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Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki
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===Starships and vehicles===
 
===Starships and vehicles===
:[[aircraft]] • {{uSS|Enterprise|NCC-1701}} ({{class|Constitution}} [[heavy cruiser]]) • [[Graktan battle cruiser]] • [[Shuttlecraft NCC-1701/3]] ([[class F shuttlecraft]]) • [[Shuttlecraft NCC-1701/5]] ([[class F shuttlecraft]]) • [[Themerian raider]]
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:[[aircraft]] • {{uSS|Enterprise|NCC-1701}} ({{class|Constitution}} [[heavy cruiser]]) • [[Graktan battle cruiser]] • [[life raft]] • [[Shuttlecraft NCC-1701/3]] ([[class F shuttlecraft]]) • [[Shuttlecraft NCC-1701/5]] ([[class F shuttlecraft]]) • [[Themerian raider]]
   
 
===Locations===
 
===Locations===
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===Science and technology===
 
===Science and technology===
:[[airlock]] • [[artificial gravity]] • [[red alert|autophonic danger alarm]] • [[communications]] • [[computer]] • [[scanner|deep-range scanner]] • [[engine]] • [[grappler]] • [[gun]] • [[gyroscope]] • [[water treatment facility|hydro-product plant]] • [[life raft]] • [[mathematics]] • [[missile]] • [[PADD]] • [[particle beam weapon|particle accelerator]] • [[pea-shooter]] • [[radio]] • [[rifle]] • [[stabilizer]] • [[universal translator|translator communicator]] • [[weapon]]
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:[[airlock]] • [[artificial gravity]] • [[red alert|autophonic danger alarm]] • [[communications]] • [[computer]] • [[scanner|deep-range scanner]] • [[engine]] • [[grappler]] • [[gun]] • [[gyroscope]] • [[water treatment facility|hydro-product plant]] • [[mathematics]] • [[missile]] • [[PADD]] • [[particle beam weapon|particle accelerator]] • [[pea-shooter]] • [[radio]] • [[rifle]] • [[stabilizer]] • [[universal translator|translator communicator]] • [[weapon]]
   
 
===Ranks and titles===
 
===Ranks and titles===
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* {{e|DSC|Context Is For Kings}} – En route to [[Tellun]], [[Michael Burnham]]'s prison shuttle was enveloped by a swarm of [[Species GS54]], an electrical power-siphoning [[lifeform]].
 
* {{e|DSC|Context Is For Kings}} – En route to [[Tellun]], [[Michael Burnham]]'s prison shuttle was enveloped by a swarm of [[Species GS54]], an electrical power-siphoning [[lifeform]].
 
* {{c|TOS|Siege in Superspace}} – A society's ultimate defensive weapon ended up destroying its own civilization.
 
* {{c|TOS|Siege in Superspace}} – A society's ultimate defensive weapon ended up destroying its own civilization.
  +
* {{c|TOS|Rock and a Hard Place}} – The ''Enterprise'' was disabled by missiles and drifted towards an [[asteroid belt]].
  +
* {{n|TNG|Grounded}} – In [[2368]], large sections of the Enterprise-D were ingested and disintegrated by an alien lifeform.
   
 
===Images===
 
===Images===

Revision as of 00:42, 29 April 2019

Creeping Death was a 12-page Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip. It was the 27th weekly story arc in the UK comic strips series, published in six installments in Valiant and TV21 in 1971 and 1972. In this story, an enveloping fungus threatened to destroy the USS Enterprise.

Publisher's description

Teaser, 25 December, 1971
Two shuttlecraft had left the starship Enterprise to begin exploration of a planet classified Kappa Delta in a previously unexplored system. As they entered thick cloud cover, the men inside little knew that the sinister defences of the planet had already claimed them! Strange, fungus-like growth, spreading fast from the point of impact of tiny, light-accelerated particles…

Summary

Excited about a newly-discovered planet, Kirk joined two shuttlecraft crews to explore the surface. Before they could land, however, growths of wild fungus suddenly appeared and spread rapidly across the ships' hulls. The excess weight destabilized the ships, destroying one against a mountain, while the other crashed into a lake. The fungus dissipated in water, allowing Kirk, Spock and five crewmen to escape in a life raft, only to be captured and deposited in front of a Graktan firing squad.

At the last moment, Graktan's leader Lektor saved them – he thought they were invading Themerians. He apologized deeply for the mistake and loss of the other shuttle's crew and extended them full hospitality. But the group soon discovered that the planet's defensive fungus had also been set on the Enterprise, disabling their communications, engines, and shields. The starship was being pulled helplessly into the gravity well of the star Kappa.

To rescue the Enterprise, Kirk, Spock, and Lektor blasted off with a crew in a Graktan battle cruiser. They were forced to disable two attacking Themerian raiders, then approached the crippled starship. They exploded probes against the ship's communications array to clear it of fungus. Now able to contact the ship, Spock told Montgomery Scott to flood the fungus with water. Scott diverted the full output of the ship's water-generating plants onto the hull through airlocks, dissipating the fungus. Scott was then able to restart the ship's engines and pull away from the star.

Kirk considered the bright side of the near-disaster: they had forged a friendship with the Graktans.

References

Characters

Pavel ChekovJames T. KirkLektorLeonard McCoyMorkMontgomery ScottSpockHikaru SuluNyota Uhuraunnamed USS Enterprise personnel (2260s)unnamed Graktans

Starships and vehicles

aircraftUSS Enterprise (Constitution-class heavy cruiser) • Graktan battle cruiserlife raftShuttlecraft NCC-1701/3 (class F shuttlecraft) • Shuttlecraft NCC-1701/5 (class F shuttlecraft) • Themerian raider

Locations

Kappa system (KappaGraktan/Kappa Delta)
Referenced only
Kappa system (Kappa AlphaKappa GammaKappa BetaKappa EpsilonKappa Zeta) • Sol system (Earth) • Themere

Races and cultures

GraktanHumanThemerianVulcan

States and organizations

Federation

Science and technology

airlockartificial gravityautophonic danger alarmcommunicationscomputerdeep-range scannerenginegrapplergungyroscopehydro-product plantmathematicsmissilePADDparticle acceleratorpea-shooterradioriflestabilizertranslator communicatorweapon

Ranks and titles

captaincrewmancommanderengineerFederation Starfleet ranks (2260s)pilotprofessorscientistskipperStarfleet rankstechnician

Other references

assignment patchatmospherebrainbridgecapital citycargo holdexecutionfiring squadfreedomfungusgravitational fieldgravityhistoryhornethornet's nesthulllanding partymoleculemountainparking orbitpeaceplanetradiationrocketshuttlecraft bayspacesporestarstar systemStarfleet uniformStarfleet uniform (2265-2270)sunwateryear

Timeline

Chronology

Production history

  • This story was serialized in two-page sections over six consecutive weeks in Valiant and TV21 magazine. Each issue was 36 pages, with the Star Trek segment printed in color on pages 18-19.
December 1971
January 1972
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)

Appendices

Background

  • Class F shuttlecraft were established to have flotation chambers and a life raft aboard.
  • Shuttlecraft NCC-1701/3 made its second of six appearances in the UK comic strips series. It also appeared in story arcs #17, #28, #34, #36, and #37. Although it crashed into a lake, it was salvageable. While the vessel's name was not visible, it was possible that it could be a replacement for the shuttle Icarus, an Enterprise shuttle of that registry which was destroyed in 2254.
  • Shuttlecraft NCC-1701/5 made its first of two appearances. It also appeared in "The Void of Storms" (arc #34).
  • Although a caption said Kirk's shuttle had 12 aboard, only seven people were shown escaping after the crash, with no apparent casualties.

Related stories

Images

Connections

UK comic strips
Weekly story arcs "Life Form Nonexistent" • "The Crucial Element" • "Beware the Beast" • "The Third Party" • "The Children of Stai" • "Skin Deep" • "The Eagles Have Landed" • "Spectre of the Zond" • "Nor Any Drop to Drink" • "Menace of the Moloth" • "The Klingon Ultimatum" • "The Marshall Plan" • "Mutiny on the Dorado" • "The Ageless One" • "Thorpex" • "Under the Sea" • "Revolt on Dak-Alpha" • "Where Giants Tread" • "I, Emperor" • "Slaves of the Frogmen" • "Key Witness" • "Nova-Thirteen" • "Prison Break" • "Vibrations in Time" • "The Aging World" • "By Order of the Empire" • "Creeping Death" • "Ground Zero" • "The Collector" • "To Swiftly Go..." • "The Mindless Ones" • "The Perithees Alliance" • "The Saboteur Within" • "The Void of Storms" • "Spheres of War" • "Shell Game" • "To Rule the Universe"
Annual stories "Target: Zargot" • "A Bite of the Apple" • "Captives in Space" • "Planet of Rejects" • "Gateway to the Future" • "The Zodian Sacrifice" • "Smoke and Mirrors" • "Planet of the Dead" • "What Is This Thing Called Spock?" • "The Gods Have Come!" • "Rock and a Hard Place"
Collections The Classic UK Comics (123) • Graphic Novel Collection (102029121)

External links