One Star Trek: The Next Generation comic introduced an odd purgatory dimension that was very reminiscent of the Nexus from the film Star Trek: Generations, but came with more of a negative twist.
Introduced in Generations, the Nexus is an energy ribbon that travels across the galaxy destroying ships whenever it comes into with them. It also transports lifeforms into another dimension that the character Guinan once described as "like being inside of joy." A person inside the Nexus doesn't age and can experience anything, see anyone or go anywhere they wish, though, none of what happens there is real.
A 2009 Star Trek comic released by IDW Publishing explores a similar topic with an energy cloud contained inside a specific type of ore. When released, this energy cloud can transport any living being who comes into with it into a pocket dimension, as revealed in Star Trek: The Next Generation - Ghosts by writer Zander Cannon, artist Javier Aranda, inker German Torres-Ruiz, colorist John Hunt and letterer Robbie Robbins. This dimension, however, is just endless white space. The aliens who first began experimenting with the energy hoped that they could use the nothingness to their advantage by storing waste or important supplies. But instead, it was of course weaponized by those in power.
Picard Enters An Alternate Reality Very Different From the Nexus
Based on the reactions of those trapped inside the endless nothingness in Ghosts, this unnamed dimension is obviously a purgatorial version of the more heaven-like Nexus. But there are similarities between both dimensions. For example, time seems to have no meaning in IDW's dimension, much like the time-defying Nexus. In Generations, Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek gets sucked into the Nexus, and when Picard finds himself there decades later, he learns that Kirk feels like he just got there at the same time as Picard. The same phenomenon occurs in IDW's Ghosts when Picard meets another character's wife who disappeared inside the energy cloud years ago. She, too, feels like she just got there and wrestles with the knowledge that the man she fell in love with is now old.
There are differences between the two phenomena. Unlike the Nexus, which destroys ships upon impact, the energy cloud from IDW's Ghosts doesn't and only affects living beings. Moreover, those inside Ghosts' energy cloud can't just leave and go anywhere in time, unlike the Nexus where Picard can return to reality when he wants. In Ghosts, Picard's crew struggles to transport everyone out of the odd purgatory.
Ironically, Ghosts uses the energy cloud to convey different emotional concepts that the Nexus can't. For Picard, the Nexus resurrects his deceased family, but Picard feels he can never stay there because he knows it isn't real. Reality is more important to Picard than fake happiness. For Kirk, the Nexus allows him to finally pursue love instead of his career, but he can't experience fear there, and as a thrill-seeker, he can't accept this. In Ghosts, the energy cloud essentially becomes the physical manifestation of Picard's guilt as he feels he deserves to be there as a failed captain, showing a more vulnerable side of Picard dealing with the negative implications of something he loves more than anything else.
The energy cloud also causes Picard to grapple with his mortality differently than how he does within the Nexus. Inside the Nexus, he can live in a world where the name Picard will persist even after his death, whereas in reality he is terrified by the idea that his family name will cease. But in Ghosts, the energy cloud forces him to contend with death itself, not what will happen after he's gone. While the Nexus may be more pleasant than the reality inside the energy cloud from Star Trek: The Next Generation: - Ghosts, both are just constructs that give the Enterprise captains a facsimile of an afterlife rather than the real thing.
