Last month saw the launch of the eagerly awaited (for this Voyager fan, at least) Star Trek: Voyager Homecoming comic series. Announced earlier this year, Homecoming promised to pick up where ‘Endgame‘ faded to black—giving answers to questions that Voyager fans have been asking since 2001. Now, Homecoming isn’t the first licensed work to tackle these questions. It’s not even the first one called “Homecoming“! It is, however, providing different answers in a brand-new story by Susan and Tilly Bridges.
Last Time on Star Trek: Voyager
SPOILERS AHEAD
September’s issue of Homecoming saw the ship actually make it into orbit (and drydock) before, in predictable Voyager fashion. Things started going wrong. A party of Admirals boarded the ship, Janeway handed over the command codes and then… Those pesky Admirals took over the ship. Voyager was back on the move.
Janeway and her senior staff escaped to sickbay, where they hatched a plan to retake the ship with Admiral Paris. Unfortunately for them, it turned out that all of the Admirals – Including Paris, who was still in their midst – were members of Species 8472!
A Voyager security officer perished in the midst of this reveal. Managing to finally unseat Joe Carey as the most unfortunate member of the crew. At least fans won’t be asking why Admiral Janeway didn’t go back a few weeks earlier to save Ensign Vogel…
And Now, The Conclusion
Issue #2 picks up where last month left off. Janeway, Paris and Chakotay are engaged in a firefight with 8472. Who are enraged that Voyager has been messing with the timeline and has future weaponry. In the midst of battle, Tuvok suddenly falls ill. All seems rather hopeless.
Tuvok’s illness forces our Intrepid heroes into a hasty retreat. Susan & Tilly Bridges demonstrate their familiarity with the source material and waste no time ticking off all the immediate ideas that Voyager fans will have had to deal with in the situation. That pesky computer lockout means no anti-8472 nanoprobes.
The leaders of the ‘training environment’ encountered in ‘In The Flesh’ are branded by the 8472 on board as traitors. With those 8472 making some… Not completely unfair points. Like how the Voyager crew didn’t even try to learn the real names of Boothby and Archer. Something that’s always bugged me about that episode!
The crew is put on a timer as it’s revealed that 8472’s telepathy has rapidly accelerated Tuvok’s neurodegenerative condition. If he doesn’t reach his family within 48 hours, the future Admiral Janeway was trying to avoid by travelling back in time will be set in stone. At least as far as Tuvok is concerned. Janeway reiterates her promise to get him home. Continuing that thread from Endgame in a subtle, but emotionally poignant manner.
The Weak Will Perish
But our crew is far from weak. Torres, having just given birth, springs into action to help retake the ship… Again. Which takes us to my one gripe with Homecoming’s story so far. The crew have tried and failed to retake Engineering. Immediately after retreating, they’re trying again with different characters. The Voyager crew faced their fair share of action, but they’ve never been the types to try a failed strategy over and over.
Of course, this second attempt does fail. There are two more issues to go of course! Plus, they’re against Species 8472, and they know their phasers don’t work. There is a fun callback to First Contact as they experiment with an alternate way to incapacitate the intruders. Unfortunately, still been no success. Then, further compounding the questions this issue has raised about the characters’ intelligence. Chakotay tells the Intruders they won’t stop until they’ve gained control of the deflector to get home.
So 8472, being in charge of the ship and all functions. Goes ahead and destroys the central and auxiliary deflector. It certainly adds to the stakes. But the way that we got to those stakes feels a little… Manufactured. In an episode, I think that the two teams would have tried to retake engineering simultaneously. The frontal assault serves as a distraction for the second team. An approach I feel would also have benefited this story.
Expanding 8472
Species 8472 is one of the great unknowns of ‘Alpha canon’. Star Trek: Online established it’s own backstory for the species (The Undine) some years ago. But nothing on screen has dared go near. Something that continues to surprise me, given the potential of 8472 to replace The Borg as Trek’s iconic villain. Considering how many fans are getting a bit tired of the collective.
Beta canon has had no such reservations, though, including Homecoming. There are some interesting artistic choices (such as red eyes in some panels), which I hope will be explained later in the story. This issue introduces the ‘Prime Hierarch’. The ‘leader’ of 8472. Who, fulfilling the wishes of many Delta Quadrant species, puts Janeway on trial.
I won’t say more about the plot for fear of giving away the ending. But I will say it’s a very iconic Janeway cliffhanger. The interaction with the Hierarch also draws some enjoyable parallels with Janeway’s cliffhanger interaction with the Borg in Scorpion Part 1.
Concluding
Star Trek: Voyager Homecoming remains an enthralling story for this Voyager fan, aside from a couple of minor quibbles. I feel the authors and artists continue to capture Voyager and her crew accurately. Even capturing the different compression rifle configurations!
With that said, I fear seeing the state of the ship after the events of this issue!
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