STAR TREK: YEAR FIVE #7 review – What We Have Here… (Lanzing, Kelly, Thompson, Kirchoff, Uyetake, IDW Publishing)

Jackson Lanzing (Author) Collin Kelly (Author) Stephen Thompson (Artist, Cover Artist) Charlie Kirchoff (Colorist) Neil Uyetake (Letterer)

Thanks to IDW Publishing for the review copy!

After a couple of largely standalone adventures, the overarching Tholian plot line is brought back to the forefront in STAR TREK: YEAR FIVE #7. This series chronicles the final year of the Enterprise’s five year mission. In doing so, it has done an admirable job of staying true to the characters and the timeline of the original Trek.

In the last issue, an artifact gave the crew the ability to speak with the Tholian child they rescued, whom they have named Bright Eyes. The crew rescued him from a colony that had been mysteriously destroyed, and that event takes the forefront in this issue. For that reason, I recommend reading the first issue if possible.

This issue does something I don’t recall ever happening in the original series. It takes us away from the crew and focuses on the Tholian side of things for a while. It was an interesting way to fill in some details about what is happening and how Tholian society works, but it also raises more questions than it answers, an effective way to want us to keep reading.  

When we return to the Enterprise point of view, we get to meet a new alien character, whose design looks similar to a character on the Star Trek Discovery series. There are some clues that lead me to believe they might be the same species, but I am not sure of that. I really liked the character, but I felt Sulu’s conversation with her seemed a bit stilted. That minor quibble aside, this was a satisfying issue. I appreciated how this issue tied back to issue 1 and really drove that story forward. After some sillier arcs, this one really established some danger for the crew.

STAR TREK: YEAR FIVE #7 is available now.

Check back soon for my thoughts on issue 8 of this series.

Have you read the issue? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter.