Two stories for the price of one: first a sequel to The Doomsday Machine, then a story about a robot.
The Enterprise and the Doomsday Machine
The Story
Taking place directly after The Doomsday Machine episode, we begin this story with the Enterprise sitting by the husk of the now powerless planet destroyer.
The Darwin pulls up alongside the Enterprise
The science vessel USS Darwin arrives to study the Machine and sends the Enterprise on its way, but not long after, the Enterprise picks up distress call and the Darwin is destroyed!
The Enterprise is attacked!
The Enterprise heads back to the Machine and finds a small craft nearby that’s as old as the Machine and made of the same material. It fires on the Enterprise but eventually gets exhausted and loses all its power.
Kirk takes a landing party to the alien ship
An away team beams aboard and finds that the small craft’s pilot is a giant alien of the same race that created the Machine.
The alien pilot
The Machine was created for use in a war but went out of control and just started destroying everything. It destroyed the alien pilot’s homeworld, and he’s been chasing it for 3 million years, popping in and out of suspended animation every so often to check his progress. He’s angry the Enterprise destroyed the Machine and took away his opportunity to get revenge, but it doesn’t matter because he’s really old and ready to die.
The Enterprise leaves the alien ship before its destruction
The away team leaves the small craft and it explodes.
Ursula and her robot, Alex, beam aboard
Robot
This issue’s back up story sees a scientist named Ursula coming aboard the Enterprise with a robot (well, android). Everyone is wary of the robot after their experience with the M5 Computer, but Ursula says it’s all good.
Ursula tries to rekindle her romance with Kyle
Ursula, as it so happens, is an old flame of Lt. Kyle’s; they broke up on bad terms 6 years ago, but she still has strong feelings for him and wants to rekindle their relationship.
Kyle in sickbay
He says no and the next thing we see is Kyle’s unconscious body slumped over by the robot. Kyle is taken to sickbay and we’re led to suspect the robot did it, but Ursula is the true perpetrator. The robot witnesses her attack on Kyle, but chose to take the blame, saying he “was prepared to be destroyed rather than reveal Ursula was the guilty one.”
Kirk confronts Ursula
Thoughts
The first story with the origins of the Doomsday Machine is totally unnecessary. With the ship battle scene removed, the story boils down to this:
Kirk: Gee, I wonder where The Doomsday Machine came from.
Alien: I’ll tell you.
Kirk: Great, now I know.
Did we really need to know all this?
All it does is ruin the mystique of the Machine’s origins and confirms what you would pretty much suspect from watching the episode anyway, that it was a powerful weapon that went out of control. This was a really pointless story, in general.
However, the comic’s second story was a lot better and actually felt more like a real Star Trek episode. The only flaw is that due to its short length, it felt a little rushed at the end. Bonus points for focusing on Lt. Kyle, though!
Rating
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