After years of bringing theStar Trekfranchise to its absolute heights, the creative team responsible are taking the most logical step… and blowing it all to Hell. That’s exactly whereStar Trek: The Last Starshipbegins, and why it’s already the must-read sci-fi adventure of the next year.
Screen Rant got the opportunity to speak with the acclaimed creative team behind IDW’sThe Last Starship, fresh off deliveringthe best era ofStar Trekcomics, period. Writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly offer new insights into the shocking disaster that cripples Starfleet, this “brand new take” on Captain Kirk, and aTrekseries that will truly go where none have gone before.
‘The Last Starship’ is A Fresh Start For Fans & Newcomers Alike
ScreenRant: Your lastStar Trekrun picked up several plotlines and characters fromDeep Space Nine,Voyager, evenTNG. Ironically, this new series bringing back Captain Kirk looks to be much more of a ‘fresh start’?
COLLIN KELLY: You’ve nailed it right on the head. It’s all in the service of that “fresh start.” There isn’t a media-literate person alive who doesn’t have a vague idea of who “Jim Kirk” is, just like they know the words “phaser” and “Klingon”. But from there, in The Last Starship, everything else is new: a new crew, a new ship, and a new time period.
Our goal from the start is to create a Star Trek comic for someone who has never once dreamed of picking up a Star Trek comic–this book isn’t about the brand, it’s about the simmering drama and tragedy of a crew standing at the end of history…and refusing to go quietly into the dark.
JACKSON LANZING: We’re extremely inspired by the work of those fantastic creators on the Ultimate and Absolute lines - and we’re looking to do the same for Star Trek. Just like Ultimate Peter Parker or Absolute Bruce Wayne are approachable, new takes on these iconic characters, so too is Last Starship James Kirk. Zero homework required - this is a brand new take on one of the best characters in the western pop canon.
SR: Obviously no Trek story is really ‘separate’ from the ones that came before, so if we’re assigning some advanced reading homework forThe Last Starship, where should fans turn to first?
LANZING: Honestly: there is zero homework required. No assigned reading, no prequel stories - The Last Starship was designed specifically for comics readers and invites them into the world from the ground up. Will fans catch things new readers don’t? Of course - there’s lots of fun connectivity to individual episodes, characters, or ideas.
But that’s the seasoning, not the meat. We want The Last Starship to stand apart - to curate a really specific vibe and experience for our readers. That’s what makes this book special.
SR: ObviouslyStar Trek: Discoveryoffers the premise here, which you’re now exploring firsthand. How did you go from diving into The Burn to resurrecting Captain Kirk as part of the story?
KELLY: We knew from the start that, if we wanted to tell a story about how seemingly eternal institutions fall, we needed a character who was there to witness what it was like to build them. The destruction of the Federation couldn’t be a cerebral exercise - we needed to feel it, which meant that it needed to be anchored on a person.
So, while we were working through the list of potentials, we ultimately asked ourselves…”who would this hurt the most?” The answer was clear: that poet captain, the Odysseus of the stars… James T. Kirk.
SR: We need to discussyour newest reimagining of the USS Enterprise: the USS Omega, the titular ‘Last Starship.’ Where do you even begin tackling that kind of symbol for this fragile, but hopeful incarnation of Starfleet?
KELLY: Like a racer tuning up her own car, or a samurai forging his own blade…it felt important that the Omega not just be an ‘off the shelf’ ship, but something unique to this moment. Something crafted with skill and intelligence from the ruins of what had been, in order to strike out into what may be.
Of course, the mystery guest in engineering demanded a ship built to accommodate its exacting specifications - otherwise, how would our ship travel without dilithium?
LANZING: We also wanted to give fans a ship that felt fundamentally out of place in the sleek far future of the 31st century. The ships of that era feel like magic - but the Omega had to feel tactile and real, and ideally invoke the classical shapes and designs that everyone associates with Star Trek.
The Enterprise is the most beautiful starship design in history - so we really went back to that vessel and asked “what would it look like if we built this from a junkyard?” The fun will be seeing all the interior components, too - there are bits and pieces from across the Trek canon for the eagle-eyed fan.
The New Starfleet Era is A Rare Chance To Reinvent The Franchise
SR: Look, the true fans know the real top story here: we have Starfleet uniforms from a new era. Can you give us some insight into their design, and how Adrián Bonilla and Heather Moore are bringing them to life?
KELLY: As we all know, the hardest workers in Starfleet are the uniform designers - and even in the 31st century, that hasn’t changed. Adrian’s initial designs on these uniforms were effectively what you see, right out of the gate: I’m looking at an email from February of this year, his first designs on anything, and they’re right there.
Inspired by the white uniforms from Search for Spock and some of the “retro” aesthetics of the original series, Adrian really wanted to lean in on something hyper clean, but still visually striking and unmistakably Star Trek–we think he hit it out of the park. Now, all we need are official replica jackets!
LANZING: The uniforms are also loaded with meaning. We’re also having quite a lot of fun with the colors - red command, yellow ops, blue science, and a particularly odd take on medical. Numbers of stripes have rank significance, even our combadge has a special detail. As longtime nerds for this particular thing, it’s been really validating and fun to craft a whole new system for The Last Starship.
SR: Can we give a shout out to the person who created the logo treatment for this one (the overlapping “ST”), since that is chef kiss?
KELLY: Hah, yes! Somewhere there are dozens of options, but that design by Nathan Widick knocked everyone’s socks off. The logo’s retro aesthetic speaks to the legacy of Trek, which–when coupled with Francesco Francavilla’s incredible covers–creates the same tension between future and past that is at the core of our story.
Star Trek: The Last Ship#1arrives on September 24, from IDW Publishing.
