Villordsutch reviews Star Trek #46…
In “The Tholian Webs,” Part 1 of 2, The FIVE-YEAR MISSION of the Starship Enterprise continues! In this epic re-imagining of a classic Star Trek episode, the crew of the new movie timeline encounters a mysterious and deadly alien force… and not all of the crew will make it out alive!
After our three-parter of Eurydice and with the Enterprise having to make its way back home from the Delta Quadrant to the Alpha Quadrant, I was a little surprised to open Part One (of Two) of The Tholian Webs to discover that the Enterprise is just within range of the Alpha Quadrant boundary; still I’m guessing this hopefully means Kirk and Co. shan’t be running into the Borg anytime soon. Taking a nerd moment and looking at the Galaxy Quadrant Map (link here) however I’m unsure where the boundry line they’re discussing is, unless they are talking about the Galactic Central Core, and if they are then they deserve all the upcoming nonsense for which they’re going to suffer.
As Kirk and Co. attempt to cross the boundary between the Delta and Alpha quadrant *cough* see above *cough* the warp engines rather abruptly disengage and leave the Enterprise floating dead in space. Within seconds Spock notices something wrong as his hand phases quite easily through a panel on the Bridge, and it’s here Spock informs Kirk they’ve entered an area of Interphase. During a ready room meeting Scotty explains Interphase – an area where space and time cease to exist – and it’s here McCoy erupts in a fit of anger at Spock and storms out of the room. It becomes apparent through the rest of the this issue – as more crew members become irrational – that this area of space is effecting them. This is confirmed when McCoy sedates himself leaving his nursing staff in charge, as well as a message for Kirk and Spock explaining what’s happening to the crew. This is rapidly followed by Sulu commandeering the Bridge and Scotty taking control of the Enterprise engine room – his first manoeuvre separating the Saucer Section from the Main Hull. It’s at our closing pages when the Tholians arrive.
To start this review on a positive I’ll turn to the artwork from Rachel Stott, it really is quite excellent and I’m extremely glad – no, I’m over the moon – to see that the impressive skills from the Star Trek / Planet of the Apes artist have now arrived on a main run on the Star Trek comics. I hope to see more work from Rachel as the characters and sets look fantastic and clear and we as Trek readers deserve this level of talent every month.
However, turning to this month’s story it really isn’t a good one as it feels like Mike Johnson has attempted to mash two episodes together, these being, “A Naked Time” and then at the end he’s thrown in the re-imagined “Tholians Web”; it’s also too compact and with that it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. McCoy becomes irrational and goes completely off the handle in the ready room, but he’s not chastised by Kirk, then later he’s clearly quite compos mentis and able to record a log for Kirk and Spock and promptly sedates himself. Surely it would have been wiser to inform his nursing staff of what to do and also to safely put him into a deep sleep, thereby alerting Kirk of the situation on the ship a lot earlier. Then we have Scotty able to override Kirk’s secret passcode, along with this we have Sulu able to take a phaser on the bridge and incapacitate the entire bridge crew!? Not only does it not make a lot of sense but with the Tholians turning up in the final few pages and this being a two-parter we know this situation is going to be resolved rather quickly in the next issue.
To sum up if it wasn’t for Rachel Stott’s artwork this comic really wouldn’t be a pleasant experience at all, but this is only the first hiccup in the Five Year Mission run so it’s not all bad.
Rating: 5/10
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5&v=yIuEu1m0p2M
Originally published June 17, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
