STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS (2024-) #6 Review

Star Trek: Lower Decks #6 is written by Ryan North and published by IDW Publishing. Artwork is by Jack Lawrence, colours by Charlie Kirchoff and letters by Clayton Cowles.

Star Trek: Lower Decks #6 is available now, in print and on digital platforms where all good comic books are sold. Grab your digital copy from Amazon Comixology UK right here.

Synopsis

When Mariner asked the Krulmuth-B portal to send her, Rutherford, Tendi, and Boimler to the moment when they could make the biggest impact on history, she meant, like, to the time period where they could help their crew the most. But they’ve ended up on board the Titanic! Yes, THE Titanic, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The time traveler who’s responsible for a deadly wave of Federation rewrites is still at large, and the Lower Deckers are now further than ever from stopping them.

Review

Our favourite Starfleet lower deckers are back in comic book stores today and seemingly stranded aboard the Titan following last month’s cliffhanger. The second half of our time-hopping adventure promises more classic Lower Decks hilarity whilst injecting a little more character development in to one of our four leads…

Star Trek: Lower Decks #6 picks up mere seconds after we left last month. With Boimler, Mariner, Tendi and Rutherford standing on deck of the RMS Titanic. Yes that Titanic. The one with the iceberg. Only it turns out that the story of what happened to the world’s largest passenger vessel never made it as far as the 2380s. Not even the love story of Jack and Rose punctured far enough in to the zeitgeist to make it in to either Boimler or Mariner’s dialogue. So it turns out our crew has no idea what might be coming next.

But this a Ryan North book so don’t ever expect what’s coming next. The setting of the Titanic becomes a mere moment of subterfuge as our time travelling enemy makes an appearance. Turns out our lower deckers did arrive at an important moment in history. But as they accidentally story Captain Freeman and the rest of the senior officers from capturing the cloaked figure. It turns out this was the moment they would prove to be least helpful to history.

North does a brilliant job of showing just how much the lower deckers infuriate their senior counterparts. Especially on a mission as pivotal as this. Of course we root for our heroes. They’re some of our favourite characters in contemporary Trek so why wouldn’t we? But North’s story is pitch perfect in making the loveable antagonists when the entire of history is at stake.

With the gang all back together there’s time for a conference room scene. Something which no Star Trek episode should ever be without. It gives them time to hatch a plan which takes the ship back to prehistoric times and gives them another chance to capture the mysterious figure. The only draw back is that once a plot point is forged around the fact this person’s identity is a mystery it’s abundantly clear it’s likely to be one of four people. In this instance I did guess wrong but it was still clear that one of our lower deckers would be the culprit. But even in its predictability, Lower Decks still uses this as a point of motivation and development to help said person’s character to grow.

Verdict

A solid conclusion to Star Trek: Lower Decks timey wimey adventure. Though some of its plotting is predictable, North’s energetic storytelling and pitch perfect recreation of the show’s tone elevates issue #6 beyond its obstacles. But seriously, how does nobody in the 2380’s know what the Titanic is!?

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