Description: Celebrate 60 years of Star Trek with an anthology collecting all-new stories from a star-studded list of creators, including Brian Michael Bendis, Christopher Cantwell, David Walker, Ryan North, Meghan Camarena, Mike McMahan, Derek Charm, Michael Allred, Laura Allred, and more! On September 8, 1966, Star Trek debuted on television and changed the landscape of science fiction forever, bringing us not only characters who were inspiring and smart but storytelling that shaped the way people thought about the world. Since then, every Trek show, movie, and comic has endeavored to do the same. In this seven-story collection, IDW thrills, delights, and contextualizes lore with tales from the original series Star Trek, Lower Decks, The Animated Series, Picard, and Starfleet Academy…plus a preview of the all-new Star Trek flagship title launching in 2026. Join us as we make history!
The Stories
This collection of comic-book stories celebrating 60 years of Star Trek has a little something for most generations. Unfortunately, fans of Star Trek: Voyager and Deep Space Nine miss out, as neither series is represented in any of the stories.
The collection focuses on The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Starfleet Academy and the future of Star Trek comics. It also includes a brief prequel designed to lead into IDW’s new Star Trek series, which will focus on Seven of Nine and the crew of the Enterprise-G. The stories offer a mixed bag of comedy, romance and deep-space exploration.
The book begins with ‘Escape from Planet Mudd’ by the legendary David Gerrold. Set shortly after the events of ‘I, Mudd’, the story sees Harry being driven mad by the incessant nagging of the many female androids he now lives among. So, like anyone would, he plans his escape—but this is Harry Mudd, so we already know it will not end well.
The next story—and my favourite—is a tale of unrequited love involving Scotty titled ‘The Engineer’s Dilemma’. Written by Diana Gould, the story finds Scotty feeling melancholy after having to let Mira, the woman he loves, transfer to a better job. However, when there is a problem beaming two people aboard the Enterprise, something Mira once said inspires Scotty to take action, saving them from what could have been a tragic transporter accident.
We also get a fun story set in the universe of The Animated Series titled ‘The Sesquipedalian Gambit’, in which Kirk, Spock and McCoy encounter a Pakled ship and must use their cunning to escape.
Some of the stories in this book tie back to classic Star Trek and The Next Generation episodes, whereas others tell their own self-contained narratives. The collection ends with ‘Manifest Destiny’, which leads directly into the first issue of IDW’s new Star Trek series, released on 23 September.
Artwork
Each story in the book features a different art style, provided by a talented and varied group of artists. I particularly liked Isaac Sánchez González’s work on ‘Manifest Destiny’, which had a rather trippy quality that perfectly suited the story. Derek Charm’s artwork for ‘The Sesquipedalian Gambit’ was also great fun, beautifully capturing the distinctive look and feel of the classic Star Trek animated series.
Overall
This is an enjoyable collection of short stories that does a fairly decent job of representing both classic and modern Star Trek. However, as mentioned earlier, fans of Star Trek: Voyager and Deep Space Nine are not particularly well served by it. Fans of The Original Series and The Next Generation, on the other hand, will find an abundance of fun in this book.
If you have been longing to see what might have been with Star Trek: Legacy, the collection also provides a glimpse of that potential in comic-book form. ‘Manifest Destiny’ leads into the new series, while the book also includes a small preview of the forthcoming Star Trek comic featuring Seven of Nine and the crew of the Enterprise-G.
- Covers9.3
- Stories8.5
- Artwork9.6
- Lettering9.2
- Colours9.6
