"Called Home" is a TOS comic strip. It is the first story in the US Comic Strips series, published by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate beginning in 1979. The story was set after TOS movie: The Motion Picture, depicting events from Captain Kirk's second five-year mission aboard the refurbished USS Enterprise (NCC-1701).
In this story, written and drawn by Thomas Warkentin, the Enterprise investigates a distress call sent from the moon of a long-dead world.
Description[]
- Aliens asleep for nine centuries awaken to discover that their world has been devastated by nuclear war.
Summary[]
- Captain's log: stardate 7493.5
- On a survey mission through an uncharted sector of the galaxy, we have picked up a radio transmission from an unexplored sun system.
- Captain's log: stardate 7494.0
- Unable to pinpoint the source of a radio signal emanating from the moon of a devastated planet, First Officer Spock, Doctor McCoy and I have beamed to a centuries-old spacecraft on the surface.
Investigating the spacecraft on the surface in thruster suits, Kirk, Spock and McCoy determine that a hole in the ship was caused by a meteor after the ship had safely landed 900 years earlier. A hatch has been left open, revealing two sets of footprints, which dead-end at a set of tread-prints. Nyota Uhura locates the exact source of the radio transmission, a robot crawler vehicle which appears over the rim of an impact crater, creating the tread-print pattern the landing party has been following. Suddenly it places an energy field around the three people, paralyzing them while they hear in their minds messages of peace and love. Gently, robot tentacles gather up the landing party and carry them down a corridor hidden below a boulder into a vast underground complex. They see two humanoids in spacesuits at the end of a long corridor of hypersleep chambers, and are deposited gently into the next three chambers.
- Excerpt from captain's log: stardate 7494.2
- Inside the hypersleep chambers, our paralysis began to fade as we were subjected to a soporific vibration which, according to Spock, induces sleep by altering the electrical period of the cortical neurons. After Doctor McCoy and I had yielded to sleep, Spock used Vulcan mind-control to enhance his alpha state and suppress theta activity, remaining awake long enough to reach his communicator and have us, including the little aliens, beamed aboard the Enterprise.
Sensors show the moon to be artificial, mostly hollow with a neutronium hull. In sickbay, McCoy and Christine Chapel revive the two aliens, who explain to Kirk that their world was threatened by nuclear war, so they went to their moon to use it as an orbital weapon platform to "enforce planet-wide peace." Their race believes their moon to be a spacecraft guided by "the gods."
Suddenly the Toltan Moon grabs the Enterprise with a tractor beam and begins dragging the ship toward a large opening on the surface.
After accessing its data banks, Spock discovers that the aliens are one of many Toltan colony worlds that were seeded long ago, left to evolve, watched over by sentinel Toltan Moons that are programmed to return "home" with those who had achieved a moon landing. Although he is unable to ascertain why the Toltan Moon didn't depart 900 years ago, Spock says, "its program calls for it to return now. And we are preventing it from completing its mission." He adds, "It wants those little astronauts, Captain... with or without us."
Kirk considerd firing torpedoes, but the aliens propose a different solution. Having been told that their world had been destroyed by nuclear weapons 900 years earlier, they insist on being returned to the moon, which they believe is a "sacred vehicle that will carry them to a paradise." The two aliens are transported back into their hypersleep chambers. The Toltan Moon immediately disengages its tractor beam, then leaves the orbit of its planet, carrying its two passengers "home".
Additional log entries[]
- Stardate 7493.9
- As the Enterprise enters parking orbit, the radio signal fades. Sensors reveal astonishing devastation... Evidence of planet-wide nuclear war, centuries before.
- Captain's log: stardate 7493.9
- We are responding to a verbal radio transmission emanating from the moon of a planet devastated by nuclear war centuries before. The message consists of the word "come," repeated in a language our computer identifies as Toltan, the speech of an ancient race.
- Captain's log: stardate 7494.1
- Chief Engineer Scott recording. Captain Kirk, Science Officer Spock and Doctor McCoy are on the moon of a devastated planet to investigate a radio signal of unknown origin. The captain has ordered a security team standing by.
- Captain's log: stardate 7494.3
- We are caught in a tractor beam pulling us toward the moon.
- Captain's log: supplemental entry
- With warp and impulse engines at maximum, we are still in the grip of the tractor beam.
References[]
Characters[]
- Christine Chapel • Pavel Chekov • Ilia • James T. Kirk • Leonard McCoy • Janice Rand • Montgomery Scott • Spock • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura • unnamed Toltans
Starships and vehicles[]
Locations[]
Races and cultures[]
States and organizations[]
Science and technology[]
- alpha wave • communicator • computer terminal • cortical neurons • data bank • delta wave • heat scan • hypersleep chamber • hyperlight • impulse engine • missile • nuclear weapon • orbital weapon platform • photon torpedo • pre-warp spacecraft • radiation • radio • robot • rocket • stardate • thruster • thruster suit • tractor beam • transporter • warp engine • wrist communicator
Ranks and titles[]
- astronaut • captain • chief engineer • doctor • Federation Starfleet ranks (2270s) • lieutenant • science officer • security officer
Other references[]
- antimatter • bridge • captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2273 • century • evolution • galaxy • heart • humanoid • impact crater • landing party • language • organic life • log entry • meteor • meter • molecule • moon • neutronium • parking orbit • planet • proximity explosion • radio signal • sector • sickbay • Starfleet uniform (early 2270s) • sun system • thought transmissions • transporter room
Appendices[]
Related media[]
- TOS movie: The Motion Picture – Describes the starship refit, crew changes, and technology updates that occurred prior to the events of this story.
- TOS episode: "The Paradise Syndrome" – A Preserver-seeded Native American colony on Amerind is threatened by an asteroid.
- TOS comic: "Aberration on Abaris" – A landing party rescues the survivors of a lost civilization on Abaris.
Background[]
- Four days after the debut of the comic strip, the TOS movie: The Motion Picture's Washington, D.C. premiere took place. The film premiered nationwide one day later.
- Consisting of 42 daily comic strips, "Coming Home" was the first serialized Star Trek story published in the United States. Marvel Comics published their adaptation on December 4, 1979, in Marvel Super Special, Issue 15. It was serialized over three issues, starting with #1, which was released on January 1, 1980 with a cover date of April 1980. (Star Trek Vol 1 1 article at the Marvel Database)
- The Sunday strips were printed in color, whereas the Monday through Saturday strips were printed in black and white (b/w). This was not the first Star Trek story to appear both in color and b/w, however. Published in Great Britain in 1970, TOS comic: "The Klingon Ultimatum" began in color and ended with a b/w spread.
- This is the first of 13 stories set after the events of TOS movie: The Motion Picture with the crew wearing the Starfleet uniform (early 2270s). Five stories were set in 2273, followed by eight in 2274.
- Events continued directly into the next story, "Dilithium Dilemma". The struggle against the Toltan Moon's tractor beam had fused most of the starship's dilithium, leaving the Enterprise stranded.
- An inadvertent continuity error occurred when Warkentin depicted Ilia at the navigator's station in panels published on Sunday, December 2, 1979, and Wednesday, January 9, 1980. The first panel was reprinted on the cover of The Newspaper Comics, Volume 1, and they were also reprinted on pages 14 and 28 of that omnibus. Why did she appear in this story, when she had died in TOS movie: The Motion Picture? The story was produced prior to the release of the film. In a podcast, it was explained that Warkentin was provided with stills from the film, including shots of an interesting-looking bald character at the navigator's station. He didn't know that this navigator was the Ilia character. And according to ST reference: New Life and New Civilizations: Exploring Star Trek Comics, Warkentin didn't know Ilia's fate until he saw the movie on opening night. Additionally, Ilia was marketed as a recurring character in the strip, in an ad that was reprinted in the omnibus.
- This story arc was not printed with a title. The title was provided from Warkentin's original script by his widow, Rosie Warkentin Ford, for the story's reprinting in The Newspaper Comics, Volume 1. (ST reference: New Life and New Civilizations: Exploring Star Trek Comics).
- The image of the USS Enterprise in the December 3, 1979 strip was based on posters of the starship in its Star Trek: Phase II configuration.
- Ancient Astronauts were a popular topic in the 1970s, so the idea of seeded Toltan colonies was timely.
Images[]
Connections[]
| US Comic Strips stories | ||
|---|---|---|
| Stories | "Called Home" • "Dilithium Dilemma" • "The Real McCoy" • "Double Bluff" • "Aberration on Abaris" • "Husian Gambit" • "Heads of State" • "It's a Living" • "The Savage Within" • "Quarantine" • "Restructuring Is Futile" • "The Wristwatch Plantation" • "The Nogura Regatta" • "A Merchant's Loyalty" • "Taking Shape" • "Send in the Clones" • "Goodbye to Spock" • "Terminally Yours" • "The Retirement of Admiral Kirk" • "Getting Real" | |
| Collections | The Newspaper Comics (1 • 2) • Graphic Novel Collection (15 • 24 • 34) | |
Timeline[]
| Published Order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: first comic |
TOS comics (US Comic Strips) |
Next comic: #2: Dilithium Dilemma |
| Previous story: first story |
Stories by: Thomas Warkentin |
Next story: Dilithium Dilemma |
| Chronological Order | ||
| Previous adventure: The War to End All Wars |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next adventure: Dilithium Dilemma |
| Previous story: The War to End All Wars |
Continuing voyages of the USS Enterprise | Next story: Dilithium Dilemma |
Production history[]
- 2 December 1979 – 12 January 1980
- First syndicated for daily newspapers by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
- 25 December 2012
- Remastered in hardcover in The Newspaper Comics, Volume 1. (IDW Publishing)
- 20 July 2017
- Remastered in Graphic Novel Collection, Volume 15. (Eaglemoss Collections)
Translations[]
External links[]
- Called Home article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Called Home article at The Movie Blog.