Cruising The Galaxy California Style: Reviewing ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ #1

These are the voyagers of the Starship Cerritos, and boy-oh-boy are they mundane, yet also super wacky. That’s what you can expect from one of the lower ships in the fleet relegated to all the jobs that no one wants.

Yes, that’s right, the adventures of the lower-deckers have jumped from the television (or whatever screen people watch stuff on these days) back into the pages of comics with Star Trek: Lower Decks #1 from IDW Publishing.

Picking up where he last left off (sort of…kind of) writer Ryan North teams up once more with artist Derek Charm (they did Jughead together ICYMI) and letterer Clayton Cowles (partners on The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl of course).

If you were wondering if this book was going to keep up the humor and wonderous energy of the television series … why would you even wonder such a thing? Of course, it does. I mean this sort of stuff is right up the alley of the creative team in question.

Just look at the books I mentioned they worked on together on in the past. There is a reason I mentioned those humor-filled endeavors. There is every bit of the same charm and animated energy here that shows up on the screen, from start to finish. Okay, cool guess that’s the review.

Hmm no, I probably need to go a bit more in depth I suppose.

Per usual, Charm’s artwork very much lives up to his name. Coming in always with just that charming level of fun wrapped up in great detail, depth, and emotion. With adaptations, it’s commonly said that the story feels like it walked off the screen to the page (or vice versa) and this is one of those cases. Achieving the same levels for every character and space as the show it was born from, with its own little sense of stylistic flair.

Bright and shiny, with a color palette that doesn’t shy away from hitting those vibrant highs and more toned-down ‘lows,’ creating spaces that feel authentic to what we know of the world. That also gives it a bit of a grounding presence that wraps around the more vividly absurd.

I love that there is a clear tonal difference between the Cerritos and the Bonaventure playing into not only their aesthetic differences but time differences. Same with how the artwork recreating the scenes from Star Trek: The Animated Series remain of a different feeling and style than the “present” day crew/ship.

Characters with animated personalities are big and bold, which means plenty of room for Cowles to really play with the lettering. He goes for a lot of standard type of font and bubbles for the most part, only to really crank it up for specific moments. Big bubbles, colors, and various other changes shift the tone and volume in a clear tangible way. At the same time, no matter the appearance, it all really gives room for character personalities and vocal uniqueness to bleed through and be heard as we read every word.

The choice to start the issue off with multiple done-in-one style adventures that show off how mundane it can be for the crew was chef kiss. Just a fun way for North to really give anyone new to the Lower Decks experience a quick shot of just how quickly they go from the utterly boring and routine to absolutely wild. Which in a way is just Star Trek period, but there is that very distinct flavor that Lower Decks can do differently.

There is no space wasted here as the characters are clearly defined, and for returning fans, it easily slips into the show without having to really point at this fact. Just another day on the Cerritos. Anyone can read it and just pick up what the book (and the show by connection) is putting down without really struggling or needing to dig deeper. Hitting those levels of new and old audience friendly at the same time isn’t the easiest, but North figures it out.

One of the things I love most about North’s work is how the humorous and absurd, and the heartfelt and realness flow together so easily. Finding ways to make sure that things are not only fun all the way through but have a weight and a reason to them, even if the reasons are wrapped in silly as well. It’s something that makes all the work that he’s doing currently and, in the past, hit the way that they do. There is a reason he’s one of the writers that is tapped for these types of things across the comics publishing sphere.

Star Trek: Lower Decks #1 is now available from IDW Publishing.