Star Trek: The Last Starship is, without question, one of the best additions to the overall Star Trek franchise to date. Set in a far-flung future after the catastrophic The Burn event that destroyed 96 percent of Starfleet, the Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing written series has taken readers in unexpected directions, including the arrival of a resurrected James T. Kirk and December’s issue #3 pulled no punches as the U.S.S. Omega took on The Black path with shocking consequences.
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This week’s Star Trek: The Last Starship #4 shifts gears a bit with a quieter issue the dives into much more personal story as First Officer Wowie Carter visits their family but with a catch: due to the transport system on the Omega and its impact on the passage of time over the long distance to Babel, we see Wowie barely age while their parents and Earth itself endure years and all its changes. It’s a deeply moving and powerful issue that sets the stage for some major story to come. ComicBook had the opportunity to talk with Kelly and Lanzing about the issue and break down its haunting story. And we also have an exclusive first look at issue #5 as well. Warning: there are spoilers for Star Trek: The Last Starship #4 beyond this point.
Star Trek: The Last Starship #4’s More Personal Scale Was Necessary
ComicBook: After such an explosive issue #3, issue #4 gets surprisingly smaller scale and personal as we dig into Wowie’s experience. We see them sort of struggle with their own place in things as well as get the Earth’s response to events through their eyes as they go back home over the course of several years. Why was it so important to shift perspective, as it were, from the Omega to Wowie and Earth this issue?
Collin Kelly: Making that shift now was vital, because now is the only time this very specific story can be told. Discovery has taught us that within one year of The Burn, Earth had left the Federation – as two guys raised on Star Trek, the idea that the ideals of Starfleet would be so quickly rejected was always something we struggled with. But the truth is, fear is often a greater motivator than hope, and in Wowie, we had the exact agent for that exploration – a person without fear, returning to a world that is gripped by terror.
Jackson Lanzing: This very intimate frame was also incredibly exciting to us because it allowed us to demonstrate something very unique about the Last Starship among Star Trek stories: relativistic time dilation. Essentially, because of the lack of warp drives in a post-Burn galaxy, time for those aboard the Omega is considerably shorter than time for the world outside. Whenever they go anywhere, they will be watching the galaxy age and struggle at an accelerated rate – which could be very conceptual if not for a personal, precise angle on that story. Wowie’s trips home over the organization of the Babel Conference does that better than any big space battle ever could.
One of the things that I thought was particularly interesting about this issue is that you don’t realize right away that Wowie is questioning their role as First Officer until we see them meet with Solara. We also later see Wowie speaking with a man in the park. Both of those conversations feel important — what is it that tipped Wowie in the direction of stepping aside?
Lanzing: I think Wowie’s self-questioning really began in earnest in issue #3, after seeing how Kirk stepped into the void and saved both the ship and Earth at large. But that victory came with such enormous consequence that it didn’t feel like one. As they watch Earth react to that tragedy, it’s only right that they begin to wonder if they could do more good there – or if they’re not the person for the job in this particular moment. That’s one of the core themes of TLS from our perspective: who do we become when the things that underpin our society melt away? Who do we decide to become? And how much of that is truly our decision?
As for the conversation with the man in the park, I think the less said, the better. To me, it’s the heart of the issue and I hope that it speaks for itself.
We also get to see the conflict, if you can call it that, between Wowie and their parents. They clearly are not of the same mind with the overall situation regarding Earth and the Federation, but we also get that message Wowie’s father leaves them. Tell me a little bit about the impact that message has on Wowie.
Kelly: “Because the opposite of fear isn’t courage…it’s control.” Those are the words that hit Wowie in the chest. Though every child wants to hear their parent say, “I love you”, Wowie has never really doubted that of their father – he was cold, but not unloving. What they doubted was their father’s aims, motivations and results. But with that line Wowie is shaken, because they suddenly realize how right he was – and how right he may have always been. Wowie was raised to be the best humanity could offer, to inspire the world towards its own excellence. While joining Starfleet had once been the perfect expression of that intention, things have drastically changed…and now, Wowie is forced to ask themself the question: do they want to stay on the Omega because of their dedication to the mission…or because they’re afraid to take on the challenge they were always expected to face? They are the best that humanity can offer–shouldn’t it be humanity who gets their best?
There’s also that little detail about Kirk’s blaster that Wowie had as a child. This is less a question and more just a comment that I thought that was an interesting way to sort of tie things together — but was that always something you considered for this part of the story?
Kelly: We knew we needed a piece of childhood memorabilia for Wowie to work with, but the phaser itself was a bit of a happy accident. Wowie is us, in a lot of ways: they grew up loving Starfleet and wanting nothing more than to boldly go. So, what would we have wanted as kids? The classic TOS Phaser. And to have one actually signed by Shatner? Er, I mean, Kirk? That would be the most treasured item you owned. But as that idea hit the page, suddenly it’s not just an object for the scene; suddenly it’s a referendum on Wowie’s perspective on Kirk, as we wonder if they can be objective about a man they once idolized? And with the revelation that it wasn’t just a mass market bauble but something lovingly handcrafted by their father, we–like Wowie–get to feel the warming surprise of secret affection. Affection so secret that it was barely ever given to his face. Yes, it’s a toy, but it’s also a totem that contains Wowie’s greatest insecurities. Which is exactly why, after the words of his father, he leaves it behind.
Lanzing: It just feels true, you know? It’s exactly the kind of thing you do for your child – those little gifts that end up having outsized meanings over time. And in an issue all about how meaning changes over time, that little detail found fertile ground to grow into an idea with backbone.
And finally, the last page of the issue comes with a pretty big reveal. What can you tease about that, in terms of where this story is going next?
Lanzing: The Babel Conference is finally here – and it’s going to be a rough ride for anyone hoping for that old-school Star Trek diplomacy. One of the few things we inherited in TLS from Discovery is an organization called the Emerald Chain, who sit somewhere between a protection racket and a capitalist superstate. Given the ways The Last Starship seeks to reframe our current climate through the lens of our most Federation ideals, it was only a matter of time before we looked at what happens when leadership falls into the hands of self-serving individuals… though Solara is much more complex than that one page might lead you to believe. In the same way that issue #4 acts as a self-contained character study about loss and transformation, issue #5 is a political thriller about the limits of trust in a world where the binds of history are no longer enough.
Check Out a First Look at Star Trek: The Last Starship #5
Here’s how IDW describes Star Trek: The Last Starship #5: The Federation’s delegates have gathered. The Babel conference is on. Together, they aim to save Starfleet and bring peace to all quadrants. But while Captain Sato and the crew of the U.S.S. Omega have only experienced the passage of time as four months within their transwarp bubble, for the rest of the galaxy, it’s been 23 years.
For 23 years, the delegates have been left to their own devices, to stew in their own machinations and to make new allegiances… and while the U.S.S. Omega may have brought them all together, the Burn has forced them apart. Not all want to broker peace, and someone who was once closest to Starfleet may become its greatest adversary…
Star Trek: The Last Starship #4 is on sale now. Issue #5 goes on sale February 18th.
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Courtesy of David Production
