By Order of the Empire

By Order of the Empire was an 18-page Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip. It was the 26th weekly story arc in the UK comic strips series, published in nine installments in Valiant and TV21 in. In this story, Klingons used mass hypnosis to control the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701).

Publisher's description
The starship Enterprise, under the command of Captain Kirk, had been ordered to the planet Lothor. Kirk's mission was to persuade the Lothorians to make a defense alliance with the space Federation against the hostile Klingon Empire ...
 * Teaser, October 30, 1971

Summary
A spy at Starfleet Command informed the Klingon Empire of Kirk's assignment. Seeing an opportunity mortally wound Starfleet, the Klingons immediately dispatched a battle cruiser to Lothor. Klingon Professor Karkax used a new invention to hypnotize the entire Lothorian government. When the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) arrived, the Lothorians could act normally but could not disobey Klingon orders. The Lothorian president gave Kirk, Spock and Montgomery Scott a tour of their capital city and invited Kirk's crew to a banquet. Appreciating the hospitality, and needing to cement an alliance, Kirk brought down nearly the entire ship's complement.

At the banquet, the crew were subjected to Karkax's machine, then were ordered to crash the Enterprise into Starfleet Headquarters on Earth. They returned to the ship to carry out their orders. However, Spock's Vulcan physiology overcame the hypnosis, and he secretly met with Pavel Chekov's skeleton crew that had missed the banquet. Kirk discovered their plotting and flooded their room with anesthesia gas. Spock clogged the vent to allow time for the crewmen to escape through a maintenance duct, yet they were still captured.

Spock made his way to the transporter room and beamed down. He located the Klingon commander and Karkax, but not quickly enough; Kirk had already warned them. Karkax ordered Kirk to shoot Spock. Spock telepathically reached out to Kirk — and broke his hypnotic spell. Spock knocked out the Klingon commander with a karate chop. Karkax fled with the mechano-hypnotiser. Eventually he lifted off in a type of aircraft, and in desperation Kirk rammed it with a hovercar. The explosion killed Karkax and destroyed the device, breaking the hypnotic hold over the Enterprise personnel before they could crash into Earth.

Characters

 * Pavel Chekov • Jathtar • Karkax • James T. Kirk • Spock • Hikaru Sulu • Montgomery Scott • Nyota Uhura • Voysey • unnamed USS Enterprise personnel (2260s) • unnamed Klingons (Klingon commander) • unnamed Lothorians • unnamed Starfleet personnel

• Goliath

Starships and vehicles

 * aircraft • USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) ( heavy cruiser) • Galileo (class F shuttlecraft) • five other class F shuttlecraft • hovercar • unnamed Klingon  battle cruiser • Klingon raider • Survey Ship 365B

Klingon shuttlecraft

Locations

 * Sol system (Earth) • Lothor (Monades Complex)

Alpha Centauri • Canis Major constellation • Centaurus constellation • Columba • Lepus constellation • Monoceros constellation • Orion • Sirius

Races and cultures

 * Human •Klingon • Lothorian • Vulcan

States and organizations

 * Klingon Empire • Federation Command • United Federation of Planets

Science and technology

 * airlock • communications • computer • force field • long distance transporter • maintenance duct • mechano-hypnotiser • missile • phaser • rifle • self destruct device • transporter • type-1 phaser • type 2 phaser • ventilation system

Ranks and titles

 * admiral • ambassador • captain • commander • ensign • Federation Starfleet ranks (2260s) • clerk • non-commissioned officer • officer • personnel • weapons specialist • president • professor • sentry| • skipper • spy • Starfleet ranks

Other references

 * alliance • anesthesia gas • assignment patch • atmosphere • battle stations • beam • bluff • brain • bridge • capital city • constellation • dress uniform • duty watch • gas • government • Government House • hangar deck • helmet • hour • hypnosis • inspection channel • karate • kitchens • menek • meteorite • minute • parachute • parking orbit • planet • revolution • space • star • Starfleet uniform • Starfleet uniform (2265-2270) • stun • torok • transporter room • treaty • uniform • Vulcan neck pinch • war • year

Chronology

 * Klingons hypnotizing the Enterprise crew into attacking Starfleet rather than attacking directly suggests a placement after the establishment of the Organian Peace Treaty in 2267. Further, Pavel Chekov's assignment as ranking officer of the skeleton crew suggests a placement after his promotion to bridge duty in May 2267.
 * Spock's ability to break Kirk's hypnosis telepathically from a distance may suggest that they'd previously shared a mind meld. If so, that suggests a placement after in 2268.

Production history

 * This story was serialized in two-page sections over nine consecutive weeks in Valiant and TV21 magazine. Star Trek remained the only color feature in the publication and was printed on the center spread. Each issue was 36 pages, except for #8, which was 40 pages.


 * : Pages 1-2 published in Valiant and TV21 #3.
 * : Pages 3-4 published in Valiant and TV21 #4.
 * : Pages 5-6 published in Valiant and TV21 #5.
 * : Pages 7-8 published in Valiant and TV21 #6.
 * : Pages 9-10 published in Valiant and TV21 #7.
 * : Pages 11-12 published in Valiant and TV21 #8.
 * : Pages 13-14 published in Valiant and TV21 #9.
 * : Pages 15-16 published in Valiant and TV21 #10.
 * : Pages 17-18 published in Valiant and TV21 #11.
 * December 2016 : Reprinted in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 2 (IDW Publishing)
 * 1 February 2018 : Reprinted in the omnibus Graphic Novel Collection #29 (Eaglemoss)
 * 1 February 2018 : Reprinted in the omnibus Graphic Novel Collection #29 (Eaglemoss)

Background

 * This story was not printed with a title, but it was given one ("By Order of the Empire") for its reprinting in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 2.
 * Admiral Voysey made his first of four appearances in this story. He also appeared in "The Collector" (arc #29), in "The Perithees Alliance" (arc #32) with his hair colored brown, and in "To Rule the Universe" (arc #37). His name and position as highest-ranking Starfleet officer were stated in his final appearance.
 * The author did not distinguish between Starfleet and the Federation, instead referring to Starfleet as Federation Command. Voysey's office was located in the Federation's capital city, later established as Paris, France. However, Starfleet Headquarters was later established to be in San Francisco. As those distinctions hadn't been made when the story was written in 1971, it's become unclear whether the Klingons ordered the Enterprise to crash into Paris or San Francisco.
 * Hypnotized Kirk gave Nyota Uhura command while he dealt with Spock's resistance party.
 * Vulcans were shown able to block hypnotic compulsions.
 * Spock was able to break the hypnotic spell placed on Kirk via telepathy. They were described as being as close as brothers.
 * The Lepus constellation visible in the star chart in Admiral Voysey's office didn't look like the real-world constellation, which resembled the side view of a hare when seen from Earth. But star configurations look different when viewed from other vantage points.
 * The story was unclear regarding how far Lothor was from Earth. During the time it took for the Enterprise to travel from Earth to Lothor on their urgent diplomatic mission, a spy message was relayed to the Klingon Empire, a plan was hatched, a Klingon ship traveled to Lothor, and the leadership of Lothor was hypnotized. Yet when the Klingons ordered the Enterprise to crash on Earth, Montgomery Scott managed to get the ship there in less than an hour. That may have been dramatic license by the author, to depict Earth being saved "at the last minute".
 * Kirk and Spock beamed back to the Enterprise from Lothor while the starship was still in the Sol system. If that were possible, Admiral Voysey could have beamed a full ambassadorial party to Lothor instead of dispatching a starship. That also may have been dramatic license, to end the story with Kirk and Spock back aboard the ship.

Related stories

 * – crashed the USS Vengeance (Kelvin timeline) in San Francisco.
 * – Montgomery Scott's equation for transwarp beaming enabled a transporter to beam people to distant star systems.
 * – In 2268, Lorelei's powers of hypnosis manipulated the crew of the Enterprise into marooning Kirk.
 * – In the 2260s, Teranius manipulated Montgomery Scott through hypnosis.
 * – Rocket drones hypnotized James T. Kirk, compelling him to climb into a stasis chamber.