Boldly Going Where We’ve Gone Before: Reviewing ‘Star Trek Annual 2023’

Behold, the Holodeck! A future technological marvel where any vista, period, moment, or space can be brought to holographic life. Sometimes that life though might take a very unexpected turn.  

Star Trek, at least post The Next Generation era, isn’t Star Trek without a holodeck crisis. Every series needs one alongside a viral spread episode, a time travel episode, and something alternate dimension-like. IDW Publishing’s Star Trek series is full-on Trek to its core and that means keeping with tradition.  

A whole issue focused on the crew trapped in various eras of Trek thanks to the holodeck? Umm yes, please. That’s pure fun, even just reading the synopsis.  

We can fully feel that fun because Rachel Stott and Charlie Kirchoff are cutting fully loose here. Stott has a style of artwork that fully captures the space and characters perfectly. Right away nostalgia washed over me looking at the different bridges and cast of characters filling the pages. There is such clear love on the page in how everything is set up and drawn.  

As someone that is not an artist, I always find art to be impressive just as a concept. In this case, it’s even more impressive because this issue is bouncing all over the place. From setting to setting, space to space, character to character. It never loses its stride and is just so smoothly brought together. This series is about merging the eras of Trek and this issue is the epitome of that, showing how good Trek as a whole fits together. 

I also love how while the characters are depicted very realistically (avoiding the uncanny actor copy-paste), there is also exaggeration at play. Characters are emotive and real but also sometimes larger than life. Hello there, big hulking Lt. Shaxs. Looking good my man! It just works. These are larger-than-life characters, the entire franchise is, and adds to that fun energy.  

For all the heaviness that comes from the weight and realness, there is a super light fun feeling through the whole issue. It’s bright and shiny, even when things feel tough for the characters.

Kirchoff has a very vivid and slick appearance in the color work. It’s a smooth match for all that came before from Lee Loughridge. All the various spaces of the ship have their own color scheme, the blues of the bridge or the yellow of engineering, just like in previous issues.  Oh, and that spread of all the hero ships…truly gorgeous…I need that framed on the wall. 

I love the art that we’ve had previously but I very much hope we see more of Stott and Kirchoff on the book in the future. Maybe a full story arc.  

All fun aside though, the crux of this story centers around life old and new. Montgomery Scott is such an intriguing character, and here threads are picked at in remembrance that he is a man out of time. Trapped sixty years in a transporter buffer, he’s been around in this new era for years but still finding his way. This adventure seemingly rejuvenates him and reminds him of things, leading to a deeper crew bond is the best.  

Never did I think that this series of all places would be the Trek that picked up on a major dangling plot line. Star Trek: Voyager naturally dealt a ton with holographic life and rights, thanks to the character of The Doctor. During that series, he published a holo novel about the plight of holograms that caused a whole trial about his personhood. Holograms and their life has largely been ignored since and I truly appreciate Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing picking up the baton.  

What I’ve loved about this series as a whole is how much of a love letter it is to everything to do with Trek. A love letter with purpose though, not just empty love and nostalgia. Characters, places, and things brought back are done with care and have a reason. This is a super fun character-rich one-off issue that is a perfect sequel to the Voyager episode “Author, Author.” It adds tons to the ongoing narrative of the series while also deepening the overall universe.  

Characters are what make us come back to most worlds. We get plenty of focus here on a few of them, and the Hivemind keeps up their great track record of development. Not only that but they nailed the variety of voices on display here. All of the various characters from different eras, no matter how long or brief an appearance, just felt right. We will never see such a wide crossover on our screens, but thanks to this book we got a taste of what it could be like. 

Speaking of feeling right, a lot of that also comes from the lettering and how well their voices are delivered.  

Words, even in a speech bubble form, are something that isn’t inherently seen as ‘fun’ when they fill the page. They have a purpose in the story to showcase dialogue or thoughts, generally to help us fully understand the story that is before us. Lettering is very much an art, and Clayton Cowles is a great artist. Various types of lettering flow through the pages with little bits added to showcase volume, tone, personality, and far more. We can hear and feel the characters every time we gaze upon one of the bubbles or boxes, adding so much to what could be just simple words.

A perfect example is showcased above where Scotty is singing. Musical symbols added almost like quotation marks not only of course tell us it’s s a song, but add a colorful element. Right away when reading the lyrics one can’t help but hear it in a sing-song type of voice.

Star Trek Annual 2023 is now available from IDW Publishing.