After the release of the stellar Star Trek: Voyager – Homecoming, IDW has released its new flagship Star Trek series, The Last Starship. I’ve been waiting for this new series to drop ever since I first heard about it, and I was so excited for the chance at an early peek.
As many fans might already be aware of, this new series is written by frequent collaborators Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing who had guided the previous main IDW Star Trek series, focusing on Captain Sisko and other legacy characters from that era of Trek. As a fan of that series, I’m glad to see Kelly and Lanzing once again creating in this world. Another open secret about The Last Starship is that the book will feature the return of Captain James T. Kirk. (Some spoilers ahead for Picard Season 2 and 3 and Star Trek: Discovery.) This won’t be a return to the 24th or even 25th century for Kirk but a leap into the 31st century. During this time period, as revealed in Season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery, dilithium, the fictional fuel source of the Star Trek universe, has mysteriously become inert throughout the entire galaxy, causing the death of trillions and threatening the Federation with collapse. As we know from Discovery, the Federation barely survived, even losing founding members such as Earth, Vulcan, and Andoria. Kelly and Lanzing’s series takes place during the bleakest moments right after the burn, thrusting this revived Kirk into the galaxy’s darkest hour.
This miracle return of one of Starfleet’s greatest Captains is rooted firmly in Star Trek: Picard and the events of that series. Season 2 of Picard ended with the discovery of a new Borg collective or cooperative overseen by the merged entity of Agnes Jurati and a Borg Queen from an alternate timeline. The Jurati Borg believe that forced assimilation will only lead to a stagnant and lifeless collective. Jurati convinces her counterpart that they would be stronger by taking in only volunteers and respecting a level of individuality within the collective. Agnes looks to be a full-time cast member of this new series and may play a key role in its events. Season 3 of Picard featured a daring heist of the Daystrom Institute in which viewers were shown a strange pod containing Kirk’s remains. I’ll let readers discover how these pieces fit together on their own when they read the book. Kirk’s return does go just about how you would expect it to, if you’ve watched those seasons. The inclusion of the Jurati Borg in the mix seems like an Easter egg, paying homage to William Shatner’s Star Trek novel, The Return, in which the Borg resurrect Kirk as a weapon against Picard and the Federation. Kelly and Lanzing make the resurrection of James T. Kirk feel less like a stunt and more like a natural continuation of past stories.
What I wasn’t expecting to enjoy as much as I did were the new cast members introduced in this issue. The issue is primarily told through the eyes of Captain Delacourt Sato, one of the few surviving Captains in Starfleet. And yes, he is a descendant of Hoshi Sato and Ensign Sato from Jackson and Lanning’s Star Trek series. Sato is the rock that the Federation desperately needs as he refuses to just accept the whims of fate and let the Federation die. Sato is even willing to make a dangerous bargain to ensure its survival. Sato will be joined by his former first officer Wowie, his former helmsman and a Klingon officer looking to discover her new path. There are a lot of other interesting aspects of this new status quo and time period that I’ll leave for readers to discover on their own. Of course, The Last Starship can’t end without introducing us to our new vessel, the U.S.S. Omega, and its mission: to make it known throughout the galaxy that the Federation is still there and ready to help. A beacon of hope.
Adrian Bonilla brings this story to life with his pencils and inks. His character design for Jurati is terrific and he expertly captures the classic Star Trek aliens and overall look. The design of the Omega is also set firmly in Star Trek’s past while still feeling new. A starship meant to evoke the past glory of the Federation would inevitably have echoes of Kirk’s era in its design and it feels like a worthy addition to the fleet. He is also able to deliver a great deal of emotion from his characters in just one panel. One scene with Captain Sato sitting on the edge of his bed, his head lowered, did as much to set the emotional stakes of this series as any piece of dialogue. That somber emotional tone was enhanced by Heather Moore’s colors. I loved the dazzling greens she used to mark Jurati’s dramatic entrance and the bright explosive repercussions of the burn itself an event we never got to witness on screen.
Veterans Kelly and Lanzing begin this new series with an engaging first issue. As a fan of Star Trek: Discovery, I had often wondered if it wouldn’t have been preferable for the show to explore the status quo of the burn beyond just the one season. Seeing the Federation weakened, yet stubbornly clinging to life and its ideals, was a thrilling future for a fan to be thrown into and a fertile ground for new stories. Can Starfleet hold to its ideals in a time of utter chaos? Can the dream of peaceful coexistence continue when every society in the galaxy has been pushed to the brink? Can utopia stand in the darkness? The choice to place this new series in this particular point of Star Trek history is brilliant. A veritable blank slate relatively free from canon should be rife with possibilities. This is the first post-apocalyptic Star Trek story and Kelly and Lanzing present us with a world on the brink. I can’t help but wonder how much this series may come to resemble a zombie series like The Walking Dead, where the question becomes: How far do we allow ourselves to slide into darkness when you must fight for survival every minute of every day? I can’t wait to read the challenges that will face Kirk and this new crew. An exciting new direction for Star Trek and a worthy addition to the IDW line.
Creative Team: Jackson Lanzing (Writer), Collin Kelly (Writer), Adrian Bonilla (Artist), Heather Moore (Colorist), Clayton Cowles (Letterer)
Publisher: IDW Publishing
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