In this review of Star Trek: Red Shirts #5, with Chip Miller and Zayna Raad the only Red Shirts left alive, and currently held captive by the Klingons, what are the odds that either of them make it out alive?
Star Trek: Red Shirts #5
Writer: Christopher Cantwell
Artist: Megan Levens
Main Cover: Chris Shehan
Variant Covers: Joe Corroney, James Biggie
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: December 3, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Star Trek: Red Shirts #5 begins with a telling passage from Ensign Chip Miller’s personal, hand-written journal chronicling his harrowing experience from months earlier on the planet Neural. As the sole survivor of a savage Mugato attack, Miller was left badly injured and alone. After three days filled with pain, starvation and terror, the young ensign was finally rescued, but the scars from that event still linger in the present.
In orbit above Arkonia 89, a Klingon boarding party led by Captain Moq’Rat beams over along with the surviving red shirts (Chip Miller and Zayna Raad) to an awaiting Romulan vessel led by Commander Revo as part of an exchange between the longtime adversaries. Moq’Rat demands the Federation data disk that the Romulans stole, but Raad warns Moq’Rat about the Romulans’ true intentions.
Miller quietly observes the proceedings as if only a spectator instead of a bargaining chip (ha). Raad breaks free and challenges Revo to single combat. Revo balks, but Moq’Rat applauds the idea. Miller thinks Raad is crazy, but Raad hopes Miller will figure out a plan. After taking a serious beating from Revo, Raad finally gets the upper hand. Miller uses the spectacle to grab a Klingon’s disruptor…and shoots Raad through the heart.
Miller holds the shocked Klingons at bay as he helps Revo to his feet and destroys the data disk. Neral, the Romulan Tal Shiar operative tells the Klingons that Miller is working for him. Miller reveals his subterfuge, counting on Starfleet’s secrecy to obscure their full plan to flush out a mole (him) from the eleven other Red Shirts who died on the mission to the array.
Back on Neural, Miller was rescued first by the Romulans, who healed him, and gave him a new purpose after Miller felt betrayed and abandoned by Starfleet. Neral sent Miller back to Neural, (along with a stolen distress beacon), to await rescue from Starfleet and carry out his plan. The Klingons beam back to their ship, and the Romulans transmit a copy of the data disk over to their ship, just before the Romulans fire disruptors and destroy them.
Star Trek: Red Shirts #5 ends with Chip Miller waiting another three days for rescue, this time from the U.S.S. Enterprise. Miller spins a tall tale, telling Captain Kirk (that name sounds familiar for some reason) that he killed Raad because she was the mole, he didn’t know who the spies were and that his fellow Red Shirts died as heroes.
Analysis
Star Trek: Red Shirts #5 did not go in a predictable direction with either Raad or Miller (or both) escaping to freedom by series end. Writer Christopher Cantwell crafts a compelling, if disheartening finale, playing against expectations with the affable Chip Miller revealed to be a Romulan double agent. To be fair, Cantwell dropped hints in the opening pages of Star Trek: Red Shirts #5 (and in the ending of issue #4). Miller’s motivations throughout the series are made clear in hindsight.
Miller is a survivor, one who realized that his optimism was foolhardy, and that he and his cohort of Red Shirts were considered expendable by the institution they had pledged to serve. Cantwell’s series isn’t about perseverance to an ideal and overcoming hardships (a typical Star Trek theme), it’s about loss, disillusionment and taking stock of your life after a harrowing ordeal.
Everything traces back to Miller’s time on Neural (not Neral, that’s just confusing), where the young ensign’s Starfleet career started and ended in one horrific, life-changing ordeal. During the series, unlike his fellow Red Shirts, Miller knew the game was rigged, which in turn enabled him to stay alive. Ensign Zayna Raad took the traditional stoic route, putting her life on the line (and her faith in Miller), which proved costly.
From Miller’s voiceover, he admired Zayna but he harbored no illusions over her choice of loyalties. Any initial idealism was drilled out of him long ago, and he was willing to complete his mission and frame the foolishly noble Raad to take the blame (she warned the Klingons about trusting the Romulans). Ultimately, the Klingons had to be destroyed, because the Romulans could not allow the knowledge of Miller’s duplicity to be revealed. Very pragmatic.
The last few pages featuring Miller as the sole survivor (for the second time) and ending the story on board the U.S.S. Enterprise was unsettling. Miller calmly lying to Captain Kirk about Raad being the mole, and that his fellow Red Shirts died as heroes (while needling another young Red Shirt) sums up the subterfuge that has become Chip Miller’s life.
Artist Megan Levens puts her stamp on Star Trek lore just with those final two pages of Star Trek: Red Shirts #5, encapsulating Miller as calm and unflappable whether awaiting rescue and interacting with Captain Kirk and company. Leven’s focus on Raad as she is murdered by Miller is a shocking masterpiece that amplifies the sense of his betrayal, as is the subsequent close-up where she lies dead, eyes wide open in shock.
Final Thoughts
Star Trek: Red Shirts #5 is a heart-breaking and compelling finale that defies expectations of what a good Star Trek story can be. Christopher Cantwell’s message is loud and clear and is delivered in gorgeously brutal fashion by Megan Levens’ art.
