Star Trek: Defiant vol. 4 — The Stars of Home

At the end of vol.3, the remaining crew of the Defiant – Worf, Spock, B’Elanna, and Ro – found themselves at the mercy of Sela’s father, General Revo.  When this volume begins, we find out that Worf, B’Elanna, and Ro have been press-ganged into abducting some key Romulan officials while Spock has been sent to a prison planet with instructions from Sela to find out what a couple of scientists know.  General Revo has a plan for the entire Romulan Empire and everyone here has a part to play in it.  Unfortunately, some of these parts are more expendable than others.

With a “Lore War” looming, writer Christopher Cantwell starts wrapping up most of the story threads he’s been developing here, with generally satisfying results.  You get to see three of the main characters of this series engage in an against-the-odds fight against some of the nastiest commandos Romulus has to offer.  Meanwhile, Sela has it out with her dad and emerges as the one character from this run to be more interesting than when they started.  There’s also the addition of two new characters in this storyline that almost feel like indulgent “Deep Space Nine” fanservice, but I think the writer does enough with them here to avoid that in the end.

Oddly, “Defiant” heads into its run with an ensemble that feels tightly knit together when it began as a series whose eclectic, fractious cast was its main draw.  I didn’t think I needed a series where Worf and Spock became best buds, but it turned out to be something I’m glad I got.  Maybe the Fate of the Romulan Empire business needed a bit more scale to feel like it really worked; though, this volume was more focused on doing right by its characters.  Which Cantwell and artist Angel Unzueta managed to pull off here.  Which bodes well for the reconciliation between Worf and his son Alexander next time.