For The Love Of Trek: How IDW Reignited My Love Of ‘Star Trek’

A little over a year ago, I had all but forgotten one of my first fandoms. But thanks to one new-ish comics line, I’m back to giving a Vulcan salute and swinging my bat’leth.

Almost exactly 36 years ago, Star Trek returned to television with Encounter at Farpoint. I was four years old, probably a bit too young to jump right in. I don’t have a lot of memories of Trek at that age, but I know it wasn’t long before I was watching regularly. I do remember watching Skin of Evil, but I have no idea if it was a later re-run, or the original run of the series.

What I do know is that throughout my childhood, Star Trek was a constant. I watched every syndicated episode of The Next Generation that I could, as well as the earliest seasons of Deep Space Nine. My mom made me an engineering gold uniform for Halloween in the second grade (at the time Geordi and Data were my favorites). I had several action figures (I remember Scotty and Q specifically, I might have had others). I was in deep.

 By the time Voyager debuted, my fandom was slacking off. The UPN affiliate in the Salt Lake City area had spotty reception, and DS9 was often changing timeslots. Around that time, I got into X-Men and Spider-Man, and my Marvel fandom supplanted Trek. I still would pick up the occasional novel or comic (Marvel’s Star Trek Unlimited was a particular favorite), but it was never at the level it was in my childhood.

In 2007, IDW Publishing got the license for Star Trek comics. I would pick up the occasional book here and there, including the follow ups to the 2009 movie and its sequels. Then last year, the occasional miniseries and special turned into something else. With the announcement of Star Trek and Star Trek: Defiant, the publishing line suddenly got a massive breath of fresh air.

The twin series mashed up every era and incarnation of Star Trek- including new entry Lower Decks- in an adventure that was equal parts classic Trek and modern storytelling. Creators Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Christopher Cantwell, and Heather Antos have wrapped act one of that story this week, and I’m the most excited I’ve been about Star Trek in years. Ben Sisko and Worf have established themselves as leads in a completely different way than they were during the television run. However, every character in the story has established themselves as an essential part of the entire story.

It excited me immediately. By uniting bits and pieces of the different parts of the franchise, I was reminded of characters and plots I had long forgotten. Each series became a must-read every month, as Sisko and Worf lead their crews to discover who the god-killer was, then in Day of Blood- concluding this week in Star Trek #12 and Star Trek: Shaxs’s Best Day– fighting a fascist coup of the Klingon homeworld. It was engrossing action, alongside classic Trek-style philosophical and thoughtful storytelling, with fantastic art from Roman Rosanas, Angel Unzueta, Mike Shehan and more.

Coming out of those series, I discovered Star Trek was still a love of mine. The mass market paperback novels of the eighties and nineties are plentiful enough that they’re easy to find and cheap- making them a great collectable. PlutoTV’s constant reruns of TNG, DS9 and Voyager caught me up on forgotten favorites and episodes I missed thanks to strange syndication schedules. I’ve even signed up for Paramount Plus where I’ve come to love Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks.

As I write this I’m finishing up watching DS9 classics Little Green Man and starting The Sword of Kahless on PlutoTV. I just had the opportunity to meet Michael Dorn and Gates McFadden at FanX Salt Lake City. It’s all bringing back some of the best parts of my childhood.

And it’s all thanks to two extraordinarily well done ongoing comics series all about a war between Ben Sisko, Worf and a killer of gods, a concept that’s just about the most “Trek” you can get.