Star Trek: Defiant vol. 3 — Hell is Only a Word
The crew of the Defiant’s bounty hunting days are behind them, and they’re ready to be done with each other after how it all turned out. All they have to do is deliver their quarries to Starbase 99 and they can go their separate ways. Once they arrive at the decrepit space station (which is even more of a dump than Starbase 80, if you can believe it) they find that things… aren’t quite right. Now Worf, Spock, B’Elana, Ro, Hugh, and Nymira are in for the fight of their lives as a menace from Starfleet’s past re-emerges and tries to make its case for peaceful coexistence with our universe’s inhabitants by taking them over from the inside out.
Like the stories from the previous volume, “Hell is Only a Word” picks up from an old TV episode (one whose climax seared itself into my brain from Season 1 of “TNG”) and then proceeds to build its own narrative from there. While I liked that approach in vol. 2, it doesn’t come off quite as well here. I think it’s because the single-issue stories writer Christopher Cantwell was telling there forced him to pack more twists and character into their limited space. What we get here has more space but isn’t necessarily better, coming off like a cross between “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “Aliens.”
It’s at least a skillful combination of these two kinds of stories that injects enough “Star Trek” to give the story its own personality. So expect to enjoy lots of pseudoscience as the cast tries to science their way out of this problem while also shooting up the place as well. Returning artist Angel Unzueta makes it all look good, giving the action scenes proper energy and the conversations some drama. Cantwell’s hold on his characters remains strong here, furthering their own stories amidst the action while also setting up what looks to be something new for next time. While I can’t begrudge the writer for indulging his inner Trekkie over the past few volumes, it’ll be nice to see what he does with what looks like an original story setup for vol. 4.