written by Scott Tipton and David Tipton
illustrated by David Messina

Captain Picard and his ship have been facing some interesting problems lately. A series of seemingly unrelated missions, as well as several surprise incidents, all begin to show a pattern. Someone is trying to get the attention of the Enterprise crew, but why? And for good or ill? The Tipton brothers, who also wrote IDW’s Star Trek miniseries Klingons: Blood Will Tell, decide this time to focus on the Next Generation crew. They do so by building a story that reads like an episode of Next Generation, though it lacks the bite it needs to be a truly exciting story. All the usual Next Generation folks are present, but the Tiptons also include fan favorite Reg Barclay, as well as Chief O’Brien and Ensign Ro. Readers will enjoy watching them interact as they work to solve the problems thrown at them. Ensign Ro and Lt. Worf are a particularly interesting partnership, one that would be nice to see in action more often. Instead of limiting themselves to just one alien, as would happen on a TV episode, the Tiptons allow themselves to bring in several, which works well for throwing readers off the scent of the conspiracy.

               

Messina handles his duties competently, carefully balancing the need to make the characters look familiar to fans, but also to keep the art style consistent and interesting. He handle action scenes well, so they are easy to follow and also still exciting. Ilaria Traversi’s colors are perfectly suited for the art. By choosing a palette of rich, deep colors that support the colors of the Star Trek uniforms, she keeps even the scenes onboard the brightly lit Enterprise from being overly garish. The wide black borders of the panels also help keep the tone serious. Ultimately the mystery of the conspiracy is a little too easily solved to be the most enjoyable part of this work. However, by keeping the large cast in character and by pacing their comics like a TV episode, the Tipton brothers have created a work that is sure to appeal to fans. It’s not the same as having Next Generation back onscreen, but it isn’t a bad substitute.

-- Snow Wildsmith

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