UK comic strips

Star Trek, the UK comic strips series, was a series of 37 Star Trek: The Original Series comic strip stories published in Great Britain from 1969 to 1973, with 11 annual stories printed up through 1978.

Overview[]

The stories were serialized weekly in four magazines: Joe 90: Top Secret, TV21 & Joe 90, TV21 Weekly and Valiant and TV21. All of the stories were reprinted for the first time in America in the omnibus collections The Classic UK Comics, Volume 1, The Classic UK Comics, Volume 2, and The Classic UK Comics, Volume 3.

The series recounted stories from the five-year mission of the USS Enterprise. While three took place in sector 004, and the events of arc 36 were set up by those in arc 35, the rest were unrelated stories set variously between 2265 and 2268, analogous to stories being published concurrently in Gold Key Comics.

Series firsts[]

Nyota Uhura was seen in command of the Enterprise five times in this series, as early as September 27, 1969, four years prior to her televised first command in TAS episode: "The Lorelei Signal".
The first licensed release after TOS completed its broadcast run was the third installment of arc 5, "The Children of Stai", on June 7, 1969.
The first licensed stories featuring Klingons were published around the same time in January 1970 in arc 11, "The Klingon Ultimatum", and in the novel Spock Must Die!.
The first planet within the Klingon Empire was seen in 1970, in arc 13, "Mutiny on the Dorado".
The first licensed story featuring Romulans was published in 1970, in arc 12, "The Marshall Plan".
Romulus was seen for the first time in 1971, in arc 21, "Key Witness".
The interior of a warp nacelle was first seen in 1971, in "Prison Break", two years prior to its onscreen debut in TAS episode: "One of Our Planets Is Missing".
The ruler of the Romulan people was first seen in 1973, in arc 36, "Shell Game".
Crewman Hurst was the first original, licensed character to make three appearances (1969-1970). The second was security officer Manning in Gold Key Comics (1973-1975).
Admiral Voysey was the first licensed character to make four appearances (1971-1973). The second was Sergeant Umeki, followed closely by Engineer Thomas Hadley, both from the US Comic Strips series (1981-1982).
Class F shuttlecraft and the Galileo were first seen in licensed stories in color on August 2, 1969 in Joe 90: Top Secret #29. (Black and white images first appeared in TOS reference: The Making of Star Trek a year earlier.) Bantam Books debuted shuttlecraft in the novels five months later in Spock Must Die!. At Gold Key Comics, Galileo did not appear until "Day of the Inquisitors" in 1972.
The cover debut of shuttlecraft and the Galileo was on April 11, 1970 in TV21 & Joe 90 #29. At Gold Key Comics, Galileo's hatch appeared on the cover of "The Mimicking Menace" in 1975, but the whole ship didn't appear until "A World Against Itself" in 1978.
Eighteen Enterprise auxiliary vehicles appeared only in this series, including four class F shuttlecraft, eight named space bugs, three repair wagons, two exploration rockets, and a shuttlecrawler.
The first original comic strip printed entirely in black-and-white was arc #12 "The Marshall Plan". (The first b/w comic was a coloring book story, 1967's "A Book to Color, first story", the second licensed Star Trek story.)

Characters[]

Regular characters[]

James T. Kirk and Spock appeared in all 48 stories. Kirk tended to make rookie mistakes early in the series. Spock usually spoke out of character, often with emotion, despite professing to have a "logical mind", similar to his portrayal in early Gold Key Comics.
Nyota Uhura appeared in 42 stories, with five historic turns at command. In the comic strip published on September 27, 1969, she was duty officer of the evening watch in "Spectre of the Zond". In the strip for November 29, 1969, James T. Kirk gave her command in "Nor Any Drop to Drink". On April 11, 1970, Scott gave her command in "The Marshall Plan". On August 1, 1971, she again commanded the night shift in "Thorpex". And on November 20, 1971, Kirk gave her command in "By Order of the Empire". Uhura also often played an active role on the bridge and had more dialogue. She did not appear in arcs 2, 3, 5, 7 or annuals 5, 7.
Montgomery Scott appeared in 32 stories. He replaced McCoy in prominence, perhaps because of his British heritage. While in command, he engaged a fleet of D7-class Klingon battlecruisers in arc 35, destroyed four Romulan raiders in arc 36, and led shuttlecraft rescue missions in arcs 12 and 14. In arc 11, he sneaked into a Klingon outpost and destroyed a weapon that would have led to the Federation's surrender. He nearly died from hyperaging in arc 25, as in TOS episode: "The Deadly Years". He did not appear in 1-8, 13, 20, 33 or annuals 1, 4-7.
Hikaru Sulu appeared in 30 stories. While usually at the helm, he also served rotations as the ship's armaments officer in charge of the phaser control room. He was injured in arc 9, went on landing party missions in arcs 8, 11, 17, 32, 34 and piloted rescue shuttles in arcs 6 and 36. Rebels built a statue of him in arc 17. He took command from Uhura in arc 15. He did not appear in 3, 16, 20, 22, 24, 25, 28, 30, 31, 33. He only appeared in annuals 2, 4, 11, though he was referenced in annual 6.
Leonard McCoy appeared in only 20 stories. McCoy took a back seat in this series, though he saved the day in arc 23 "Prison Break" and was exiled with Kirk in arc 2, "The Crucial Element". He appeared in 2, 4, 6, 8-11, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 27, 30, 33, 35, 36, and annuals 1, 2, 8, 11, and was referenced in annual 9.
Pavel Chekov appeared in 14 stories. A full range of his background was shown, from manning the transporter room in arc 35, to accidentally causing a firefight on an early landing party mission in arc 16 "Under the Sea", to leading a skeleton crew in arc 26 "By Order of the Empire", to taking command in arcs 23 and 30. He had a featured role in arc 32. He appeared in arcs 12, 15-18, 23, 25-28, 30, 32, 34, 35 and annual 11, and was referenced in arc 7.

Semi-regular characterss[]

David Bailey (arcs 1-7, annual 1)
Christine Chapel (arcs 9, 23, 35)
Paul Bates (arc 4)
Beggs Hansen (arc 32)
Jackson (arc 1)
Ross Johnson (arc 9)

Notable original characters[]

Admiral Voysey (arcs 26, 29, 32, 37)
Crewman Hurst (arcs 2, 7, annual 5)
Brad (arc 37, annual 1)
Spock's cousin Horek (arc 13)
USS Enterprise CO Eustace Hensham (arc 18)

Recurring Races[]

Klingons[]

Romulans[]

Arc #12: "The Marshall Plan"
Arc #21: "Key Witness"
Arc #32: "The Perithees Alliance"
Arc #36: "Shell Game"

Depictions[]

Produced in an era when licensed Star Trek comics adhered less to canon, the creative teams provided wildly differing interpretations of the Enterprise and its crew in the 2260s with a decidedly British flavor. Reprint editor Rich Handley provided detailed series perspectives in his omnibus introductions and various online articles.

Creators[]

Identities of most of the series' writers have been lost to time, though Angus Allan was known to have written arcs 1-7 and Jack Sutter wrote annuals 8 and 9. Artists included John Stokes (14 stories), Harry Lindfield (10.5 stories), the team of Vicente Alcázar and Carlos Pino (6 stories), Mike Noble (four stories), Jim Baikie (3.5 stories), John Canning (2 stories), Harold Johns (1.5 stories), Ron Turner (1.5 stories), and Frank Bellamy (1 story). The artists for annuals 3-6 remain unknown.

Stories[]

Joe 90: Top Secret[]

Issues	Arc	title	writer(s)	artist(s)	published
1-6	1	"Life Form Nonexistent"	Angus Allan	Harry Lindfield	1/18/69-2/22/69
7-10	2	"The Crucial Element"	Angus Allan	Harry Lindfield	3/1/69-3/22/69
11-14	3	"Beware the Beast"	Angus Allan	Harry Lindfield	3/29/69-4/19/69
15-18	4	"The Third Party"	Angus Allan	Harry Lindfield	4/26/69-5/17/69
19-22	5	"The Children of Stai"	Angus Allan	Harry Lindfield	5/24/69-6/14/69
23-30	6	"Skin Deep"	Angus Allan	Harry Lindfield	6/21/69-8/9/69
31-34	7	"The Eagles Have Landed"	Angus Allan	Harry Lindfield	8/16/69-9/20/69

TV21 & Joe 90[]

Issues	Arc	title	artist(s)	published
1-6	8	"Spectre of the Zond"	Harry Lindfield	9/27/69-11/1/69
7-11	9	"Nor Any Drop to Drink"	Harry Lindfield	11/8/69-12/6/69
12-17	10	"Menace of the Moloth"	Harry Lindfield	12/13/69-1/17/70
18-23	11	"The Klingon Ultimatum"	Harry Lindfield, Jim Baikie	1/24/70-2/28/70
24-31	12	"The Marshall Plan"	Jim Baikie	3/7/70-4/25/70
32-36	13	"Mutiny on the Dorado"	Mike Noble	5/2/70-5/30/70

TV21 Weekly[]

Issues	Arc	title	artist(s)	published
37-38	13	"Mutiny on the Dorado"	Mike Noble	6/6/70-6/13/70
39-44	14	"The Ageless One"	Mike Noble	6/20/70-7/25/70
45-51	15	"Thorpex"	Mike Noble	8/1/70-9/12/70
52-57	16	"Under the Sea"	Mike Noble	9/19/70-10/24/70
58-64	17	"Revolt on Dak-Alpha"	Harold Johns, Ron Turner	10/31/70-12/12/70
65-73	18	"Where Giants Tread"	Harold Johns	12/19/70-2/13/71
74-77	19	"I, Emperor"	Vicente Alcázar, Carlos Pino	2/20/71-3/13/71
78-81	20	"Slaves of the Frogmen"	Vicente Alcázar, Carlos Pino	3/20/71-4/10/71
82-90	21	"Key Witness"	Vicente Alcázar, Carlos Pino	4/17/71-6/12/71
91-94	22	"Nova-Thirteen"	Vicente Alcázar, Carlos Pino	6/19/71-76/10/71
95-100	23	"Prison Break"	Vicente Alcázar, Carlos Pino	7/17/71-8/21/71
101-105	24	"Vibrations in Time"	Vicente Alcázar, Carlos Pino	8/28/71-9/25/71

Valiant and TV21[]

Issues	Arc	title	artist(s)	published
1-2	25	"The Aging World"	John Stokes	10/2/71-10/9/71
3-11	26	"By Order of the Empire"	John Stokes	10/16/71-12/11/71
12-17	27	"Creeping Death"	John Stokes	12/18/71-1/23/72
18-22	28	"Ground Zero"	John Stokes	1/29/72-2/26/72
23-33	29	"The Collector"	John Stokes	3/4/72-5/13/72
34-42	30	"To Swiftly Go..."	John Stokes	5/20/72-7/15/72
43-47	31	"The Mindless Ones"	John Stokes	7/22/72-8/19/72
48-56	32	"The Perithees Alliance"	John Stokes	8/26/72-10/21/72
57-63	33	"The Saboteur Within"	John Stokes	10/28/72-12/9/72
64-73	34	"The Void of Storms"	John Stokes	12/16/72-2/17/73
74-90	35	"Spheres of War"	John Stokes	2/24/73-6/16/73
91-106	36	"Shell Game"	John Stokes	6/23/73-10/6/73
107-118	37	"To Rule the Universe"	John Stokes	10/13/73-12/29/73

Annual stories[]

Number	title	writer(s)	artist(s)	published
1	"Target: Zargot"		Ron Turner	1969
2	"A Bite of the Apple"		Frank Bellamy	1970
3	"Captives in Space"			1970
4	"Planet of Rejects"			1970
5	"Gateway to the Future"			1970
6	"The Zodian Sacrifice"			1971
7	"Smoke and Mirrors"		John Stokes	1972
8	"Planet of the Dead"	Jack Sutter	Jim Baikie	1972
9	"What Is This Thing Called Spock?"	Jack Sutter	Jim Baikie	1972
10	"The Gods Have Come!"		John Canning	1977
11	"Rock and a Hard Place"		John Canning	1978