Warning: spoilers for Star Trek #4!The Star Trek franchise has a lot of advanced technology, and that includes awesomely named weapons like phasers, quantum torpedoes, polaron cannons and more. However, IDW Publishing’s new Star Trek series has introduced its most powerful weapon yet - an ultra-powerful offensive device which, thanks to Worf, now has a name.
In Star Trek #4, written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, and drawn by Ramon Rosanas and Joe Eisma, the device that has been shown to be capable of killing near-omnipotent beings (like the Crystalline Entities) is finally christened. Of all people, it is Worf who puts a name to the superweapon, branding it the Godkiller Array. Created by the mysterious Shapers of Sarkadesh, the weapon is being used to wipe out the franchise's god-like beings, showcasing unprecedented offensive capabilities - the Godkiller Array has killed entire species of planet-consuming beings in a single shot. Given its growing list of cosmic victims - which has even the Q Continuum running for safety - the weapon has more than earned this title, even though the series has long rejected the notion of true "gods."
The Godkiller Array Is an Unprecedented Weapon
Gene Roddenberry thought of himself as a humanist, even joining the American Humanist Association in 1968, and his work on the original series of Star Trek reflected that philosophy. When the crew of the Enterprise encountered something claiming to be a god - whether it was the literal Greek god, Apollo, or the elevated human named Gary Mitchell - the plot revolved around accepting their power while disproving their divinity. The answer tended to be that “gods” were just beings with more evolved senses and capabilities. That was a plot device that held throughout the run of the entirety of the series and into shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation. This held true even for the Bajoran Prophets, who recently sent Benjamin Sisko back into the corporeal world to take on a mysterious killer of advanced beings. Meanwhile, humans were rarely depicted as being religious, and were even shown to become uncomfortable with the notion when faced with it in other alien species. Benjamin Sisko is a notable figure in this, as non-religious Starfleet captain thrust into the literal role of a religious icon.
Star Trek Is Finally Reckoning with Godhood
Despite this tradition, IDW's Star Trek is breaking the mold as Sisko seemingly accepts that some beings in the universe deserve the title of "god." It could be argued that the characters' frequent use of the word “god” is just acting as shorthand for inconceivable powerful and highly-evolved beings, but Sisko himself has made it clear that the nature of divinity is on his mind, and near-omnipotent figures like Q have declared they really do consider a select few groups legitimate gods. Having returned from his time with the Prophets with both new knowledge and powers, Sisko has been branded a "messiah," and Star Trek is making a concerted effort to engage with religious language and themes.
The Federation is a beacon of science and rationality, and it seeks to explain all the mysteries of the cosmos, but this new comic series is beginning to challenge that notion. In IDW’s Star Trek, readers are seemingly being told that there very much are mysteries out there that are beyond the capacity of the human mind to comprehend, and that those things are worth preserving - something which is made all the more insistent by the Godkiller Array's ability to wipe them out forever.
Star Trek #4 is on sale now from IDW Publishing.