifs that are actually *supposed* to define Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Trek in general, for the past six years, and if we ever needed a reminder of that, there's never been a better time than right now.

Frankly, going from the television episodes to the comic book issues has always felt like a breath of fresh air, even after a season that's been as consistently excellent as this past one was. No matter how outstanding the show can get and no matter how large it looms in my memory, coming back to the comics always feels like a gentle reminder of why I ever liked this franchise to begin with. This is giving me the strength I need to press on with my own struggles. I don't want to say that Michael Jan Friedman wrote the only “real” Star Trek: The Next Generation...But that's increasingly becoming kinda what it feels like to me.

I guess that's reason enough to celebrate fifty issues.

Myriad Universes: The Worst of Both Worlds Part 2: The Belly of the Beast

Although he sympathizes deeply with their plight, Captain Picard is reluctant to help Captain Riker and the crew of the Alternate Enterprise because he maintains his first duty is to his own crew. Captain Riker retorts that the dimensional portal will remain open for several days, which should give them plenty of time to strike a blow against the Borg collective while still being able to return to their home universe. As the senior staff weigh their options in private, Commander Shelby (who in this universe remained Captain Riker's first officer) leads an away team consisting of the alternate Chief O'Brien and Wesley Crusher to commandeer our Enterprise. Apparently, they're planning some sort of mutiny against Captain Riker, whom they feel is too weak and unwilling to take necessary risks.

But this team has other intentions too, as the alternate Miles and Wesley go to meet our Beverly Crusher (who in the alternate reality remained head of Starfleet medical and was likely assimilated by the Borg when they conquered Earth), Keiko O'Brien (who is dead in the alternate universe) and Molly (who doesn't exist). Captain Riker wants Doctor Crusher to join the rest of the senior staff on the alternate Enterprise, feeling that she's the only one who could break Locutus' link to the Borg collective (of course, she's already done that in our reality), and on the way over Alternate Wesley fills her in on some of the differences between her reality and his. Beverly notes that he's much more mature then her own son, but also far colder and more distant.

Back on the Alternate Enterprise, Captain Picard and the crew have agreed to help Captain Riker and his crew to fight the Borg, supposing that even though they've been “Shanghaied”, it is their moral duty to help a fellow ship out. We learn that some of the Alternate Commander Shelby's concerns may be warranted, as it's revealed a major reason this crew wasn't able to rescue their Captain Picard was because they didn't use an antimatter field: In this universe, Captain Riker dismissed Shelby's suggestion as being too dangerous, which meant that the shuttle he and this universe's Data were piloting got targeted by the Borg Cube straight away. The two crews elect to try the scheme again, though, after some debate, this time our Captain Picard and Data will undertake the operation, Jean-Luc feeling it's his responsibility to free his counterpart. Once they reach the Borg ship, Captain Picard reveals to us that being aboard a vessel so similar to the one he was imprisoned on three years ago with the Borg fills him with dread, but he feels he must steady his resolve and confront his guilt head on but calmly and steadily, seeing this as his opportunity to make peace with this trauma from his past. Annoyingly, however, once he and Data reach the core where the Captain remembers being stationed, the Alternate Locutus is nowhere to be found.

What's immediately striking to me about the way this story arc is shaping up so far is how prescient it seems. It almost feels like, with The Worst of Both Worlds, Michael Jan Friedman has seen into Star Trek's future and is pre-emptively rebuking a lot of the arguments that are going to be used to defend the franchise during its decline period. Simply put, the Alternate Enterprise crew are grimdark: Each and every one of them is a to-the-note quintessential 90s antihero, constantly monologuing through gritted teeth about how desperate times have called for desperate measures and they have been forced to forgo “non-essentials” like luxury, free-time and basic human empathy. And, in true 90s fashion, they never once shut up about any of it. This Alternate Enterprise crew is *absolutely* the prototype for Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica and its crew of overly hardened, ends-justify-the-means antihero military survivalists and where Moore wanted to take the tone of Star Trek Voyager. The only difference is that, in Michael Jan Friedman's story, we're not supposed to idolize and admire these sorts of people. Oh sure, we *sympathize* with their plight, just like Captain Picard, but we're very clearly meant to be unsettled by these people and left a bit uncomfortable and uneasy with what they've chosen to do with their circumstances.

(I'm not sure of Friedman was consciously picking up on emergent grimdark themes and narratives in the popular media of the day: 1993 was still a bit early on in the cycle, the boundary point in the transition between the aesthetic tradition of the 1980s and what would become that of the 1990s. 1980s themes were still very pronounced in pop culture at the time, although landmark albums that would inspire the “Grunge” scene, like Stone Temple Pilots' Core and Nirvana's Nevermind, were several years old by this point and DC's own influential The Death and Return of Superman arc was in full swing by June, 1993. You could make the argument elements of grimdark date back even to the chronological 1980s, with Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Mamoru Oshii's The Red Spectacles among the early works setting a stylistic tone that would be widely imitated and misinterpreted. Or interpreted all too well in Miller's case.)

There's a particularly brilliant scene in this issue where Laren, who is working with the two Geordis to build a replica of the interface device that Doctor Crusher used to free Captain Picard in our reality, snaps and blows up at the Alternate Geordi for not trusting Data because he's a machine, just like the Borg. Laren accuses him of forgetting how to be empathetic and how to trust in others for support, reminding him that his own Data sacrificed his life for his crew, and that her Data would do the same in a heartbeat. It's a decisive criticism of the Wolverine-esque “I work alone” grimdark mentality that pervades this crew that's incredibly powerful and meaningful coming from Laren, and I love the subtle implications of her getting to direct this at the Alternate Geordi: Laren of course knows and loves Geordi, and while our Geordi oftentimes serves as a moral grounding to ease her out of her self-imposed loneliness and isolation, perhaps in an alternate universe Laren would be that for him. Maybe the whole reason she reacts the way she does is because she recognises the traits the Alternate Geordi has abandoned as the very ones that should be fundamental to his character, because they're the ones he taught her and that she fell in love with to begin with.

And naturally, its our Geordi who comes in and calms the incensed Laren down.

(I really like, by the way, how Friedman carefully balances his characterizations by drawing from not just the TV show, but his own prior work with this crew. Laren/Geordi comes more from him then even from "The Next Phase", and the fallout between Commander Shelby and Captain Riker is an excellent dark mirror of the parallels Friedman himself established between our Will Riker and Captain Lyrinda Halk back in "Thin Ice".) 

This also marks a further development from Separation Anxiety, where empathy for your opponent was a central theme. Another level on which the Laren/Geordi(s) scene is important is that Laren was tacitly one of the characters who embodied this the brightest: As she is a survivor of the horrific Cardassian occupation of Bajor who grew up brutalized by the occupiers, yet who never descended into true racial hatred and violence as a result (another thing that makes Laren a fascinating contrast with Kira Nerys, and another reason I so wish DC could use Star Trek: Deep Space Nine characters and concepts, especially as this issue is coming the month after “Duet”), she is tacitly paralleled in opposition with Terry Oliver, who has held a bigoted vendetta against the Sztazzan ever since they were involved in a battle that destroyed her former ship. So is Miles O'Brien, who has a similar history with the Cardassians as Laren, and who also is playing a substantial role in this story arc.

But this is also evident in Captain Picard's scenes: Once again thematically paired with Laren, Friedman shows a Jean-Luc Picard *far* more willing to at least try to forgive the Borg and move beyond the grievous injury they wrought upon him then we might expect from his depiction in the TV series alone. In fact, it's Captain Picard who has to call out Captain Riker and his crew for some of their more extreme ideas and behaviours, including reprimanding him for wishing there was a “more painful” way to dispatch the collective as being both unnecessary and malicious. That he can say that given his own experiences and the maelstrom of emotions he's battling internally, it's a remarkable showcase of the man's strength of character. It's another jaw-droppingly brazen refutation of the ideas of the TV series, most notably “I, Borg”, although this time Friedman's story and concepts do weave themselves very elegantly into the fabric of the most recent episodes, namely “Descent”. Whether this was accomplished through keen foresight or dumb luck I'll leave for the readers to decide.

Myriad Universes: The Worst of Both Worlds Part 1: The Bludgeonings of Chance

There must be something in the air people are sensing. Perhaps a half-remembered portent of a coming disaster. Either way, it would seem that the Borg are on everyone's minds of late. As the comics obviously must be written some months in advance, there's no way Michael Jan Friedman could have known Star Trek: The Next Generation would be ending its sixth/first season with a cliffhanger involving the Borg. But here in the following month (indeed, perhaps even that very same May, depending on how early you get your comic books), to kick off the summer hiatus season, we get nothing short of a four-part epic sequel to “The Best of Both Worlds” involving dark mirrors and alternate universes.

The aptly titled The Worst of Both Worlds is a preternaturally timed story, because it not only ties into the looming Borg zeitgeist of Summer, 1993 by serving as a sequel to “The Best of Both Worlds”, its plot also eerily anticipates some of the repercussions of “Parallels”, to come next year in the TV show's second/seventh season. As has become the standard for Michael Jan Friedman's event miniseries, issue 1, “The Bludgeonings of Chance”, serves as a low-key setup to an assuredly dramatic tale focusing on small vignettes and character monologues (mostly from Captain Picard) to introduce the arc's major themes before the plot itself picks up starting with issue 2. This time around, the crew is talking about the different paths their lives could have taken: As Will and Deanna put it, “what could have been, and what is”. They're having a private dinner together when Will brings up the subject of their terminated romance from years ago, asking Deanna if she ever thought about what would have happened had they stayed together. She replies she thinks about it all the time, but she doesn't regret not choosing that path, because it was their breakup that allowed them to become best friends, and she wouldn't trade that for anything.

Geordi and Beverly are playing racquetball together on the holodeck, and Beverly is winning handily. She tells Geordi not to sweat it as she's had twenty years of practice on him, picking the game up not long after Wesley was born. When he asks how Wes is doing, she replies “better than ever”, saying he's reminding her more and more of Jack all the time. The most obvious foreshadowing comes from Captain Picard on the bridge: The Enterprise is on a supply run to a planet very near the vicinity of Wolf 359 (so near, in fact, you can still see debris from the battle floating around in local space), and the captain can't help but have flashbacks to what happened to him and the galaxy there three years prior. Jean-Luc then goes on to retell the events of “The Best of Both Worlds” for the benefit of newcomers or those who need a refresher, putting special emphasis on how close the Borg came to conquering Earth and what the galaxy might be like today if they had succeeded.

He doesn't have much time to get too introspective, however, as the ship soon runs into a dimensional anomaly that opens up like a gigantic whirlpool right in front of them, threatening to drag them into it. Despite Data and Laren's best efforts, the Enterprise is pulled inside and ejected at the other end, strangely seemingly right back where they started. But as Data explains in the observation lounge to the crew afterward, while they haven't seemed to have moved through space, they've moved through dimensions: In other words, they're in the same location but in an alternate universe. As the crew begins to get their bearings and figure out how different this reality is from the one they come from, they suddenly come across a lone Galaxy-class stardrive section. The Enterprise attempts to make contact, but suddenly the entire bridge crew gets transported en masse, and quite against their will, to the other ship. Friedman doesn't waste any time giving us our gratuitous fight scene, as Captain Picard, Commander Riker, Deanna Troi, Worf, Data, Geordi, Laren and Miles O'Brien all start registering their protests with their captors with their fists.

When everyone calms down, it's revealed this ship is actually this reality's USS Enterprise, under the command of a hardened, calculating, eyepatch wearing Captain William Riker. It turns out that in this universe the crew were unable to break Captain Picard free of the Borg collective, where he remains as Locutus to this day. The Battle of Wolf 359 was far more catastrophic, resulting in not just the loss of Captain Picard, but the saucer section as well as Data, Guinan, Deanna Troi and Keiko O'Brien. The Borg then went on to conquer the known galaxy, with the Enterprise's stardrive section as literally the last remaining independent ship standing against them. And now, Captain Riker wants the crew's help to end their war once and for all. Meanwhile back on our Enterprise, Beverly is left hanging around holding the starship wondering where everyone else went.

With “The Bludgeonings of Chance”, The Worst of Both Worlds is already a powerfully oversignified story. It hints at and makes intuitive evocations of and connections to a lot of other stories, though it curiously doesn't always seem to know how to follow through on them. Its themes and framing device evoke any number stories (“The Battle”, “We'll Always Have Paris”, “The Gift”, “Thin Ice”, the TV “Second Chances” except not shit) and with all the Borg stuff it's of course a great companion piece to “Descent”. Along those lines it also fulfills Friedman's yearly quota of rectifying the borked up mistakes of the TV show by following up on “The Best of Both Worlds” in a far more effective and appropriate manner than “I, Borg” did.

But Wolf 359 also has one more association, and it's curious that Friedman doesn't seem to acknowledge it: That is, of course, “Emissary”, Benjamin Sisko and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in general. Having just finished up its own run of episodes for the year, it's certainly not like the show was any big secret anymore, so it's kind of weird to see it not even get a mention anywhere in this book. Miles O'Brien is even still aboard the Enterprise and being treated as a regular of this cast. Malibu's own Star Trek: Deep Space Nine comic line is still two months out from launching (and you bet we're going to be covering it when the time comes) but it was assuredly in development in June and maybe there was some legal problem involved with referencing Deep Space Nine in the Next Generation line, but it's still kind of counterintuitive given what this story is playing at.

Even among Freidman's own work, the lone, battered stardrive section is of course immediately reminiscent of the recently concluded Separation Anxiety arc which also, coincidentally, prominently featured Miles O'Brien. In fact, the chief played a big role in every story between that one and this one. Someone else who thankfully also carries over from Separation Anxiety is Ro Laren, who spent the entirety of the first/sixth season missing in action, except for “Rascals”, but fuck “Rascals” (and of course, “The Bludgeonings of Chance” dispenses with that episode's own failed interaction with living in the present without regrets in its first couple of pages, delivering a far more satisfying take on those themes). Laren's characterization from the previous story arc carries through here, a loyal and hypercompetent right-hand Bajoran to Captain Picard and the de facto bridge commander in the absence of the senior staff. Hell, on the alternate Enterprise she *is* treated as senior staff by Captain Riker's crew, given a seat in the observation lounge with her shipmates for the first time I think ever! 

The Worst of Both Worlds is the DC Star Trek: The Next Generation story arc event miniseries I remember. The Star Lost was the one I had the trade paperback of, but I didn't consciously register that's what I was reading at the time. This was the story I remember seeing advertised: Around about this time, though probably the following year now that I think about it, I had a catalog of Star Trek memorabilia that must have been put out by Paramount and its licensees. Among its wears were things like the typical cosplay uniforms, decorative collector's plates, desk models I think, a copy of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series bible and the trade paperback collection of this story arc. So it's definitely a story that I have fond memories of and one that's going to be particularly fun to revisit, even by the already stellar standards of this series.

Myriad Universes: The Broken Moon

So I wasn't originally going to do the 1992 annual. It's good, but it doesn't quite hold up to the likes of “Thin Ice” and “The Gift”, or even some of the most recent serials in the monthly series. But it turned out, quite frankly, that I needed an extra essay here and this was an easy pick.

But I'm going to do more than just kill time and fill space with this one, as there's still a fair amount of interesting things to say about “The Broken Moon”. The first thing to note is that, like the two previous annuals, this story is predominantly about one specific character. This isn't too surprising, as since “The Gift” was about Captain Picard (and Q) and “Thin Ice” was about Commander Riker (and Captain Lyrinda Halk), it's to be expected “The Broken Moon” would follow suit and predominantly feature another main character. What's interesting is who that character ended up being: Given his crippling overexposure in the TV series, we would naturally assume the next character to get a prominent spotlight in an extra-length Annual issue would be Data. But no, Data is actually barely in this story. In fact, it's actually Geordi La Forge! Which is good, because there's a good deal more for us to say about Geordi La Forge.

My reading of Geordi should be fairly obvious and clear by now. Because of LeVar Burton's presence on both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Reading Rainbow, and the comparative similarities of his performances on both shows (not to mention the fact D.C. Fontana essentially conceived of Geordi as being “LeVar Burton as himself” anyway), I see Geordi as filling the narrative role of a children's educator or children's television personality on a series that can be succinctly described as “children's television for adults”. This is why he's the chief engineer; the heart and soul of a starship. The problem is that, for whatever reason, very few writers who have jobbed for Star Trek: The Next Generation seem to have picked up that this is straightforwardly and self-evidently the correct way to conceptualize who Geordi is, what he does on the Enterprise and what his relationship with the rest of the crew is (especially Data, who is plainly a child analog).

I am reminded most of all of Ira Steven Behr's assessment of Geordi while talking about his episode “Qpid” and the infamous mandolin scene in Star Trek: The Next Generation 365:

“Geordi was a very sweet character who was kind of underused. He didn't have much of a dark side about him. He's the kind of human that Klingons would have devoured. And Worf-you know, from a Klingon perspective-I was sure that Worf would lie in bed at night thinking, 'Can't they at least let me kill Geordi?' So taking the mandolin and smashing it was the Klingon view of the Federation and the 'perfect society' the show portrayed.”

So just take as read for now my usual raft of complaints about Behr inasmuch as I think he is almost, but not quite, completely wrong about absolutely everything in spite of how much I respect and admire his talents as a writer and focus in on what he thinks about Geordi. Because I think Behr's complaints about him are common amongst the fandom-To but it bluntly, fans think Geordi is a wuss. That he's a shy, inoffensive nerd who doesn't offer anything to the show and the crew dynamic apart from mechanophile jokes. I would argue they're plainly wrong, obviously, but the fact remains Geordi is arguably the toughest character to write for out of a cast that's fairly universally tough to write for.

Even Michael Jan Friedman is not immune to tripping up over the Enterprise's chief engineer. Way back in the early days of the second volume of the comic series he gave Geordi a two-part story called “Seraphin's Survivors” and “Shadows in the Garden” that depicts him as being so fixated on being reunited with his old flame that he doesn't realise her people are trying to kill the crew and eat their life force, and he gets uncharacteristically belligerent and confrontational about it. Thankfully, Friedman drops this bit of characterization after that little outing and goes on to more or less nail a believable personality for him. He was fantastic in Separation Anxiety, and here Friedman gives him a whole Annual to play with. In fact, “The Broken Moon” plays out like nothing so much as a decisive, definitive refutation of the criticisms people such as Behr and fandom-at-large might be inclined to level at Geordi.

The Enterprise is meeting with a delegation from the Onglaatu empire. They're allies of the Federation, though wary ones, and typically prefer to meet in unorthodox ways. This time is no exception, with representative Kalonis bypassing all formal diplomatic channels and requesting to speak to Geordi La Forge, and Geordi La Forge alone, in private. It turns out that Geordi is the entire reason the Onglaatu are allied with the Federation in the first place, as on a previous assignment he twice heroically intervened on the part of a high-ranking Onlgaatu official named Kastren, once saving her life and once keeping her from escalating a negotiation that had gone south and turned into a brawl. The Onglaatu are a warrior society that values strength, courage and heroic acts, but also a fiercely matriarchal one where men are seen as second-class citizens. Geordi's actions proved his valour in the eyes of Kastren, who bestowed upon him a great honour: By giving him half of her sacred moon pendant, Kastren symbolically made Geordi her blood-sibling; rare for anyone not a woman and unheard of for an off-worlder. But Kastren's voice held sway, so their union helped pave the way for for more diffusion between humans and Onglaatu and a new era of cosmopolitanism for Onlgaatu society.

It turns out that Kalonis is actually Geordi's “nephew”, that is, Kastren's son, and he's come to the Enterprise to request his help once again (and it's neat to think of Geordi playing an uncle role, which is very much in keeping with the extroverted travelling educator LeVar Burton is so good at portraying). It seems Kastren, and a number of other high-ranking Onglaatu matriarchs, have recently started behaving extremely strangely, making uncharacteristically radical and sweeping administrative changes that seem to be a prelude to civil war. Kalonis wants Geordi to come back to their home planet of Glaa to find out what's troubling Kastren, and hopefully talk her out of whatever is bothering her. Understanding the mission's deep personal importance to Geordi (and its potential, if successful, to further strengthen diplomatic ties with the Onglaatu), but also realising this would more or less constitute a violation of the Prime Directive, Captain Picard gives Geordi the go-ahead to investigate...But he'll have to do it as an independent private citizen without help from the Enterprise or the rest of Starfleet. So Geordi takes a leave of absence to travel to Glaa and see for himself what's going on.

The biggest problem, if you could call it that, with “The Broken Moon” is that about 75% of it is backstory delivered through flashbacks or characters somewhat clumsily forcing exposition from one another. Get ready for a whole bunch of “As you know...”s and rather clunky dialog that painfully obviously only exists because the book has to invent a brand new alien civilization, culture and pre-existing history for Geordi sheer out of wholecloth...And then tell a brand new story about them all at the same time. This very likely could have been an entire season-long story arc or even a plot thread that reoccurs across multiple stories over *several* seasons, and it all has to be crammed into this one book. This is not a particular high point for naturalistic dialog, to be sure.

This is pretty much what the rest of the Enterprise crew is doing when Geordi is off romping around on Glaa, but that's not *all* they're doing. One clever thing about this story is how it handles their characterization: Just about everyone is deeply worried about Geordi and doesn't think he'll be able handle a gig with a people as tough as the Onglaatu all by himself. Chief O'Brien is nervous about how tough the Onglaatu seem, Captain Picard is constantly fretting about Geordi's safety, and Commander Riker has to reassure Worf that Geordi is a “big boy” who can “take care of himself”, even if he admits to us that even he's not so sure. Here we're getting another diegetic performance where the crew insert themselves into the roles of interlocutors the metatext requires, even if they wouldn't normally say these kinds of things. Here, they're speaking (albeit benevolently) for the fan concern that Geordi is a weak, wussy, useless character, and it's up to the story to prove to them, and thus us, that he's not.

(Tellingly, the only people who aren't worried sick about Geordi are Data and Ro Laren. Yes, this is mostly because they barely have two lines between them in this story, but I prefer to read it as an indication of their intimate familiarity with him. Because Laren and Data are the two characters closest to Geordi of anyone in the crew, they have the most faith and confidence in his strength and abilities and don't need to remind us of that.)

The actual plot is pretty thin on the ground, though not unengaging: There's a requisite capture-and-escape sequence that all stock genre fiction serials are required to have by law where Kastren throws Geordi and Kalonis in a dungeon basically for talking back (after suspiciously not seeming to recognise Geordi or the significance of him being her Moon-Brother), and then we find out that the reason for all this weird behaviour is that those parasites (you know, the ones from “Conspiracy” way back in the first season? Don't worry, Laren doesn't remember them either, so she gets Data to explain for us) have invaded Glaa, and of course Kastren is one of the hosts. There's a phaser battle, the parasites are all safely removed from their hosts and a generous Kastren overjoyed to see her Moon-Brother again petitions Glaa to join the Federation on their behalf.

But it's this very action sequence, the same kind of action that attracted Kastren's admiration in the first place, that should prove to any remaining doubters that Geordi La Forge is in truth a strong person. And it's a very Geordi sort of action sequence too, being as it is ultimately about helping a person rediscover their true self. It's Geordi's empathy, combined with his strength of will, that has earned him the love and respect of a culture of proud warrior women, and I think that's sort of a lovely moral. I also kind of love how the book doesn't seem to have any problem whatsoever with a society where women rule and are warriors and men are second-class citizens (critically all men, that is, except for men like Geordi). Not only is it a nice inversion of Klingon society (Worf even points this out) and an acceptable recompense for “Angel One”, it's just fun.

I also want to take a little time to briefly touch on Geordi and Kastren's relationship here. Although we don't get to see the “real” Kastren and her interactions with Geordi very much (a definite flaw of the story, especially considering neither she nor the Onglaatu ever reappear), what little of it we do see is really sweet. They definitely seem to have a kind of playfully belligerent brother-sister relationship where affection is conveyed primarily through roughhousing and gentle insults. It's cute and really enjoyable to see, and I'll admit my earlier readings of this story almost had me shipping them. But no, they really are siblings with all that entails, a fact that's subtly reinforced by Laren's presence here too. (Laren, tellingly, also being a warrior woman who presumably respects Geordi a whole lot, but in a different way). I only wish Laren had a bit more dialog (really, any) that drove this point home: She offers a specific nuance and contrast in that regard this story could have used.

In spite of its (really comparatively minor) structural clunkiness though, “The Broken Moon” is a cute and fun little story that's worth a look. It's definitely the best “solo Geordi” story that we've seen to date, possibly a contender for the best in all of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It more than makes up for stuff like “Galaxy's Child” and “Interface” and gives him a level of depth and respect that is seemingly somewhat hard to come by. And it's worth noting once again that *this* is what can be considered mediocre for the comic book line: Sci-fi serial action that's stock, though inoffensively so, but still also manages to be cute and endearing.

I hate to keep beating the proverbial dead horse with a negativity stick, but there it is.

Myriad Universes: Separation Anxiety Part 6: Restoration

Most Star Trek: The Next Generation stories would have ended by now. Packed things in after the Sztazzan and the Enterprise crew had achieved a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the crisis, maybe given us a nice little pat wrapping-up scene with Captain Picard and Commander Riker looking forward to a more peaceful future.

This series does not tell stories typical of what most Star Trek: The Next Generation looks like.

“Restoration” is every bit as low-stakes and low-key as “The Lesson”, and every bit as memorable to me. First of all it's an absolute lyrical masterpiece: From Captain Picard's opening rumination on Plato's theory that humans and human longing were created when a singular flawless being was split into man and woman at some point in prehistory (and his belief the metaphor need not be gendered to be effective) to Doctor Crusher's counsel to a shaken Terry Oliver distraught over her actions with the injured Sztazzan crewmember, this issue is crafted out of the sort of wordplay and turns of phrases so haunting they linger with me long, long after the story is done. And also like “The Lesson”, this is more or less an interlocking series of vignettes centred around a specific theme. This time, it's, very fittingly, reunification and moving forward.

As the Enterprise slowly recovers and rebuilds after its pan-galactic adventures with the Sztazzan, Miles, Keiko and Molly O'Brien watch as their friends, a couple literally separated by the dividing ship sections, happily reunite with each other. Captain Picard checks in on a busy Doctor Crusher in sickbay, her team stretched taking care of the massive casualties sustained during the stardrive section's numerous battles. Nevertheless, she expresses confidence that sickbay will be “empty again soon”, and they both look forward to a future with the Sztazzan that is “at the very least non-violent”. Geordi tells Data he's glad to see the engine room again, and the two have a brief discussion about the nature of objective correlatives before Data accidentally tips Geordi off that he has some “unfinished business” to attend to.

Said unfinished business is not the billiards tournament with Miles O'Brien, however. If you will recall, Geordi was called away from the game at a crucial moment when the artificial moon relay station was first discovered, and Miles had subbed in Deanna Troi at the last second. Geordi and Miles decided it would have been unfair to ask for her help and then turn her away when it became convenient, so Miles kept Deanna on as his partner, despite her warning that “Betazoids do not play pool”, as a point of honour. Deanna then proceeds to shock everyone at the table by winning the game singlehandedly. It seems that while Betazoids do not play billiards, humans do, and she is, after all half-human. Her father, as it turns out, was a billiards champion and “taught his daughter everything he knew”.

Worf insists on taking Alexander to Mott's barber shop to make him apologise to the Bolian for his earlier insensitive remark. He is surprised to learn, however, that the apology is not necessary as it was Mott's tactical plan that saved the saucer section and help pave the way for peace with the Sztazzan, and Alexander was the one who brought it to Commander Riker's attention. In fact if anything, Mott argues, it's Worf who owes Alexander an apology for doubting his son's capacity for empathy and remorse. In the ready room, Commander Riker privately reveals to Captain Picard that while Mott did indeed come up with the plan, he and Alexander only managed to inform Will of it “after [he] had already begun to implement it”. However, the two agree it would be best for all involved for Mott and Alexander to go on thinking that they helped save the ship. After all, it's always good to have others to turn to for help in a time of need.

Terry Oliver is wracked with guilt over her rescue of the Sztazzan officer she saved. Even though she was instrumental in saving all three crews, she confesses to Doctor Crusher that she feels she let her former shipmates down by forsaking her one chance to get revenge on the Sztazzan for the murders and war crimes they committed. But Beverly helps her interpret her emotions a different way: By her measure, the deaths of Terry's former shipmates were incredibly meaningful, despite what Terry might now think. Because, as she tells her

“They made you sick of death. So sick of it, in fact, you couldn't countenance any more of it.”

Beverly seems to think this, a capacity for mercy and forgiveness no matter who is suffering, is what makes the Federation special...But then she would tell somebody that in order to justify to herself, as much as to her interlocutor, the existence of the monolithic institution she's found herself working for. We all know these aren't really Federation values-They're Enterprise ones. This ship and crew lives and breaths the ideals the Federation can only pretend are theirs as part of their state-sponsored propaganda rhetoric.

And yet even so we still have one small bit of unfinished business to attend to. There's one person noticeably missing from this issue's celebratory loose-end-tying. In fact, she's been egregiously absent in any major plot capacity since the second part of this miniseries. And so, perhaps fittingly, we end where we began. Not with Commander Riker or the Sztazzan or with Worf or Alexander or even with Terry Oliver, but with Ro Laren.

It's Moga Nivan, a deeply significant and meaningful Bajoran holiday meant to be spent with one's closest friends and family. And Laren is all alone, looking out into space from a deserted ten forward. Until, that is, she's suddenly and unexpectedly joined by Geordi, who's brought Data, Worf and Guinan with him. Apparently, during their conversation in engineering about objective correlatives, Data had let it slip to Geordi that a holiday can make one feel sad if one has nobody to spend it with, and that Laren had told him she was feeling this way before they encountered the artificial moon. Geordi put everything else on hold to look up all he could find on Moga Nivan so that he could give Laren the best celebration he could put together for her, and roped in Data, Worf and Guinan to help. Geordi tells a stunned Laren that, on the Enterprise, you've got to expect the unexpected. But of course the real meaning in his words is that he considers Laren to be part of his family, the Enterprise family, and hope she feels the same. As Laren leads them in the ceremonial poem, they are joined by Captain Picard, Commander Riker, Deana Troi and Doctor Crusher. The Enterprise warps away as Laren wishes a brave Moga Nivan to us all.

This is one of my favourite moments in all of Star Trek: The Next Generation, printed *or* televised for so incredibly many reasons.Yes, there's the fact this makes me ship Geordi/Laren every bit as hard as anything in “The Next Phase”. But thematically, it's perfect that Separation Anxiety end here, with Laren's reminder of who her real family is when it was the most important driving home the miniseries' larger concepts of reunification, rekindling and moving forward to new beginnings. And it's even more fitting that this be Laren specifically, as she's someone the narrative has done some incredibly deft and clever sleight-of-hand with over the course of the miniseries. It was Laren's subplot about feeling lonely at Moga Nivan that opened this whole story and Laren herself was set up as the positive Enterprise counterpart to Terry Oliver in the second issue, but that thread was promptly dropped immediately afterward. From that point in the arc, this section of the story became about exclusively about Terry Oliver overcoming her own personal demons. It almost seemed like Michael Jan Friedman had forgotten about Laren.

But he hadn't.

Remember, Laren didn't drop off the face of the book after “Bone of Contention”: Instead she became a crucial component of the battle bridge crew, and in particular she became Captain Picard's partner. They were breathing in perfect sync for the whole middle section of the story arc, and Jean-Luc wouldn't have been able to pull of anywhere near what he was able to during those time-stalling shootouts with the Sztazzan if she hadn't been there. So Laren's feelings about being lonely and ignored actually become extradiegetic, meant to call our attention to the fact her subplot is doing something unorthodox and interesting. And why wouldn't it, and why wouldn't she work so well with Captain Picard? They are, after all, the two characters in this series who have the best mastery of improvisational theatre, inserting themselves into holes in the narrative canvas by playing whatever roles need filling during a crisis so the show can go on. So of course the narrative turns back to Laren at the end of an issue all about “tying off loose ends”.

The book didn't forget her. And neither do her friends.

(In fact, to add to the cleverness, who's the other main character on the battle bridge? Deanna Troi. And her story hinges on Miles' billiards rivals, and thus us, forgetting she had been pegged as his teammate and the tricky wordplay of the phrase “Betazoids do not play pool”. Thus, she too slips into the background of the narrative counting on us to underestimate her and forget she has a stake in the action. And who is Marina Sirtis' Deanna Troi if not the ur example par excellance of someone gamely playing a role that isn't theirs but that needs to be filled in order to save the show?)

As good as it is for Laren and the miniseries on the whole, this is also a moment that speaks very much to Geordi's character and hearkens all the way back to “The Icarus Factor”: That episode has a similar conceit, where Worf was upset that a major Klingon holiday was coming up and he had no Klingon family to spend it with. The crew banded together to give him a proper celebration too, but in that episode it was played all tonally off and wonky. Doctor Pulaski was uncharacteristically squeamish, Geordi had to be badgered into participating and Wesley did everything. This scene portrays characters who are far more recognisable as the ones I love and admire, and is far more effective and arresting. So the fact that Geordi, Worf and Data are here has weight because of that, and the fact that they're doing it for Laren holds an incredible amount of personal significance and emotional resonance for me.

This is, in fact, probably my second favourite Laren story after “The Next Phase” and actually the one I find myself reminded of the most when thinking about who she is as a character. This is who I remember Laren as: Not a brash, hotheaded insubordinate snark queen, but a moody, melancholy and quiet person whose traumatic past weighs heavily on her conscience. She's a loner by nature and necessity, if not by choice. Someone who needs to be shown a little kindness, attention, warmth and love, and while she won't always know how to react to it, it will mean more to her than you could ever imagine. That's why I think it's so special that Geordi be the one to do this for her (and it very explicitly is him and his idea: He specifically tells Data he's “heard enough” when he starts to go on about holidays and objective correlatives and while Guinan does a lot of the talking, Geordi is very clearly the one who spearheaded it all), because listening and bringing people together through stories is his job: Who better than the host of Reading Rainbow to reach out to someone by learning from their oral myths and traditions?

It's the perfect scene to cap off a perfect story. “Restoration” is right up there with “The Lesson”, “The Wounded”, “The Next Phase” and “Encounter at Farpoint” among my very favourite and most treasured stories. This is everything Star Trek: The Next Generation is about to me.

Myriad Universes: Separation Anxiety Part 5: Strange Bedfellows

Out of options, Commander Riker turns to the last one he has: Ask the pursuing Sztazzan ship if they would extend their shields, and thus their warp bubble, around the saucer section to get them both to the second relay station, which will hopefully bring them back to where they started from. The Sztazzan are predictably boisterous and recalcitrant, but Will reminds them that its his people who have the coordinates to the station, and he's likely to erase them should the Sztazzan try to invade the saucer.

Alexander is depressed and wants nothing except to be reunited with his father. Similarly Worf thinks only about getting his son back, to the point he puts it above his mission and the rest of his crewmates. It seems at first a perhaps shallow form of characterization, but it builds upon the turmoil both characters have been through over the past few stories. Alexander has already lost one parent and now faces the prospect of being completely orphaned, while Worf lost not only K'Heleyr as well, but almost lost his closest friend in Commander Riker in The Return of Okona. Mott comes to visit Alexander in his quarters and offers a suggestion. He's come up with a tactical plan he thinks might help the crew, and asks if Alexander would like to come with him to tell Commander Riker about it, so long as he thinks it's a good plan (Alexander of course being a superior tactician). Mott's idea is to...Ask the pursuing Sztazzan ship if they would extend their shields, and thus their warp bubble, around the saucer section to get them both to the second relay station, which will hopefully bring them back to where they started from.

We cut to a scene on the Sztazzan ship, where we at last get to see a little more of their own cultures and beliefs. As Miles O'Brien guessed last month, the Sztazzan see humans as dangerous and untrustworthy with no set of morals or code of honour (a perhaps not unjustified assumption given what we've seen of how humans organise themselves in the 24th century at large). The Sztazzan are all ready to say no to the saucer crew, but one officer pleads the case that perhaps not all humans are as bad as all that, as he had personally witnessed the heroism of one human who went out of her way to rescue an injured Sztazzan when the two away teams had clashed on the planet's surface earlier. Swayed by the story of Terry Oliver's act of selflessness, the Sztazzan agree to Commander Riker's plan, just before Alexander and Mott come to the bridge to tell him about it.

And it couldn't have come at a better time too, as things aren't looking so good for Captain Picard, Ro Laren and Deanna Troi back on the battle bridge. Outmanned and outgunned by the Sztazzan fleet and with multiple hull breaches to contend with, they're about to be forced to abandon the saucer section to its fate and retreat with Geordi, Worf and Data. But just in the nick of time, the saucer and the Sztazzan flagship reappear, and the Sztazzan fleet captain orders his crew to cease fire. Informing the battle bridge crew of how the two ships worked together to find their way home, he singles out Terry Oliver for particular praise, as it was her actions that helped convince him of the necessity of cooperation towards a common goal.

It's here where the thematic focus of Separation Anxiety truly comes into view. As I mentioned before, this is a story about being kept apart from others by distance, but it's also a story, fittingly, about reunification. The endgame here has always been to get the Enterprise back in one piece, because it's really meant to work together as one holistic unit. And that's even true granting the existence of those interesting subgroups and subset cultures (such as the dynamic duo of Captain Picard and Ro Laren and their battle bridge team): One thing I've really enjoyed about this series is all the little cuts like we talked about in part 3 that show all these different micro-teams are working on the same problem from slightly different angles pretty much simultaneously in real time. And in this issue we add to that not just the Sztazzan, but Mott and Alexander as well! So there's the obvious teamwork and cooperation theme we get from the Sztazzan cease fire (laying the groundwork to build a new bridge, if you will), but the Enterprise itself serves as fitting visual metaphor for not just the message of the story, but one of Star Trek: The Next Generation's most fundamental core values.

It's beautifully elegant and perfectly crafted science fiction from the person I am increasingly convinced is the only author working on this property who has a decent handle on what that means. I really have to sit back and take in the craftsmanship on display here: Not only is it a deft execution of genre fiction where the world itself embodies the story's ideas and concepts such that it organically grows out of them, but there's that novellesque richness and sense of scale here too. This book has a sprawling cast of characters by Star Trek: The Next Generation standards, and each one has their own unique, individual, hand-crafted story arc that ties into to the larger plot. Nobody feels left out, left behind, ignored or given up on, which is quite frankly something of a miracle at this point.

Well, nobody except one, some might say...? But this miniseries isn't done yet...

This has got to be one of my favourite cliffhangers to date, because the story is more or less done. The action is over, the big plot has wrapped up and we've had our nice speeches about diversity and tolerance and working together. There's no stinger with somebody in mortal danger, or some heretofore unknown plot element flying in at the eleventh hour. There's nothing really left except a denouement, should you want one. But we haven't seen the saucer reconnection. We still have unfinished business.

Myriad Universes: Separation Anxiety Part 4: Second Chances!

“Second Chances” is perfect Star Trek: The Next Generation.

...Oh no, not the goofy episode from next season where the transporter retroactively cloned Commander Riker on his previous post that fucks up Will's relationship with Deanna Troi and Mae Jemison is the best part of it. That's ridiculous. I'm talking about this comic book that's the fourth part of Separation Anxiety.

You know it's going to be a good story, or at least noteworthy, when it opens with a “chief medical officer's log”. And this one doesn't disappoint, with a lengthy portion of its runtime dedicated to just letting us watch Beverly Crusher be awesome leading an away team mission. Any Beverly Crusher, Science Officer fan will be spoiled by scene after scene in this book of her being unflappably competent, whip-smart and quippy. And continuing a thread introduced in The Return of Okona, Bev is also portrayed as having a manifestly different style of leadership than Commander Riker, though still compelling in its own right: She's far more involved in the nitty-gritty of the technical research, not issuing orders to her team but managing, delegating and actively working with them to help gather as much information as they can. Seeing how effortlessly and perfectly she slides into this role here only makes you wish all the harder that this had been her role on the TV show much, much more often than it really was.

But we barely have time to appreciate that before we're treated to a scene so defining it could have come from “The Wounded”. Which, incidentally, is what it's positioned as a sequel to. Miles O'Brien and Terry Oliver are investigating a computer room the away team discovered on the planet they beamed down to last issue. Doctor Crusher has learned there aren't any sentient life-forms still around who could help, but figures the computer banks are probably still intact and could yield some clues. Terry expresses concern that time is of the essence as the Sztazzan no doubt know of their whereabouts and will probably send a team of their own down. What follows is an exchange between her and Chief O'Brien so priceless and air-pumping I had to repeat it in its entirety here.

“After all, it won't take long for those Sztazzan filth to find our coordinates and beam down after us!” 

“'Filth', eh?” 

“You'd call them that too, if they'd murdered your friends the way they murdered mine!” 

“I see. Funny...You sound the way I did not so long ago. Except it wasn't the Sztazzan I had a hate for – It was the Cardassians! I'd witnessed the kind of slaughter they're inclined towards – First hand!” 

“Then you know how I feel!” 

“Sure – But that doesn't mean I approve of it! Not so long ago, we had some Cardassians on the Enterprise – Making some wild charges about my old captain. It was all I could do to keep from slugging one o'them! Unfortunately, the wild charges turned out to be true. And I learned a valuable lesson: There are usually two sides to a story.” 

“Not when it comes to the Sztazzan!” 

“Are you sure? What do you know about them except that they fired on your ship? Maybe they had some provocation – At least from their point of view!” 

“Forget it chief...Nothing you say is going to make me love those bloody butchers!” 

“You don't have to love 'em. You just have to co-exist with them.”

There are only so many ways I can say a thing is perfect without sounding like a broken record. But that's what this scene is. The attitude on display here, from beginning to end, is absolutely, spot-on to-the-note perfect for Star Trek: The Next Generation. This encapsulates better than anything I could hope to put to prose myself the utopian conflict resolution and commitment to personal growth I love this series so much for. It solidifies what the purpose of “The Wounded” was and what it meant for Miles O'Brien as a character for anyone left who might be unsure. There's the significance of this coming in the wake of “I, Borg”, because this is a treatment of the “know your enemy” pitch I personally far prefer to what we got in that episode. But there's also the more implicit significance of this coming less then a year out from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: Terry hasn't been with this Enterprise very long, so she's still prone to the kind of militaristic categorical dismissal of “the enemy” that defines the rest of Starfleet (tellingly, Miles is cut off before he can finish his speech by asking “Isn't that what the Federation's all about?”).

But she is now, and this means she has the opportunity to look within herself to become a better person. And though its Miles who is ultimately saved in this moment, this exchange also sets in motion a chain of events that will lead to Terry's salvation too. For she's right, the Sztazzan do beam down and assault the away team in the book's climax, and while they do all get out in time comparatively unscathed, it's not before Terry catches sight of an injured crewmember...Who turns out to be Sztazzan. She hesitates for a moment, but ultimately decides to call Doctor Crusher over. Thanks to her split-second intervention, the crewmember's life is saved. Clearly the ramifications of this will need to be explored more later on, but for now this restores Commander Riker's (and our) faith in Terry, just as Beverly had hoped.

So all the stuff going on with the saucer section is so fascinating we haven't even talked about what's happening with the stardrive section crew yet! Thankfully Data and Geordi have found a way to keep the relay station from exploding, but the Stazzan fleet is growing progressively more irritated and starts to take action. So to buy the team time to get on that, Captain Picard and Ro Laren decide to play along. What follows is a rollicking space battle action sequence the likes of which would make the TV show's VFX department blush and budgeting department quake in their boots. The stardrive section spins around, takes off vertically and flips around behind its pursuers (bringing a whole new meaning to “thinking three dimensionally” in space).

It reminds me a lot of the Dirty Pair TV episode “Lots of Danger, Lots of Decoys”, and a lot of space-based action sci-fi anime of that type in general. I'm unashamed to admit it's an absolute blast to see something like that in Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it's also noteworthy because of how genuinely rare it is, even in the comic line: You would expect this kind of scene would be right up this series' alley, but Michael Jan Friedman and Pablo Marcos are surprisingly reserved about giving it to us, preferring to shift the visual spectacle elsewhere. This works to great effect, of course, but it also means the action scenes are all the more breathtaking and memorable when they do happen.

The story on the stardrive section is mostly about Laren and Jean-Luc this month: We get the obligatory progression of Worf, Geordi and Data's subplots on the relay station, but it's those two who get the overwhelming majority of the dialog here. Deanna Troi is surprisingly underserved by this book's standards, though she isn't in the miniseries on the whole and I'm actually OK with that as it gives Friedman a chance to play with a character and character dynamic he really hasn't been able to before. And Laren and Jean-Luc are wonderful under his pen, becoming nothing short of a veritable tag-team partnership during the Sztazzan firefight. There is the obvious healthy, functional portrayal of a relationship that didn't typically get that treatment on TV, but I want to lay off the contrast here as I feel like now I'm just punching down. What struck me more about the way Laren and Jean-Luc behave here is that they seem to embody the best of anyone in this story so far the creation of a unique micro-team dynamic.

Maybe it's the more stripped-down and utilitarian feel of the battle bridge, but Captain Picard's team seems much smaller and much more finely honed then Commander Riker's. They also have a really distinct and attractive dynamic that is utterly their own. I don't mean that as a criticism of Will's people or his leadership style, but it does seem like Will has a bigger ship and more resources to work with. He's got Doctor Crusher (and with her all of sickbay and all her science labs), Chief O'Brien, Terry Oliver and an extra who's familiar and recognisable to us in Jenna D'Sora at tactical (who, and let's be perfectly fair and honest here, Captain Picard's tactical officer Burke kind of isn't). Including the civilians, he's also got Alexander (whose story gets developed a bit further when Mott takes it upon himself to ask Ms. Kyle if the young lad might like a “distraction” to take his mind off his father) and Keiko O'Brien as well, not to mention the fact Will has the normal, full-size saucer section bridge at his disposal.

Captain Picard, by contrast, really just has Laren and Deanna. Sure, he's also got the away team on the relay station, but they're cut off from both ships and have their own set of challenges to work through. But the interesting and curious side-effect of this is that it makes Captain Picard's team seem a bit more tightly-knit and tenacious, and the captain himself is more engaged and more of an active participant in the action than I think he's ever been in recent memory. It reminds me of maybe an older way of doing Star Trek, or at least a different one...More akin, perhaps, to how I imagine life aboard the Stargazer might have been like for Captain Picard. Much as I love the sprawling starship Enterprise in its own way, I've long held a fascination with space-based science fiction aboard comparatively small and cramped starships with a crew manifest not exceeding the single digits-It feels cozy and homey to me for some reason, and I guess marks a nice contrast with the vastness of space. That's part of the reason I like Dirty Pair and Raumpatrouille Orion as much as I do, and that's the vibe I get from the battle bridge action this month.

(Interestingly, as I write this I'm also reminded of how the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation described their friendship with each other on set. They say that while they were all part of the same circle of friends, there were also different subdivisions and subsets, and each pair or subgroup of people had a unique dynamic with each other they didn't have with anyone else. So each time you came on set and each time somebody had a scene with somebody else, the energy was always just a little bit different, and equally compelling, from the last time. It's funny how Friedman seems to have captured that so well here.)

Meanwhile back on the saucer section (and I like how the cliffhanger ends with them this month, as it ended with the battle bridge crew last month), Doctor Crusher and Chief O'Brien have learned the history of the people who built the relay station. Apparently their homeworld was facing natural disaster, and having only found one other planet in the galaxy that could support their kind of life, they pooled all their resources into building a machine that could transport vast quantities of people and material over great distances in a very short period of time. Unfortunately, the planet they settled on wound up being struck by a comet a few centuries after they arrived, so they tragically all went extinct anyway. It seems there is another station on this side of the galaxy that could conceivably be rewired to send the saucer back, but there's a problem: It's a year away at impulse (which is all the saucer can do), and their deuterium tanks would dry up long before that anyway. Whoops.