Hugh J. O'Donnell

Star Trek Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way

Written by Ryan North

Drawn by Chris Fenoglio

Colored by Charlie Kerchoff

Lettered by Jeff Eckleberry

Published by IDW

The Skinny: A Choosable Path Adventure that feels like a great stand-alone episode of Star Trek.

Star Trek Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way is a ‘choosable path adventure’ set somewhere in the continuity of Star Trek: Lower Decks, by the creative team that has been killing it recently with a recent ongoing series, delightful one-shots, and surprising minis. While I have read a little of their previous work, I haven’t seen more than the first couple of episodes of the show. But I greatly enjoyed this graphic novel as a bit of a taste of what the show is like, written by a writer squarely in his wheelhouse and drawn by an artist who knows exactly what they are doing.
North is no stranger to ‘Choosable Path’ stories, having writing the wonderful and surprising To Be or Not To Be and Romeo and/or Juliet, a pair of prose Shakespeare choosable path adventures that are somewhat a bit more complex than this entry, but share a similar tone and excitement for the genre. The graphic novel format has its own advantages in conveying the compact information more quickly, and drawing the eye in ways that a prose page cannot. North and Fegoglio also captures the magic of Star Trek’s more daring and experimental episodes, directly referencing some of the highlights of the franchise as well including some wilder easter eggs. Depending on the choices the reader makes, series main character Mariner and the crew of the Cerritos could fight off an invasion by Borg, a hostile attack from Khan himself, or a visit from a hard-partying space god. But as each story branch reaches its conclusion, readers will notice a pattern emerging.  This is the point where the book goes from referential game to something much more interesting and special.
North has a gift for understanding and manipulating the structure of media he’s working in. Warp Your Own Way isn’t simply a riff on the “Choose Your Own Adventure” novel format with a Star Trek: Lower Decks license. North and Fenoglio understand the assignment on a deeper level, and use the structure of a graphic novel and choosable path format to tell a Star Trek story in a way that only they could pull off.
My favorite episodes of Star Trek are the ones where they break away from the usual structures and plots and do something strange and different; like the Star Trek: TNG episode “Cause and Effect,” which was essentially a repeat of the same period of time due to the ship being caught in a time loop. This book ultimately has some of that energy.
Fenoglio’s art is pleasing and easy to follow, which works well in a few sequences that break not only the story structure but the page itself in a fun way. Kerchoff’s colors are bright and eye-catching and just what you expect for a book like this. It matches what I’ve seen of the show, but I’m not an expert there.
If there is a flaw it is that this book feels somewhat detached from the source material of Lower Decks itself. There are some sequences that establish the characters, but there is a broadness to the story that feels like it could be pulled from any Star Trek series, swapping the crew of the Cerritos for the Enterprise or Voyager and still come through relatively unchanged. Having seen very little of Lower Decks, I can’t really be sure here, and this wasn’t a detriment to me as a new reader coming in. New readers won’t have to catch up to enjoy the story.
Star Trek Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way is available now in print from Your Local Comics Shop or digitally wherever you buy books or comics.