IDW/ParamountDespite all the prequels and midquels set near the events of The Original Series or the era of The Next Generation, the Star Trek timeline is surprisingly vast. Starting with Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, the future history of Trek extends to the 32nd century and beyond. But some of the in-between events, specifically the century just before Discovery Season 3, remain fuzzy. That is, until now. Released on September 24, 2025, a new IDW comic book series, Star Trek: The Last Starship, tackles three thorny canon problems all at once. The new series fully depicts exactly what happens to Starfleet right after “the Burn” from Discovery Season 3, but also brings back the alternate Jurati Borg Queen, as well as resurrecting the most famous Trek hero ever, from his untimely passing. Here’s how The Last Starship is quietly weaving a bold new tale by taking controversial canon moments and providing those events with a smart, new spin. Spoilers ahead.The beginning of the Burn, revealed Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) grapples with the post-Burn galaxy. | Paramount+/CBSAt the start of Discovery Season 3, the time-traveling crew from the 23rd century learned that in the future, in 3188 to be exact, the Federation had essentially collapsed following a cataclysm that occurred a century before. The mysterious cataclysm was “the Burn,” an event in which various warp cores of starships all exploded at the same time. But that event was technically an unseen prologue for DISCO’s future, until now. The Last Starship opens in 3069, with the starship Sagan trying to broker a peace deal with the Gorn. It seems like everything is going to work out until the dilithium in everyone’s warp core destabilizes, and the galaxy goes to hell. While Discovery was interested in solving the mystery of why this happened, 120 years later, The Last Starship is focused on what happens right afterward. And, in this way, it succeeds in making the Burn somewhat scarier than Discovery did. You know the Federation is going to all but collapse, and you know that at some point, even Earth is going to withdraw from the alliance. But The Last Starship connects the dots, without feeling like it's connecting the dots. This galaxy-wide cataclysm, in this context, seems brand new.Picard Season 2’s Borg twist gets a big payoffThe other Borg Queen, Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill), in the Picard Season 2 finale. | Paramount+One of the twistiest aspects of Star Trek: Picard was the fact that, over the course of Seasons 2 and Season 3, there were three separate and distinct Borg Queens. While the original Borg Queen, Alice Krige, returned to provide the voice of the character in Picard Season 3 (with body doubling from Jane Edwina Seymour), the late Annie Wersching played an alternate universe Borg Queen in Picard Season 2. And, because of time travel shenanigans, that Borg Queen eventually took over the body of Federation cybernetist Agnes Jurati, played by Alison Pill. Meaning, at the end of Picard Season 2, Jurati emerged in the early 25th century as a new, benevolent Borg Queen, leading an alternate version of the Collective. But what happened to that version of the Borg? The Last Starship answers that question by bringing back the Jurati Borg Queen in style. When the Federation is unable to use warp drive to get around the galaxy, Captain Sato suggests switching to transwarp tech, which the Borg have utilized for ages. And so, Jurati’s Borg makes a deal with the Federation in 3069, centuries after she promised to help out at the end of Picard Season 2.Captain Kirk is backThe demise of Captain Kirk (William Shatner) in Star Trek Generations. | Paramount PicturesOn top of all of this, the Jurati Borg Queen also decides that Starfleet has a leg up in a totally different way. And this leads to a big canon shift that connects to both 1994’s Star Trek Generations and 2023’s Picard Season 3. In short, Jurati takes the remains of Captain James T. Kirk and brings him back to life in 3069. (Funnily enough, William Shatner’s 1996 Star Trek novel, The Return, also saw Kirk get brought back to life thanks to Borg tech.)How did Jurati find Kirk’s body? Well, although Picard buried Kirk on Veridian III at the end of the film Generations, it was revealed in the Picard episode “The Bounty” that Kirk’s remains had been transported to a secret Section 31 Daystrom Station. And apparently, Kirk’s body has remained there for several centuries, because in Jurati’s words: “We don’t need some Starfleet stuffed shirt, who thinks he’s living at the end of history...we need you.”This Kirk seems to be a younger version of the iconic Starfleet hero, maybe even a Kirk from before the five-year mission. Clearly, this version of Kirk is a new character by default, but in resurrecting him, The Last Starship has boldly put the 31st century on a new course, and Trek canon might never be the same.Star Trek: The Last Starship #2, the continuation of the series, will be published by IDW comics on November 19, 2025.Star Trek: The Last Starship #1Amazon -