Star Trek’s Most Devastating Event Will Finally Be Fully Told (With A Twist)

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In David Carson’s 1994 film “Star Trek: Generations,” Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) found himself deposited inside a mysterious temporal Nexus, a magical spatial phenomenon that snatches people up and nestles them in a heaven-like pocket dimension. Time has no meaning in the Nexus, meaning people can pretty much spend an eternity inside of it without any time passing in the outside universe. 87 years after Kirk is snatched up, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is also snagged, and he, too, briefly lives in this heaven. Picard, however, has a mission to think about. He has to stop a mad scientist named Dr. Soren (Malcolm McDowell) from destroying a star and killing millions. Because there is no time in the Nexus, he and Kirk technically arrived at the exact same time. Picard convinces Kirk to exit the Nexus, and they fistfight Dr. Soren together. 

In the scuffle, though, Kirk steps onto a rickety catwalk and falls to his death. His last words to Picard are: “It was fun.” Picard buries him under a pile of rocks, and presumably leaves him there to decompose. 

Of course, Kirk has been resurrected in small, non-canonical ways ever since. In William Shatner’s 1995 novel “The Return,” Kirk’s body is located and resurrected by the Borg, operating under pressure from the Romulans (!). More recently, fans saw Kirk traversing the afterlife (?) in a 2023 non-canonical short film called “765874: Unification.” That same year, on an episode of “Star Trek: Picard,” it was canonically declared that Kirk’s body had indeed been salvaged from the planet where he died, and was being kept in cold storage at a secret Starfleet black site. 

Extrapolating from that latter story thread, a new IDW comic book will once again resurrect James T. Kirk, this time many hundreds of years beyond the “Next Generation” era. According to a new press release, the new story will be called “The Last Starship.” 

The “Star Trek” comics from IDW Publishing, it should be noted, are also non-canonical, so “The Last Starship” is merely a provocative possibility for the character. The comic will be written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, and drawn by Adrián Bonilla. 

According to the description in the press release, “The Last Starship” will see Kirk’s body found at the Starfleet black site and resurrected somehow, using ultra-advanced technology. The story is set in the year 3069, which is 698 years after the events of “Star Trek: Generations.” Kirk will be resurrected just in time to witness The Burn, an event described in the third season of “Star Trek: Discovery.” It seems that in 3069, an unusual, galaxy-wide cataclysm will unexpectedly strike. Every single starship with dilithium crystals on board (which is to say, almost all of them) will spontaneously explode. The cataclysm pretty much ends civilization as we know it, causing the Federation to fall and a widespread, money-and-slavery-based mercantile system to rise in its place. 

The third season of “Discovery” takes place about 120 years after The Burn. It seems that “The Last Starship” will take place right when it happens. Kirk will evidently take command of a new, 31st century starship populated by all new characters. It will be Kirk’s job to understand the new future he finds himself in, but also try to retain as much of the damaged Federation as he possibly can. 

This is a fun idea. Stalwart minds would be needed after The Burn, so why not have it be James T. Kirk? After all, we know where his body is. Surely, by the 30th century, the technology has been developed to Frankenstein him back to life.

Kelly, one of the writers, said the following in a press release: 

“The only familiar face is the one you’d never expect to see in this era: Captain James T. Kirk. […] William Shatner’s iconic performance transcends borders. Kirk is one of the great characters of the modern fiction canon, with a timeless actor to match. He was also the first ‘Star Trek’ character we ever wrote – a leader and warrior poet with boundless tragedy and contradiction. Now, we’re honored to be taking this character into truly uncharted, groundbreaking territory in ‘The Last Starship.'”

The authors wanted to assure audiences, however, that “The Last Starship” will not be insular or obscure to non-Trekkies. Sure, Trekkies will have a working knowledge of “Star Trek: Generations,” “Star Trek: Picard,” and the third season of “Star Trek: Discovery,” but it seems that all the necessary background information will be provided in Kelly’s and Lanzig’s comic. The only thing readers will need to know about is James T. Kirk, and, well, we all know about him, right? 

“The Last Starship” is set to debut on September 24, 2025. It will be the first of a new batch of “Star Trek” comics from IDW Publishing, a line that will also include new stories inspired by “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” and “Star Trek: Voyager.” Once again, these stories are non-canonical, but it’s always been fun for Trekkies to speculate about innumerable “what if?” scenarios. The comics, like video games and novels, are merely more stories with our favorite “Trek” characters, and we welcome as many as possible.