Star Trek The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2 #4 Review
The Doctor and the crew of the Enterprise continue to delve deeper into what’s brought them together and the alliance between the Borg and the Cybermen!
Star Trek TNG/Doctor Who: Assimilation² #4
Picard has taken the Doctor, Rory, and Amy to meet Guinan. She, like the Doctor, are curious about the mix of memories they are both having and the oddness of whether or not they know each other or not. Soon Picard and the Doctor are brought to the conference room when Data discovered the Borg and Cybermen have gone to assimilate the planet Cogen V. When the away team lands they discover a world burning from a massive war, but what’s more, they’ve discovered the Borg were betrayed by the Cybermen. Now, as the Cybermen slice their way to the Borg homeworld, the Borg contact the Enterprise hoping for an alliance against the common enemy, but Picard shuts them down and refuses to assist them in any way.
The first three issues did well with giving both properties a chance to show off their own personalities. The Doctor Who side showed the slightly more over the top action/adventure nature while the TNG side showed it’s slower, more expository side. Now with issue #4 bringing to close the first half of the story, we’ve moved into more of the personalities of Picard and the Doctor. The Doctor is putting the pedal down on his more lighthearted and flippant mood as he takes joy and excitement at beaming down to Cogen V with the away crew. At the end, Picard’s deep-rooted anger at the Borg shows through much to the Doctor’s shock. We’re seeing more and more of the differences between the two groups and it’s working well in this mash up.
On top of that, even the personalities of the villains are showing their true natures. The Borg are structured and focused. The Cybermen are deceitful and a little less structured in the sense that they don’t trust anyone who isn’t Cybermen. The double cross works nicely. It puts the Cybermen in position to be the real bad guys while the Borg are kind of left in a place where they’ve gone desperate to hold their status quo. It definitely sets up the second half of the story and puts the heroes in a spot where they have to face a foe that’s strong enough to wipe out whole Borg fleets.
The series continues to entertain and the story looks to really be picking up speed!
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| The story is still entertaining and the personalities of the main characters of both properties are starting to shine a bit now. | The plot is a bit slow moving as this exposition continued to happen in this issue, but it might be setting up a really exciting second half. |
| Rating |
1 Comment
The actual narrative is progressing both nicely and with much greater pace than before, culminating in the two groups learning to co-exist and simultaneously cooperate with each other, plus introducing each other towards their technological and cultural icons (the Doctor and the Ponds experience transporter technology for the first time, and Captain Picard is apparently a special passenger inside the TARDIS in the upcoming fifth issue).
There has been varying debate regarding the latest artwork, and its comparison to earlier issues. Comparing this to other relevant online samples of both pencil thumbnails and full-blown colour comprehensives from Gordon Purcell, I would have to honestly summarize that I don’t find the finished product to be altogether dreadful (there are the odd flares of brilliance which stand out throughout, and I well remember where Woodward’s art was classified as “horrendously sloppy” within particular places).
I also am looking forward to the remainder of the series, especially to witnessing Picard’s reaction when viewing the TARDIS interior for the first time ever!