A secret space lab wants Mr. Spock's help—as a guinea pig! — "The Perfect Dream" was the 26th issue of Gold Key Comics' 1967 series of Star Trek comics. The issue consisted of 25 pages of story illustrated by Alberto Giolitti and was the second of five stories written by John Warner.
Description[]
- "The Perfect Dream" … finds the denizens of a planet living in a Shangri-La as beautiful as John Hilton's Lost Horizon. But the planet is really a gigantic starship, created by a powerful alien who used his own cells to clone a "perfect" population. The alien wants cells from Spock to broaden the gene pool.
Summary[]
- Federation Board of Inquiry, stardate 30:20:4
- Investigation into possible Federation involvement in annihilation of neutral planet body! Recorders log: Testimony of Captain James T. Kirk…
- Stardate 30:19:12
- The Starship Enterprise was on data maneouvers when we sighted a strange planet. The planet seemed to be part of no system; it had no orbit and moved in a straight line. The landing party I took down included Spock, helmsman Sulu, medical officer Chapel, communications Lieutenant Uhuru and security officer Manning.
- The planet was one of great beauty. The animals were hostile and we were saved from attack by the inhabitants of the planet. The inhabitants appeared to have a culture similar to that of our own ancient Japanese and were ruled by their leader, Yamoto. It was observed that large numbers of people looked alike. Out of 100 people I saw, only six different faces were in evidence. The one named Oshino acted as our guide and it seemed that Rifas-L was a planet of harmony and perfection. But somewhere in me there was the feeling that something was wrong.
- As we continued our investigations, it appeared that the people had no knowledge or memories of their childhood. It was also noted that not a single child was to be seen on Rifas-L. Spock requested that he should go out alone to investigate a building he had seen which had registered strange readings on his tri-corder.
- Meanwhile, the rest of the party were being entertained by our friend, Ekoe, who presented us with a model house he had created and asked us if he could leave with us on the Enterprise. At the very moment of his question, a party of warriors called the Collectors arrived to arrest Ekoe and execute him for being the creator of the model straw house. The charge against him being that in order to have a creative instinct he must be a mutant.
- Although Federation regulations forbade us to interfere, I felt that this atrocity should be prevented. After a futile attempt to stop the arrest, we were overcome and forced to watch the mass slaughter of people whose only crimes were age, disfigurement or intelligence… (Kirk's Testimony, Star Trek Mighty Midget edition)
Oshino thinks mutations and the elderly should be destroyed, yet she has strange visions of being scooped out of a vat with a grappler. When Collectors come to arrest and execute Oshino and the landing party, they are stunned with phasers. Meanwhile, Spock enters a cloning laboratory and discovers they aren't on a planet, but a vast starship. He meets overlord Yamoto, founder of the programmed society. While he'd used his own cells to create the Third Dan males, cells from the five other types of people are stolen. He paralyzes Spock, intending to collect Vulcan cells to broaden the genetic base.
When Spock can't be reached, Oshino leads the landing party to a forbidden door within the Palace of Life, behind which they discover the clone lab. Realizing her life is just an experiment, Oshino goes berserk, tearing at the equipment in a rage. Kirk, Chapel and Manning stop defensive robots with their phasers. Spock stumbles through a door toward them, recommending an immediate retreat. Oshino grabs Kirk's phaser and tells him she will hunt down Yamato, but everyone else has to leave. She then collapses the ceiling between them with the phaser. Before a pursuing group of Collectors can stab them with swords, Kirk hails the Enterprise and beams up the landing party.
- The Enterprise pulled out – I had intended to take this situation to the Federation for consideration. Once again we can only imagine what followed! Spock thinks Oshino rushed in on Yamoto…
Oshino activates the planet-ship's self destruct system to destroy Rifas-L.
- That is what I know or have derived from known facts. It is my unwavering belief that Federation intervention cannot be blamed for what happened! We may have been the vehicle, but the process was inevitable!
References[]
Characters[]
- Christine Chapel • Ekoe • James T. Kirk • Manning • Oshino • Montgomery Scott • Spock • Hikaru Sulu • Pavel Chekov • Nyota Uhura • Yamoto
Starships and vehicles[]
- USS Enterprise (Constitution-class heavy cruiser) • Rifas-L starship
- Referenced only
- Space scooper
Locations[]
- Board of Inquiry • Garden of Eternity • Palace of Life • Rifas-L • Shondo Ho • Triquilus
- Referenced only
- Japan (Earth)
Races and cultures[]
States and organizations[]
- Federation • Federation Board of Inquiry • First Dan • Starfleet • Third Dan
Science and classification[]
- agriculture • balm • cloning • genetics • grappler • gravity • laboratory • medicine • orbit • ore • paralyzer • phaser • planet • planetary classification • plant • recorder • robot • rogue planet • sensor • space • stardate • starship • type-2 phaser (phaser pistol) • self destruct • sword • tricorder • vid-sorb • weapon
Ranks and titles[]
- captain • chief medical officer • collector • clan father • commander • commanding officer • communications officer • doctor • ensign • helmsman • lieutenant • lieutenant commander • medical officer • mister • navigator • nurse • overlord • philosopher • samurai • science officer • security • security officer • warrior
Other references[]
- agriculture • android • animal • architecture • astronomy • bird • captain's log • cell • class M planet • communications • data maneuver • diplomacy • execution • government • herb • humanoid • landing party • lifeform • log entry • meditation • mutant • nation-state • orbit • races and cultures • raven • science • ship's log • star system • technology • warp four
Appendices[]
Related media[]
- TNG episode: "Up the Long Ladder" – Five crash survivors populated a colony through cloning.
Background[]
- "The Perfect Dream" was abridged in a 14-page b/w story released as Star Trek Mighty Midget in 1976, a free supplement accompanying the British weekly comic magazine Mighty TV Comic #1293. Part 1 of the story was summarized with typewritten tribunal testimony, while part 2 was printed in its entirely.
- The reprint in The Enterprise Logs, Volume 4 omitted page 10. On that page, Kirk and Uhura noticed that flowers were edible and that they’d not seen any children on the planet. Spock stunned hostile cats and considered that these animals might be guarding something.
- This story has been released seven times in English and translated into Dutch, German, and Italian.
- Similar to the clone society in this story which was sourced on the genetic material of six people, a clone society sourced on five people was encountered by the USS Enterprise in the 24th century. After 200 years of cloning, that society was endangered by replicative fading, a problem Overlord Yamoto may have overcome. As with Spock, William T. Riker and Katherine Pulaski disapproved of having their genetic material stolen in order to enhance the genetic base. (TNG episode: "Up the Long Ladder")
- Yamoto achieved via cloning and genetic engineering the type of pre-programmed society Roger Korby had dreamed of achieving via the use of androids. (TOS episode & Star Trek 11 novelization: What Are Little Girls Made Of?)
- Though it initially was assessed to be a rogue planet, the Rifas-L starship could be the largest spacecraft encountered by James T. Kirk. While its mass and size were not cited specifically, the gravity on the surface was not abnormal for the landing party, suggesting a diameter for the ship which was somewhat similar to that of Venus or Earth.
- Pavel Chekov was given an order in one panel, but had no dialogue. Montgomery Scott was in command of the ship throughout this story, but had one line of dialogue and was seen in two panels.
- Security officer Manning was a recurring character who had previously appeared with a more youthful appearance in TOS comic: "The Mummies of Heitius VII" and would return in TOS comic: "The Final Truth".
- Spock considered his Vulcan healing abilities as seen in TOS episode: "A Private Little War" while reviving from a neural paralyzer.
Images[]
The Rifas-L planet ship
First Dan Ekoe builds
Overlord Yamoto
Officer Manning
Third Dan Oshino
Connections[]
Timeline[]
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: #25: Dwarf Planet |
TOS comics (Gold Key) | Next comic: #27: Ice Journey |
| Previous story: The Mummies of Heitius VII |
Stories by: John Warner |
Next story: Ice Journey |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous adventure: Precipice Chapters 2-13 |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next adventure: Shore Leave |
| Previous comic: Burning Dreams Chapters Chapters 1, 3, 5-9, 11, 13, 14 & 21 |
Voyages of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), Year Two | Next comic: Shore Leave |
Production history[]
- September 1974
- First published by Gold Key Comics
- August 1976
- Printed in the omnibus The Enterprise Logs, Volume 3 (Golden Press)
- 25 September 1976
- Abridged over 14 pages in b/w in Great Britain in Star Trek Mighty Midget (Polystyle Publications Ltd.)
- June 2004
- Printed in the omnibus The Key Collection, Volume 4 (Checker Book Publishing Group)
- September 2008
- Included on The Complete Comic Book Collection DVD (Graphic Imaging Technologies)
- August 2014
- Remastered in hardcover in the omnibus Gold Key Archives, Volume 5 (IDW)
- 1 March 2018
- Remastered in hardcover in the omnibus Graphic Novel Collection #31 (Eaglemoss)
Translations[]
- 1975
- Dutch: As "De volmaakte droom" in b/w in Star Trek #9 (De Vrijbuiter)
- 1976
- German: Abridged in the omnibus "Stadt der letzten Hoffnung" in Zack Comic Box #22: Enterprise (Koralle-Verlag)
- 2006
- Italian: As "Il Sogno Perfetto" in the omnibus The Gold Key Collection, Volume 7 (Free Books)
External links[]
- The Perfect Dream article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- The Perfect Dream discussion at the Drawing Trek Podcast.
- The Perfect Dream article at Madgoblin’s Ward.
- Star Trek Mighty Midget Comic article at the Albion British Comics Database Wikia.