Star Trek icon James T. Kirk has a somewhat undeserved reputation as a ladies’ man. Across Star Trek: The Original Series and six feature films starring the show’s original cast, he did find time amidst interplanetary crises for romance. Now, he’s back in action and finding love among the stars once more, and possibly for the last time, in Star Trek: The Last Starship.
Published by IDW Comics, The Last Starship is written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, with art by Adrian Bonilla and Hernan Gonzalez. It serves as a prequel of sorts to the far-future era of Star Trek: Discovery‘s last three seasons, plus Starfleet Academy. A disaster known as The Burn has rendered warp drives inoperable all over the galaxy, and the only man who can save the fracturing United Federation of Planets is one of its greatest heroes: James T. Kirk, who’s been mysteriously revived. Assembling a crew and captaining a new ship, he’s on a mission to keep the galaxy from tearing itself apart.
In the latest and penultimate issue of the series, #11, Kirk is confronted with the end of his mission as his ship hurtles towards certain doom. However, he’s got one ally to share the moment with: the Borg Queen. This isn’t the malevolent entity seen in Star Trek: First Contact, but a kinder, gentler kind of Borg: human cyberneticist Agnes Jurati (played by Alison Pill on-screen), who was last seen being assimilated into the collective on Star Trek: Picard‘s season finale. She’s the one who revived Kirk, and in what may be their last moments, they each find a little human tenderness. But will this be the last ride for Kirk? You’ll have to find out when The Last Starship concludes with issue #12, on store shelves on October 21.
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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
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🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
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01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
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02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
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03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
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04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
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05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
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06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
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07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
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08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
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Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
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Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
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You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
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You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
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You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
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You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
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You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
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Has Captain Kirk Met the Borg Before?
The Borg were first discovered by Starfleet in the 24th century, 100 years after Kirk’s tenure as Enterprise captain and his apparent death in the Nexus time ribbon, as seen in Star Trek: Generations. However, in the so-called “Shatnerverse” novels, which were penned by William Shatner with Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens, Kirk’s body was recovered by the Romulans and given to the Borg, who used their technology to resurrect him as a weapon to be turned against the Federation; this soon puts him on a collision course with his eventual successor as Enterprise captain, Jean-Luc Picard. These novels are generally not considered in continuity with the greater Star Trek universe.
Star Trek: The Last Starship #11 is on shelves now. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
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