The Mimicking Menace was a comic book story published by Gold Key Comics in 1975. In this story, the Galileo shuttlecraft lands on a barren world harboring a mysterious lifeform which absorbs energy and duplicates matter.
Publisher's description
- Cover blurb:
- Dead Planet? Or Deadly?
Summary
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References
Characters
- Calder • James T. Kirk • Leonard McCoy • Montgomery Scott • Spock • Hikaru Sulu • Tactisian • Nyota Uhura • Unnamed USS Enterprise personnel (2260s) (Two security officers)
Starships and vehicles
Locations
Races and cultures
States and organizations
Science and technology
- amino acid • atmosphere • circuit • communicator • crater • ion • lava • life-sign • molecule • phaser • protein • scanner • setting 1 • transporter • video camera robot • volcano
Ranks and titles
Other references
Timeline
Chronology
| previous comic: #27: Ice Journey |
Star Trek: The Original Series (Gold Key) |
next comic: #29: The Planet of No Return |
|---|
Appendices
Background
- The parasite did not provide evidence of sentience, as its actions were entirely based on instinct, driven by hunger. It attempted no contact through its duplicates except to lure and expose others to be drained.
- The parasite lived inside the volcano and apparently drew energy from magma, or else it could not have survived on an otherwise dead asteroid. Expelled lava in the crater and in the lava flow miraculously cooled in moments, for example, as if all its heat were drained away. It normally would take 10-15 minutes just for surface of a lave flow to be cool enough to walk on, and years for its interior to cool. The lifeform may be able to change magma temperatures to trigger volcanic eruptions.
- It seemed that the parasite originated from Tactis II, but it could have been brought there. Within the volcano, the robot probe found an unidentified alien spacecraft. Either the spacecraft carried the parasite to the volcano, or the parasite was in the volcano and lured the ship there.
- The unidentified spacecraft discovered by the robot appeared to be modular, chemically powered and not capable of warp travel. The asteroid was identified as “wandering,” so at some point it must have passed through a star system within range of an inhabited planet that was capable of sending an interplanetary spacecraft to land on the surface.
- The current location of the asteroid was not mentioned in the story, but it must be near or within an important Federation location in order to prompt an investigation by a starship. Stardate 3421.7 was near to stardate 3417.3, citied in TOS episode: "This Side of Paradise", suggesting perhaps that the asteroid might be passing through the Omicron Ceti system or a neighboring system.
- The parasite drained power from the Galileo, Kirk’s communicator, and several humans, but it did not drain or duplicate phasers, a significant energy source and the only one that was able to destabilize the duplicates.
- The unnamed male security officer looked similar to Manning as he was drawn in TOS comic: "The Final Truth". The unnamed female security officer looked similar to Lt. Angela Martine.
- Galileo was said to be ion-powered. It withstood being dragged by a lava flow, only scorching the paint.
- Spock deduced which of two Kirks was real by picking the weaker one, as he did in TOS episode: "Whom Gods Destroy".
- Spock hypothesized that, when the lifeform attempted to duplicate him, the process took longer due to his anatomy being different from human. Since the parasite had no trouble with humans, a shuttlecraft or a robot, it was unclear what aspect of the Vulcan’s anatomy would take longer to duplicate.
- Despite her wearing a red operations uniform, Lt. Calder was clearly a biologist, whose purpose on the landing party was to study life forms on the asteroid.
- Sulu was given command by Scott in dialogue, but Uhura appeared to be giving commands while Sulu manned the helm.
- The “shuttleship” Galileo and its duplicate were consistently marked NCC-1701/1.
Related stories
- TOS episode: "The Man Trap" – Driven by hunger, an alien lifeform duplicated a variety of humans.
- TOS episode: "The Devil in the Dark" – Crew encountered a sentient, non-carbon-based lifeform.
- TOS episode: "Whom Gods Destroy" – Spock was faced with two Kirks and forced to deduce which was the real one.
- TOS episode: "The Galileo Seven" – First flight of the Galileo (NCC-1701/7) (I) shuttlecraft.
Images
Lt. Calder
Security officer
Security officer
Video camera robot
Tactisian
External links
- The Mimicking Menace article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.