801. The Haunting of the Enterprise!PUBLICATION: Star Trek #5, Marvel Comics, August 1980
CREATORS: Mike W. Barr (writer), Dave Cockrum and Klaus Janson (artists)
STARDATE: 7417.4 (follows the last issue)
PLOT: Turns out the Klingons weren't trapped in that haunted house floating in space, they'd created it! It's an ambush and they capture Spock to interrogate him, beaming him back to their ship, while Kirk and crew save the young woman and bring her to theirs. The Klingons reveal everything to Spock - they captured a horror film archivist and placed him in a machine that could generate lethal illusions from his mind. The girl is a projection of his dead wife, and the alien prisoner aboard the Enterprise, loyal to the Klingons, has a transmitter implanted in his head. Spock melds with the archivist and sends a message to the ship, now under siege from monsters, to destroy the girl. McCoy does so, and the shock makes the archivist pit his monsters against the Klingons instead. He and Spock escape with the technology.
CONTINUITY: TMP-era Klingons.
DIVERGENCES: None, though the Klingons never made use of this technology again (nor Star Fleet, as far as we know).
PANEL OF THE DAY - Weapons of the Klingon Empire Part I - The chair'leth!
REVIEW: Mike Barr takes over from Marv Wolfman, which only inspires dread in those of us who remember Batman and the Outsiders. It's odd that the ending of #4 is immediately revealed to be a lie as #5 opens... Barr didn't like Wolfman's outline? In any case, the art remains the real star here, while Barr's scripting seems far less interesting than Wolfman's. There's a lot of "tell-don't-show" for one thing, the alien prisoner's role is somewhat wasted... and a horror film archivist?! Really?!? Imagine the Klingon plan with a fan of Meg Ryan's romantic comedies instead.
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