EDITOR's NOTE: Star Trek Alien Spotlight: Borg arrives in stores Wednesday, January 23.

This issue of Star Trek Alien Spotlight has a far better plot and pacing than many of the Star Trek movies and were we living in a just world, it would be the basis of the next one. It is a space faring adventure that combines classic elements of Star Trek such as beloved characters, time travel, and, of course, the borg.

Star Trek: First Contact showed the borg, much like the mother of all terminators, Skynet, using time as a weapon, to strike at a critical moment of their foes' history in order to assure future victory. However, this opens up the same problem as the Terminator license; if your enemy can go back in time once, why can't they just do so, again and again, until such time that they succeed? This issue of Alien Spotlight not only provides an answer to this conundrum, but does so in an exciting and interesting manner.

Having failed once, the borg set out to not just change a single point in time, but to change all time, forever. What makes this truly harrowing is the fact when this story opens, this has already happened and the Federation is dealing with the fallout as time and space alter around them. Piccard, Janeway and the rest of the Federation's experts on the Borg must rush to fashion a defense against this plan, knowing that it has already taken place and the Borg have already succeeded. Now in the Star Trek world, time travel is so common that there's a chapter for it in Federation manuals, but this puts a interesting and mind-bending spin on it that is delivered very well. To say much more would be giving away too much.

In addition to some fine writing, Sean Murphy's art does the story justice, rendering familiar and new characters in such a manner that they are recognizable and distinguishable. Also, given that this entire story is self-contained, he crams massive amounts of detail into some very small spaces, which is particularly impressive when rendering the action, which is fast and beautiful. The only possible downside is that readers might be left wanting more of it.

This Alien Spotlight shows a great reverence for Star Trek from the characters to the pseudo-science, while at the same time pushing it to become more than it currently is. It's a must read for any Star Trek fan.

If you liked this review, be sure to check out more of the author’s work at http://madbastard.hypersites.com

---

What did you think of this book?
Have your say at the Line of Fire Forum!

---