This graphic novel was read at Kalimna, Yeranda Cottages, Main Creek (Dungog) NSW, August 2026
The streaming version of the series may be dead and buried but thank goodness the graphic novels are not.
Star Trek: Lower Decks remains alive and comedically well in a series of graphic novels including Second Contact, a series of adventures which very much keep alive the spirit of animated series which lampooned the franchise which birthed it but with an affectionate loyalty that makes it often one of the best Star Trek shows to have ever been produced.
It is mark of real devotion to anything that you can see its deficiencies, its quirks and its shortfalls; pointing those out is seem by some as a form of betrayal, but in reality it actually underlines and emphasises your devotion when you can look at something and go it’s not perfect but good lord I love it anyway.
It shows that rather than blind obedience or belief or interest, yours is one that is thought through, considered and thoughtfully enjoyed and that is surely the higher compliment to any TV show isn’t it?
Whatever your opinion there, and yeah, it’s a weighty one when you’re talking about a fun-loving animated show, Star Trek: Lower Decks Second Contact is an absolute hoot.
It takes the reader on a series of adventures, right after Lieutenant Beckett Mariner has complained to anyone who will listen that being on the Cali-class U.S.S. Cerritos, one of the bottom run of Starlet ships that is mostly certainly not the Enterprise, is incredibly boring.
She makes the fatal mistake of bemoaning that fact and bang! A mysterious ghost ship appears and then a race of people beam them onto their planet where they learn by hosting reality TV show battles to the death. In this case Mariner, Lt. Brad Boimler, Lt Tendi, Lt Rutherford and Lt T’Lyn have to battle heroes of the Federation like Picard, Janeway and Jadzia Dax to help the bloodthirsty learners of the planet learn about mentoring.
It’s hilarious, it’s serious and it’s chock full of wonderful Star Trek Easter eggs.
After thoughtfully resolving that tricky situation, the Lower Decks team and the rest of the Bridge crew – insert names here – have to work out where an entire star system has disappeared to which is not as easy as it sounds which is good and bad because Mariner also complained that in true Star Trek fashion, too many of their missions, even the complicated ones had easy resolutions.
It’s subtle, funny dig at the propensity of the franchise to solve intractable problems with technobabble or a metric ton of narrative convenience and it works as do many of the jokes which don’t make fun of Star Trek but merely affectionate point out some of its quirks.
Speaking of, writer Ryan North, who along with vividly lifelike artwork by Derek Charm and Jack Lawrence, make the graphic novels feel like the streaming series sprung to life all over again, inserts all kind of hilarious asides at the bottom of almost every page.
My apologies to anyone who is just now realizing [sic] that the Federation’s design aesthetic can largely be captured by the phrase ‘Flying saucer with two rockets attached’; it was a troubling time for me when I first discovered it, too.
Throw in some time travel, which brings to light the continual clash between the established officers and those like Mariner, Boimler, T’Lyn, Tendi and Rutherford who long to be at the heart of the action and show what they can do, and you have in Star Trek: Lower Decks Second Contact the perfect distillation of an episode/s of a show which was richly observant of the franchise as a whole and affectionately loyal to it but which lovingly exposed some of its foibles and quirks and made the experience of being a Star Trek fan all the richer for it.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Second Contact is available from IDW Publishing
