Star Trek 1070: Good Listener

1070. Good Listener / A True Son of Kahless / Spot's Day

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: The Next Generation Special #1, DC Comics, September 1993

CREATORS: Tony Isabella and Bob Ingersoll / Kenneth Penders and Anne Wokanovicz / Diane Duane (writers); Deryl Skelton, Steve Carr and Jim Amash / Kenneth Penders and Romeo Tanghal / Mike Sellers and Rod Whigham (artists)

STARDATE: 46541.2 (between Tapestry and Birthright, Part I) / Unknown (during Alexander's stay aboard ship, and based on Troi's uniform would make it very late Season 6) / Unknown (late Season 6 according to Troi's uniform)

PLOT: In Good Listener, Guinan tries to save a shipboard marriage while the crew deals with a colony suffering from debilitating emotional attacks and hallucinations. Thanks to the featured husband's low-level telepathy, he is able to figure out the indigenous primates are sentient, telepathic AND responsible. The colony is thus relocated and the marriage solidified. In A True Son of Kahless, Worf takes Alexander camping on a planet that, as the Enterprise discovers too late, is about to undergo some massive cataclysms. Worf is hurt on the planet surface and it's Alexander who rescues him and drags him to safety until the Enterprise can get them out of there. Spot's Day has Spot escape from Data's quarters, follow various crewmembers around and end up fighting a tiger in Worf's holodeck program.

CONTINUITY: In Good Listener, one hallucination involves the Borg. Guinan quotes Kirk (in ST II) as the "friend of a friend" (the implication is that it's McCoy). Spot's Day is a reference to the similarly titled Data's Day.

DIVERGENCES: A True Son of Kahless features a heck of a lot of Klingon tears for a species without tear ducts (ST VI).

PANEL OF THE DAY - Holodeck safeties are ON.
REVIEW: Tony Isabella writes a fair Guinan story in Good Listener, though he mostly populates it with original guest characters. That's fine, though his handle on the Trek universe is at times iffy. A telepathic human? Not unheard of, but a little strange. Klingons being called "lobsters" by a racist? Interesting, but hardly something from the show. And yet it remains engaging despite the pretty obvious plot, probably because of the new angle (Guinan's POV) and some pretty dynamic visual scenes. Kenneth Penders takes care of both the writing in the art in A True Son of Kahless to good effect. He's good enough that he can smoothly use silent panels or pages, and his father-son story is at once sweet and exciting. Spot's Day is a fun little story with Spot getting into trouble. Well, not much trouble, but it's amusing to see him walk around the ship. A smile for the end of the issue.