Written by Jackson Lanzig & Collin Kelly

Art by Adrián Bonilla

Colours by Heather Moore

Lettered by Clayton Cowles

Designed by Neil Uyetake

Edited by Heather Antos

Editorial Assistant Cassandra Jones

 

Captain Delacourt Sato of the USS Sagan is leading a diplomatic flotilla to negotiate peace with the Gorn. It’s a demanding job but Sato and his crew are up to it. Until The Burn hits, wipes out a trillion people and cuts everyone off from everyone else. Sato and some of his crew survive. Starfleet might not But Sato has a plan…

Lanzig and Kelly have been doing fantastic work in Trek for a while, and this is more of the same. It’s also a cleverly designed and scheduled piece of continuity, dropping the series into the immediate aftermath of the Burn and providing some context for the upcoming Starfleet Academy. The rebirth of Starfleet, begun by the Discovery, is repositioned here as relighting a guttering flame rather than lighting a new one. Starfleet doesn’t back down, it shows up for everyone like Sato says here. It’s a promise, as Pike once put it, and a promise that gets fulfilled in a way that folds new series and old together. The transwarp drive of the Borg and Agnes Jurati’s Borg Cooperative, the USS Theseus from Kelly and Lanzing’s previous work and the tantalising hint of Project Phoenix from Season 3 of Picard all combine here. It feels organic because it feels desperate: Starfleet is 96% gone and as Sato walks around the statue of Janeway, Picard and Kirk we hear their voices echo in his choices. A trillion people are dead. The galaxy is in tatters. This isn’t the end, it’s the start of what should be their finest hour.

That finest hour including James T Kirk is an idea that sits perfectly on the border between gutsy and fan service. I have no idea how it will go and the possibility of it turning into toxic fan service is not zero. But I like the odds especially as the series looks set to explore Kirk’s struggles to connect with his new era and the potential personality clash between Kirk and Sato.

The art is an equally vital part of why it works so well. Moore’s colours blend the bold, optimistic colours of Starfleet with the shadows cast by the near indefinable grief of the Burn. The scratchy style of Bonilla folds into this too, the characters thrumming with nerves and determination. No one’s okay. Everyone’s trying. Because in Starfleet, that’s what everyone does.

Verdict: Rounded out by great design work from Uyetake and lettering by Cowles, this is yet another great title from IDW’s Trek run. It’s a great jumping on point too. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart