BotTalk Reviews

After a quick recap from Jadzia Dax, we go into our story where our people on the holosuite attempt to solve the game and out in space Defiant defeats the Maquis. Well this sure was a rushed conclusion, Dax and others look at a body then rush outside, give a speech. And outside Sisko figures out what happened to the Varela crew. And that’s it. What should’ve been a two issue conclusion is rushed out in one issue. I mean for a rushed final story it was alright, but when they tell you the stakes are high, they need to deliver those stakes. And the object everyone is trying to find just kinda goes away, and Verad becomes a werewolf... for reasons and just kinda goes nowhere. Plus the Blade is this entity game master that just kinda exists. And I don’t know, this wasn’t great. This story could’ve been in any corner of the franchise, it didn’t really need to be DS9, and it feels that it’s DS9 just to be DS9. 3/10. Its only saving grace being that it is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. But this n...

And so on the holodeck Worf and co. find O’Brien and are faced by the head of the Game in the form of a classic vampire. Outside, Odo investigates the Varela and the Defiant makes its return to DS9. Oh good Verad is back. Okay so a couple of continuity things right off, first we see Bashir and Doctor Selar in sickbay, Selar is supposed to be in a coma but then both are captured when Maquis throw Odo and team in confinement with them. Also Odo is off searching the ship, but he’s also walking past Quark? And Selar apparently made a quick recovery.  Also Verad and Maquis? Verad wasn’t even a great antagonist in the show, they could’ve chosen any number of characters. Also the portrayal of the Maquis as power grabbing terrorists, they were never that. They were colonists angered by the Federation’s decision to abandon them for some treaty, making them the big bad for plot reasons is just kinda lazy. On the plus side the A story on the holodeck is a much better story involving a mystery...

The battle begins.  The Emerald Chain fights desperately to destroy the last remnants of the Federation.  Sato and Kirk coordinate fleet actions to get as many ships as possible into the singularity.  Sato proposes Agnes assimilate him so the others can escape.  So she and Kirk can live.  Sato and Kirk have one last argument but this one Sato wins.  He is assimilated.  His plan works.  Two years later we see former members of the Omega living their lives.  A statue of Sato at Starfleet Academy... and on some distant planet a Borg Nanite free Kirk and Agnes watch the sunset.   Most of this issue feels like the George Lucas shorthand of, 'they fight'... but it is pretty great.  I liked Kirk and Sato working together after being at odds for so long.  I thought it was great they had one last 'argument' that Sato one.  After everything his solution was to sacrifice himself.  So much of this series focused on Sato instead o...

In the holo suite Chief Miles O’Brien faces a mysterious and shrouded figure! The commander of the U.S.S. Valera accuses Commander Jadzia Dax of murder and Worf puts everyone on lockdown in their quarters while they investigate. But as Jadzia slowly puts things together two of the Varela escape and run for the O’Brien Must Suffer holosuite, pursued by Jadzia and Worf. Nobody on DS9 gets a break! Is another rule in the Star Trek bible. As now our story has become a murder mystery AND a holodeck tries to kill everyone in a game story. It’s a good story for this month, only issue is this is a graphic novel story and the separate issue break up hurts the momentum. But as a whole it’ll be an excellent story.  7/10

We start our story six years after Frontier Day with Commander Raffaela “Raffi” Musiker and Admiral Kathryn Janewa on the moon in front of a ship that crashed on moon.  From there we get Raffi’s pov during the events that lead up to Seven’s mission (seen in Star Trek #1) and following that is Raffi welcoming her new XO, the Mistress of the Winter Constellations,  and we meet their newest AI, Sybil, a planetoid based on Dr Soong’s positronic network. Sybil is there to forecast future threats to galaxy and the Federation (because that always works out and has no consequence what so ever) and on this mission they are to fly into the watery centre of a frozen planet or “eyeball planet” but  Commander D'Vana Tendi discovers something that could be detrimental to the safety of ship and crew. They have to fly into the ocean, but is the ship sound enough to withstand that pressure? What happens if the hole freezes back over? This first issue introduces us to a new ship and a mos...

In order to continue covering his tracks Captain Miller levels false accusations on Deubert and the Andorian agent, he’s ordered to bring them in alive, he doesn’t want that. Meanwhile our fugitives are on the run and do a quick exposition dump before going to a drone operated mining system controlled by Section Null. After a bloody firefight with goons the fugitives hide in one of the crates until the crates are beamed to captain miller’s ship! Three issues in and at least they end the Will They or Won't They? thing. And already captured by Miller. Or are they? Miller seems to think so.   At least they don’t seem to be dragging this plot out with multiple issues of running and hiding. And the story is a nice quick flow and gives us a little background on our two main protagonists. 7/10

On DS9 sometime in season 4, Miles O'Brien is called to an emergency to fix a holosuite but, because O’BRIEN MUST SUFFER! He is sucked into the room and disappears.  Elsewhere the station prepares for peace talks while Benjamin Sisko takes defiant off to investigate some mystery, leaving Worf and Jadzia Dax in charge. Another crewman is zapped into the room that took O’Brien. The station starts having power issues, and delegate issues, and ends on a cliffhanger medium close up of Jadzia. It is written in the Star Trek Franchise Bible that Miles O’Brien must suffer, and in this one he does and is now stuck and needs help. Honestly this could probably fit as a season 4 episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it has the usual things you could want, natural character interactions and the plot flows steady and well.  There’s obviously going to be a part two, and the art is fine. This first issue sets the story up pretty well. I’ll give it an 8/10

Guess who’s back! No not her, that was a given, or her, or him, no not him, and especially not her, and the less said about him the better. In the 25th Century… So Captain Seven is on the holodeck during a therapy exercise riding a 25th century motorcycle (excellent therapy) when they are called to the RevLav system to evacuate the four planet colony. After which they are called by Admiral Janeway to investigate the epsilon corridor (first seen in the Star Trek: 60th Anniversary Special!) and go beyond our galaxy. Problem is for every year over there five years pass in our galaxy. Thus begins a story that would have been perfect for the vaunted Star Trek Legacy tv series First off I like this art style. It fits the story in its look, and the story itself sounds like it may be as chaotic as the art. This may be the best start to a title they’ve done till now. So Lily Sato is back from her adventures with the Fenris Rangers. The enterprise is on the tail end of its 5 year mission, Jack C...

Admiral Sato and James Kirk meet to discuss a course of action.  They will evacuate all remaining Starfleet ships and personnel through a singularity.  The Emerald Chain intercepts information about this plan.  After some preparation Kirk and Sato gather the remaining ships only to be met by the Emerald Chain.  Sato orders all ships to open fire. A lot going on here.  Kirk and Sato manage to exist together without getting into a fight, physical or verbal.  There is some mending of old wounds as members of the crew get a moment before the mass evacuation.  The scenes between Kirk and Agnes still feel a bit off.  I wish they had devoted a bit more time to developing them.   seven out of ten.

Lyna Taval and Harry Deubert make their escape off planet, meanwhile Captain Miller makes his own plans to stop them! This issue keeps up the pace of the previous issue, where after checking in with Lyna’s handler and learning there’s a second witness to Captain Miller’s... villainy, they then fight their way out of an ambush. All in all the 2090s redshirts is off to a good start, leaving enough here to make the reader come back for more next month. 8/10

In a slight variant from the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode where a nebula has the enterprise play out a fantasy story for Joseph M'Benga's daughter in that show’s season one, this is what if the fantasy was tales by Edgar Allan Poe. Wherein the doctor now has to work through the fantasy and still ends up letting his daughter go to become a nebula entity. If you love Poe, you may like this issue. I think the story has a target audience and Edgar Allan Poe fans are it. This is a 19th century gothic story instead of the fantasy knights and princesses and monsters story of the streaming episode, but they both essentially end the same way. And the art work tries to play along as a visual representation of a Poe work and in that it does its job, if a bit too clean. But in the end it’s a 5/10

1. Escape from the planet of Mudd (Story by David Gerrold, Art by JP Buzio, Colors by Christine Franzen) For the first story we are treated to a sequel of classic Star Trek: The Original Series episode I, Mudd, wherein we pick up after the enterprise had left Harry on a planet of about 500 Stellas constantly nagging. Harry Mudd devises a way to distract the Stellas and get off planet.  This wasn’t too bad of a story in its own right. You almost feel bad for Harry, and they got his character down well enough you can hear Roger C. Carmel’s (Cyclonus from Transformers season 3!) voice as Harry whines and plans his way out. It’s not that it’s a necessary sequel, but it’s still a welcome short story if you’re a fan of Harry Mudd episodes. 2. The Engineer's Dilemma (Story by Dana Gould, Art by Megan Levens, Colors by Charlie Kirchoff) After the events of TOS episode The Lights of Zetar Scotty stands in his quarters going over the decision to let Mira go as she moved on to her new post at...