Star Trek 60^th Anniversary Special

IDW Publishing

Written by David Gerrold, David Walker, Dana Gould, Mike McMahan, Brian Michael Bendis, Meghan Camarena, Ryan North, Chris Fenoglio, Dave Baker and Christopher Cantwell

Art by JP Buzio, Escorza Brothers, Megan Levens, Michael Allred, Michael Gaydos, Mari Rolin, Derek Charm, Nicole Goux and Isaac Sanchez Gonzalez

Colors by Christine Franzen, Charlie Kirchoff, Laura Allred, JP Jordan and Igor Monti

Letters by Clayton Cowles, Jeff Eckleberry and Jodie Troutman

The Rundown: Ten stories celebrate the new worlds, new civilizations and bold journeys of Star Trek.

Escape from the Planet of Mudd

Harcourt Fenton Mudd continues to live out his sentence on his own planet surrounded by android versions of his wife and it is driving him crazy. In a desperate attempt to finally escape, he creates multiple duplicates of himself to placate the androids while he fashions androids of Enterprise crew to help him escape. Unfortunately, he makes them too well and pays an interesting price for it.

A fun, inventive and entertaining short that has a great twist ending and art that perfectly captures the light, fun tone of the story.

The Engineer’s Dilemma

Scotty finds himself musing over a lost love. A love that wants to stay but has to leave for her career. A love that leaves him with some advice that comes in handy when an incident requires a different approach than what he thinks it should.

Gould crafts a thoughtful short story about control and letting go. It’s a well done short that gives great insight into Scotty as a character.

Sulu

The Enterprise has been taken over by Klingons and the only one who has the chance to save the ship and crew is Sulu. Alone and armed with his sword, he makes his way to the bridge taking out the Klingon’s along the way.

Bendis creates some great action throughout the story, but the plotting itself seems more interested in action than story. Love the art throughout the story though. Gaydos creates beautiful imagery.

The Sesquipedalian Gambit

The Enterprise finds an abandoned ship in space that seems to be made of pieces of other ships. When Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam aboard, they are immediately captured by the Pakleds who want to trade the away team for the Enterprise. Spock must find a way to communicate a bold plan to Scotty without alerting their captures if they have any chance of escape.

A fun and entertaining short story with a great hook and button at the end to connect it to the Next Generation. I really love the classic animated series art style as well.

A Bright New Future

The crew of the Enterprise meet on board to celebrate the wedding of Commander Riker and Counselor Troi. As the couple celebrates with their friends, Captain Picard finally decides to embrace a new mission with Doctor Crusher.

A sweet, entertaining short story that brings together elements of the series that I enjoyed as a fan. The art wonderfully captures the tone and mood of the story.

The Peaceful Klingon

Young Worf is found alive in the aftermath of the attack on Khitomer and taken in by humans who try to raise him as best they can. Unfortunately, their lack of knowledge about Klingons causes friction and young Worf tries to tell them who and what Klingons are. An act that will bond him to their as well as give him clarity of who he is as both a person and a Klingon.

A fantastic short that explores Worf from a different perspective. The story has great heart and emotion as well as fantastic art that balances brutality and peace.

The Search for Season Six

Ransom has been made captain of the Cerritos and it is driving Mariner crazy as he completely changes everything around. Mariner, Boimler and the others try to keep up but it becomes more difficult the more erratic he acts. As Mariner tells her feelings for her mother, she begins to understand that there is more to Ransom than meets the eye.

A smart, fun and funny short story that delivers on everything I love about the world of Lower Decks. I really love the art style of this story a lot.

Where the Map Runs Out

Torek and Genesis find themselves in a heated debate about the merits of a book they have both read. As they bounce points and counterpoints off each other, they continue to debate whether the book is a work of science fiction or fantasy An argument that requires them to seek perspective from the Doctor.

An interesting short story that showcases the character dynamics between Torek and Genesis. The art is well done, but not enough happens in the story to make it stand out.

The Search for Archer

Ensign Jimenez is in search of Captain Archer on board the Enterprise. A task that becomes more difficult as her search seems to always find her a step behind him.

A fun and entertaining short that is served by the Lower Decks style art to emphasize the tone of the story.

Manifest Destiny

A science officer acting as part of a highly classified team has killed four members of his crew and has locked himself in an airlock as the Captain attempts to calm him down. Unfortunately, the Betazed has seen something in the mind of Jean Luc Picard that has driven him over the edge and it has something to do with a series of recovered probes and a system of space where space and time are elastic.

The story is both dark and engaging and serves as a great jumping off point for the new story arc being teased at the end of the issue. Based on this short, I am interested in seeing where this story goes and what happens next. I also really like the art style and how it creates and crafts the characters.

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