"To Swiftly Go..." was an 18-page Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip. It was the 30th weekly story arc in the UK comic strips series, published in nine installments in Valiant and TV21 in 1972. In this story, a landing party visits a planet of giant humanoids.
Description[]
- Omnibus teaser
- The Enterprise crew visits Kwettir, whose natives are ten times normal human size. Shot down by a hunter, the officers are captured by a giant child and nearly consumed by a massive spider.
Summary[]
Leaving Pavel Chekov in command, James T. Kirk, Spock, Leonard McCoy, Montgomery Scott and a pilot head to a diplomatic mission to meet Governor Antar of Kwettir. While traveling via shuttlecraft, an enormous bird swipes at the ship. Scott is forced to shoot it with the ship's phasers, but it lands next to a hunter who thinks the shuttle might be a hawk and fires at it with his rifle. The back third of the shuttle is instantly shredded, but luckily the shuttle crash-lands in water. Although the pilot dies, the others make it to shore, realizing that everything on the planet is on a huge scale relative to them, with the Kwettirian humanoids being more than 100 feet tall.
They ignite a fire so jetcopters will notice them, but instead a boy named Togor stuffs them in his pocket, then leaves them in a jar in his bedroom. As Spock tries to repair his communicator, a curious spider climbs onto the jar. The landing party is able to roll the jar over and shatter it against the floor. Returning, the boy hears the noise and swats the spider. He puts Kirk, Scott and McCoy onto a toy train, but Spock remains hidden. Realizing his shipmates could be killed by the relatively high speed of the train on the oval track, Spock fires a toy cannon at the boy to draw his attention. It works, allowing Kirk to disable the train engine with a well-aimed phaser blast, and they all manage to slip away under the bedroom door.
By this time, Antar's aide Clorac has figured out the size differential. Antar updates Chekov, then makes a public broadcast on television asking citizens to look for the visitors. Togor overhears and tells his parents the tiny people had been in his room, but had escaped. Meanwhile, the officers have made it outside, but are cornered by a group of ants. Spock's translator communicator at last begins to work, and by using its amplification circuits the boy hears them and saves them from the ants.
Later, the landing party attends a reception and conference, with Kwettir expected to sign a friendship treaty with the Federation.
References[]
Characters[]
- Antar • Pavel Chekov • Clorac • Gorda • James T. Kirk • Leonard McCoy • Mornic • Montgomery Scott • Spock • Togor • Nyota Uhura • unnamed USS Enterprise personnel (2260s) (pilot)
Starships and vehicles[]
- USS Enterprise (Constitution-class heavy cruiser) • jetcopter • rocket • train • unnamed shuttlecraft
Locations[]
Races and cultures[]
States and organizations[]
Science and technology[]
- communications • communicator • computer • engine • intercom • phaser • probe • projectile weapon • radio • rifle • scanner • television • translator communicator • transporter • universal translator • video • viewscreen
Ranks and titles[]
- aide • captain • ensign • farmer • Federation Starfleet ranks (2260s) • governor • hunter • pilot • policeman • rank • senior officer • skipper • Starfleet ranks
Other references[]
- ant • assignment patch • atmosphere • beam • bird • book • bridge • button • cannon • carpet • civilization • cricket • desk • dress uniform • electricity • fairy tale • fly • furniture • glass • grass • hawk • history • hour • insect • lute • minnek • mistle thrush • motor • orbit • planet • rodent • replica • second • sickbay • slavery • space • spider • spider web • star • Starfleet uniform • Starfleet uniform (2265-2270) • star system • teddy bear • transporter room • treaty • tree • universe • volleyball • water • wheel
Appendices[]
Related media[]
- TOS novel: Giant in the Universe – In the 2260s, James T. Kirk, Spock and Montgomery Scott were trapped in glass jars next to a cage full of giant rats in a laboratory run by an enormous humanoid.
- TOS comics: "Where Giants Tread", "Nova-Thirteen" – Other encounters with giant humanoids in the UK comic strips series.
- TOS comics: "Beware the Beast", "I, Emperor" – Other encounters with giant spiders in the series.
- TOS comic: "Vibrations in Time" – Another encounter with giant ants in the series.
Background[]
- This story was not printed with a title, but it was given one ("To Swiftly Go...") for its reprinting in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 2.
- The title is a nod to Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, in which relative giant Lemuel Gulliver is captured by tiny Lilliputians. That story is also celebrated in TOS comic: "Dwarf Planet", where the Enterprise crew encounters tiny Kujalans.
- Three Valiant and TV21 covers during the publication of this arc featured people referenced in Star Trek. The cover to issue #35 featured Jules Verne; issue #39 spotlighted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his creation Sherlock Holmes; and issue 41 featured American Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant.
- The story may have originated from an unused script for the Land of the Giants comic strip, which had been serialized along with Star Trek in the magazines Joe 90: Top Secret, TV21 & Joe90 and TV21 Weekly, but had been canceled in 1970. (ST reference: New Life and New Civilizations: Exploring Star Trek Comics)
- Togor's bedroom contains many common items, including a cymbal monkey, books, dice, pencil, pendulum wave toy, teddy bear, and a volleyball.
- Leonard McCoy wears an operations division dress uniform to the planet's surface and addresses Kirk as James rather than Jim.
- Pavel Chekov is given command and wears an operations division uniform, with Nyota Uhura deferring to him, suggesting a placement after his promotion to lieutenant and/or security chief.
Images[]
Connections[]
Timeline[]
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: The Collector |
TOS comics UK comic strips |
Next comic: The Mindless Ones |
Production history[]
- This story was serialized in two-page sections over nine consecutive weeks in Valiant and TV21 magazine. All issues were 36 pages, with the Star Trek segment printed in color on pages 18-19, except for issue 37, which was 40 pages with the segment printed on pages 20-21.
- 20 May 1972: Pages 1-2 published in Valiant and TV21 #34.
- 27 May 1972: Pages 3-4 published in Valiant and TV21 #35.
- 3 June 1972: Pages 5-6 published in Valiant and TV21 #36.
- 10 June 1972: Pages 7-8 published in Valiant and TV21 #37.
- 17 June 1972: Pages 9-10 published in Valiant and TV21 #38.
- 24 June 1972: Pages 11-12 published in Valiant and TV21 #39.
- 1 July 1972: Pages 13-14 published in Valiant and TV21 #40.
- 8 July 1972: Pages 15-16 published in Valiant and TV21 #41.
- 15 July 1972: Pages 17-18 published in Valiant and TV21 #42.
- December 2016
- Reprinted in the omnibus The Classic UK Comics, Volume 2 (IDW Publishing)
- 1 February 2018
- Reprinted in the omnibus Graphic Novel Collection #29 (Eaglemoss)
External links[]
- To Swiftly Go... article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.