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"The Mindless Ones" was a ten-page Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip. It was the 31st weekly story arc in the UK comic strips series, published in five installments in Valiant and TV21 in 1972. In this story, the USS Enterprise encounters a small sentient probe.

Description[]

Teaser, August 12, 1972
For centuries, the process of eliminating people had been unknown on the planet Janvar. There had been perfect peace… until an attempt by six criminals to overthrow the regime! Caught, their punishment had been the removal of their minds... their personalities... which had been sent out on an endless voyage through space, contained in a metal cylinder...

Summary[]

Nyota Uhura picks up an SOS distress signal from the Janvar Five space probe, a device launched from Janvar centuries earlier, apparently to seek out intelligent life. James T. Kirk brings it aboard the USS Enterprise and Spock determines the probe's point of origin. The starship arrives in orbit of Janvar and Uhura establishes contact with President Kort. Kort spots the probe on the bridge of the Enterprise and panics. He immediately fires missiles at the Enterprise, intent on destroying the probe at all costs.

Force fields nullify the missiles. Still in a panic, Kort orders the "mindless ones" to be destroyed. These turn out to be the bodies of ruthless criminals kept in stasis, whose personalities had been jettisoned into space as an alternative to the death penalty. Janvar Five contains the minds of six ruthless rebels, and now they reanimate their former bodies on the planet, bursting out of their stasis chambers before guards can stop them. Via psychokinesis the probe paralyzes the crew of the Enterprise to prevent interference.

The criminals' bodies board a shuttle rocket. To buy time, Spock agrees to help them land aboard the Enterprise. He hypothesizes that the Janvarians' minds are overtaxed with the effort of controlling so many people at once. Montgomery Scott alerts the bridge that he's in the middle of a battery charge procedure which threatens to blow up the ship because he can't move to turn it off. Spock uses that emergency to distract the criminals — their rocket collides against the shields of the Enterprise and blows up. Now without purpose, the probe collapses, dead.

References[]

Characters[]

James T. KirkKortMontgomery ScottSpockNyota Uhuraunnamed Janvarians

Starships and vehicles[]

USS Enterprise (Constitution-class heavy cruiser) • shuttle rocket

Locations[]

Janvar (Neutralisation Centre)

Races and cultures[]

HumanJanvarianVulcan

States and organizations[]

Starfleet (command divisionoperations divisionsciences division)

Science and technology[]

acceptorartificial intelligencecommunicationscommunicatorcomputerdisintegratordockingengineforce fieldgunhoverliftintercomJanvar Fivemissilepower cellprintoutproberiflerocketscannerstar chartstasisstasis chamberstoring chargetransportervideoviewscreen

Ranks and titles[]

captaincriminalguardpresidentrebelFederation Starfleet ranks (2260s)rankStarfleet ranks

Other references[]

beambridgecapital citycenturycourt martialcrimedeath penaltydistress signalengineeringlifehelmlifeformlightmetalminuteorbitpeacepsychokinesissecondsecuritySOSspacestarstar systemstarshiptelepathytransporter roomuniversevaultassignment patchStarfleet uniformStarfleet uniform (2265-2270)

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:
To Swiftly Go...
TOS comics (UK comic strips) Next comic:
The Perithees Alliance
Chronological Order
Previous adventure:
The Prisoner of Vega
Memory Beta Chronology Next adventure:
The Void of Storms
Previous comic:
The Prisoner of Vega
Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), Year Two Next comic:
The Void of Storms
Production history[]
  • This story was serialized in two-page sections over five consecutive weeks in Valiant and TV21 magazine. Issues 44, 45, and 46 were 36 pages, with the Star Trek segment printed in color on pages 18-19. Issues 43 and 47 were 40 pages with the segment printed on pages 20-21.
July 1972
August 1972
September 2017
Reprinted in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 3. (IDW Publishing)
16 July 2020
Reprinted in the omnibus Graphic Novel Collection, Volume 121. (Eaglemoss Collections)

External link[]

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