Star Trek Comics Weekly #6

An ongoing discussion of how Star Trek comics provide prequels, sequels, and tie-ins to the episodes and films…

6: Gold Key, 1977-1978

Star Trek comic books are replete with prequels, sequels, and tie-ins to the episodes and films comprising the official canon. This week, we’ll revisit issues #42–53, which upped the ante by a substantial factor compared to prior issues, with seven of the 12 stories containing connections to televised tales—including a direct sequel to a popular episode.

Star Trek #42 and 43, penned by Arnold Drake, contained a few peripheral connections. The first story de-aged the Enterprise crew yet again (this had already happened in issue #8), making issue #42 reminiscent of both The Animated Series‘ “The Counter-Clock Incident” and The Next Generation‘s “Rascals.” Issue #43 brought back Barbara McCoy, the good doctor’s incorrectly named daughter from issue #40, who’d been mentioned (by her actual name, Joanna) in the animated “The Survivor.” Issue #52, meanwhile, name-checked the Organian Peace Treaty, established in “Errand of Mercy.”

During this period, the Gold Key series fell more into synch with onscreen Star Trek, thanks to future production staffer Doug Drexler, who co-wrote two issues. Drexler’s knowledge of Trek trivia dwarfed that of other Gold Key writers (which is no surprise, given his extensive involvement with the franchise for decades to come), and his arrival heralded a string of issues that rang truer to Trek‘s onscreen style.

Star Trek #47, co-written by Drexler and George Kashdan, sees the Enterprise visiting the New Paris colony, which had been stricken by a plague in “The Galileo Seven.” The dialogue references the Organians and the Zetarians (from “The Lights of Zetar”), and the starship encounters plant pods heading for Beta Niobe III. Fans will recall that Beta Niobe went supernova in “All Our Yesterdays,” destroying the planet Sarpeidon, and thus created a portal, in “The Counter-Clock Incident,” for ships to enter an antimatter universe in which time ran backwards. (In the comic, Spock claims Beta Niobe offers “the most technologically advanced industrial complex in this quadrant of the galaxy.” Not bad for a solar system that has been obliterated for a supernova.)

Issue #48, by Drake and Drexler, incorporates a plethora of Original Series elements. The characters mention the American Continent Institute (from “The Cage” and “The Menagerie”), the United Earth Space Probe Agency (“Charlie X” and “Tomorrow Is Yesterday”), sehlats (“Journey to Babel” and “Yesteryear”), Beta Aurigae (“Turnabout Intruder”), and Kirk’s stint aboard the USS Farragut (“Obsession”). Doctor M’Benga, from “A Private Little War” and “That Which Survives,” tends to an injured Spock, and a professor is said to have rocked the scientific community by investigating silicon life on Janus IV. “The Devil in the Dark” introduced the silicon-based Horta from Janus VI, so either such creatures also inhabited the fourth planet or this was a typo (which is not unlikely—this is Gold Key, after all).

Kashdan’s story for issue #49 offers a sequel to “Metamorphosis.” The Enterprise returns to Gamma Canaris N, home to Zefram Cochrane and the Companion, and enters a universe inhabited by the latter’s species, who want their cloud-like comrade to return home. Most details recounted from “Metamorphosis” are accurate, including the stardate, though Nancy Hedford’s surname is changed to Hedron, while her ailment, Sakuro’s Disease, becomes Sukarno’s. Amusingly, although Cochrane looks nothing like actor Glenn Corbett, he bears a passing resemblance to James Cromwell, who would portray him in Star Trek: First Contact and on Star Trek: Enterprise.

The premise of issue #53 seems cribbed from “Who Mourns for Adonais?”, as Kirk’s officers learn that the Greek pantheon of gods were powerful aliens who’d visited Earth millennia ago seeking worship, before departing this plane of existence upon realizing mankind no longer needed them. In each tale, though, the crew are shocked to discover that Greek mythology was truth-based, making it difficult to reconcile both accounts.

As Gold Key’s Star Trek run neared its final issues in the late 1970s, the writers delved more deeply into the TV show’s history than in earlier outings, perhaps due to their having watched the show in syndicated repeats. The quality improved by leaps and bounds with the passage of time, and next week’s discussion, covering the remainder of the series, will revisit what is arguably the publisher’s best episode sequel.

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Looking for more information about Star Trek comics? Check out these resources:

• The Complete Star Trek Comics Index, by yours truly
• The Star Trek Comics Checklist, by Mark Martinez
• The Wixiban Star Trek Collectables Portal, by Colin Merry
• New Life and New Civilizations: Exploring Star Trek Comics, by Joseph F. Berenato
• Star Trek: A Comics History, by Alan J. Porter

Rich Handley has written books about Planet of the Apes, Back to the Future, and Watchmen, as well as licensed Star Wars and Planet of the Apes fiction, and he edited 70 volumes of Eaglemoss’s Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection. Rich co-edited Titan’s Scribe Award-nominated Planet of the Apes: Tales from the Forbidden Zone; nine Sequart anthologies discussing Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Hellblazer, Stargate, and classic monsters; and four Crazy 8 Press anthologies about Batman and (now) the Joker. He has contributed essays to DC’s Hellblazer: 30^th Anniversary Celebration; IDW’s Star Trek and Star Wars comic-strip reprint books; BOOM! Studios’ Planet of the Apes Archive hardcovers; Sequart anthologies about Star Trek and Blade Runner; ATB Publishing’s Outside In line exploring Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, The X-Files, Twin Peaks, and Babylon 5; and a Becky Books anthology covering Dark Shadows.