Planet of Rejects

   

Planet of Rejects was an eight-page Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip published in 1970. It was the fourth of 11 annual stories in the UK comic strips series, and was printed along with the comic strip "Captives in Space" and the short story "Gateway to the Future" in TV21 Annual 1971.

Publisher's descriptionEdit

Omnibus teaser

In Astral Sector IV, the Enterprise finds a junkyard planet for obsolete spacecraft, where Kirk meets a group of exiled rebels from Thax, who attempt to commandeer the Enterprise.

SummaryEdit

Nyota Uhura picks up a spacecraft passing through Astral Sector IV. When it dives full speed into the atmosphere of a nearby planet, James T. Kirk dispatches the Galileo to look for survivors. He, Spock and Hikaru Sulu find large numbers of wrecked ships on the surface and realize it is a junkyard planet. They are approached by a crew of marooned Thaxians who gratefully accept Kirk's offer to take them back to their homeworld.

After giving the rescued crew their own quarters aboard the USS Enterprise, Kirk shows Captain Kandok the bridge. But when Kirk asks for the coordinates to Thax, Kandok pulls out a weapon — his crew are actually exiled rebels sentenced to death. He takes Uhura hostage, then locks Kirk and Spock in a storeroom. They pry open a ventilator grid, climb through to Kirk's quarters, and hail Thax to warn them about the pirates. Thax prefers to destroy the Enterprise with missiles rather than allow the rebels to return.

As the Enterprise approaches Thax, Kirk and Spock toss a pair of anesthesia gas grenades into the bridge's air ducts. They then storm the bridge, only to find that the Thaxians are immune to the gas. A phaser fight ensues. Eventually the Thaxians withdraw and abandon the starship in a shuttlecraft. Kirk activates the deflectors just in time to destroy two Thaxian nuclear missiles, but a third missile homes in on the shuttlecraft and blows it up. Kirk says he's had enough of this sector.

ReferencesEdit

CharactersEdit

Kandok • James T. Kirk • Spock • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura

Starships and vehiclesEdit

USS Enterprise (Constitution-class heavy cruiser) • Galileo (class F shuttlecraft) • unnamed class F shuttlecraft • unnamed alien ship

LocationsEdit

Astral Sector IV (Junkyard planet • Thax)

Referenced only 

Earth • Jupiter

Races and culturesEdit

Human • Thaxian • Vulcan

Science and technologyEdit

communicator • forcefield • gas mask • grenade • knock-out gas • nuclear missile • phaser • pistol • radio • rocket • staff • translator communicator • viewscreen

Ranks and titlesEdit

captain • crew • communications officer • Federation Starfleet ranks (2260s) • lieutenant • pirate • rebel • Starfleet ranks

Other referencesEdit

atmosphere • brain • chemical • command centre • galaxy • gas • government • headache • hostage • language • month • parking orbit • planet • quarters • sector • space • Starfleet uniform • Starfleet uniform (2265-2270) • storeroom

TimelineEdit

Production historyEdit

1971 

First printed in TV21 Annual 1971 (City Magazines)

December 2016 

Reprinted in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 2 (IDW Publishing)

AppendicesEdit

BackgroundEdit

• Publication date was September 1, 1970. (Amazon.com.)
• Although Thax was not seen in the story, the Enterprise approached close enough to be hit by two of their nuclear missiles.

Related storiesEdit

• TOS episode: "Space Seed" – Kirk and Spock activated anesthesia gas throughout the Enterprise to incapacitate Khan Noonien Singh's forces, who were later exiled to Ceti Alpha V.
• TOS comic: "Spectre of the Zond" – Spock used anesthesia gas grenades to incapacitate Zonds who had taken over the ship.
• TOS comic: "The Devil's Isle of Space" – Exiled prisoners awaited execution on an asteroid in the Nabu system.

ConnectionsEdit

External linksEdit

• Planet of Rejects article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.