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"The Q Gambit" Part 1
Star Trek #35
IDW
Written by: Mike Johnson
Story Consultant: Roberto Orci
Art by: Tony Shasteen
Cover by:
Tony Shasteen
July 2014 |
Q introduces himself to Kirk and the Enterprise
crew, with a plan to show Kirk that there is such a thing as a real
no-win scenario.
Read the story summary at Memory Beta
Didja Notice?
The inside front cover of this issue features birth date
information for Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov. Kirk's
birth info we already knew from
"Rebirth". The others are: Spock, born 2230 on Vulcan;
Uhura, born 2233 in
Kitui,
Kenya, Earth; Sulu, born 2237 in
San Francisco, California,
Earth; Chekov, born 2241 in
Taganrog, Russia, Earth (in the original timeline, he
was said to have been born in 2245!).
Page 1 of this issue is a brief recount of events at the end
of
"Countdown" Part 4, which
leads into "Rebirth".
This issue opens in the original ST timeline, shortly after the
Jellyfish and the Narada vanished at the
end of
"Countdown" Part 4.
The character of Q that appears in this story arc was
originally introduced in the ST:TNG episode "Encounter at
Farpoint" and has appeared numerous times in stories set in
that timeline. This is his first appearance in the new
timeline.
On page 2, Ambassador Picard orders from his cabin's food
replicator, "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot," and Q pops in, chiding,
"Would it kill you to try chamomile for once?" Picard has
been known throughout the TNG era of stories for having a
preference for Earl Grey tea.
On page 4, Q is about to tell Ambassador Picard about
differences in the alternate timeline created by Spock and
Nero's interference in the past, and he brings up Khan
Noonien Singh as an example. Picard stops him from saying
anything further, but Q was presumably going to relate the
events of the Khan
mini-series and Into
Darkness.
The new timeline events of this issue begin on stardate
2261.34, according to Kirk's Captain's Log. He goes on to
say that it's been several months since leaving Earth on the
Enterprise's 5-year mission. But the stardate of
2261 indicates it is about two years after the events of
Into Darkness
(which took place in 2259), at the end of which the ship's
5-year mission was to begin.
On page 7, Q remarks to Kirk, regarding the Enterprise,
"...the design of this one is so much better than the beige
look." He is referring to the beige coloring of most of
the interiors of the Enterprise-D
in the original timeline, though, since he is coming from the
time of the Enterprise-E, which
has far less beige, the comment is obviously more for the
fans to chuckle at than to take as a comment on the current
Enterprise.
On page 9, three Klingon ships de-cloak around the
Enterprise. In
"The Khitomer
Conflict" Parts 1-4, it seemed that neither the Klingons
nor Romulans had yet achieved cloaking technology, though
the Federation's Section 31 had. Of course, this turns out
to be a test conjured up by Q, so he may have thrown in the
cloaking capabilities himself. It's possible the Klingons
have actually achieved it themselves as well, though only a
couple of months have elapsed since the events at the
conclusion of
"The Khitomer
Conflict"
storyline on stardate 2261.168.
The Klingon ships that surround the
Enterprise
on page 9 appear to be the same class as the part-Bird of
Prey, part-Narada ones introduced in
"After Darkness" Part 2.
A schematic readout on Uhura's console of the Smallwood
is seen on page 10. I've been unable to identify the exact
class of Federation ship. It is similar, but not exact to
the Oberth-class research ships.
On page 11, Uhura realizes that "smallwood" in Japanese
would be kobayashi. This is approximately correct, as
kobayashi means "small forest". This refers to the no-win
Kobayashi Maru scenario, which Q has brought to
life in order to test Kirk in a manner similar to the
Academy scenario.
On page 13, Q materializes sitting in the captain's chair on
the bridge. Kirk tells Q, "Get out my chair!" Captain Picard
said the same thing to Q in the ST:TNG episode "Qpid".
The scene of Kirk's death on pages 17-18 is from Into
Darkness.
On the last page of this issue, the
Enterprise
has emerged on the opposite side of the Alpha Quadrant and
in the future, faced with space station Deep
Space 9 and a contingent of Jem'Hadar battleships (seen
mostly in episodes of ST: DS9).
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