Star Trek Special: Flesh and Stone (IDW)

writer: Scott and David Tipton
artist: Sharp Brothers

via Seven Sees

I haven't read a lot of Star Trek comics lately, but I've generally liked the material IDW has published since it acquired the rights to the franchise in 2006.  The reason I wanted to read this special was the dude on the right-most side of the cover image.  That's Phlox from Enterprise.  His role in the episode "Divergence" was referenced in the Blood Will Tell mini-series that to my mind remains one of the best Star Trek comics ever (it was a Klingon saga).  Yet Flesh and Stone is now the most prominent appearance by an Enterprise character in a comic book.

Yeah, I love Enterprise.

Part of this achievement is blunted by the fact that pretty much every chief medical officer from throughout the franchise is featured in the special.  There's McCoy from the original TV series (and his Next Generation-era version), Crusher and Pulaski from Next Generation, Bashir from Deep Space Nine, and The Doctor from Voyager.  Missing would be Boyce, featured in the original pilot "The Cage" and Piper from "Where No Man Has Gone Before," the second pilot (yes, this is nitpicking).

This idea of including all of the casts has been done before, notably in several Pocket Books crossover events.  This was before Enterprise, of course.  IDW has done plenty of comics based in the original series era, as well as comics in the Abrams era, Next Generation comics, and even a Deep Space Nine mini-series.  Voyager has had a comic, too, from the second time Marvel had franchise rights.  During Enterprise's TV run, there were basically no comics being published, by the way, although admittedly it's never been a favorite among the fans.

Flesh and Stone isn't one of IDW's best.  In the effort to come up with a gimmick that includes all these doctors, few of them have much more to do than help move along the medical mystery at the story's heart.  Characterization, then, isn't really key.  If this is your introduction to any of these doctors, you won't really end up knowing a lot about them.  Pulaski, who was featured in Next Generation's second season (and is sometimes referred to as "the female McCoy" and has mostly been dismissed and forgotten) is depicted perhaps most distinctly, and accurately.  That's pretty ironic!

The Tholians who show up, by the way, are based on a design featured in Enterprise.