"History Lesson" is a Star Trek: The Next Generation comic, the first issue of IDW Publishing's The Space Between miniseries, and the first ever Star Trek comic published by IDW. The comic was written by David Tischman with art by Casey Maloney, and was initially released in January 2007, with a reprint in the omnibus of the series in September of the same year. The story, set in 2364, features the USS Enterprise-D visiting the planet Tigan, where the crew find themselves involved in a political and technological conspiracy that has seen Tigan history continually rewritten.
Description
- From solicitations
- Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation with this all-new relaunch of the Trek franchise in comics. In the first issue of this special miniseries, planet Tigan-7 requests entry into the Federation, but the Enterprise is attacked as a hostile invader when it makes contact, and the planet's leader has no record of any communication with any outside world. Riker, Tasha, and Data beam down to the planet in secret, and discover an information-obsessed culture, rewriting pieces of its 6,000-year history on a daily basis, to maintain political stability. An all-new, all-different, Next-Gen adventure, featuring Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D!
Summary
The away team materializes on Tigan
The USS Enterprise-D is over Tigan, a traditionally isolationist world; Captain Jean-Luc Picard talks with the Tigan Chancellor, thanking him for the opportunity for contact. Commander Riker selects Data and Tasha Yar for the away team to the planet.
On the bridge Geordi La Forge detects a brief energy pulse from the planet. Awaiting their escort Picard fills in the away team on the unidentified energy readings, warning them to stay alert. They are met by Edic, who leads them to meet the Tigan Chancellor. En route Edic explains the Tigans' impressive power facility, the gravimatrix, and about the Tigan neurological communications system which downloads information straight to the Tigans' cerebral cortexes via minute tachyon bursts.
As they reach the Chancellor the team are surprised to find themselves met by a Chancellor Kadec, who claims no knowledge of anyone called Lomac. On consulting the Tigans' computers Data confirms no record of Lomac or any contact with the Federation.
A gravimetric pulse hits the Enterprise-D
Above, the Enterprise detects another energy reading and is fired upon.
On Tigan the team find themselves out of contact with the ship. Data find evidence in the Tigan central computer that the first pulse Enterprise detected was a Gravimetric pulse which could have been used to wipe the computer core clean. The core lost 1.3 trillion mega-bits in the pulse and as the Tigans haven’t used a written history in centuries the team surmise the pulses could be used to rewrite Tigan history. A near by Tigan hears the discussion and fires on Riker; Kadec orders the team fired upon and the security forces are lead by none other than a man named Lomac…
Elsewhere, the Enterprise is being hurled across the galaxy by the Tigans' gravimetric pulse; if they don’t break free soon they’ll find themselves in the Gamma Quadrant. Picard and Geordi devise a solution, pushing the warp engines to full power and nearing warp 10 they can break free, perform a slingshot maneuver and get back to Tigan moments before the pulse was fired. Mister Worf works on the necessary calculations.
In a Tigan library the truth about the history of Tigan is revealed, as Kadec and Edic tamper with Data’s positronic brain in the hopes of wiping his memory so upon his return to the Enterprise no one will know of the goings on below. When testing the gravimatrix a pulse was accidentally emitted; it wiped the Tigan computers and the entire Tigan database had to be re-entered by hand. The politicians of the time took the opportunity to make a few adjustments "for the good of the people" and others have been rewriting history ever since.
Tasha fights her way past a Tigan guard
In a Tigan cell Yar completes adjustments to her combadge and she and Riker prepare themselves as a Tigan guard approaches. As the guard enters they activate the badge which emits a continuous whine, sufficiently painful and distracting for the pair to battle their way through a succession of Tigan guards and make their escape.
Above the Enterprise returns and fires on a Tigan emplacement on the planet. Below Riker and Yar find their way to Data and Kadec just in time to witness Lomac making a stand; seeing the error of his ways he arrests Kadec for crimes against the state.
Data comes back online asking “Did anyone get the name of that sehlat?”, but will soon recover, his advanced brain saving him from the damage the Tigan pulses might have done.
Later… The away team depart wishing Edic good luck on a reformed Tigan. Picard welcomes them back aboard the Enterprise.
In the observation lounge Yar finds Data musing over recent events, thinking of the words of Santayana “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”; his mind remembered everything, and maybe that ability will one day allow him to learn to be human.
References
Characters
- Data • Edic • Kadec • Geordi La Forge • Lomac • Jean-Luc Picard • William T. Riker • Deanna Troi • Worf • Natasha Yar
- Referenced only
- George Santayana
Starships and vehicles
The Enterprise over Tigan.
Locations
- Referenced only
- Gamma Quadrant
Races and cultures
States and organizations
Other references
- black hole • book • cerebral cortex • Chancellor of Tigan • combadge • containment field • coup • geothermic energy • gravimetric pulse • gravimetric wave • graviton gun • positronic brain • sehlat • slingshot effect • tachyon burst • Tigan interface • warp drive • warp 10
Appendices
Related media
- Space Seeds (TNG comic) - The events from this comic are referenced in "Space Seeds" when Data discovers elections on the planet Langer 14 were rigged in a similar fashion to the history rewriting on Tigan.
Background
Riker?
- This is the first Star Trek comic by IDW Publishing, and the first Star Trek comic (with the exception of Star Trek: The Manga in 2006) since WildStorm Comics gave up the license in 2001.
- The comic states that the Enterprise is being pushed across the galaxy at "near-light speeds" yet also that at full warp power the Enterprise could not break free and if they did not do so soon they would end up in the Gamma Quadrant. Given that they resorted to using time travel to escape one can assume the near-light speed line is inaccurate and the Enterprise was actually traveling at very high warp speeds, unless one takes relativistic effects into consideration.
- The stardate given for the Editor's Log on the letters page is 60319.7, which would place the editorial content in early-2383.
- The comic received mostly good reviews; criticism was sometimes aimed at the artwork which is more stylized than many previous Star Trek comics. Whether in favor or not of that style choice there was a strong opinion that the likeness of Riker was a bit off. In the letters page of Issue 2 it was revealed the artist Casey Maloney shared those concerns and was looking forward to drawing Riker with a beard as he would be appearing in other issues set later in TNG's run.
- With the exception of a brief cameo in the X-Men crossover Second Contact, this issue marks the first comic book appearance of Tasha Yar since the 1988 six-issue miniseries preceding the DC Series
Covers
- This comic has four different covers, two which were equally widely available; one by Dennis Calero and a photomontage. And two more limited availability retail incentive covers, both by Zach Howard, either a color or sketch version of the same artwork.
- Dennis Calero's cover for this issue was later reused for the cover of the miniseries' omnibus book.
Images
Cover gallery
Connections
- This issue is set in season one of the TV series.
- The stardate given for the issue is 41590.8, due to the erratic stardate system used in the first season of TNG this could put placement of the comic over a large part of the series, the latest stardate before this is the episode Hide and Q on 41590.5. Stardates prior to this comic continue until much later in the series, the last episode which could be before being Heart of Glory on 41503.7. On the letters page of Issue 3 of the miniseries the editor Dan Taylor suggested placement should be immediately after the episode Hide and Q, and interestingly whilst Hide and Q starts before the given stardate it actually continues on after to stardate 41591.4.
| Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between | |
|---|---|
| Issues | History Lesson • Captain's Pleasure • Strategy • Light of the Day • Space Seeds • An Inconvenient Truth |
| Creators | David Tischman • Casey Maloney • Leonard O'Grady • Robbie Robbins • Aaron Leach • Stacie Ponder • Neil Uyetake • Chris Mowry • Dan Taylor |
| Cover artists | Dennis Calero • Zach Howard • Jeremy Geddes • Thompson Knox • Ken Kelly • Joe Corroney |
Timeline
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: First issue |
The Space Between | Next comic: Captain's Pleasure |
| Previous story: First Star Trek comic |
Stories by: David Tischman |
Next story: Captain's Pleasure |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous adventure: Hide and Q |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next adventure: Attempted Break-in |
| Previous adventure: Earliest story in the miniseries |
The Space Between | Next adventure: Space Seeds |
| Previous adventure: Hide and Q |
Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) | Next adventure: Attempted Break-in |
Publication history
- 17 January 2007
- First released by IDW Publishing.
- 12 September 2007
- Collected in The Space Between paperback omnibus. (ISBN 1-60010-116-X)
- 25 December 2012
- Collected in Star Trek Omnibus: The Next Generation. (ISBN 1613775377)
- 2 March 2017
- Collected in Graphic Novel Collection, Volume 5. (Eaglemoss Collections)
- 28 May 2019
- Collected in The Missions Continue hardcover omnibus. (ISBN 978-1-68405-421-3)
- 17 October 2023
- Collected in the Library Collection, Volume 2 omnibus. (ISBN 9798887240299)
Translations
- December 2009
- German: Reprinted in the miniseries hardcover and paperback editions. (Cross Cult: hardcover ISBN 978-3941248458, paperback ISBN 978-3941248441)
- February 2009
- Italian: Collected in the miniseries omnibus. (Free Books, ISBN 9788863310375)
- 27 September 2017
- Italian: Collected in the Italian release of Graphic Novel Collection, Volume 5. (RCS MediaGroup, ISSN 977228074425770005)
External link
- History Lesson article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.