Star Trek October 2020 Publishing Highlights

Despite the challenges we’re all enduring, at least we have Star Trek to provide us a bit of much-needed comfort. As I write this, Star Trek: Lower Decks is in the middle of its inaugural season on CBS All Access, and the third season of Star Trek: Discovery is in the on-deck circle. Production continues for new seasons of both shows as well as Picard, Prodigy, Strange New Worlds, and Section 31.

If you’re looking to get another sort of Star Trek fix while you wait for the latest episodes to drop, maybe I can help with that. From the different sectors of Star Trek publishing come these latest releases gracing the printed page:

We begin with To Lose the Earth, the long-awaited Star Trek: Voyager novel by Discovery executive story editor and Picard co-creator Kirsten Beyer. Before her move to television, Beyer authored ten previous Voyager novels for Simon & Schuster. In her latest offering, Admiral Kathryn Janeway and her crew deal with the mysterious disappearance of another starship with all hands, all while learning the truth about a powerful alien race at the edge of the galaxy…. The book will go on sale on October 13 as a trade paperback ($16.00), eBook ($11.99), and an unabridged audio download ($23.99).

In the realm of comics, IDW Publishing has new Star Trek adventures in both the 23rd and 24th centuries. First, the final year of the Starship Enterprise’s historic mission of exploration draws closer to its ends. In Star Trek: Year Five #15, the crew of the Enterprise will soon discover that for all of the danger they faced while in the far reaches of space, the biggest threat of all may be something closer to home! Written by Jody Houser with art by Silvia Califano, the issue will go on sale for $3.99.

Meanwhile, writers Scott and David Tipton continue their noir murder mystery at the edge of the final frontier with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Too Long A Sacrifice #3. Odo struggles to forge a fragile working relationship with a renowned Federation criminal investigator even as new suspects emerge. The body count is rising, and just when the unlikely team thinks they're getting close to the culprit, a shocking discovery changes everything! With art from Greg Scott, the issue will go on sale for $3.99.

Also on the comics front, Eaglemoss Collections continues its lavish reprint editions of classic Star Trek comics. October will see the release of five different volumes, each presenting highlights from more than five decades of publishing history. Included in this batch is Volume #125, The Ashes of Eden, the graphic novel adaptation of the first Star Trek novel written by William Shatner with co-writers Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens and originally published by DC Comics in 1995. Following the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the U.S.S. Enterprise is being decommissioned and Captain James T. Kirk finds himself at a crossroads. What will he do now that his Starfleet career is over? This volume also includes stories from DC’s Star Trek run of one-shot “special” issues.

The other volumes releasing in October include: #124, Star Trek: Voyager – Splashdown, a 4-part story originally published in 1998 by Marvel-Paramount Comics; #126, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – N-Vector, published in 2000 by WildStorm Comics; #127, Star Trek: Blood Will Tell, an IDW offering from 2007; #128, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Cry Vengeance. Each of these volumes is offered in hardcover for $19.95 each.

Dayton Ward (he/him) is a New York Times bestselling author or co-author of numerous novels and short stories, including a whole bunch of stuff set in the Star Trek universe, and often working with friend and co-writer Kevin Dilmore. As he’s still a big ol' geek at heart, Dayton is known to wax nostalgic about all manner of Star Trek topics over on his own blog, The Fog of Ward.