806. Domain of the Dragon God!PUBLICATION: Star Trek #10, Marvel Comics, January 1981
CREATORS: Michael Fleisher (writer), Leo Duranona and Klaus Janson (artists)
STARDATE: 7671.6 (follows the last issue)
PLOT: When Barak-7's magnetic field stops the Enterprise in space (yes it can!), Spock and McCoy take a shuttle down to the planet to investigate while Scotty works on the engines. There they find a caveman society sacrificing a young girl to their "dragon god" (water snakes). McCoy decides to interfere and the two of them are split up: Spock a prisoner of the tribe, McCoy brought to the rescued girl's tribe. McCoy breaks the Prime Directive again by teaching his tribe about bows and arrows and it manages to overthrow the first tribe's leader. But they're just as bad with the sacrifices, and only the arrival of Kirk in a modified shuttle saves them from the wrath of the superstitious tribefolk.
CONTINUITY: 5 pages detailing TMP-era uniforms and insignia.
DIVERGENCES: Barak-7 is in the Thoriun-V system, which shows a complete misunderstanding of interstellar nomenclature. Off-model shuttles.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Not the most dramatic crash landing in Star Trek history.
REVIEW: Guest writer with only a 16-page story? Guest penciler? 5 pages of padding? Looks like an editorially-mandated fill-in. Fleisher's script isn't bad, not relying on ridiculous contrivances, but sometimes a story that warns of the dangers of breaking the Prime Directive has the effect of making the characters look like absolute rookies (and then there are never any real consequences). Otherwise serviceable. Duranona's fill-in art looks a little rushed in places, but gives the planet its own look thanks to a lot of empty spaces. Cockrum's regular art is claustrophobic in comparison. What's really disappointing though is that the cover is an outrageous lie. Spock the Barbarian would have been a fun concept for the comics version of Star Trek, but that promise is never kept, and even McCoy can scarcely be said to have gone native in this story.
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