Star Trek: Lower Decks vol. 1 — Second Contact

Their animated series may have reached its end, but the adventures of the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos continue (before the end of said series).  And what better way to do that with their investigation of a Federation ghost ship that has returned from an area of space encountered by the original Enterprise on one of its most obscure missions!  Which also leads Boimler, Mariner, Rutherford, Tendi and T’lyn to encounter (very evil and angry) versions of their idols.  Then a simple supply run takes a turn when the planet they’re supposed to visit disappears, leading to the END OF THE UNIVERSE AS WE KNOW IT!  Assuming the crew survives that, they’ll find themselves dealing with something more mundane.  Like a renegade time traveler who is looking to change history faster than you can say James T. Rex.

The stories in “Second Contact” come from writer Ryan North who not only wrote the first “Lower Decks” miniseries, but also its choose-your-own-adventure follow-up “Warp Your Own Way.”  Both were excellent as the first showed that you could have a really great episode of the series in comics form, and the second showed that it could not just work but thrive in a completely different format.  I wouldn’t say that this first volume of the ongoing series shows that the thrill is gone, just that the idea of good “Lower Decks” stories in comics form is no longer some unachievable idea.

What we do get in these volumes are very fun science-driven adventures that proudly wear their Trekkiness on their sleeves.  Like the series they’re based on, they’re explicitly skewed towards comedy but also work as proper “Trek” stories once you start to think about them.  They’re all good, it’s just hard to say that any one is exceptional or should’ve been done as a proper episode.  It does benefit from Derek Charm and subsequently Jack Lawernce’s art which captures the look of the source extremely well, and it’s enough to make me wish that this series continues to live long and prosper… under the pen of new writer Tim Sheridan in vol. 2.