"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 1971. In this story, Klingons used mass hypnosis to control the crew of the USS Enterprise.
Description[]
- Teaser, October 30, 1971
- 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 ...
Summary[]
A spy at Starfleet Command informs the Klingon Empire of Kirk's assignment. Seeing an opportunity to mortally wound Starfleet, the Klingons immediately dispatch a D7-class battle cruiser to Lothor. Klingon Professor Karkax uses a new invention to hypnotize the entire Lothorian government. When the USS Enterprise arrives, the Lothorians can act normally but cannot disobey Klingon orders. The Lothorian president gives Kirk, Spock and Montgomery Scott a tour of their capital city and invites Kirk's crew to a banquet. Appreciating the hospitality, and needing to cement an alliance, Kirk brings down nearly the entire ship's complement.
At the banquet, the crew are subjected to Karkax's machine, and then ordered to crash the Enterprise into Starfleet Headquarters on Earth. They return to the ship to carry out their orders. However, Spock's Vulcan physiology overcomes the hypnosis, and he secretly meets with Pavel Chekov's skeleton crew that had missed the banquet. Kirk discovers their plotting and floods their room with anesthesia gas. Spock clogs the vent to allow time for the crewmen to escape through a maintenance duct, yet they are still captured.
Spock makes his way to the transporter room and beams down. He locates the Klingon commander and Karkax, but not quickly enough; Kirk has already warned them. Karkax orders Kirk to shoot Spock, who telepathically reaches out to Kirk, breaking his hypnotic spell. Spock knocks out the Klingon commander with a karate chop. Karkax flees with the mechano-hypnotiser. Eventually he lifts off in an aircraft, and in desperation Kirk rams it with a hovercar. The explosion kills Karkax and destroys the device, breaking the hypnotic hold over the Enterprise personnel before they can crash into Earth.
References[]
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 • unnamed USS Enterprise personnel (2260s)
- Referenced only
- David • Goliath
Starships and vehicles[]
- aircraft • USS Enterprise (Constitution-class heavy cruiser) • Galileo (class F shuttlecraft) • five other class F shuttlecraft • hovercar • unnamed D7 class starships • unnamed Klingon starships (Klingon raider) • Survey Ship 365B
- Referenced only
- Klingon shuttlecraft
Locations[]
- Sol system (Earth) • Monades Complex (Lothor)
- Referenced only
- Alpha Centauri • Canis Major constellation • Centaurus constellation • Columba • Lepus constellation • Monoceros constellation • Orion • Sirius
Races and cultures[]
States and organizations[]
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
Appendices[]
Related stories[]
- TOS movie: Star Trek Into Darkness – Khan Noonien Singh crashed the USS Vengeance in San Francisco.
- TOS movies: Star Trek (2009), Into Darkness – Montgomery Scott's equation for transwarp beaming enabled a transporter to beam people to distant star systems.
- TOS novel: Mutiny on the Enterprise – In 2268, Lorelei's powers of hypnosis manipulated the crew of the Enterprise into marooning Kirk.
- TOS audiobook: The Man Who Trained Meteors – In the 2260s, Teranius manipulated Montgomery Scott through hypnosis.
- TOS comic: "Rescue at Raylo" – Rocket drones hypnotized James T. Kirk, compelling him to climb into a stasis chamber.
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.
- 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.
- 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. But Spock's ability to break Kirk's hypnosis telepathically from a distance implied that they'd previously shared a mind meld, suggesting a placement after TOS episodes: "Spectre of the Gun", "Requiem for Methuselah" in 2268 or 2269.
Errata[]
- 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.
- 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.
Images[]
Connections[]
Timeline[]
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: The Aging World |
TOS comics (UK comic strips) | Next comic: Creeping Death |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous adventure: The Hollow Man |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next adventure: The Savage Curtain |
| Previous comic: The Hollow Man |
Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), Year Four | Next comic: The Savage Curtain |
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.
- 16 October 1971: Pages 1-2 published in Valiant and TV21 #3.
- 23 October 1971: Pages 3-4 published in Valiant and TV21 #4.
- 30 October 1971: Pages 5-6 published in Valiant and TV21 #5.
- 6 November 1971: Pages 7-8 published in Valiant and TV21 #6.
- 13 November 1971: Pages 9-10 published in Valiant and TV21 #7.
- 20 November 1971: Pages 11-12 published in Valiant and TV21 #8.
- 27 November 1971: Pages 13-14 published in Valiant and TV21 #9.
- 4 December 1971: Pages 15-16 published in Valiant and TV21 #10.
- 11 December 1971: 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 Collections)
External link[]
- By Order of the Empire article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.