Warning! Warning! Massive spoilers for Star Trek: Red Shirts #5 ahead!
Star Trek just pulled off the shock of the year. It sounds like hyperbole, but the final issue of Red Shirts might have delivered the greatest twist ending in Trek history. Throughout its run, Red Shirts managed to be innovative even when it was predictable, but it’s fair to say that absolutely nobody saw the ending coming.
Star Trek: Red Shirts #5 is written by Christopher Cantwell, with art by Megan Levens. To call it “legitimately stunning” is an understatement.
Many readers expected narrator Ensign Miller would be the last Red Shirt standing, but it was impossible to predict that he would turn out to be a traitor to Starfleet and stone-cold killer.
He Could Have Been Star Trek’s Next Great Hero; Instead Ensign Miller Is Starfleet’s Biggest Traitor
Star Trek: Red Shirts #5, Written By Christopher Cantwell; Art By Megan Levens; Available Now From IDW Publishing.
As Red Shirts #5 begins, the eponymous crew of Starfleet security officers has been reduced to just two, Ensign Miller and Ensign Raad. In a last desperate bid to save their lives, Raad challenges one of their Romulan captors to single combat. Just as she appears to gain the upperhand, Miller fatally shoots her in the back with a Romulan phaser pistol.
It’s a jawdropping “wait…what?” reveal. The entire reason Starfleet sent Miller and the rest of the away team on this deadly mission was to uncover a Romulan spy…who was Miller all along. The mission was, in fact, the perfect pretext for Miller to deliver highly classified Starfleet intel to his Romulan handlers, at the cost of many lives.
It is a grim note for Red Shirts to go out on, but that perfectly fits the tone of the book. It was clear from the beginning that Red Shirts was about the human cost of Starfleet’s mission, yet no one expected it to be Ensign Miller himself who would make Starfleet pay for it.
Ensign Miller’s Betrayal Highlights The Dark Consequences Of Starfleet’s Careless Attitude Toward Red Shirts
A Stunning Final Note For Red Shirts
Red Shirts #1 started with Ensign Miller being mauled by a Mugato during an away mission. The intervening issues have returned to this formative moment, but it is Red Shirts #5 that reveals the whole story: Miller was rescued by Romulans, not by Starfleet, and subsequently turned into a deep-cover asset.
It becomes clear, as the final issue ends, that Miller is motivated by a desire for revenge against Starfleet, but beneath that is a rawer, primal motivation for his actions: survival. Having been abandoned to die by Starfleet, he was turned into a person who would do absolutely anything to stay alive.
Red Shirts #5 saves one more kicker for its final frame, as Miller is “rescued” by Captain Kirk and the USS Enterprise. He identifies Raad as the Romulan spy, getting away with her murder, and officially taking his place as one of the biggest traitors in Star Trek lore, in a twist ending that rocked readers of the groundbreaking series.
Star Trek: Red Shirts #5 is available now from IDW Publishing.
- Created by
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Gene Roddenberry
- First Film
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Star Trek: The Motion Picture
- First TV Show
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Star Trek: The Original Series
- First Episode Air Date
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September 8, 1966
- Cast
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William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Wil Wheaton, Avery Brooks, Nana Visitor, Rene Auberjonois, Alexander Siddig, Cirroc Lofton, Armin Shimerman, Colm Meaney, Terry Farrell, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Jeri Ryan, Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Garrett Wang, Jolene Blalock, Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, Scott Bakula, Linda Park, John Billingsley, Anthony Montgomery, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Chris Hemsworth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anton Yelchin, Idris Elba, Sonequa Martin-Green, Mary Wiseman, Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Wilson Cruz, Oyin Oladejo, Emily Coutts, Jess Bush, Christina Chong, Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, Michelle Yeoh
- TV Show(s)
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Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
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.