Star Trek 957: The Peacekeeper Part Two

957. The Peacekeeper Part Two: The Conclusion

PUBLICATION: Star Trek v.2 #50, DC Comics, July 1993

CREATORS: Howard Weinstein (writer), Rod Whigham, Arne Starr, and Carlos Garzon (artists)

STARDATE: 8639.2 (follows the last issue)

PLOT: The USS Pacific, Scotty, Chekov and the secret protomatter weapon haven't been destroyed, but transported away by renegade Aegis agents bent on using the weapon for their own ends. On the Enterprise, Gary Seven, a true agent of the Aegis makes himself known to Captain Kirk and explains that he was sent to prevent the weapon test from occurring as it would have disastrous consequences on history. The renegades, rebelling against the Aegis' interventionism, took this opportunity to steal it. While Scotty and Chekov work to undermine the renegades' actions, Gary Seven flies the Enterprise to the Pacific's location where the former destroys the latter after all hands are rescued from it.

CONTINUITY: Confirmed, that was Admiral Cartwright (ST V-VI) last issue. Gary Seven and Isis appear again (from Assignment Earth) and are now time travelers. This is the first mention of the Aegis, but it returns in other comics and novels (so don't give the credit to Greg Cox's Assignment: Eternity).

DIVERGENCES: None.

PANEL OF THE DAY - See today's Cat of the Geek (#11)
REVIEW: Though it changes Gary Seven's premise a little bit, this issue creates the underpinnings of every Gary Seven appearance to come, right up to the recent IDW series. It's a simple enough "Time Patrol" idea, but still one that was missing from the Trek universe. I wonder if they were involved in the Temporal Cold War at all? From onscreen evidence, they may well be Daniels' people. The story IS plagued by a couple of Weinstein tics, like having the heroes do heroic stuff only to have it subverted by a deus ex machina (Scotty and Chekov strive to beat the bad guys and just when they do, the Enterprise swoops in and make it irrelevant) and the idea of a dissatisfied faction. However, the double-sized format allows Whigham to create more dramatic ship scenes that would simply have been a waste of space in a regular issue. And there's a good bit with the cat coming up with the solution.

Comments

De said…
I wasn't too thrilled about Gary Seven's new time travel premise because it sort of negates the ending of "Assignment: Earth" when Kirk is coy about Seven and Roberta's future.
Matthew Turnage said…
The issue was a little unclear to me. Gary's sponsors most definitely have time travel ability, but in the discussion on aging (and Gary's lack thereof) Gary seems to imply he's simply lived the three hundred years since "Assignment: Earth".