Star Trek's New Era Begins Today, Everything You Need To Know

Published Sep 23, 2026, 10:06 AM EDT

Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor.

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Warning! Spoilers ahead for the new Star Trek!

It is a new day for Star Trek. There is a new Enterprise, embarking on a five-year mission unlike any before in franchise history. There are returning characters and new crewmembers to get to know. Most importantly, Trek is boldly going ahead with the next chapter of its original timeline, which first appeared on screen six decades ago.

The relaunched Star Trek, which kicks off today, is the Next Generation of its generation, paired with a premise that has strong Voyager vibes, with some added Deep Space Nine flavor. Meaning it feels like a perfect synthesis of what has worked for Trek before, but all of that is being used as a foundation from which the series can grow something different.

In the new Trek, Seven of Nine is the captain of the Enterprise-G. Along with her crew, she faces a hard choice when asked by the Starfleet brass to go on a mission that could take them away from home for decades. Of all people, Seven is the best fit for the job, but she knows better than anyone what that can mean for a ship’s crew.

Star Trek is taking fans on a “desperate mission beyond the known Galaxy,” which promises “new worlds, new species, new existential threats.” That’s the operative word with this series: new, new, new. That’s the mission for writer Christopher Cantwell and artist Dennis Menheere, and already they are firing on all cylinders.

Star Trek Is Back With A Sequel Series Picking Up Where Picard Left Off

The latest volume of Star Trek, from IDW Publishing, is a generational saga. Seven of Nine’s Enterprise-G crew includes: Lt. Sidney ‘Crash’ La Forge, Geordi’s daughter; Lt. Jack Crusher, son of Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher; Worf’s son Commander Alexander Rozheko; and Lt. Commander Lily Sato, a descendent of Sato from Enterprise introduced in previous Star Trek Comics.

The design of their ship, the Enterprise-G, has a throwback feel to it. Like a hybrid of the C-model from The Original Series and Next Generation’s Enterprise-D, with some flare of its own to distinguish it from its legendary predecessors.

Here's the full synopsis for the new series:

Their mission is new. Their legacy is not.

From the pen of fan-favorite writer Christopher Cantwell (Star Trek: Defiant, Star Trek: Red Shirts) and the brush of psychedelic standout Dennis Menheere (Etheres, Little Nightmares) comes the launch of an all-new flagship... and this time, we're busting out of the four quadrants.

The Enterprise-G is on a desperate mission beyond the known Galaxy to relocate the dying Avuran people when its crew finds a perfect new home in a region of unknown space called the Epsilon Corridor. Three pristine Class-M worlds — the Trinity — await the refugees. No signs of civilization. No detectable threats. A colonist's dream. But the dream fractures fast.

When Captain Seven of Nine and her divided, fast-tracked crew begin exploring the Trinity, they uncover disturbing contradictions: vanished structures, inexplicable artifacts, time skips, and evidence of a presence Starfleet's century-old probes never detected. Each world houses a different ecosystem, different physics problems, and different secrets — as if they've been curated... or quarantined. But from who? Or what?

The first arc of Star Trek delivers a prestige, mystery-driven, high-stakes psychological thriller of an opening salvo — new worlds, new species, new existential threats — anchored by Seven, Jack, and Crash La Forge fighting to keep the mission together as the Galaxy's oldest ghosts awaken.

Star Trek #1 is a packed issue, deftly deploying its plot set-up and acclimating readers to the series’ main crew. Getting everyone up to speed with their existing relationships. Setting up tension that could pay off on their mission. Especially because it is a long-term assignment.

The big twist in this Trek series is that the Enterprise-G’s mission involves a sci-fi concept the franchise has seldom messed with: time dilation.

The Enterprise-G's Five-Year Mission Is The Most Daunting In Franchise History

As Star Trek #1 explains, for every year of their mission to the extragalactic “Epsilon Corridor,” five years will pass back in the Alpha Quadrant. Back on Earth. So a five-year mission is really a 25-year mission. In the issue, the crew are given the opportunity to put in an immediate transfer request if they don’t want to go. The ones who stay aboard are committed.

With this series, author Christopher Cantwell is injecting new life into the Star Trek franchise, along with some refreshing sci-fi concepts and plotlines. And the first issue looks stunning, thanks to artist Dennis Menheere, who fills every page with luscious, cosmic visuals. It is a promising start to a new Star Trek era, and it shows there are still frontiers left for Trek to explore.

Star Trek #1 is available now from IDW Publishing.

What do you think of the relaunch, Trek fans? Do you have high hopes for the series?

Star Trek is one of pop culture's biggest multimedia franchises, spanning multiple movies, TV shows, books, comics, video games, and various other media. The franchise was created by Gene Roddenberry and started with the 1960s TV series starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Over the decades, several equally popular series have come out since as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Discovery.