Planet of the Dead

Planet of the Dead was a seven-page Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip published in. It was the eighth of 11 annual stories from the UK comic strips series and was printed in the United Kingdom along with "What Is This Thing Called Spock?" in TV21 Annual 1973. In this story, Kirk and Spock brought an expedition to a new planet.

Publisher's description

 * Omnibus teaser
 * The Enterprise ferries a scientific team, led by Kirk's friend Richard Spellman, to colonize the planet Selkye. There, the crew finds the mummified remains of toad-like aliens, as well as cute little critters that McCoy dubs "beavos"…

Summary
Professors Richard Spellman and Jean Ravel led a small expedition to the unexplored class M planet Selkye to determine its potential for colonization. A shuttlecraft from the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) descended to the surface, bringing the team along with its supplies and equipment. They landed within a city built by a lost civilization. Although they heard no animal life on the surface, exploring the ruins resulted in finding some affectionate, hand-sized furry animals and eight large husks of dessicated amphibians. When the shuttle left, Leonard McCoy kept one of the furry animals as a pet, calling it a beavo, and also shipped back one of the amphibian corpses for examination.

The Enterprise proceeded towards its next assignment. McCoy awoke the next morning exhausted rather than refreshed. Uhura took care of his pet, Kirk and Spock brought McCoy to sickbay, but as they were leaving, they heard noises from a storage compartment — the amphibian burst free, seemingly come back to life. Kirk retrieved a phaser and shot it, apparently killing it. Kirk turned the starship around and headed back to Selkye.

Kirk, Spock and McCoy returned to the city in a shuttle, landing near the scientists' base camp. There they found the entire expedition locked within their shelter, debilitated as if by an illness, hiding from a group of the amphibians. When Montgomery Scott reported that the creature on the ship had to be stunned again and that Uhura was now showing the same symptoms as McCoy, Kirk realized what was happening. They locked all of the beavos overnight in a metal box, as did Scott with Uhura's beavo. By dawn, the amphibians became dormant and the humans felt more energetic. Kirk conjectured that the beavos absorbed life energy for the creatures, and were probably responsible for wiping out all animal life on Selkye, including the ancient civilization. The expedition abandoned the planet, grateful to be alive.

Characters

 * James T. Kirk • Leonard McCoy • Jean Ravel • Montgomery Scott • Richard Spellman • Spock • Nyota Uhura

Starships and vehicles

 * USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) ( heavy cruiser) • shuttlecraft

Locations

 * Zeta Stantor star system (Selkye)

Earth

Races and cultures

 * Human • Vulcan

Science and technology

 * city • phaser • pyramid • tongs

Ranks and titles

 * doctor • engineer • Federation Starfleet ranks (2260s) • guard • pilot • professor • scientist • Starfleet ranks • technician

Other references

 * beavo • bridge • civilization • colony • kitten • lifeform • life energy • mummification • orbit • pet • planet • Selkye toad creature • shuttle bay • sleep • Starfleet uniform • Starfleet uniform (2265-2270) • starship • theory • toad • virus

Production history

 * 24 August 1972 : Published in TV21 Annual 1973
 * September 2017 : Reprinted in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 3 (IDW Publishing)

Background

 * The expedition's domed building was erected within a few hours, suggesting it had prefabricated components. It was similar to the prefabricated dome base camp of the scientific expedition to Abaris in 2270 . No construction materials were evident when the shuttle brought down the scientific team, suggesting that their supplies, equipment and construction materials were transported down or brought in additional shuttles.
 * Beavos were reminiscent of tribbles: cute, furry, affectionate, and seemingly harmless.
 * Artist Jim Baikie signed the last panel of the story.
 * Publication date was August 24, 1972. (Amazon.com.)

Related stories

 * – In 2267, Nyota Uhura's pet tribble reproduced by the thousands aboard the Enterprise.
 * – In 2268, Lieutenant Altman kept a Bandi-bear from Wokkle III as a pet, unaware that the teddy-bear-like animal was empathically telepathic.
 * – In 2268, a panicked pet waul named Ewass disrupted the Enterprise crew.
 * , – An archeological expedition to M-113 discovered that salt vampires had killed all animal life on the planet.
 * – In 2261, a scientific expedition to Exo III discovered remains of an ancient civilization, all of whom were killed by androids.