741. Dark TravelerPUBLICATION: Star Trek #13, Gold Key Comics, February 1972
CREATORS: Len Wein (writer), Alberto Giolitti (artist)
STARDATE: 14:83.4 - Follows the last issue (Season 3).
PLOT: A mysterious traveler pops up on the Enterprise out of nowhere, takes control of the ship and speeds it to his homeworld. The twist is that he's quite benign. His society is a utopia he left out of boredom (there was apparently a whole lot of mini-golf going on), but returning now, he invites the crew for a visit. While he was away, however, his runty brother engineered a robot rebellion that laid waste to the culture. The crew pledges its help to the traveler's cause, which involves their fighting robots, landing in a dungeon, escaping and having a fight with the brother's giant robot suit. They win, obviously.
CONTINUITY: The dark traveler learned teleportation from the Organians (Errand of Mercy).
DIVERGENCES: Since the series now seems to picture later adventures, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the uniforms are completely wrong.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Church and state, Captain Kirk!
REVIEW: Though Enterprise hijacks are one of the common TOS plots, this story surprises by not dwelling on that, instead opting for a runaround more typical of the comics to date. I haven't mentioned it yet, but Spock is turning out to rather often being the person on whom success hinges, either through technobabble, or here as a space MacGyver. I'm not complaining if it's not the latter. The giant robot design is funky or silly, according to your tastes, but the art is generally dynamic. As with all Gold Key comics to date, I can only rate it at best as "not too bad".
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