Villordsutch reviews Star Trek: Waypoint #5…
Star Trek: Waypoint continues its celebration of Star Trek with two new tales. Simon Roy (Prophet) takes on the Prime Directive in an Original Series story, while writer Cavan Scott (Dr. Who, Sherlock Holmes) and artist Josh Hood (Star Trek: Deviations, We Can Never Go Home) focus on Doctor Bashir in a thought-provoking Deep Space Nine tale.
SEE ALSO: Check out a preview of Star Trek: Waypoint #5
We arrive at the penultimate issue of Star Trek: Waypoint, the series which celebrates the 50th Anniversary of one of the longest running, also one of the greatest, science-fiction shows around. In this issue’s offering we’re whisked off to Terok Nor, or Deep Space Nine depending on which side of the Federation you align yourself too, and then way back in time to the days of the original Enterprise.
In Frontier Medicine – written by Cavan Scott and with art from Josh Hood – we find ourselves catching up with Dr. Bashir, Chief O’Brien and Constable Odo as Julian is giving the surrounding members a good dose of a ‘Positive Mental Attitude’. However, mid pep-talk Odo spots an elderly visitor to DS9 being rather roughly handled by somebody much larger than herself. As they make chase, the elderly captive is coated in a resin like substance and her life-signs begin to fail. Meanwhile elsewhere on the station Sisko and Kira discover they are about to be boarded.
Our second tale Come Away, Child, with both artist and writer duties undertaken by Simon Roy, follows the career of Ensign Herrada, who is leaving the Enterprise to work with Dr. Lewis on the Scientific Outpost Otari 2. Instantly all is not well when she passes he replacement, who is more than happy to leave, for it appears that Dr. Lewis is rather obsessive about her work – studying the Otarian People -and isn’t one for chatting, communicating or acknowledging that anybody else is in the room with her. However, after two weeks Ensign Herrada makes a Prime Directive breaking discovery which Lewis brings her in on.
Star Trek: Waypoint #5 returns to form this issue with two rather enjoyable stories from both Scott and Roy, with each delivering a quick bite of true Trek. Though in truth I could see the directions of both stories, this didn’t stop me enjoying what both writers had given.
Frontier Medicine captured extremely well the passion and energy of Julian, the cantankerous and wise Odo and the always there and ready O’Brien as they undertook a mission in minutes across a few pages. Josh Hood’s artwork however was somewhat strange. In some panels I enjoyed his work, whilst in others I found it off putting as there seemed to be an issue with the characters’ heads.
In Come Away, Child from Simon Roy initially I was taken aback by his artwork, unsure if I liked it or not, however I appreciated it a lot by the end and it went well with his rather quiet and sad tale. Writing about character we nothing about and come the close – after only a few pages – we feel quite a bit for; Simon has done his job.
It’s good to see that Star Trek: Waypoint is back on track.
Rating: 8/10
Originally published May 31, 2017. Updated November 21, 2019.
