The Crier in Emptiness

The Crier in Emptiness was the third of 11 TOS stories produced by Peter Pan Records. It was initially released in 1975 as an audio production along with two other stories. It was subsequently packaged by itself accompanied by a 20-page comic book. This was the third of seven stories set during Captain James T. Kirk’s first five-year mission aboard the USS Enterprise and the second of six with an associated comic book.

In this story, the crew were visited by a non-corporeal entity composed of pure sound.

Introduction

Ad for TOS record #1: The crew of the Enterprise in a trio of exciting adventures on a long-playing 33 1/3 RPM disc! You’ll be on the edge of your seat for the “Passage to Moauv,” weep for “The Crier in Emptiness,” and drink in “In Vino Veritas”! High-quality recordings, with no “warp factor”!

Summary

Captain's log, stardate 5444.9: The Enterprise is on a charting run through the partially explored Moran sector. Since this region seems relatively devoid of suns and planets, we expect to be finished here in a few days. Kirk out.

Captain's log, supplementary: The mysterious music has been with us for three days now and gives indications of increasing rather than abating. Every effort to locate some source for the sounds has proven futile. We are no closer to an explanation than we were days ago.

References

Races and cultures

Human • Vulcan
Referenced only: Edoan

States and organizations

Federation • Starfleet

Science and technology

black hole • communications • computer • parsec • quasar • radisar • sensor

Ranks and titles

captain • lieutenant • nurse

Other references

bone • bridge • concerto • Elisiar • keyboard • music • sign language • sleep • sound • violin • xylophone

Timeline

Chronology

Published Order
Previous story: In Vino Veritas	Peter Pan Records	Next story: The Time Stealer
Previous story: In Vino Veritas	Stories by: Alan Dean Foster	Next story: To Starve a Fleaver

Production history

The Crier in Emptiness was first released in 1975 on Peter Pan TOS record #1 of 23, a 33-rpm LP, along with Passage to Moauv and In Vino Veritas.
It was repackaged in 1975 as a solo story on 45-rpm record #6 accompanied by a 20-page comic book printed on thicker, whiter paper than was normal for comics at that time.
Subsequent record re-releases in 1979 had cover imagery from TOS movie: The Motion Picture. The audio appeared on records #11 and 22 and the audio/comic on records #12 and #13.
The audio/comic was also released on audio cassette together with Passage to Moauv in 1979.

Appendices

Background

McCoy rotated personnel in shifts aboard a shuttlecraft so that they would be able get sleep without interruption from the sound creature. Only one shuttle was used for this purpose.
The stardate suggested that this story took place shortly after the previous audio production, In Vino Veritas.
The Elisiar was mentioned several times in ST novel: A Singular Destiny. Joran Dax saw it played in a concert. During the Dominion War, the A.C. Walden Medicine Show musical troupe performed with the Elisiar on Romii. In 2381, they considered having A'l'e'r'w'w'o'k play the Elisiar on Troyius. In 2381, Ezri Dax heard a jam session on the Aventine which featured Spon on the Elisiar. Dax considered the instrument’s sound to be haunting.
When Kirk remarked about the sound creature possibly being lonely, Uhura quietly commented, "I heard a voice crying in the wilderness." She was referring to a statement made by John the Baptist in the Book of Isaiah in the Bible.
The inside cover artwork was the same as with the single release for Passage to Moauv, with line-art illustrations of characters from the Planet of the Apes movie series seen by Roberta Lincoln. The USS Enterprise traveled through a spatial anomaly into Apes continuity in the TOS comic: "The Primate Directive". The artwork also included Dracula, who briefly appeared in TOS comic: "The Haunting of Thallus!".
Although the captain’s log said the Enterprise was in an empty region of the Moran sector, the accompanying artwork depicted the Enterprise in a star system close to a star with at least four planets and a moon.
Conners cited a lack of "radisars" in the Moran sector. Radisars were not a currently-known astronomical phenomena.
Nyota Uhura was drawn like Nichelle Nichols on the cover, but not in the interior. Hikaru Sulu was drawn as an African-American.