Star Trek 792: Operation Con Game

792. Operation Con Game

PUBLICATION: Star Trek #61, Gold Key Comics, March 1979

CREATORS: George Kashdan (writer), Alden McWilliams (artist)

STARDATE: 3504.7 - After Mudd's Passion (TAS).

PLOT: The Klingons strike a deal for dilithium before the Enterprise can, but they've inadvertently made that deal with Harry Mudd! Obviously, the dilithium is fake, but Mudd didn't know it was so explosive. Fearing war with the Klingons if their ship blows up by human hand, Kirk and Spock beam onto the Klingon warship and try to get the dilithium back. Meanwhile, Mudd's thralls get the better of McCoy and he warns the Klingons of the Starfleet home invasion before leaving the planet with his gold and a captured McCoy. Kirk and Spock barely make it to safety by exploding a dilithium rod, pursue and capture Mudd, and send the gold back to the Klingons. Convinced, the Klingons decide to let the Enterprise go... THIS time.

CONTINUITY: It's Harry Mudd meets the Klingons!

DIVERGENCES: A Klingon warship called Ectatus? Sounds like a Romulan hand-me-down to me.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Space Mace!!!
REVIEW: Well grounded in Star Trek lore, this story has one nasty plot hole that could easily have been fixed (Mudd has no way of knowing Kirk's plan to reveal it to the Klingons), but otherwise? A good, simple finale to the series. Mudd's appearance is a nice surprise (not blatently shown on the cover) and he's in no way as annoying as he was on the show. Plenty of head-cracking action, which is what McWilliams is good at. McCoy's characterization is less enjoyable, unless he's always been a dilithium pirate at heart.

There was going to be another issue, written by John Warner and drawn by cover artist Frank Bolle, but the series was canceled before pencil could be committed to paper. The script survives, however, and would have featured a planet called Orgone (that's sexual energy, right?), crew members called Cockrum and Byrne, and a deadly fireball in space. Ah well. Onward to the Power/Peter Pan Records accompanying comic books (ooh, didn't think I'd catch those ones, did you?).