I am not usually someone who buys a serialised comic. If there’s a story I am interested in I tend to wait for the complete graphic novel and get that.
But we’re at a strange point with Star Trek at the moment: Strange New Worlds has just finished airing Season 4 (you can read my episode reviews here), there’s no confirmed air date for the second (and final) season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and for the first time in a decade there’s no Star Trek in production (except for a movie and I am not holding my breath with that — reasons below.)
The end of Star Trek: Picard gave us the perfect set up for the next show: Star Trek: Legacy. All of the fans were excited to see where the series could go with a Thief, a Pirate and a Spy at the helm. And then… nothing. It turned out that Paramount+ was in the process of being bought out by the David Ellison-owned Skydance and as a result all new Star Trek that wasn’t already in production was halted.
And now we have the mess that is the Skydance/Paramount Warner Brothers/Discovery merger making it nigh-on impossible for any new work to go ahead, no matter how profitable it might turn out to be — movies included.
And so that is where the new comic, imaginatively titled Star Trek, comes in as a way to fill the void that the TV shows leave behind.
The Background
Star Trek (the comic) takes place just after the Enterprise NCC 1701-G has completed her first 5 year mission, which puts us around 2407 in the timeline (Picard ended Season 3 in 2402).
Seven is still Captain, along with Lieutenant Sydney La Forge at the helm and Lieutenant Jack Crusher as her operations office. One of the original crew hasn’t made it though and that’s Commander, now Captain Musiker (and Mrs. Seven — or is Seven Mrs. Musiker?) who is now in charge of the USS Endeavour and off running her own missions.
The comic introduces some new and some familiar faces and here’s a quick breakdown:
- Alexander Roshenko – Chief Medical Officer, Klingon
- Lieutenant Keer Durok – Security Officer (If you know their race, please tell me!)
- Commander Atticus Cassady – First Officer, former Chief of Memory Alpha
- Lieutenant Commander Aholialili (Lily) Sato — Communications Officer, Andorian and former Fenris Ranger
- Rya – Ship’s counsellor and Chaplain, Bajorna
- Lieutenant Commander Terimar — Chief Engineer, Romulan (I think)
The Plot
The Revlav system is being destroyed with its 4 planets torn apart by gravimetric collapse and electromagnetic fields failing. The Enterprise is on hand to evacuate the inhabitants and make it out in the nick of time. On their way back from the rescue, they are diverted to meet with Admiral Janeway on the USS Hikaru Sulu.
A 200-year old probe has returned with data showing that there is a corridor, code named Epsilon, at the edge of the galaxy and the Enterprise is being tasked with exploring it.
It’s not ordinary corridor though as at Epsilon is a time-dilating portal containing 3 class M planets, and for every year a person spends on one of the Trinity worlds as they’re being called, 5 years will pass back in normal space.
Starfleet are worried that if they leave the Trinity worlds alone, then the Cardassians or Klingons might decide to annex them leading to security issues so it’s important that members of the Federation get there first, although Seven does equate it more to “planting a flag” of expansion rather than their mission of exploration.
Can Seven bear to be apart from Raffi for years, even though it would just seem like month for her? Moreover, will Raffi let her go, or does her own mission (to be revealed in October’s new comic Zero Point) mean that she’ll be at as much risk as her wife?
Star Trek
My Thoughts So Far
🖖Red Alert! Some spoilers for Star Trek (2026) Issue #1 below!🖖
This has the looks of it being a promising storyline with the introduction of a new system to explore, and with it being outside the known galaxy under the control of who-knows there could be some very interesting tales to tell.
And I really do like the acknowledgement that Seven and Raffi have a future together, even if they’re both not onboard the Enterprise. While this isn’t canon, it will go a long way to scratching the itch fans have after the unresolved ending of Star Trek: Picard.
The introduction of some some familiar characters is a nice touch too, with us getting to see an adult Alexander and a older and more seasoned Jack Crusher, as for the new characters, I’ll guess we’ll have to see what they offer.
I’m not too sure about Jack’s apparent ability to still use his “Borg DNA” to be able to make a form of mini-collective with Seven so they can communicate. While I think it’s important that we acknowledge Jack’s Borg heritage (and a character brings up the devastating events of Frontier Day) it’s a bit of a “get out of jail free” card which has already been used in this first issue, and I hope it’s not overused in the rest of the series.
Most of the characters that we already know seem to fit in with their TV/Book counterparts, although I thought that the characterisation of Admiral Janeway was unusually rude. She didn’t show any of the tenderness or warmth towards Seven that we saw her display all throughout Voyager, instead she came across as rather gruff and officious which was rather an odd choice.
As I don’t really read a lot of comics, I can’t comment too much on the panel design although I found the way they flowed easy enough to follow, and the lettering is clear in most places although there were a couple of cases where coloured text was used to indicate a language translation, or text on a black background to show Borg or computer communication and these were a bit difficult to read.
Regarding the art style, it’s okay. It’s not really to my personal taste — I find it stylises Seven a bit too much and as a result misses some of the nuances of her Borg characteristics and a few of the pages are very dark and it’s difficult to make out what is being depicted, but that’s probably just me and the fact I’m not used to modern comic art styles, plus I have old-person eyesight.
It will be interesting to see how this story fits with the upcoming Raffi-centric comic release Zero Point and how Raffi and Seven will work out their long distance, and time dilated, relationship.
I’m not too sold on Seven’s go-to-warp phrase though, I won’t spoil it for you but if you’ve read the issue, let me know what you think in the comments below.
Overall, I enjoyed it and am looking to see where the next issue takes us as Seven and the Enterprise crew enter the Epsilon Corridor.
