Having saved the Earth from the God City of T’Kon, the crew of the USS Theseus return to Deep Space Nine to regroup and plan their next step against Kahless in Star Trek #7 written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, with art by Mike Feehan, colors by Lee Loughridge and letters by Clayton Cowles.
Mark Turetsky: Ooof. ComicsXF had that crazy temporal anomaly and skipped right over last month’s Star Trek issues. Status report, Mr. Thornley?
Tony Thornley: Looks like a bumpy first mission headed back to familiar territory. That’s the perfect way to start a new arc!
Left Behind
Mark: One of the things I’ve talked about missing from this comic has been downtime. Well, Kelly and Lanzing deliver on that in spades in Star Trek #7. The initial crisis has been averted, or at least put off, and we get a huge percentage of this issue focused on the crew returning to DS9. We get some time with each of them: Data and Crusher at Quark’s, Tom, Scotty and Lily drinking in the bowels of the Theseus, Descheeni, our new tactical officer checking out the holosuites, Jake and T’Lir having a quiet stroll on the upper level of the promenade. But the most important and impactful was Captain Sisko reuniting with Kasidy Yates and meeting his daughter Sarah, named for Benjamin’s mother.
Tony: How fantastic was this? Sisko has never been the type of abandon family. So much of his arc is built on the bond he had with Jake or his father, while a huge portion of his internal conflict is his relationship with his mother.
So while I get the narrative dictated that he IMMEDIATELY go on the hunt for Kahless and the Red Path upon his return, it shows a thoughtfulness on the part of Lanzing & Kelly that the second arc opens with this family reunion. The seventh season arc of Kasidy and Ben’s romance, of two people in love settling down and planning the future, is in my opinion one of the strongest character arcs of the series. Following it up shows that this series is not just the successor of DS9 as far as the characters go, but as far as the storytelling style and depth goes.
Mark: Avery Brooks insisted that DS9 end with him promising to return someday. It wasn’t because he had any idea about follow-ups or sequels, but because he didn’t want to perpetuate a stereotype on TV of African American men abandoning their families. So I’d say this is an extremely important beat for them to hit.
Tony: But man, you’re right on the other character moments. I almost wish we hadn’t gotten the third act trip to Cardassia, just to get more of this. What was your favorite moment?
Mark: Personally, I love a mystery, and the continuing mystery surrounding T’Lir gets revisited here. They and Jake take a stroll on the upper level of the Promenade. The first thing I thought of was, is there a potential for romance here? But of course, Jake’s most prominent moments on the upper Promenade were with his best friend, Nog. At this point in time, Nog is a decorated war veteran (but I wouldn’t be shocked if he shows up in this series at some point), so T’Lir has to fill those friendship shoes for Jake. And we get that refrain, “I am T’Lir, a Vulcan of Starfleet.” Are they putting some kind of psychic whammy on Jake?
Anyway, I also love that Tom’s getting past his youthful party phase and just wants to drink and be sad about missing his wife and kid (I’m guessing this is set prior to her joining the Defiant).
Tony: Yeah, there was definitely something sweet but also slightly unsettling about the Jake and T’Lir conversation. I look forward to that developing.
I loved that Paris/Scott/Sato scene though. This is what downtime stories really give us as readers. Tom Paris grew so much in the Delta Quadrant, and, having watched a whole bunch of Voyager recently, it’s great seeing the young man with a hero complex has grown into a mature family man. He’s still clearly the same character, but with a decade of growth. Makes me a little sad that MacNeill wasn’t able to reprise Tom in Picard, as he was apparently asked and couldn’t work out the scheduling.
Mark: It didn’t stop him from appearing on Lower Decks’ “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris.”
Tony: True! Fantastic cameo!
And Scotty! More Scotty is always good. I’m so glad he’s a part of the cast. He’s the old veteran that this relatively young crew needs.
Feehan’s character acting in these scenes is so good. I am starting to get a little frustrated with the artistic whiplash we’re getting, but he does such a good job throughout Star Trek #7 showing the emotion and the interaction through a VERY talky issue. (Trust me, that’s not a bad thing.)
Mark: I also love that throughout the issue, we often get two scenes presented to us: a silent scene told in visuals, with a different scene told to us through captions. It’s a strong use of the comics medium, and above and beyond what I expect from a licensed comic.
Raiders of the Lost Orbs
Mark: It was announced in advance, and so the surprise is somewhat blunted, but they’ve taken on a new crewman in Star Trek #7. It’s Lieutenant Shaxs, on loan from the Cerritos! I should note that this issue is set only two years before the beginning of Lower Decks, so it makes total sense that he’s already on the Cerritos. Alas, this is probably set after Beckett Mariner was stationed on DS9.
Tony: Shaxs is one of my favorite NuTrek characters, period. A fierce warrior battling PTSD, with an intense nationalism born of trauma and war, all wrapped around a gooey caramel center. He’s great.
I really enjoy that the competitive sibling nature of his relationship with Nerys is played up here, but not for laughs. They bonded through shared trauma and it formed a connection for them that’s as real as a familial bond. And his purpose on the Theseus, I loved that. He’s not here to replace Worf. He’s here for a very Bajoran purpose.
Mark: Yeah, it seems like Lieutenant Descheeni will be replacing Worf, and I’m curious to learn more about her. Shaxs seems to be aboard just for the current mission: retrieve the missing Orbs of the Prophets from Cardassia. We get an updated list of the orbs of the prophets, with every orb from DS9 with the addition of the Orb of Destruction, and four additional orbs, two redacted by the Bajorans, two completely unknown.
To me, what’s worth noting is that the Federation has a “Task Force For The Reacquisition of Bajoran Artifacts and Antiquities” with only one Bajoran serving on it. In the spirit of Deep Space Nine being about the failures of the Federation, this is a prime example. This smacks of tokenism. It also hints at the current diplomatic state between Bajor and the Federation post-DS9. The series was set up with the expectation that it was about a planet eventually joining the Federation, and it completely undermined that expectation. Still, if there’s just one Bajoran on that task force, I’m glad that it’s Shaxs.
Tony: Literally the best man for the job. I absolutely see him as a reverse Indiana Jones. “It belongs back where it’s from!” (There’s no way to say the opposite of “it belongs in a museum” that isn’t awkward, is there?)
Shifting the story away from the Red Path slightly for this diversion makes sense from a plot perspective. Deep Space Nine really had the deepest overall mythology of the franchise, and the Orbs create a lot of storytelling potential even beyond the Red Path story. Every time they showed up on DS9, it was an “oh crap!” moment. The bigger picture here than we’ve seen with the Orbs before? That makes it even bigger I feel.
Return to Cardassia Prime
Mark: One of the things I’ve wanted to see after the end of the Dominion War has been the state of Cardassia. It seems like the Cardassians haven’t welcomed the Federation into their rebuilding efforts and there seems to be some kind of civil war going on.
Tony: One thing I struggle with in sci-fi comics is space battles. Not a lot of comic series are able to get the energy of ships zooming through space blasting each other (even though I haven’t seen the episode yet, I’ve watched the clips of the Enterprise-D zooming through the Borg cube in the Picard finale a dozen times). I think Feehan and Loughridge absolutely nailed it in this two page spread.
You mentioned to me offline about how there was a thesis about the Dominion paralleling the Federation- Klingons and Jem’Hadar, Vulcans and Vorta, etc. I think this final scene of Star Trek #7 kind of showed me that Cardassia has the parallel to Earth. It’s what we humans could be if we don’t adopt utopian ideals. I wouldn’t have drawn that parallel if it wasn’t for both this issue and your mentioning it, but I can’t help but see it now.
Mark: And speaking of Cardassians, Sisko’s warm welcome is, well, a trap. The young man in charge of Cardassia now is named Barada Damar, and he appears to be flanked by a Jem’Hadar and a Vorta. Now, here’s the thing: Damar’s wife and son were publicly executed by the Dominion in the final episodes of DS9, so who is this kid? Is he Damar’s legitimate son, having somehow survived? Is he maybe the product of one of Damar’s many dalliances?
Tony: I was going to ask you about that! I remember that being one of the big plot points going into the finale. Damar’s final character arc was a good one, but he did end up getting martyred. I wonder if Damar here is an honorific, the Cardassian “Caesar”, if you will. Or maybe even a pretender to the family name, knowing the Damar name will cement his power.
Mark: Let’s remember, we’re only a few years out from the end of DS9 here. We know that Damar took advantage of his status as a legate to cheat on his wife, but when we first met him on DS9, he was a mere glin. Barada seems to be in his teens. I’m not saying that he couldn’t have cheated on his wife as a minor military officer, but his alcoholism and his womanizing were shown as his power corrupting him. But maybe that corruption started earlier. Who knows?
Tony: Very good point. Considering how much we’ve seen this series honor Trek continuity though, I’m positive it’s not a mistake. I was a little surprised to not see Garak in this scene (though a couple background Cardassians did look a bit like him). I have to imagine that’s coming though.
Mark: It’s very much set up for us to expect Garak! We know he stayed on Cardassia, and they go into the Obsidian Order headquarters of all places. But yes, I very much expect he’s leading one of the other factions. I’m guessing that maybe they took out some “good guys” in the aforementioned space battle.
Tony: Yeah, I would be stunned if we went through this arc without seeing him. I’m glad this is the direction the series is going. Somehow Trek is usually much better at pulling off political intrigue than any other sci-fi franchise.
Mark: And dare I hope that where Garak is, Bashir can’t be far away? Anyway, Star Trek #7 ends with Sisko being subdued in a pain field and told he’ll be standing trial for war crimes in the next issue. From what we know of Cardassian trials, this is not a good sign for Sisko. But who knows, maybe the Cardassians have used this interregnum period to reassess their legal system and make their trials fairer?
Prepare Yourself for Warp 10 Excitement!
- Lieutenant Descheeni’s design has to be at least a little inspired by Dani Moonstar, right?
- It’s interesting, now with Shaxs added to the cast, Discovery is the only Trek franchise not represented in some way. I know why, but even a Kelpian crew member would be a nice nod.
- Quark is always a hoot: “Spending money is fun!” and “never a redhead for Quark.”
- Damar’s Jem’Hadar bodyguard? No tubes for Ketracel White. Hmmmmmm…
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
