Star Trek Flesh and Stone from IDW is pure unadulterated fan-service to every single Star Trek fan out there.
Yes, this is a one-shot that doesn’t serve any purpose; Yes, the idea of every single famous Star Trek doctor together in one place is ridiculous; Yes, it is glorious beyond words.
Flesh and Stone actually does serve a purpose in the grand scheme on things. The book was created in conjunction with the X-Prize competition that is searching for a way to create a fully functioning Tricorder medical device for use today. What better way to promote the cause/competition than to have a Star Trek book that brings all the major doctors of the series together for one grand adventure.
The story is written by David and Scott Tipton and they actually do a really solid job of creating an engaging story. They find a plausible way (it’s still one heck of a stretch) to bring all the doctors together at a medical conference that is hosting all the best doctors in the Federation. How any of their respective ships are coping without them, or the fact that all these doctors are in a single, publicized place is something that you just have to forget about for a moment while reading.
During the conference The Doctor (Voyager’s EMH) ends ups being the only functioning survivor after a life-pod is brought aboard and manages to contaminate the entire gathering. Our three favorite physicians Dr. Crusher, Bashir, and Pulaski (who are magically sharing a shuttle) are late and thus spared being stricken by the virus.
This of course leads to a lot, and I mean a lot of technobabble that only Star Trek can pull off. The book does tend to get pretty wordy as this is set in the Next Generation timeline, but as a fan I really appreciated it as it showed how serious the writing team wanted to go with the story. It’s pretty heavy with it, but not as heavy as your standard episode of Voyager was.
Turns out that Dr. McCoy (now retired) is living nearby and may hold the key to curing this virus as certain medical logs dating back to the original Enterprise have been removed from all Starfleet records. The character artwork within Flesh and Stone is surprisingly fantastic. Every character looks and feels like their real life counterparts with an incredible amount of details given to their facial expressions. For a small one-shot of this nature it’s refreshing to see the care taken by those involved with the project.
The McCoy angle throws the reader into a neat flashback sequence that sees a younger McCoy help solve a situation very similar to the one happening in the present. This would be a wonderful throwback alone as it features the original Enterprise crew along with some Tholians thrown into the mix, but we also see a much appreciated appearance from Dr. Phlox the former chief medical office of the NX Enterprise (the original, original Enterprise. Ha!).
While the universe is a massive place the Star Trek universe always manages to find inventive ways to bring its famous characters together. Heck, I live in an average sized town and can go years without seeing people I know that live only miles away from me.
If you are a fan of Star Trek (any series) then this book is going to satiate your fix for the crossovers that Trek is known for. Even better is that it features only the doctors, something which doesn’t happen all that often. If you aren’t a fan of Trek (what the heck are you doing reading this?) then this book isn’t all that special as it doesn’t do anything or serve a purpose to get you to ready any other series.
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