Villordsutch reviews Star Trek #54…
Galactic peace hangs in the balance as the Enterprise crew battles a renegade Orion faction… and faces betrayal from within! Don’t miss the conclusion of this all-new story as events continue to unfold in the lead up to the release of the newest blockbuster Star Trek movie next summer!
In last month’s Star Trek #53 we witnessed something rather interesting – not only was Galia alive (most assumed she had perished at the Vulcan-hating hands of Nero 2009’s Star Trek), but she and her brother Kai were serving in Starfleet; Galia was on the science vessel Tereshkova and Kai on the Enterprise. After both crews met up from some R&R, a surprise attack from a number of Orion ships made short work of this happy reunion by kidnapping both siblings and warping off, severely disabling the Enterprise in the process.
With Kirk ready to follow the Orion vessels he’s reminded by Captain Campbell and Spock that Starfleet has a treaty with the with the Orion Syndicate and they cannot enter their space. With Kirk once again throwing the rules to the wind rather than leave the members of Starfleet behind, he sets Scotty onto repairing the engines, which initially are supposed to take an hour, but eventually take five days!
On Vondem, Galia is being prepared for her forced wedding; with both wrists bound her mother watches on revealing how she knew where her children were going to be and at what time. Kai meanwhile has been placed in the gladiator pits and is being forced to fight to the death with not one stitch of clothing on his body.
There’s an extremely interesting drop of information placed within this story by Galia’s mother relating to Admiral Marcus (Deceased) – it appears he had been trading information with the Orion Syndicate, for what reason it’s not expanded on; not only this we discover the Orion Syndicate currently has Human spies within Starfleet too. I really hope that this crooked house that Admiral Marcus help build is going to be torn down very slowly in the near future by Mike Johnson.
Kirk is also really racking up the Syndicate’s that are growing to dislike him, he recently upset the Syndicate in the Eurydice story back in Star Trek #45 and now he’s got the Orion Syndicate not overly impressed with his actions.
Turning back to this closing chapter, it’s been interesting watching the changing outlook of the two genders within the world of the Orion Society. The want to break from the automatic life set upon them, has been short, but an enjoyable read and the “Gilded Cage” cover from Tony Shasteen also brings home the world in which Galia would be shackled within, if it wasn’t for her father giving them both a new life within Starfleet.
Both the artwork from Tony Shasteen and the palette from Davide Mastrolonardo are top notch in this issue. Delivering some excellent scenes within these covers along with the impressive use of quick cut panels giving the whole comic speed when it’s needed.
Just to highlight the subscription wrap around cover from Derek Charm, which looks fantastic but is so sickly sweet I can feel my teeth itching just looking at it.
Derek Charm’s subscription cover
Star Trek #54 is both entertaining and interesting; we have the closing of Galia and the Kai story and also we quite possibly have the start of something much bigger.
Rating :- 8/10
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
Originally published February 24, 2016. Updated June 30, 2023.
