PANEL 1 (Characters speak off-panel over a view of an open bathroom door with a couch nearby) TITLE: Bastich HACKER-LAD: Hey, Stich! We're gonna be late for the Generations rental party! BASTICH: Hold up, I'm shaving!
PANEL 2 (Hacker-Lad enters the panel while looking at his watch) BASTICH: For an occasion such as this I must look my very best! HACKER-LAD: Okay, but we're running outta rime!
PANEL 3 (Hacker-Lad sits on the couch) BASTICH: You know, this a damned fine razor! HACKER-LAD: Ya don't say. BASTICH: Ah, but I do..!
PANEL 4 (Bastich pokes his head out of the bathroom door with shaving cream on his face and a large razor in his hand.) BASTICH: Its sleek pivoting design carresses my gentle features like an old lover. Thanks for letting me borrow it! HACKER-LAD: Huh..?
PANEL 5 (Bastich goes back into the bathroom as Faith enters and waves) HACKER-LAD: I don't own any -- Hey, Faith! FAITH: Hi guys. Uh, before we go...
PANEL 6 (Faith holds up a large model of the U.S.S. Voyager from the TV Series Star Trek: Voyager. The ship's starboard nacelle is missing.) FAITH: Does anybody know what happened to the nacelle for my Voyager model? BASTICH: Uh... (oops)
Commentary
The first (of many) Star Trek references!
This strip is a bit of a time capsule for what was happening in my corner of Trek fandom at the time. The VHS of Star Trek: Generations had just been released to rental markets, and Star Trek: Voyager was still the hot new Trek series (premiering January 16, 1995). I don't remember having a Generations watch party, but it was clearly on my mind (even though I was disappointed by the film itself when I first saw it on the big screen).
The "joke" here is that Voyager's signature pivoting nacelles could be mistaken for a pivoting safety razor.
The pivoting nacelles were the kind of detail that I just ate up. They were introduced as a solution to the spatial damage caused by high warp that was revealed in the TNG episode Force of Nature. This was the kind of connective tissue I still love to see in big franchises like Trek and Star Wars. On one level, it was just a cool visual that set it apart from the typical Starship design, and on another level it was a hand-wavy way to dismiss the sticky ethical question brought up by that TNG episode. If this ship is going to be zipping along at high warp for 60 years, we don't want our heroes to be wrecking the fabric of spacetime for all of the hapless Delta Quadrant denizens in their wake.