Review – Star Trek: Year Five #22 (IDW Publishing)

Posted on July 16, 2021 in IDW Reviews

Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly
Artwork: Stephen Thompson
Colourist: Charlie Kirchoff
Release Date: 7th July 2021

Arguably making little rhyme or reason, Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly’s return for their final arc in Star Trek: Year Five probably landed like a lead balloon with those Trekkies who have fond memories of the science fiction television series’ broadcast adventures in the sixties. And despite the collaborative pair’s twenty-page pedestrian-paced plot eventually ending with something of a bang, courtesy of a fleet of extra-terrestrial spaceships suddenly descending upon the Golden Gate Bridge, the writing partnership’s rationale behind their jaw-dropping cliff-hanger is debatably far from convincing; “Candidates, we have an emergency situation! Radiation signatures are appearing across the Federation.”

To begin with, the “showrunners” immediately suggest that Bright Eyes has been promoted to cadet in order to become the first Tholian ever admitted to Starfleet Academy. This inspirational induction may make some sense, considering how useful the U.S.S. Enterprise’s newest crew member has become to the Federation during this comic’s overall run. However, its timing is unconvincing considering that, as the Andorian Administer Renei quite rightly points out to the Admiralty, the young child’s increasingly hostile race is currently threatening the safety of the entire supranational interstellar union”by placing its formidably-arrayed command platforms just beyond the Federation’s borders.

With such a large intergalactic war just around the corner, surely Starfleet Security would have something to say about such a potentially dangerous appointment, at least until the nature of the Tholian’s “apparently catastrophic cryogenic weapon” is better known and can be neutralised? The adolescent crystalline entity has already unwittingly been the cause of an alternative universe being created by supposedly innocently interfering with a time-altering tower on Vulcan. So who is to really say that Bright Eyes was simply naively curious when investigating that mysteriously powerful beacon, and not just testing out the technology prior to his people’s Federation-wide assault..?

Likewise, the two author’s handling of Mister Spock makes the Constitution-class starship commander appear both wholly incompetent and totally lacking in confidence to captain a space vessel. James Kirk is understandably adamant, having spent five years working alongside the science officer, that the ship’s number two is ready for the job. Yet frustratingly, instead of accepting the offer, the half-Vulcan insists he is “uniquely unsuited to command” by listing all the failures he has supposedly had since the likes of Lanzing and Kelly started penning this ongoing comic book series.

[PREVIEW ARTWORK – CLICK TO ENLARGE]