With age comes perspective. It’s a gift that often feels like a curse. The rumination that age brings has one often recounting their past actions. It’s easy to discount those actions we did when were young. We often point to youth and inexperience as the pillars for making mistakes.

The actions we undertake when we get older become less forgiving. The experience of life gives you the intuition to not make the usual mistakes. It is when we do, that the person finds themselves at odds with themselves in the quietest moments of reflection.  In the one-shot, Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Gift, Q himself, John De Lancie writes this magnificent story which finds Picard correcting past mistakes with consequences.

We find Riker as he approaches Picard, who is reminiscing of something that happened long ago, as the rest of the crew enjoys a command party. Picard is soon summoned to the bridge, where a disturbance that then Enterprise is approaching, which has a strange physiological effect on him, as we soon find out that Q is behind it all, appearing as a circus showman to the crew. As Q takes a particular fact about Jean-Luc and decides to take him on an excursion to the past, 2332 to be exact, back to his childhood home. As we find out in this time, his parents are still alive and he meets a younger version of himself and looks to playfully torture him along the way. Meanwhile, the crew tries to figure where the two have gone, where Data finds the first clue. As every choice Jean –Luc makes in the past, affects pivotal details in the present, affecting the crew and the federation, as he tries to save his brother. By the issue’s end, Jean-Luc eventually realizes that even if he can change the past, not everything is meant to be corrected.

Overall, Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Gift is a fun recreation of a classic story that gives a unique take on the butterfly effect. The story De Lancie and Michael Jan Friedman is excellent. The art by the creative team is beautiful. Altogether, an excellent issue that captures the spirit of the show and shows why De Lancie’s Q is such a fan favorite.

Story: John De Lancie and Michael Jan Friedman
Art: Gordon Purcell, Pablo Marcos, Bob Pinaha, and Juliana  Ferriter
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy

IDW Publishing provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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