785. A World Against ItselfPUBLICATION: Star Trek #55, Gold Key Comics, September 1978
CREATORS: Arnold Drake (writer), Alden McWilliams (artist)
STARDATE: 72:35:3 - Follows issue #50.
PLOT: The crew is asked to settle a dispute between two warring peoples on the same planet, a world where a band of radiation used to keep them separated and evolving separately. On one side, telekinetic savages; on the other, science-worshiping midgets. Spock and Scotty beam down, are captured by the midgets and forced to undergo brain-enlarging techniques before they are allowed to help. Something goes wrong, and while Scotty is made smarter, Spock is turned into a savage. Both want to kill the other and so the become generals to the two armies. Kirk resolves the conflict by making them fight each other hand to hand until the effects wear off, and then both populations decide peace is a better answer.
CONTINUITY: None.
DIVERGENCES: The comic series keeps casting Scotty in the role of a man who puts no trust in science, which is surely a mischaracterization of the chief engineer.
PANEL OF THE DAY - A good Starfleet goosing.
REVIEW: Behind a lame cover with a stupid typo sits a lame story. Two of our heroes are essentially other people through most of it, and the quick resolution to the dilemma is highly dubious. No, not dubious... ludicrous. Shame, because the premise behind the planet was an interesting one, and the action is generally dynamic.
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