World Against Time

"World Against Time" was a comic book story published by Gold Key Comics in January 1977, the 42nd issue of their TOS series. It was the 14th comic written by Arnold Drake and the fourth illustrated by Alden McWilliams. In this story, a landing party from the USS Enterprise discovered giant-sized humanoid children living in an abandoned city.

DescriptionEdit

Key Collection, Volume 5 Table of Contents 

This edition features… "World Against Time" where the ravages of time and aging work in reverse and its inhabitants get ever younger. So tantalizing a concept that everyone can envision, if only for their own lives, to go backward and be young again. A constant theme within prose since Ponce De Leone discovered the fountain of youth and Ron Howard directed Cocoon. If only the notion had been visited on us all.

SummaryEdit

Captain's log, stardate 19:29.06. 

Space probes of Newly Contacted Planet-137 showed no definite signs of life! But once we set down on NPC-137...

A landing party of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty explored a city on the surface of newly discovered planet 137, one which was built for 12-foot-tall humanoid inhabitants. They found large letter blocks and a doll, then met a six-foot-tall baby named Baboo, who took them to a nursery where at least ten other children were playing with toys. He said Elya provided for them and would be back soon, so the landing party waited. McCoy was clocked on the head when Niki hit him with a rattle. Scott put Niki on his lap and told him a futuristic version of the Goldilocks fairy tale. However, Scott got annoyed when the baby soiled its diaper.

Two young children arrived, Emperor Wenomi and Captain Bedo, one armed with a sword and the other a crossbow, and ordered the landing party to get away from the children. The captain was nervous and threatening, which was too much for Scotty, who pushed aside Bedo, and prepared to spank Wenomi. Then nine-foot tall teenager General Macador appeared and warned them away. McCoy asked them where their parents were. Lady Elya said they were their parents. They were de-aging and would be reduced to infancy and vanish in a few days, a time they called V-Day. They said they were middle-aged 40 days ago. Their oldest survivor, Emperor Wenomi, was 152 years old but appeared like a ten year old.

Captain's log, stardate 1929.06, continued. 

On that strange planet populated only by children who play at war and power, we suddenly find ourselves facing a very real firing squad!

Macador's firing squad was stopped by Elya and Kirk. They explained that 193 days earlier, an earthquake exposed a vein of radioactive material within the society’s holy cave of Nooaja. Exposure de-aged animal life about one year per day, although it varied with distance from the cave. Wenomi said all their surviving people were in the city. They showed the landing party their holy Book of Nooaja, which depicted Nooaja, a large, glowing energy within a cavern, and their high priest Sharaba, who first discovered the de-aging effect.

McCoy headed back to the ship to make an antidote to the radiation poisoning. Kirk and Spock thought it best to rebury the Nooaja radiation. But Macador interpreted the decision as heretical, so he knocked out Wenomi and ran for the cave. By the time Spock and Scott arrived with a canister of explosives, Macador was half his previous size and falling out of his clothes. As he ran scared into the cave to protect it, he got smaller until he disappeared, leaving only his clothes. Spock and Scott had also de-aged and were now teenagers. They quickly placed beta charges on a rock shelf near the Nooaja and ran for safety, now as six year olds, as the blast sealed the cavern.

Outside, McCoy and Kirk appeared with an injectable antidote. Elya and Wenomi asked not to be inoculated. They preferred that their people aged naturally while they figured out how to rebuild their civilization.

ReferencesEdit

CharactersEdit

Baboo • Bedo • Elya • James T. Kirk • Macador • Leonard McCoy • Niki • Montgomery Scott • Sharaba • Soota • Spock • Uzina • Wenomi

Referenced only 

Goldilocks

Starships and vehiclesEdit

Referenced only 

USS Enterprise (Constitution-class heavy cruiser)

LocationsEdit

Oordon/NPC-137 (Nooaja)

Referenced only 

Glasgow

Races and culturesEdit

Human • Oordon native • Vulcan

States and organizationsEdit

Federation

Science and technologyEdit

antidote • arrow • beta charge • bow • crossbow • electronics • knife • lingua-disc • mace • phaser • space probe • sword • syringe • teleporter • weapon • wheel

Ranks and titlesEdit

captain • colonel • doctor • emperor • general • guard • high priest • lady • poet • statesman

Other referencesEdit

alien • armor • assignment patch • bird • Book of Nooaja • captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2266 • cave • chocolate milk • city • day • de-aging • dog • doll • earthquake • emotion • fairy tale • Federation Starfleet ranks (2260s) • firing squad • fountain of youth • flute • Gardazian bear • helmet • high school • hour • Landu tree • leather • life • log entry • map • memory • minute • month • murder • nursery • peace • plague • poisoning • Poji bird • pyramid • radiation • races and cultures • radium • rank • religion • rock • rubber • second • snake • spanking • Starfleet ranks • Starfleet uniform (2265-2270) • stun • teddy bear • telepathy • time • toy • V-Day • year

AppendicesEdit

BackgroundEdit

• The story took place entirely on the surface, with the ship and its medical database only referenced. The ship most likely provided Spock and Scott with explosive beta charges, though that was not stated.
• Whether the de-aging phenomenon was planet-wide or limited to this city or continent was unclear. However, since the leaders said they wanted to rebuild their civilization, and building a genetically-viable population required more than a dozen survivors, it seemed likely that others existed who were not shown.
• When recorded words from a doll were not translatable, Spock explained that their "lingua-discs are based on telepathy," requiring a living mind for a translation to be heard. Brainwave patterns were stated as being measured by the universal translator seen in TOS episode: "Metamorphosis". The landing party may have been using an earlier or different version of a translator device on this mission.
• Montgomery Scott said he had a nephew in Glasgow whom he'd once disciplined.
• On the cover, Kirk and Spock de-aged to children in front of Nooaja. However, in the story, Scott and Spock de-aged.

Related storiesEdit

• TAS episode: "The Counter-Clock Incident" – The crew of the USS Enterprise rapidly de-aged during a visit to an alternate universe.
• TOS comic: "The Youth Trap" – An age-ray reduced Leonard McCoy to the age of a teenager. Spock and Scott were minimally de-aged, but many on the Enterprise were de-aged to children.
• TNG episode: "Rascals" – A transporter accident de-aged Jean-Luc Picard and three others.

ImagesEdit

ConnectionsEdit

Published Order
Previous comic: #41: The Evictors	TOS (Gold Key	Next comic: #43: The World Beneath the Waves
Previous story: The Evictors	Stories by: Arnold Drake	Next story: The World Beneath the Waves
Chronological Order
Previous adventure: The PsychoCrystals	Memory Beta Chronology	Next adventure: One of Our Captains Is Missing!

Production historyEdit

January 1977 

First published by Gold Key Comics

June 2004 

Printed in the omnibus The Key Collection, Volume 5 (Checker Book Publishing Group)

September 2008 

Included on The Complete Comic Book Collection DVD (Graphic Imaging Technologies)

13 September 2018 

Reprinted in hardcover in the omnibus Graphic Novel Collection #45 (Eaglemoss)

TranslationsEdit

1978 

Dutch: In the omnibus Ruimteschip Enterprise Classics Strip-Paperback #2 (De Vrijbuiter)

1978 

German: As "Die Zeit läuft rückwärts" in the omnibus Raumschiff Enterprise Comic Taschenbuch #2 (Condor)

1980 

German: As "Die Zeit läuft rückwärts" in some editions of Condor Superheiden #1: Star Trek Jahrbuch (Condor-Verlag)

2007 

Italian: As "Il mondo dell'anti tempo" in the omnibus The Gold Key Collection, Volume 10 (Free Books)

External linksEdit

• World Against Time article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.