The Menace of the Mechanitrons

   

The Menace of the Mechanitrons is the first story in the second issue of the Waypoint miniseries, published by IDW Publishing in honor of Star Trek's 50th anniversary. The story is set in 2267 during Captain Kirk's five-year mission aboard the USS Enterprise and was produced in the style of Gold Key Comics.

Publisher's descriptionEdit

Teaser page

First up is an homage to the classic Gold Key Star Trek comics. For those of you not familiar with those 1960s gems, the early Gold Key comics were created by writers and artists who, at times, had never even seen the show, and worked off of whatever publicity materials they could get their hands on. Needless to say, their end results were definitely unusual—and very un-Trek in some cases (Spock kills! The Enterprise belches fire!)!

SummaryEdit

Captain's log, stardate 37:05.7 

Top brass has tasked the Enterprise with investigating a distress call from the scout ship Ad Aspera...

James T. Kirk, Spock, Montgomery Scott, and Christine Chapel beamed down to Phygma 4. The area was rich with gravitite, an invaluable commodity. They found the lifeless hulk of the ship being disassembled by 20-foot-tall golden robots driven by Klingons. The landing party fired at the Klingon mechanitrons, but Kirk surrendered when Chapel was threatened. A Phygman explained that the Klingons had conquered them under the rules of their culture, which had been devastated by war. To get rid of the Klingons, Kirk had to prove that his people were stronger. Kirk challenged the Klingon commander to a duel. The Klingon accepted, choosing mechanitrons as his choice of weapon.

While Scott hastily repaired a robot for Kirk to use, a Klingon assault ship in orbit launched five mechanitrons toward the Enterprise. Hikaru Sulu reversed the polarity of the hull plating to repel them.

Kirk and the Klingon leader fought, but sabotage made Kirk's robot overheat. Spock arrived at the last minute with a second mechanitron to wreck the Klingon's robot. Kirk won despite the sabotage, so the natives pledged their loyalty to Kirk. Kirk gave them their freedom and promised to return to help the natives rebuild their planet.

ReferencesEdit

CharactersEdit

Christine Chapel • James T. Kirk • Leonard McCoy • Montgomery Scott • Spock • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura

Starships and vehiclesEdit

Ad Aspera • USS Enterprise (Constitution-class) • Klingon assault ship

LocationsEdit

Phygma 4

Referenced only 

Jupiter

Races and culturesEdit

Human • Klingon • Phygman • Vulcan

States and organizationsEdit

United Federation of Planets

Science and technologyEdit

artificial gravity • communicator • gravitite • mineral • phaser • polarized hull plating • robot • sensor • technology • tricorder

Ranks and titlesEdit

barbarian • captain • Federation Starfleet ranks (2260s) • nurse

Other referencesEdit

gold • landing party • logic • Mechanitron • metal • mining • orbit • planet • slavery • space • Starfleet uniform (2265-2270) • war

AppendicesEdit

BackgroundEdit

• The story emulated many Gold Key features, from shouted dialogue to the fiery exhaust of the warp engines. Other traits included a hyperbole-filled title page and a backpack-equipped landing party which included Christine Chapel rather than Leonard McCoy. Klingons went unnamed. Previously unheard-of substances became critical. Alien natives looked like bald Humans. Technology was slightly off (in this case, by defending the starship with hull plating instead of raising shields).
• One aspect the comic couldn't mimic was the poor print quality of comic books in that era. An aged look was simulated by colorist Jason Lewis with flat, faded colors and worn-looking areas on the page.

Related storiesEdit

• TOS - Star Trek: The Manga - Uchu comic: "Orphans" – Nearly two dozen Haarkos mechanoids attacked the Enterprise in 2268. The hull's polarity was similarly reversed to repel them.

ConnectionsEdit

External LinkEdit

• The Menace of the Mechanitrons article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.