Mutiny on the Dorado was a 14-page Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip published in 1970. It was the 13th story arc in the UK comic strips series, released in seven parts within issues of TV21 & Joe 90. This was the first of four stories drawn by Mike Noble.
In this story, the USS Enterprise was sent after a border patrol ship whose crew had mutinied.
Description
- Teaser summary, 9 May 1970
- Mutineers seized the space Federation guardship Dorado and headed for political sanctuary within the Klingon Empire. Aboard USS Enterprise, Captain James T. Kirk received orders to intercept the rebels and demand surrender — or alternatively, destroy!
Summary
An assembly with all hands was held aboard the Federation border patrol ship Dorado. Its commander, Captain Louis Jago, had mistreated his small crew to such an extent that they considered mutiny. Jago assigned the crew to double shifts, then punished crewman Duncan with solitary confinement in the brig for ten days for having a dour expression. It was the last straw, spurring crewman Erhard Voss and his partners Kefford and Martin to incite a mutiny. Jago and five of his officers were sent off in a shuttlecraft. As a hostage, they kept the remaining officer, a Vulcan lieutenant named Horek. Seeking asylum from the Federation, they evaded a Starfleet attack force and headed for Scaptar, a border outpost of the Klingon Empire.
The Enterprise was alerted to the mutiny and ordered to stop Dorado before it could be seized by the Klingons, with orders to destroy the guardship if its crew did not surrender. Enterprise intercepted the vessel, but Dorado ignored hails and evaded them. Kirk ordered Hikaru Sulu to lock weapons and fire, but Spock countermanded the order at the last moment, allowing Dorado to escape. Spock confessed that he couldn't let Dorado be destroyed because their hostage Horek was Spock's cousin. Kirk chastised Spock, saying Starfleet's orders were inviolable and that he intended to destroy Dorado.
Seeing Enterprise close in on them fast, Voss jettisoned Dorado's main fuel. When the starship fired missiles, their exhaust ignited the fuel, producing a massive explosion which crippled the starship. Dorado proceeded toward Scaptar, but Duncan and other crewmen began to doubt Voss.
Meanwhile, repair teams worked on the hull and on the bridge of the Enterprise. Spock began receiving telepathic messages from Horek, who relayed his crew’s fears. Knowing the mutineers weren't united, Kirk changed tactics. As soon as long-range sensors and monitors were repaired, they located Dorado. The patrol ship was appearing to parley with Scaptar, which had sent a delegate up to them in a small spacecraft. When the delegate exited his ship in a spacesuit to travel over to Dorado’s airlock, Kirk sensed something mechanical. Kirk signaled Dorado, warning them that the delegate was a robot. Voss' crew panicked, and Duncan closed the airlock door on the delegate. It was cut in half, revealing a robot which leaked a deadly green gas. The crew suggested surrendering to Kirk, since the Klingons were known to be merciless. But Voss struck Duncan, fired at the Klingon’s spacecraft, and ordered Dorado to Necros, a planet within the Klingon Empire.
While telepathically linked with Spock, Horek confronted Voss with a logical argument against proceeding to Necros. Voss responded by hitting Horek with the butt of a phaser, knocking him out. That was fortuitous, as Spock was capable of telepathically manipulating Horek'’s unconscious body. Kirk agreed to give Spock an hour. During that time, Spock directed Horek to the ship’s nerve center, where he manipulated and rerouted circuitry. Dorado raised shields as it approached Necros, repelling a missile strike from the planet. Voss intended to return fire as a show of strength, but as weapons were targeted, a false image generated by Horek on the viewer showed that Dorado was turning around. Voss assumed the helm controls were malfunctioning and ordered the ship to turn back, which actually made Dorado retreat toward the Enterprise. Spock programmed Dorado’s shields to drop when they came into range, and Kirk planned to fire a gas shell through the hull to knock out the crew, ending the mutiny.
References
Characters
- Duncan • Horek • Louis Jago • Kefford • James T. Kirk • Martin • Spock • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura • Erhard Voss • unnamed Klingons • unnamed USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) personnel
Starships and vehicles
- USS Enterprise (Constitution-class heavy cruiser) • Dorado • unnamed Class F shuttlecraft • Klingon transit-hopper (space ferry)
Locations
- Klingon Empire border (Necros • Scaptar)
- Referenced only
- Earth • Jupiter
Races and cultures
States and organizations
Science and technology
- airlock • circuitry • defense shield • engine • force field • fuel • gun • gyro • helmet • masterslave • missile • probe • robot • scanner • sensor • shield • thruster • transporter
Ranks and titles
- armaments officer • captain • commander • crew • crewman • Federation Starfleet ranks (2260s) • first lieutenant • henchman • hostage • lieutenant • mechanic • mutineer • officer • rebel • Starfleet ranks
Other references
- communications • beam • brain • bridge • brig • day • death penalty • emotion • environmental suit • gas • guardship • hanging • helm • hour • hull • ice • logic • minute • mutiny • parking orbit • outpost • parley • prison • second • sector • Starfleet uniform • Starfleet uniform (2265-2270) • starship • stratosphere • telepathy • time • viewscreen • war
Timeline
Chronology
- The appearance of nacelle spikes on the USS Enterprise suggest a placement for this story in 2265 after the death of Gary Mitchell in TOS episode: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and prior to a refit evident in TOS comic: "Dark Traveler".
| Published Order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: "The Marshall Plan" |
TOS comics UK comic strips |
Next comic: "The Ageless One" |
Production history
- This was the last Star Trek story printed in the magazine TV21 & Joe 90. The publication was renamed TV21 Weekly starting with issue #39.
- 2 May: Pages 1-2 published in TV21 & Joe 90 #32.
- 9 May: Pages 3-4 published in TV21 & Joe 90 #33.
- 16 May: Pages 5-6 published in TV21 & Joe 90 #34.
- 23 May: Pages 7-8 published in TV21 & Joe 90 #35.
- 30 May: Pages 9-10 published in TV21 & Joe 90 #36.
- 6 June: Pages 11-12 published in TV21 & Joe 90 #37.
- 13 June: Pages 13-14 published in TV21 & Joe 90 #38.
- April 2016
- Reprinted in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 1 (IDW Publishing)
- 11 May 2017
- Reprinted in the omnibus Graphic Novel Collection #10 (Eaglemoss)
Appendices
Background
- The story was not printed with a title, but it was given one ("Mutiny on the Dorado") for its reprinting in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 1.
- Debuting artist Mike Noble would continue with the series for 26 weeks, until issue #57.
- The Klingons had an unusual appearance in this story, looking like a hybrid of QuchHa' and HemQuch Klingons, and might belong to an unnamed splinter species. One was prominent on the cover for May 23, 1970 and a group of them were seen in a panel of that week's segment. This variety of Klingon was previously featured in "The Klingon Ultimatum". QuchHa' Klingons would be seen when Klingons next appeared in the UK comic strips series, in "By Order of the Empire".
- This story was promoted on five covers. Dorado was featured on the covers for May 9 and June 6, 1970. The Klingon transit-hopper interplanetary vessel appeared on the May 23 and May 30 covers. The masterslave robot was featured on the May 30 cover, and Horek appeared on the June 13 cover.
- Spock countermanded Kirk’s order to destroy Dorado, citing the same reason he would later give for refusing to kill Sybok in TOS movie: The Final Frontier, because Horek was his relative.
- Spock said full Vulcans could transmit their thoughts telepathically. Horek read Spock’s mind while at his post aboard Dorado. Spock received Horek’s thoughts even when Dorado was preparing to parley at Scaptar. Spock said he could only receive thought-transmissions unless Horek was unconscious, at which time Spock could manipulate Horek’s body.
- The guardship crew did not wear Starfleet uniforms or assignment patches, nor did they behave in any way as if they were Starfleet personnel.
- USS Bozeman served in the Starfleet Border Service in 2278, part of the Federation Division of Law Enforcement. As this division was overseen by the Federation, not Starfleet, non-Starfleet vessels like Dorado could have been operated by this division. (TNG novel: Ship of the Line)
- The previous arc was printed in black and white. Stories returned to color with this arc.
- Dorado was most likely named after El Dorado, a mythical city on Earth made of gold, since the vessel was colored gold and the mutineers' wish for asylum in the Klingon Empire was shown to be an unreal expectation. The guardship could also have been named after the Dorado constellation which was visible from Earth.
- The mutiny was said to have been the first in Federation history and was not made public.
Related stories
- TNG novel: Ship of the Line – Background on the Federation Division of Law Enforcement, the division under which Dorado may have operated.
- TOS comic: "The Crucial Element" – Driven mad by an infection in 2266, an Enterprise landing party mutinied, launching Kirk and McCoy into space aboard a wrecked space bug.
- TOS comic: "The Enterprise Mutiny" – Spock, McCoy and Sulu mutinied against a duplicate of Kirk in 2266.
- TOS episode: "This Side of Paradise" – Spores on Omicron Ceti III infected the Enterprise crew, triggering a ship-wide mutiny.
- TOS episode: "Turnabout Intruder" — Kirk (with the consciousness of Janice Lester) charged crew members with mutiny.
- TOS - Year Four comic: "The Enterprise Experiment, Part 3" – Showed a map of the Klingon border, albeit in 2269 after enactment of the Organian Peace Treaty.
- TOS movie: The Final Frontier – Spock defied an order from Kirk to kill a Vulcan, his half-brother Sybok.
Images
Connections
External links
- Mutiny on the Dorado article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.