Prison Break

Prison Break was an 18-page Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip. It was the 23rd weekly story arc in the UK comic strips series, published in six installments in TV21 Weekly in. This was the fifth of six stories drawn by Vicente Alcázar and Carlos Pino. In this story, four murderers escaped from a Federation penal colony.

Publisher's description

 * Teaser, August 7, 1971
 * While the starship Enterprise lay in orbit above the prison planet of Certax, undergoing repairs, four convicts — Jarman,, and Schirach — had smuggled themselves aboard...

Summary
The USS Enterprise's number six warp reactor suddenly blew apart. While putting out fires, crewman was accidentally exposed to lethal levels of radiation. Captain James T. Kirk diverted the starship to the nearest Federation port with hospital and engineering repair facilities, which turned out to be Certax, a penal colony.

Four of the convicts learned about the situation in orbit above them. They killed a guard and four engineering technicians, then slipped aboard the Enterprise as part of Certax's repair crew. They held the bridge crew at gunpoint and locked Montgomery Scott and Nyota Uhura in a storeroom under guard. The colony governor warned the ringleader, Cal Jarman, that he would not hesitate to fire missiles at the Enterprise if he did not surrender.

Jarman retaliated by threatening to drop the irradiated warp reactor onto the colony, which would strike like a nuclear bomb. suggested that they bomb the colony anyway, and left with to arrange it. Leonard McCoy found the two convicts entering an airlock. He'd hoped to knock them out with an anesthesia gas gun, but they were wearing environmental suits. McCoy filled two syringes with a drug and followed them in an EVA suit into the shuttle bay, where the damaged reactor had been stored within a lead container. During his confrontation with the criminals, McCoy punctured their suits, and they fell into space along with the reactor.

The reactor struck the port side of the secondary hull and broke apart, scattering irradiated material and shaking the Enterprise. Jarman lost his balance, and Kirk and Spock subdued him. McCoy gassed the fourth convict, freeing Scott and Uhura, but lethal radiation outside the ship posed a serious danger to the crew. A repair shuttle arrived from Certax with one technician aboard. It was, the dying crewman – he salvaged the debris and then gave a salute, sacrificing his life to save the ship.

Characters

 * Bradley • Bruno • • Christine Chapel • Pavel Chekov •  • Cal Jarman •  • James T. Kirk •  • Leonard McCoy • Schirach • Montgomery Scott • Spock • Strang • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura • unnamed USS Enterprise personnel (2260s)

Starships and vehicles

 * class F shuttlecraft • crane • USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) ( heavy cruiser) • repair shuttle • truck

Locations

 * Certax

Races and cultures

 * Human • Vulcan

States and organizations

 * Starfleet (command division • operations division • sciences division)

Science and technology

 * airlock G • anesthesia • C-6 gas grenade • crowbar • environmental suit • helmet • intercom • jackhammer • missile • nerve gas • nuclear bomb • number six warp reactor • phaser • pistol • radio • rifle • syringe • warp nacelle

Ranks and titles

 * captain • chief • colonel • governor • crewman • doctor • ensign • Federation Starfleet ranks (2260s) • guard • nurse • rank • sawbones • skipper • Starfleet ranks

Other references

 * assignment patch • bridge • disposal unit • dog • fire • fire squad • hostage • hour • lamb • lead • minute • penal colony • prison • radiation • second • sickbay • Starfleet uniform • Starfleet uniform (2265-2270) • storeroom

Background

 * This story was not printed with a title, but it was given one ("Prison Break") for its reprinting in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 2.
 * A portion of this story took place within a warp nacelle of the Enterprise, two years before this area would be seen onscreen in . The damaged warp reactor was treated more like a nuclear reactor, with the irradiated engine being placed into a lead-shielded container that was to be jettisoned into space.
 * Christine Chapel made only her second appearance in the UK comic strips series and her first with dialogue, appearing in sickbay in the July 17 and August 14 segments.
 * Leonard McCoy played his most impactful role to date in the series. He saved the day by subduing three of the four convicts.
 * Pavel Chekov was given command while Montgomery Scott was in the shuttle bay.

Errata

 * The damaged reactor's location was inconsistently located. Kirk stated it was in the port nacelle, as depicted in artwork. However, narration as well as dialogue from Chekov and Spock placed it in the starboard nacelle.
 * The Enterprise was shown with the registry NCC-1701-B on the first segment's cover.
 * At one point Montgomery Scott alerted the crew over the intercom to look out for four lost Certax engineers. Oddly, this took place before the engineers had boarded the ship. Two pages later, James T. Kirk assumed command just as Uhura received a report that the four engineers were lost. Kirk said he would alert the crew, but instead announced that the engineers' shuttle was now docking. The two dialogue balloons had been swapped.
 * Colonel Strang had white hair when he met Kirk and Spock, but blond hair later in the story.
 * Schirach spoke with a thick German accent in the July 17th segment, but had no accent in the August 21 segment.

Related stories

 * – Exiled Thaxian convicts commandeered the Enterprise, locking Kirk and Spock in a storeroom and taking Uhura hostage.

Production history

 * None of the UK weekly installments were printed with titles.
 * Each segment began on the cover and continued onto two interior pages of TV21 Weekly magazine.


 * : Pages 1-3 published in TV21 Weekly #95.
 * : Pages 4-6 published in TV21 Weekly #96.
 * : Pages 7-9 published in TV21 Weekly #97.
 * : Pages 10-12 published in TV21 Weekly #98.
 * : Pages 13-15 published in TV21 Weekly #99.
 * : Pages 16-18 published in TV21 Weekly #100.
 * December 2016 : Reprinted in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 2 (IDW Publishing)
 * 28 September 2017 : Reprinted in the omnibus Graphic Novel Collection #20 (Eaglemoss)
 * December 2016 : Reprinted in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 2 (IDW Publishing)
 * 28 September 2017 : Reprinted in the omnibus Graphic Novel Collection #20 (Eaglemoss)