In this review of Star Trek: Lower Decks #6, the worst part about chasing a temporal miscreant through the timestream is that you will eventually become your own worst enemy.
Star Trek: Lower Decks #6
Written by: Ryan North
Art and Main Cover by: Jack Lawrence
Page Count: 28 pages
Release Date: April 9, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Star Trek: Lower Decks #6 begins with the core Lower Decks team of Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford and T’Lyn (who are supposed to be on mandated shore leave) traveling to the past, and arriving on board the ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic a short time before the infamous iceberg incident, (of course none of the team are familiar with that notorious historical disaster…like at all).
The Lower Decks team chase after a cloaked (think ‘cape with a hood’, not the starship technology) stranger who has been screwing up the timestream, and run into the U.S.S. Cerritos’ (okay, it’s temporarily the U.S.S. Nemo’s) senior officers Freeman, Shax, Ransom and Billups dressed in period-accurate outfits. Last issue, Mariner snuck into a top secret time travel mission briefing for the senor staff and then told all of her friends, which is how all of this started.
The cloaked (hooded) stranger disappears through a temporal anomaly, so the entire crew beams up to the U.S.S. Nemo just minutes before the Titanic crashes into the iceberg (sorry movie fans, Star Trek: Lower Decks #6 doesn’t have James Cameron’s visual effects budget, but comic artist Jack Lawrence still does a decent job).
Before the Lower Decks team get an expected earful from Captain Freeman, Boimler explains that the timeline was already randomly altering in the 24th Century, and they only travelled back in time to help fix the problem.
The senior staff brief the Lower Decks team about the mysterious cloaked (I’m not repeating myself again) interloper and prepare the U.S.S. Nemo to travel back to the late Cretaceous period by using the old ‘slingshot around the sun’ technique from Star Trek IV.
The U.S.S. Nemo arrives in Earth’s distant past, and the Lower Decks team confront the cloaked (ahem) stranger who is preparing to use a phaser cannon to destroy the giant asteroid that originally wiped out the dinosaurs so that humans never evolved, (hey, a version of this already happened: see Star Trek: Voyager – Season Three if you’re interested).
The cloaked stranger is revealed to be an older and angrier (redacted). After being talked down by the Lower Decks team, a relieved (redacted) removes their Anti-Tachyon Field Emitter, the same technology the crew have been using, (it’s a nice accessory if you don’t mind wearing a chunky metal bracelet that also protects you from temporal psychosis) and the alternate future version of (redacted) disappears from the timeline.
Star Trek: Lower Decks #6 ends with the entire crew returning to the U.S.S. Cerritos, while Mariner looks up the sad fate of the Titanic, (oddly forgoing the movie version).
Analysis
Star Trek: Lower Decks #6 is another fun adventure with the Lower Decks team that mashes up classic Star Trek tropes with plenty of knowing humor and some easter eggs for readers to catch (last issue it was a puppet show depicting the end of Star Trek V).
Mariner’s suspicious nature and willful disregard of her mother (and captain) last issue provided her with information that the Lower Decks team used to help save the day in Star Trek: Lower Decks #6, although it’s wild to think that none of the Lower Decks team were familiar with an event of such historical significance as the sinking of the Titanic.
Writer Ryan North (Fantastic Four) crafts an enjoyable and funny adventure on par with any episode of the cancelled animated series. His callbacks to both the classic ToS episode “All Our Yesterdays” and the hilarious Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (complete with weird 1980s era visual effects), should keep readers delighted as they wait for the next obscure Trek reference to drop.
North’s use of writer’s commentary on some pages adds another layer of humor and exposition without interrupting the flow of the story. The only issue I have with Star Trek: Lower Decks #6 are the nearly incident-free time travel trip and the subsequent rushed capture of (redacted), which was also spelled out in dialogue before the events took place, padding the story with an unnecessary redundancy.
Artist Jack Lawrence (Sonic, Transformers) delivers solid interior art on par with the animated series style, while ramping up the tension with some clever close ups. The cinematic wide shot of the entire crew on the bridge of the U.S.S. Nemo is cool, as is the overhead shot of the unconscious crew sprawled on the bridge. While Star Trek: Lower Decks #6 has lots of humor and some drama, there isn’t as much action as last issue, (man do I miss those puppets).
Ironically, Star Trek: Lower Decks #6 continues (probably unintentionally), the long-established tradition of many Star Trek two-part television episodes’ inability to completely stick the landing, (a promising start, but a belly-flop of an ending). But despite a few odd scripting choices, Star Trek: Lower Decks #6 is still well worth the read, as is the entire series.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Star Trek: Lower Decks #6 delivers another fun, and (slightly) serious adventure with plenty of laughs, and some classic callbacks that should please fans of both Star Trek and Lower Decks.
