Can't See the Forest for the Trees

2264

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TIME LINE NOTE:

STAR TREK (original series) SEASON TWO starts here.
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The Brain Shockers
Stardate: 1126.1
Comic: Star Trek #11
Publisher: Gold Key
Date: August, 1971

Synopsis:

Writer: Len Wein / Artist: Alberto Giolitti

In orbit around the planet Pollux II while investigating the disappearance of several ships in the area, the Enterprise is subjected to attacks from the surface. The attacks rock the ship, breaking a collection of sacred Vulcan artifacts that contained the bottled emotions of Vulcan’s founders. Those emotions are set loose among the Enterprise crew. On the surface, Spock discovers a bored immortal called Malok who has been luring passing starship crews to his jungle maze so that he could experience their terror through his telepathic powers. Malok tries to ensnare the Enterprise crew but is overwhelmed by the hidden Vulcan emotions. With their composure restored, the crew return to the Enterprise and leave Malok to wrestle with these newfound emotions.

The Flight of the Buccaneer
Stardate: 3243.0
Comic: Star Trek #12
Publisher: Gold Key
Date: November, 1971

Synopsis:

Writer: Len Wein / Artist: : Alberto Giolitti

Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Kirk go undercover as interstellar pirates to uncover a stash of stolen dilithium crystals. They make contact with the notorious pirate Black Jack Nova, who agrees to team up with Kirk to find the stash. Nova’s first officer discovers that Spock and Scotty are Federation spies, but before he can tell his captain, Kirk denounces them. Nova pushes the two out of an airlock and then leaves in search of the crystals. The floating Spock and Scotty are rescued by the Enterprise, under the command of Sulu, which has been waiting nearby using a captured Romulan cloaking device. The Enterprise warps to the planet where the crystals are hidden, arriving before Kirk and Nova in Nova’s ship Windjammer. Here they find Ben Cannon, the original captain of the Windjammer, who helps them against Nova. Kirk and Nova face off in an electron-cutlass duel which ends when Kirk throws his cutlass at the escaping Nova, hitting an engine generator tube on his shuttle, which explodes. With Nova destroyed, Cannon gives the Enterprise crew a stash of dilithium crystals that he had dug up earlier.

Dark Traveler
Stardate: 1523.4
Comic: Star Trek #13
Publisher: Gold Key
Date: February, 1972

Synopsis:

Writer: Len Wein / Artist: Alberto Giolitti

A mysterious, powerful being known as The Traveler hitches a ride on the Enterprise and forces the ship to carry him back to the utopian world he once called home. On arrival, they find a devastated world with cities in ruins and the people pursued by robots under the control of The Traveler’s brother, Niklon. The Enterprise crew and The Traveler are taken prisoner but soon escape after Spock deactivates their robot guard. Spock dresses himself in the robot shell and leads his "prisoners" back to Niklon’s throne room, where they lead a rebellion. The Traveler destroys his brother’s central controls, deactivating all the robots across the planet.

Museum at the End of Time
Stardate: 2553.2
Comic: Star Trek #15
Publisher: Gold Key
Date: August, 1972

Synopsis:

Writer: Len Wein / Artist: Alberto Giolitti

The Enterprise and a Klingon Battle Cruiser become trapped in Limbo, an eternal space outside of normal time. Here they discover that dozens of other ships have been trapped over hundreds of years and have been unable to escape. Kirk and the Klingon commander put their differences aside and work together to break free. Both crews are surprised that once an escape route has been discovered, Limbo’s inhabitants have no interest in leaving. The Federation and Klingon crews decide that going into battle so shortly after cooperating with each other would be foolish and depart without engaging each other.
(Note: This story was used, uncredited, as the basis for the ST:TAS episode "The Time Trap," broadcast in November 1973.)

Day of the Inquisitors
Stardate: 4525.2
Comic: Star Trek #16
Publisher: Gold Key
Date: November, 1972

Synopsis:

Writer: Len Wein / Artist: : Alberto Giolitti & Angelo Todaro

On their way back from a mission, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Chekov are stranded on a planet after the shuttle Galileo crash-lands. When looking for help, the shuttle crew discovers a civilization reminiscent of Dark Ages Earth, where the local population is held in thrall by a group known as The Inquisitors. Kirk and McCoy set out to find the local rebel leaders, while Spock and Chekov sneak into the Inquisitors’ castle to rescue radio equipment stolen from the crashed shuttle. Spock and Chekov are captured, and Spock is tortured until Kirk and McCoy lead the rebels in storming the castle. Once freed, Spock uses the captured radio equipment to call the Enterprise, which has been searching for them.

The Mummies of Heitius VII
Stardate: 3026.5
Comic: Star Trek #21
Publisher: Gold Key
Date: November, 1973

Synopsis:

Writer: Unknown / Artist: Alberto Giolitti

Aiding a Starfleet interstellar archaeology team, the Enterprise beams a mummy from the planet Heitius VII aboard. Unseen by the crew, the mummy awakens and makes some adjustments to the ship’s computers. Meanwhile, on the surface, the landing party of Spock, McCoy, and security team, along with the archaeologists, discovers three more mummies that attack them. When Spock calls the Enterprise for help, he is astonished to find that the ship has left. The Enterprise controls have been taken over by the mummy, who is directing the ship directly across Romulan space. The mummies are revealed as cyborgs who were programmed to take their population into space to escape a dying planet, but the population rebelled and imprisoned them, preferring to die "as men" rather than be transformed into cyborgs themselves for the rigors of spaceflight. On the planet the landing party keeps firing phasers at the cyborgs until the cyborgs drain their power cells. Onboard the ship, the control mummy is disabled when Scotty sets up a power feedback loop, just before the Enterprise crosses into Romulan space.

NEXT POST: 2264- Part 2

Previous Entries
– 1953
– 2056
– 2063
– 2250
– 2251 – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
– 2253-2259
– 2262 – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
– 2263 – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.

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NOTES:
(1) This timeline covers Star Trek comics published in the USA and UK between 1967 to 2007 (i.e. from Gold Key to TokyoPop) – it does not include any stories from current Star Trek comics publisher IDW.
(2) Check out the first post in this series for the Time Line Introduction explaining the background, definitions and considerations for this Star Trek Comics Time Line project.
(3) For more information on the history of Star Trek in comics check out my book STAR TREK: A Comics History. now available in stores.