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This article is about the TOS comic. You may be looking for DTI novel: The Collectors.

"The Collector" was a 22-page Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip. It was the 29th weekly story arc in the UK comic strips series, published in 11 installments in Valiant and TV21 in 1972. This was the fifth of 14 stories drawn by John Stokes. In this story, a museum collector aims to make an exhibit out of the USS Enterprise.

Description[]

Omnibus teaser
Attacked by a "flying saucer" at Beton Three, Kirk's crew finds that it contains missing vessels from around the galaxy, including a prototype Earth plane. The abductor: An elderly being called the Collector (no relation to Palnak), who plans to add the Enterprise to his display.

Summary[]

Wallace Hawkins is test piloting an experimental rocket plane in Earth orbit when his vessel is hijacked by a flying saucer. The saucer departs for the Beton star system, where it approaches and fires at the USS Enterprise. Enterprise personnel disable the saucer and find the plane in the cargo hold. Admiral Voysey reports that similar saucers have been abducting vehicles for centuries. Nyota Uhura detects radio signals from nearby Beton III, so Kirk cautiously takes Spock and an armed team to the surface in a shuttlecraft.

Although they are invited to land near a large complex, a cannon suddenly blasts at the shuttle, crashing it onto the roof of a geodesic dome. The shuttle crew spots several flying saucers inside the dome, confirming their origin. The crew carefully climbs down and peers inside a second dome containing a vast museum of airplanes and automobiles. Spock mysteriously disappears — to limit casualties, Kirk beams up his landing party, then carefully enters the museum. An armed android Spock confronts him. After a brief firefight, an elderly humanoid appears, destroys the duplicate Spock, then brings Kirk to the real Spock. The humanoid is called the Collector, and he intends to use Kirk and Spock duplicates to bring the Enterprise to the surface, where it will be added to his museum.

Robots take the two Starfleet officers to a prison cell, but Kirk and Spock break free and flee into a hangar full of flight-ready and fueled World War II aircraft. Spock suggests they escape in a Vickers Wellington bomber. When it takes off, the Collector sends android British airmen to pursue in three Supermarine Spitfire fighters. A dogfight ensues, with Kirk manning the machine gun turrets while Spock carefully maneuvers two of the Spitfires to crash into each other.

Aboard the Enterprise, Montgomery Scott obeys orders from Kirk and Spock androids to bring the starship low into the atmosphere. Uhura spots the dogfight and puts it on the viewscreen, then picks up a hail from Spock in the bomber, who verifies his identity with a code word. The android duplicates raise their phasers. Suddenly the helmsman veers the ship off-course, making the androids stagger, and during the momentary confusion he shoots the Kirk android while Scott shoots the Spock android.

The dogfight ends when Kirk shoots down the third Spitfire, but the Wellington runs out of fuel, and the Enterprise quickly beams them up. Annoyed by the failure of his androids, the Collector launches a rocket at the Wellington. However, the Wellington is near the museum, and as it strikes the bomber, the explosion also blows up the museum dome.

References[]

Characters[]

CollectorJames T. KirkWallace HawkinsJansenMontgomery ScottSpockHikaru SuluNyota UhuraVoyseyunnamed USS Enterprise personnel (2260s) (helmsman, crewmen)

Starships and vehicles[]

Spacecraft[]

USS Enterprise (Constitution-class heavy cruiser) • flying saucerG-50X rocket planeSaturn V rocketShuttlecraft NCC-1701/8 (class F shuttlecraft)
Referenced only
UFOs

Aircraft[]

Avro LancasterGloster GladiatorSupermarine SpitfireVickers Wellington
Referenced only
B-36 Peacemaker

Ground vehicles[]

Jaguar XK120Strategic hovercraft

Locations[]

BetonBeton III (Collector's museum) • Earth (Maribou FlatsNorth AmericaFederation Headquarters)
Referenced only
Jupiter

Races and cultures[]

HumanHumanoidVulcan

States and organizations[]

FederationTrans-Global Aeronautics Research Corporation

Science and technology[]

androidcameracannoncommunicationscommunicatorcomputerengineenvironmental suitforce fieldgunmachine gunnavigation computerphaser rifleradiorobotscannertractor beamtransporterturbolifttype-1 phasertype-2 phaseruniversal translatorvideoviewscreen

Ranks and titles[]

admiralarmaments officerastronautcaptainchief engineercommandercommanding officerFederation Starfleet ranks (2260s)first officerhelmsmanpilotprofessorrankskipperStarfleet rankssteersmantest pilot

Other references[]

September 19721984airfieldassignment patchatmospherebeambridgebulletcargo holdcenturycodecombcondition greenemergency standbyfuelgovernmenthangarhumanoidleadmetalmeteormileminutemountainoceanorbitpetrolphotographplaneprison cellsecondspaceStarfleet uniformStarfleet uniform (2265-2270)stonestratospheretransporter roomuniversewaterWorld War IIyear

Appendices[]

Related media[]

Background[]

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)

Timeline[]

Published Order
Previous comic:
Ground Zero
TOS comics (UK comic strips) Next comic:
To Swiftly Go...
Chronological Order
Previous adventure:
Ground Zero
Memory Beta Chronology Next adventure:
Creeping Death
Previous comic:
Ground Zero
Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), Year Three Next comic:
Creeping Death

Production history[]

  • This story was serialized in two-page sections over 11 consecutive weeks in Valiant and TV21 magazine. Issues 25, 27, 29, 30, 32, and 33 were 36 pages, with the Star Trek segment printed in color on pages 18-19. Issues 26, 28, and 31 were 40 pages with the segment printed on pages 20-21.
March 1972
April 1972
  • 1 April 1972: Pages 9-10 published in Valiant and TV21 #27.
  • 8 April 1972: Pages 11-12 published in Valiant and TV21 #28.
  • 15 April 1972: Pages 13-14 published in Valiant and TV21 #29.
  • 22 April 1972: Pages 15-16 published in Valiant and TV21 #30.
  • 29 April 1972: Pages 17-18 published in Valiant and TV21 #31.
May 1972
  • 6 May 1972: Pages 19-20 published in Valiant and TV21 #32.
  • 13 May 1972: Pages 21-22 published in Valiant and TV21 #33.
December 2016
Reprinted in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 2. (IDW Publishing)
1 February 2018
Reprinted in the omnibus Graphic Novel Collection, Volume 29. (Eaglemoss Collections)

External links[]

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