Villordsutch reviews Star Trek: Flesh and Stone…
“The Six Doctors.” When a Starfleet medical conference is crashed by a deadly metamorphic virus, Doctors Beverly Crusher, Julian Bashir and Katherine Pulaski have to race against time…to find a cure. The answers lie in the distant past, deep within the files of Dr. Leonard McCoy! All of Star Trek’s medical officers team up for the first time ever!
A special I hadn’t seen coming! Perhaps I had seen it coming, but for some reason I had blocked the idea of a comic book containing only the Doctors from the Trek episodes as being somewhat special. I know it sounds harsh, but at least I’m being honest. The only real Doctors I’ve liked in Trek are McCoy and the EMH, as they 1) have compassion, and 2) are not afraid to tell someone they are being an idiot. The others came across as just well dull, nasty or needed on set; on occasion Bashir did something of interest, but overall he still fell into the dull pile.
Now the idea of this special having the aforementioned “Dull, Nasty or Needed on Set” as the main leads of a comic isn’t my idea of a good comic, but fortunately it isn’t all about those three. We take a trip back to the original Star Trek days with a flashback where McCoy meets up with Dr. Phlox, and the Tholians show their faces (and ships). Though the story doesn’t really do much overly huge and daring, it feels like a safe pilot show on the Universal Channel (née Hallmark) for the more aged persons who don’t want the running around Star Trek and instead want gentle ,slow Trek.
There is nothing overly bad about this comic, but you could say the same about there being nothing overly good; a phrase my wife likes to say about something like this is “fair to middling”, and that would be spot on here. Scott and David Tipton seem to have written a story which won’t trouble anybody and is just there to pass the time. The art handled by the Sharp Brothers is okay – there are a few moments where the faces fall foul and lose shape, and I do have one concern with Julian Bashir’s false tan – he looks almost terracotta!
So, all in all, The Six Doctors isn’t particularly special, or interesting. It passes the time and is an okay read, but if you miss it your world really won’t come to an end.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
Originally published July 16, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
