Following the end of the last run, evil Barclay is left alone to ponder his place in the universe. His plan, to take the place of the real Barclay and pretty much try to secure some power from somewhere. The time in the ST:TNG is after Wolf 359 so Federation resources are at an all time low. Perfect then for a lone wolf in sheep clothing to go about and take over the place, right?
The book is written by Star Trek stalwarts Scott Tipton and David Tipton, who have been around the old space dock more than a few times. In the past, I have found the majority of their work to be engaging and this continues in places. Unfortunately, there are two massive plot holes that arise from this issue; ones that are so glaring that my level of integration into the story is pretty much torpedoed from the start. We get a monologue, from evil Barclay, telling us how evil he is, then he leaves our Barclay tied up, instead of killing him! Even after essentially saying “we do anything to succeed”. Coupled with the fact that Troi doesn’t seem to “feel” the new-found confidence in the character, with nary a space anomaly to thwart her empathic power, leads to any overwhelming sense of why bother. For the record, I would have thought Spot would’ve been able to smell the difference.
The key to Trek, and possibly by definition all licenced books, is that the art needs to look enough like the characters from the TV / movie. Here, Tony Shasteen does a great job capturing the overall likeness of all involved. There are occasions where the faces have a minor dead eye look to them. To be fair it happened to me with Riker’s Ten Forward litany of problems that the Federation are facing. So much for keeping a command secret! The art did suffer a tad when it came to showing the Hood and the Enterprise with the former looking more like the Enterprise E than the Hood. The double take help resolve that minor quibble. The colors are provided by JD Mettler who does a great job at recreating the muted hues of TNG.
I love the idea of the MIrror, Mirror universe but at this stage, I feel that, like the Borg and the Daleks in Doctor Who, every appearance or interaction only serves to diminish their real threat with the ramification of also diminishing the overall story.
Writing – 2 Stars
Art – 3.5 Stars
Colors – 4 Stars
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Written by;Â Scott Tipton & David Tipton
Art by;Â Tony Shasteen
Colors by; JD Mettler
Published by; IDW
Author Profile
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I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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