Star Trek: Red Shirts

John Scalzi effectively satirized the tendency of security forces to frequently die on away missions on the original Star Trek television series in his novel Redshirts. Now Christopher Cantwell tries to take the title back in this grim, humorless, and bleak misfire.

More a meat grinder than a story, ensigns and lieutenants dressed in red are whittled down like teenagers in a slasher flick as they battle native hostile lifeforms on a remote planet and the enemy agents being lured into a trap there with the promise of nabbing some of Starfleet's military intelligence data. Most get only a cursory introduction before bowing out in some gruesome or gory manner.

It's set during the time of The Original Series, but this story is way too cynical show more and dark in tone -- especially thanks to the narrating character -- to really fit in with that show. But some familiar faces do make some cameos at least.

I only recommend this to people who like entertainment with a running bodycount tally, like maybe the Saw movies? Not my cuppa.

Disclosure: I received access to a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.com.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contains material originally published in single magazine form as Star Trek: Red Shirts #1-5. show less

Christopher Cantwell takes the nameless people in red who are always the first to die on away missions and gives them names, backstories, hopes, fears, and dreams—and then kills them.

There's a cynicism running through this title that completely turned me off. I do tend to like the darker, morally complex Trek stories, but this one is so devoid of hope it should be called Star Trek: Grimdark.

Received via NetGalley.

Thank you Netgalley, IDW Publishing and Christopher Cantwell for the eARC of "Star Trek: Red Shirts" in exchange for an honest review.

I grew up with Star Trek and recently came back to it. However, I'd never read a Star Trek comic before. I did enjoy this comic and even as a casual fan, it was easy to follow along and understand. A few references I picked up, but I'm sure I would have picked up more if I was much heavier into the fandom than I am. I wasn't too fond of the ending, but I'm sure if you are more versed in the lore than I am then you will probably enjoy it a lot more than me. I enjoyed how the comic didn't hold back. It very much leaned into the peril and disaster that these missions take and the cynical tone was show more interesting for me. Don't get me wrong, I love my feel good, happy, and comedic dark moments, but there's something about seeing a cynical side to a something that doesn't always outright show it in such a dark way that really gets me invested. I hope there is more to come and if so, I can't wait to see where it goes. show less