768. Prophet of PeacePUBLICATION: Star Trek #39, Gold Key Comics, August 1976
CREATORS: Unknown (writer), unknown (artist)
STARDATE: Unknown - Follows issue #34.
PLOT: The crew of the Enterprise rescue the floating casket of an ancient Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Bleikoff, and resuscitate him how that what ails him can be cured. He immediately wants an incognito tour of Earth, and the crew suspiciously get angry when Kirk doesn't give it to him. So he folds, but Bleikoff is seen by journalists and soon goes on a peace tour to convince the people of Earth that its planetary defense screen should be dismantled. Suspecting some kind of radio mass hypnosis, Kirk makes a deductive leap: Bleikoff was found by aliens and had his brain replaced by a hypno-transmitter so that they might render Earth defenseless and attack it. And he's right, though the aliens somehow forgot or died. Using a big magnet, Kirk destroys the robot zombie's brain (their words, not mine) and frees Earth from his peacenik subjugation.
CONTINUITY: None.
DIVERGENCES: The crew needs to spend time in a sterilization room like they used to on the NX-01. The Eiffel Tower has a big ball on top, part of the Earth Defense Screen (maybe they removed it by Picard's time?).
PANEL OF THE DAY - Pass the sexy gel.
REVIEW: A visit to Earth is an excuse to speculate about changes to be wrought in the next couple centuries, like the land filled in between Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, or the deserts of Egypt terraformed. And I suppose there's something to be said about a plot without actual villains, where a peace movement is the actual enemy (but see The Way to Eden for more space hippies). However, it's hard to get over the fact that Kirk's deduction comes completely out of left field (he read the script) and his solution is telegraphed earlier on (making me feel like I did too).
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