Planet of Rejects

Planet of Rejects was an eight-page Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip published in. It was the fourth of 11 annual stories in the UK comic strips series, and was printed along with the comic strip "Captives in Space" and the short story "Gateway to the Future" in TV21 Annual 1971.

Publisher's description

 * Omnibus teaser
 * In Astral Sector IV, the Enterprise finds a junkyard planet for obsolete spacecraft, where Kirk meets a group of exiled rebels from Thax, who attempt to commandeer the Enterprise.

Summary
Nyota Uhura picked up a spacecraft passing through Astral Sector IV. When it dove full speed into the atmosphere of a nearby planet, James T. Kirk dispatched the Galileo to look for survivors. He, Spock and Hikaru Sulu found large numbers of wrecked ships on the surface and realized it was a junkyard planet. They were approached by a crew of marooned Thaxians who gratefully accepted Kirk's offer to take them back to their homeworld.

After giving the rescued crew their own quarters aboard the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), Kirk showed Captain Kandok the bridge. But when Kirk asked for the coordinates to Thax, Kandok pulled out a weapon — his crew were actually exiled rebels sentenced to death. He took Uhura hostage, then locked Kirk and Spock in a storeroom. They pried open a ventilator grid, climbed through to Kirk's quarters, and hailed Thax to warn them about the pirates. Thax preferred to destroy the Enterprise with missiles rather than allow the rebels to return.

As the Enterprise approached Thax, Kirk and Spock tossed a pair of anesthesia gas grenades into the bridge's air ducts. They then stormed the bridge, only to find that the Thaxians had been immune to the gas. A phaser fight ensued. Eventually the Thaxians withdrew and abandoned the starship in a shuttlecraft. Kirk activated the deflectors just in time to destroy two Thaxian nuclear missiles, but a third missile homed in on the shuttlecraft and blew it up. Kirk said he'd had enough of this sector.

Characters

 * Kandok • James T. Kirk • Spock • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura

Starships and vehicles

 * USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) ( heavy cruiser) • Galileo (class F shuttlecraft) • unnamed class F shuttlecraft • unnamed spacecraft

Locations

 * Astral Sector IV (Junkyard planet • Thax)

Earth • Jupiter

Races and cultures

 * Human • Thaxian • Vulcan

Science and technology

 * communicator • forcefield • gas mask • grenade • knock-out gas • nuclear missile • phaser • pistol • radio • rocket • staff • translator communicator • viewscreen

Ranks and titles

 * captain • crew • communications officer • Federation Starfleet ranks (2260s) • lieutenant • pirate • rebel • Starfleet ranks

Other references

 * atmosphere • brain • chemical • command centre • galaxy • gas • government • headache • hostage • language • month • parking orbit • planet • quarters • sector • space • Starfleet uniform • Starfleet uniform (2265-2270) • storeroom

Production history

 * 1971 : First printed in TV21 Annual 1971 (City Magazines)
 * December 2016 : Reprinted in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 2 (IDW Publishing)

Background

 * Publication date was September 1, 1970. (Amazon.com.)
 * Although Thax was not seen in the story, the Enterprise approached close enough to be hit by two of their nuclear missiles.

Related stories

 * – Kirk and Spock activated anesthesia gas throughout the Enterprise to incapacitate Khan Noonien Singh's forces, who were later exiled to Ceti Alpha V.
 * – Spock used anesthesia gas grenades to incapacitate Zonds who had taken over the ship.
 * – Exiled prisoners awaited execution on an asteroid in the Nabu system.