Star Trek Year Five #13: The Final Countdown

The Enterprise’s five-year voyage is definitely coming to an end. But just what that ending is, is another story altogether. If you thought they were going to pull into space dock and pop some bottles, you’re going to be disappointed. Something that I never even considered, is that the crew has been away from Earth and that things have progressed while they were gone, wasn’t even a blip on my radar. But authors Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing thought about it. AND wrote a fantastic story about it. The script is part fish out of water, part action piece and it’s told with an overlying tone of suspense that will make you what’s going on beneath the surface of Starfleet’s very strange actions. They throw a big wrench into the plans of everyone and it sets the crew into one final adventure that shines the spotlight on the “big three” as they each set out on their own in the course of this final adventure. Kelly & Lanzing open a whole new can of worms in this issue, turning the final voyage into a “maybe just one more voyage”.

Artist Angel Hernandez delivers some magnificent art this issue, he’s got a great talent for drawing sci-fi, especially Trek. He knows exactly how to portray technology that’s set in between the original series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It’s nice to have him bridge the gap between the two, giving us a healthy dose of TMP’s technology, uniforms, and tone. Hernandez gives the Federation an almost frosty reception for the Enterprise crew as the staff of other ships and the Federation look down at this homebound crew. Both writing and art are way above par this issue.