Something that’s always a guarantee with Ryan North’s comics is that every issue has more than enough entertainment to justify the price. That’s certainly the case with Star Trek: Lower Decks #5 , out this week kicking off another two-part adventure involving time travel. Given how infrequently Star Trek veers into time travel—just 40 out of over 940 episodes—it’s a treat of an issue that continues to bring comedy and sci-fi together beautifully.
Titled “Desperate Times,” the issue opens with the crew of the Cerritos getting shore leave while the ship gets maintenance. Mariner is aware that this is fishy because the Cerritos have been getting similar maintenance recently, and thus, she’s off on a sneak mission to figure out what’s up. The answer to that mystery involves time travel tomfoolery, which sets in motion a mission Mariner takes upon herself and her friends to resolve.
Once in motion, North and artist Jack Lawrence use time travel to mix things up multiple times, as Mariner and her friends stop themselves from time traveling, but everything around them does. That means the ship and its crew change while Mariner and her friends stay the same thanks to some handy gadgetry, which sets up a clever time travel caper. From a sci-fi perspective, it’s clever and lets North go ham on the comedy.
Time travel!
Credit: IDW
The McGuffin in the story involves a device seen in a rather great episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which should please Star Trek fans. As usual, North litters the issue with fun nods to previous episodes, alien races, and Star Trek history. At this point, it’s fairly easy to point to this series as the quintessential ultimate Star Trek fan series, and North brings that with the series.
Lawrence continues to bring a style that perfectly suits the cartoon look. Someone could probably add motion to these drawings, and it’d stand up on a 4K television. The visuals are aided immensely by multiple scene changes, thanks to the time travel, as well as locations outside of the spaceship. There are also some cool effects to convey time changes using digital effects.
Star Trek: Lower Decks #5 is a fun and fast-paced time travel adventure that exemplifies Ryan North’s signature blend of humor and sci-fi smarts. Overflowing with deep Star Trek lore and fantastic visuals, it’s a must-read for fans of the franchise, though casual readers might not catch every reference.
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