Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989) #33 Comic Book Review

Staying in 1992 for a little while longer, Star Trek: The Next Generation #33 is the first in a three issue story arc where Q turns the entire crew of the Enterprise, except for Worf and Data, into Klingons at what is probably the worst possible time he could do that as the ship is transporting a Ysalanti delegation to a peace conference being mediated by the Federation. The Ysalanti don't like other warrior races, including the Klingons, so Worf has to stay out of sight, despite being Chief of Security. So then Q turns the crew into Klingons after he overhears Picard tell Worf that he wishes he had a hundred like Worf. You'd think Picard would know by this point (early to mid season 5) that Q can listen in so he should be careful about what he says. But no, instead he goes and says that, inspiring Q.

I always assumed that Q listens in on the Enterprise crew from time to time, but due to the budgetary restrictions that TNG had back in the late '80s and early '90s, they could never portray that. Instead they would have him appear out of nowhere rather than showing him floating outside the ship as. Which is why Q makes a great character to have in a comic book. Just because you can do so much more with him that the show couldn't do either because of budgetary restraints or because of the limitations of the Human body.

Having said that this issue, and the two that follow it, are comics that fall more into the category of fan fiction rather than a story that could plausibly be canon. Not because the comics are never canon, and not because Michael Jan Friedman is a huge Star Trek fan though. The thing about this story is that even if Q ever had transformed the crew into Klingons on the show, he couldn't change their personalities or their internal structure to be Klingons. It would be a superficial thing only. And so the only problem would be that Worf would still be the only Klingon and the Ysalanti would only be looking at people who look like Klingons, not actual Klingons. This is something I'll be getting into again in three weeks when I review part three of this story arc in Star Trek: The Next Generation #35. In this issue La Forge would never be that aggressive, and even as a Klingon, Doctor Crusher would never perform surgery outside of the operating room, and she would never perform it without anaesthesia. Yeah, those two things happened in this issue.

The artwork is much more solid in this issue than it was back in issue #31. You can actually see what location the characters are in, be it a corridor, Engineering, the Transporter Room or the Bridge. Like the artist of issue #31, Ken Penders enjoys taking shots directly from the show and translating them into comic book form. But unlike the artist of issue #31, Penders does it with the Enterprise rather than with characters. There are several shots of the ship in this issue that look exactly like they were taken from the show. He even included a shot of the ship jumping to warp from the same angle as we see it in the opening title sequence. I even imagined that Picard was saying his opening monologue over the shot. The other two are simply two of the stock footage images from the show. So I thought that was pretty cool.

The only other problem that I have with this issue, apart from the story feeling more like fan fiction, is the layout of some of the pages. The panel layout is fine, but some of the story is told left to right, and some is told right to left. It gets a bit confusing, but it's only with four pages in total. Not enough to make the book unreadable, just enough to make it a little jarring if you aren't expecting it.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall, I wouldn't recommend that you read this issue unless you grew up reading the comics of the '90s. It's a good story, but like I said, it feels like fan fiction and just defies plausibility as a Star Trek story. Q would definitely turn the crew into Klingons on the show if he'd had the chance, but it wouldn't be like the way it's portrayed in this issue. I'm giving this issue 5/10 as the artwork is gorgeous and for the fact that it is a good story even if it isn't a good Star Trek story.