Star Trek 1300: False Colors

1300. False Colors

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: Voyager - False Colors, Wildstorm Comics, January 2000

CREATORS: Nathan Archer (writer), Jeffrey Moy, Philip Moy, and W.C. Carani (artists)

STARDATE: 53689 (between Ashes to Ashes and Child's Play)

PLOT: Voyager comes across wreckage that includes Borg elements. The ship then encounters an alien ship that behaves like the Borg and has scavenged Borg technology. It attacks and locks Voyager in a tractor beam. Seven, Tuvok and Chakotay go to the alien ship disguised as drones and meet the aliens, equally disguised as drones. Seven calls their bluff, they run. She then merges with the ship's Borg elements and shuts them down. The aliens fight back by destroying their Borg tech to regain control. Those elements keep Seven locked in as their "Queen" and they separate from the scavengers' ship. Tuvok frees Seven with a well-placed phaser hit and they beam back to Voyager. They run as the Borg ship fragment attacks the scavengers and sends a signal to the Collective. On Voyager, Seven muses about nostalgia. Meanwhile, a Borg Cube arrives to assimilate the people who were impersonating them.

CONTINUITY: None.

DIVERGENCES: Details on how Borg technology work are... iffy.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Cuz, you know, it's like, the biggest system ever.
REVIEW: Just like a bad Voyager episode (I realize that means a lot). It's at least 15 pages too long, with plenty of meaningless babble about are-they, aren't-they the Borg and characters partaking in just the most ridiculous debates. A lot of it contradicts what we know about Borg and Starfleet technology, such as the amazing ship debris that can merges with Seven and then can act independently. The away team dress as drones, which makes the aliens freak out, but then shed the costume for no reason. Tuvok "saves the day" with a move that should, by rights, have forced Seven to get a hook installed. Paris says the one thing you can count on with the Borg is that they won't change their tactics? What part of the word "adapt" doesn't he understand? After a while, the book is so out of touch with the tv series, you just lose interest. The art is pretty-ish, but the characters almost always look too young (at one point, Janeway is all of 8) and too often look amused when they shouldn't. This was Wildstorm's first Star Trek comic. Not emblematic of later successes.

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