Star Trek The Next Generation: Mirror Broken #5 - Comic Review

Originally Published on Set The Tape

‘In the otherdimensional Mirror Universe, there is no United Federation of Planets, only the Terran Empire, where advancement comes through assassination, brutality is commonplace and kindness is a weakness. The Terran Empire is on its last legs in its war with the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, but Captain Jean-Luc Picard has obtained what he believes to be the final chance for victory: a revolutionary new Galaxy-class starship, Called Enterprise, that could turn the tide of the war. Having assembled a crew of fellow mutineers and pirates, including the Enterprise’s first officer, William T. Riker, Picard has achieved the impossible: engineering the theft of the Enterprise and the elimination of its captain. Just as Picard and the Enterprise faced its first challenge, a trio of Imperial ships looking to recover the stolen starship, an even bigger threat emerges – a massive Klingon-Cardassian armada.’

The final issue of Star Trek: The Next Generation: Mirror Broken brings a close to Captain Picard’s plot to seize control of the brand new starship Enterprise. With the issue opening with the Enterprise surrounded by a small fleet of Klingon and Cardassian ships this story is filled with action.

Luckily the writers, David and Scott Tipton, are smart enough to know they can’t just have the Enterprise tear through their opponents. This would end up feeling too powerful, too big a shift in the universe that the series has been building for the last four issues, and just kind of boring.

Thankfully, the book takes advantage of not just the Enterprise having some help from two other Imperial starships, but also makes use of the design of the Enterprise too, not only splitting the saucer section from the secondary hull but also deploying the Captain’s Yacht, a part of the ship that was never seen in action across all 174 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The book brings together a daring plan, one that shows the Enterprise as an incredible force, and even brings in the classic Picard Maneuver to strike at dozens of targets in quick succession, using the third warp nacelle on this version of the Enterprise to allow them to use the tactic multiple times.

Thankfully, the final issue of the series not only includes action, but manages to include some great character moments too. The book makes you think that Picard is going to betray Riker, that he’s been using Troi to maneuver him into a position where he’ll be killed; which means that there’s a surprising amount of tension as you’re almost waiting for Riker to be killed before the issue ends. Whilst this doesn’t happen, it creates enough intrigue to have me wanting the book to return, to see more of these versions of the characters and how they interact with each other.

One of the other big character moments in the book is Guinan getting the chance to interact with Picard, showing us how caring and even tender Picard appears to be with her. It’s a surprising moment, and one that shows us a side to this version of Picard that I’d come to assume didn’t even exist.

With the book concluding with the crew’s victory, the Terran Empire posing a credible threat to the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, and several interesting and unique character dynamics created, I really hope that the title will get a second run or, fingers crossed, an ongoing series.


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