Star Trek #14 - Marvel Comics

STAR TREK No. 14, June 1981

Comprising of just twenty-two pages it is highly likely that many readers of “We Are Dying, Egypt, Dying!” were in awe that Martin Pasko managed to cram in so many wonderful, albeit somewhat clichéd, elements into his narrative for Issue Fourteen of “Star Trek” when it originally hit the spinner racks in early 1981. In fact, considering that this comic contains giant laser-wielding robots, an all-powerful artificial intelligence, a deadly “swarm of siderites”, mass blood transfusions, mind-controlling devices, living mummies and a planetary shrink ray which threatens to turn the U.S.S. Enterprise into the size of a harmless child’s toy, it’s arguably hard to imagine what else the Canadian author could concoct.

Rather enjoyably however, all these different oddball elements come together quite miraculously to successfully create a genuinely fun, action-packed adventure which, whilst imbuing the more tongue-in-cheek elements of televised episodes such as “Spock’s Brain” and “A Piece Of The Action”, also bounds along at a rip-roaring pace. Foremost of these various plots is arguably the long-dead alien’s highly advanced computer deciding to implant Admiral Kirk’s mind with the memories of a “descendant of Menteptah!” This malfunctioning machine soon turn’s Starfleet’s youngest ever captain into a truly merciless tyrant, and it is very easy to imagine actor William Shatner playing such an ‘over-the-top’ role with great gusto on the small screen; “I am you captain no longer! I am the Holy Pharaoh -- and I decree you shall perish!”

Similarly as bizarre though, is the notion that one of Zeta Reticuli II’s numerous pyramids contains an extraordinary weapon that is capable of defying “ev’ry physical law” Montgomery Scott knows so as to slowly reduce the Constitution-class Starship’s actual size. This astonishing predicament is debatably alarming enough in its own right, but Pasko manages to ramp up the tension even more by having artists Luke McDonnell and Gene Day create some marvellous panels in which an understandably horrified Bridge Crew are shown not to be getting any smaller, and therefore face being crushed to death inside their own space vessel by the deadly “condensation effect.”

Rounding off this book’s positive plot-threads has to be the prolific playwright’s spotlight upon the likes of Hikaru Sulu, Pavel Chekov, Nyota Uhura, Leonard McCoy and Commander Spock. For once all of these characters get some considerable planet-side action to really get their teeth into, especially Bones and his green-blooded superior officer, who both ‘enjoy’ their own solo investigations into Kirk’s strangely flummoxing behaviour.

Writer: Martin Pasko, Artists: Luke McDonnell & Gene Day, and Colorist: Carl Gafford