Bottalk Reviews

Our first story is told from the perspective of a Tribble during the episodes The Trouble with Tribbles (Star Trek: The Original Series: Season 2, Ep 15) and Trials and Tribble-ations (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 5, Ep 6).  It is... extremely silly but also fun at the same time.  Our second story is from Strange New Worlds and has La'an Noonien-Singh dealing with her feelings for Kirk after the episode Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Strange New Worlds: Season 2, Ep 3).  She talks with his brother Sam at great length.  It is fine but it doesn't really add any anything in the end.  It feels like a rehash of things we've already seen.  Our third story is set in the future of Discovery.  Michael Burnham brings a lost girl back to her mother.  Simple as that.   Our next story is set during season seven of Deep Space Nine and features Quark's dog Latinum playing baseball with the senior staff.  It is also silly and fun.  The story itself is very short but seeing

In a Romulan prison Spock is held by Sela and given the task of discovering why her father overthrew the Praetor.  Meanwhile, O'Brien leaves Keiko and sets out to find Worf.  Worf, Ro Laren and B'Elanna Torres work to fortify their position and protect the indigenous population from the oncoming Romulan attack.  They discover a couple of hundred year old Hirogen ships.  In space, O'Brien finds the Defiant but is currently occupied by Kzinti scavengers.  After a short scuffle Miles forces the Kzinti to depart and assumes command of the Defiant. I have to say I'm a bit more interested in Miles than Worf and his crew playing Seven Samurai... or three samurai I suppose.  The Romulan coup continues to be the central driving force.  Once again we get some veiled reference to the oncoming supernova that will eventually destroy Romulus.  This was never fully explained and it seems we may finally get an explanation in a future issue.  Said it before but it feels as though Spock&

Lore confronts the Pleroma and in the process kills Charles Evans.  He has a bomb that can tear the Pleroma, and the rest of the universe, apart and he wants only one thing... for Sisko to give Lore his position as Emissary.  As Lore and Sisko verbally fight one another T'Lir and Sato infiltrate Lore's Bird of Prey.  They manage to escape with Data's head.  Back in the Pleroma, after making no progress with the higher beings nor Sisko, Lore activates the bomb and the universe begins to tear itself apart as the Theseus speeds away.   There is a lot going on in this issue.  The verbal confrontations between Sisko and Lore, and Sisko and his mother are the big scenes here.  Though with all the super powered, 'higher' beings you'd think there would be more of a confrontation.  But other than Charlie attempting to confront Lore, there are no fireworks here.  It gives the higher beings the sense of being above even this situation, but the double edged sword here is it

On Romulus a coup takes place.  Later, Sela and her father discuss the situation.  An announcement is made, with General Revo (Sela's father) condemning the coup and outing those who carried it out.  On Earth Chief O'Brien analyzes the images of those who carried out the coup and realizes it was none other than Worf, Ro Laren and B'Elanna Torres. Much of this issue is spent discussing the self-replicating mines O'Brien developed at the beginning of the Dominion War.  They have since been co-opted and used by other races to keep a hold on territory, killing thousands.  He is called out during a lecture and labeled a war criminal.  I'll just be upfront, I don't care for this story thread at all.  Having him get involved with the larger story of the Romulan coup is fine.  But having some young cadet throw mud at him feels wrong.  Also, it feels like Spock is increasingly becoming a character that they don't quite know what to do with.  He did little during the

Data, in his search for Lore, resigns from Starfleet and ventures to the Academy.  Data manages to enlist the aid of Chief O'Brien.  Together they search Farius Prime, a world the Chief is very familiar with, for clues to Lore's whereabouts.  They are soon attacked by Klingons but are saved by Geordi La Forge.  On Orion they confront those who gave Lore technology, and Data uses aggressive means to get the information he desires.  They find a huge space station and onboard are confronted by Klingon Korath.  Lore suddenly snaps Korath's neck from the shadows.  Part of the space station detaches as Data has Geordi beamed away.  Lore removes Data's head and on the bridge of his ship we see assimilated Klingons. This story is... quite messy.  Lore says he deliberately wrote a mystery to get his brother's attention... but it just feels like a fetch quest with little pay off.  Orions, Klingons... nothing of real substance.  The confrontation between Data and Lore is very

Sisko's mother educates him on what is, what was, and consequences.  Meanwhile, Beverly Crusher and Wesley reunite.  The reunion is very brief, though Wes does manage to slip her a note before she departs.  Later, Ensign Sato makes her move.  She activates a device which brings forth... Lore. I have to say I did not see the final page coming.  The reunion between Crushers was nice, though perhaps too brief.  I do wish the many pages devoted to the Sisko family had more substance.  DS9 is great but there is only so much non-linear nonsense I can take.  Sara says so much and yet so little all at the same time.   seven out of ten.

While Worf and Ro battle the mother creature Sela attempts to shake Spock out of his mental flux, brought on by the hive mind.  Spock manages to bring the infected Starbase crew back to normal and the parasites begin to explode.  Nymira beams the crew back to the Defiant as she confronts the mother creature and sacrifices herself to defeat it and close the portal.  Two days later the crew is seemingly back to normal.  Hugh leaves the ship and Sela's father shows up.  He congratulates her on capturing the Defiant, Spock and Worf. I'm not sure I like Spock's mind being overwhelmed by the mother parasite.  We've seen this sort of thing before, V'Ger for instance.  I suppose it is one way to get across the threat the parasites pose.  Having Sela be the one to bring Spock out of his mental flux was great though.  Hugh leaving feels very abrupt.  I don't mind the somewhat rotating cast of characters this title has, I just wish it felt more organic at times.   seven ou

Sisko manages to talk himself into the Pleroma, along with Dr. Crusher.  Later, they enter and are confronted with the various god-like members.  Many of them familiar.  Apollo, Trelane, a Metron, a Tholian, Charles Evans, the Guardian of Forever, and several others.  T'Lir asks the assembled beings to restore the Organians.  They vote on the matter and the resurrection of the Organians fails.  As Dr. Crusher searches for her son a new entity arrives in the Pleroma... Sisko's mother.  If he does not leave the universe will burn.   The members of the Pleroma are a who's who of god-like beings from across the history of Star Trek.  Most of them are from the original series, but we get Kevin Uxbridge from TNG, The Caretaker and M'Benga's daughter from Strange New Worlds.  Even the Tholian Bright Eyes from the previous Star Trek ongoing series.  They are certainly better behaved than I expected.  The Wesley Crusher aspect I find intriguing.  I guess they are going to s