Synopsis: This month in Picard’s Academy. Starfleet’s Evasive Maneuvers exam has turned into an actual battle for survival as Jean-Luc and his classmates find themselves facing the very real threat of death by vacuum of space! They can’t reach Starfleet, and enemy Romulans continue invading their ship. Can Picard and his crewmates outmaneuver the enemy in their first-ever ship-on-ship space battle, or will he, in his first role as acting captain, succumb to the chaos and shouting matches among his crew?!
The Story
The Evasive Maneuvers exam is now a battle for survival. On one side Picard and his crewmates have to deal with some problems with Romulans while on the other. An A.I. has taken over the ship’s systems and the cadets are unable to raise Starfleet Command. Under stress from the days’ events, the Cadets are starting to fight amongst themselves and it is up to Picard to try and bring them all together to back a credible plan and hopefully pass the exam.
The Artwork
Ornella Greco and Charlie Kirchoff continue to do a decent job of the art and the style continues to remind me a little of what we see in Lower Decks. I particularly enjoyed the panels that depicted the confrontation between Picard and Resh, which thankfully gets a little more resolution in this issue.
Overall
Picard’s Academy continues to give us a bit of insight into Jean Luc’s early days at Starfleet Academy and shows how difficult he found it to make friends. However, one of the elements missing from the story is some of the incidents mentioned throughout TNG’s run whenever Picard talked about his time in the Academy or whenever someone else mentioned it. For example, in The Best of Both Worlds Admiral Hanson talks about how Picard surprised everyone by winning the Academy Marathon. It would be great to see some of these anecdotal stories brought to life in this series.
- Covers9.0
- Story8.6
- Artwork9.3
- Lettering9.4
- Colours9.5
