If you’re someone who feels Star Trek needs a new direction, wait no more, as Star Trek: The Last Starship is all that and more. Set in the far future of the timeline, Earth has chosen to leave the Federation, and the only remnant remaining is a single ship: The U.S.S. Omega. Last issue, a clone of Captain Kirk with all his memories helped save billions on Earth, but now it’s time to move on. Before they do, a little shore leave for one of the Omega’s only human officers takes central focus inStar Trek: The Last Starship #4.
After the epic last three issues, writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly slow things down a bit for a type of bottle episode with first officer Wowie Carter. There’s a compelling sci-fi plot playing out in this issue, as the Omega uses a different transport system, so time moves differently if you’re on the ship. Put simply, Wowie won’t age more than a few months, while his parents on Earth will age over the years. As the ship transports from Earth to Babel and back, we see Wowie visit his parents, who grow older, and the state of Earth gets different.
It’s a sorrowful, maybe even horrifying, concept, since it’s scientifically true that if you travel at the speed of light, time will change elsewhere in far different ways. The story takes us across three time periods as we watch Wowie interact with aging parents, and as the world he knew changes beyond recognition.
If you have friends or family, this is a tough situation.
Credit: IDW
As far as the rest of the crew, there is a nice moment between Wowie and Captain Delacourt Sato talking about Captain Kirk. It connects well to the problem of time moving differently, while setting up one piece for the next issue.
Artist Adrian Bonilla does a great job aging up Wowie’s parents and giving the Earth’s surroundings a more degraded, run-down feel as time goes on. The visuals make it clear that Earth is leaving the Federation, and the results of trillions dying are making things far worse. And yet, humanity continues on its slow trot towards a darker future. Sound familiar? This issue may lack action, but Bonilla makes you feel for Wowie and see so much of what is going on, rather than the writers telling us via captions.
Star Trek: The Last Starship #4 trades spectacle for sorrow, delivering a quietly devastating meditation on time, family, and inevitability. By grounding its high-concept sci-fi in deeply human loss, the issue reinforces why this series feels like a true reinvention of Star Trek. It may slow the pace, but the emotional weight lingers long after the final page.
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