Of all the Gold Key stories I’ve read so far, I like this one the least. It’s not very Star Trek, it’s just an issue of silliness using voodoo dolls, chants and magic potions. Not very Trek at all.

The writing is once again by Dick Wood, and Alberto Giolittie continues to deliver the art that found this issue on spinners for March 1970.

Sulu is working at a very strange console on the bridge, and the scans he’s receiving bring Captain Kirk and Spock running… the planet below them looks like Earth, and on the screen, the Eiffel Tower. Spock posits that a space warp could have brought them home.

The Enterprise descends into low earth orbit to have a closer look. Rocket fire flaming from her nacelles and… the shuttle bay?

Telling McCoy to stand by on the radio, Kirk and Spock beam down to an empty Paris. Both of them think something very odd is afoot, but it’s Spock who realizes the Tower is too short, and is, in fact, made from papier-mache.

As they watch, a laser beam sends the Tower sprawling, leaving Kirk and Spock to scramble for cover. A strange voice taunts them, as Kirk receives word via… the relayed galaxy radio photograph (?!) that the actual Paris on Earth has been attacked. The Eiffel Tower has been destroyed. They obviously repair it for a young Jean-Luc Picard to enjoy it before he ships out.

McCoy is the first one to mention voodoo, suggesting that the entire planet may be one big doll, and the laser serves as the pin. As the crew ruminate on this, the Colosseum (are you not entertained?!) is destroyed as well.

The Enterprise backtracks the laser to its point of origin, hiding from observation by using space debris as cover. Arriving on the planet’s surface, Kirk, Spock and McCoy find the denizens conducting target practice. Before they can be spotted, the landing party knocks them all out. Spock throws a helluva punch!

Kirk and Spock enter the laser room while McCoy waits outside. The duo find a strange hooded figure who rebukes them and then destroys the Sphinx. He then has his aides use pins on dolls of Kirk and Spock. The PAIN!

The villain reveals himself to be a monocled Nazi looking Count Dressler. Apparently he was a bit a tyrant back on Earth, ruling over a small kingdom. He escaped when thing started to go badly for him.

He arrived at this distant world, helped remake it in the image of Earth, and then decided to hold the Earth ransom or he would destroy it at his whim.

Dressler chants, falls into a trance, drinks some strange concoction and then uses the laser to destroy the Leaning Tower of Pisa. While he’s distracted, however, McCoy arrives to phaser his friends out of their cell.

Another fight ensues, and look at Spock throw those haymakers!

Beaming back aboard the Enterprise Spock decides to check his big book of Vulcan Occult History where he learns about the Pain Casters.

He and Kirk say some magic words, drink the juice, and their voodoo-inflicted pain is gone, and now they have Dressler’s abilties!

Beaming back down, they are able to catch the baddie, and Kirk promises to render him to a planet that doesn’t have another living soul upon it.

Spock (jokingly?) refers to it as solitary confinement.

Ugh.

Let’s hope the Enterprise can leave this story behind when they get caught up in The Youth Trap!