In September of 1970, Dick Wood and Alberto Giolitti delivered issue number eight of the Gold Keys Comics Star Trek series.

And while it makes no sense in relation fo the series, I do like the image of the captain’s log being transcribed into an actual log book. Though the stardates are still ridiculously wrong.

The Enterprise has entered the galaxy Zelenbran where a strange attack burns out every filament in the starship’s engine. Scotty reports the damage, even though he doesn’t look anything like himself.

With the Enterprise crippled, and stranded in orbit of an uncharted planet. The crew have to investigate and search for a rare ore they will need to effect repairs. My question is, why don’t they just conduct a scan from the ship?

It’s obvious that things won’t go well, because Kirk and Spock aren’t the first to beam down, they send two generic engineers, Burns and Lane. They head down with their oversized tricorders looking for zutotanium.

Just as they call up to the ship, Kirk, Spock and McCoy hear a stange sound. A ray beam? And then the men… sound like boys.

So now Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down. Without taking any real precautions!

Shortly after arriving, they are attacked. Kirk and Spock are able to escape into a cave, but McCoy gets tagged by the ray, and becomes a teenager. Troubled, Kirk and Spock beam the de-aged crew back up to the ship. Then they make a charge for the ray! This time, Kirk gets hit. But he’s not really affected. Don’t worry, we’ll find out why later.

Their attackers begin to fight amongst themselves, and our heroes notice that they are all speaking in esperanta. If everyone in all these galaxies speak esperanta, why did Starfleet even need the universal translator?

When the fight ends, they rescue the hurt alien, a scientist named Laiko. He reveals that they are from the Trann galaxy, and he and his compatriots crashed on the planet. They created a power energizer as a way to revitalize the ship. When it was accidentally triggered, it de-aged a creature. So they came up with a new plan. Keep themselves at the same age, by zapping themselves until they are rescued.

But they weren’t willing to test it on themselves. So having the Enterprise arrive makes for a crew of guinea pigs.

Laiko’s rival is a Lex Luthor look alike named Kooba. He now has control of the device, and is using it to cement his control over the rest of the survivors. He blasts into infancy anyone who disagrees. And guess who gets captured (again)?

Kooba starts monologuing and it becomes apparent he has a plan. He’s going to kill Kirk, so he says, and Laika, but first, he’s going to use Spock to get him aboard ship.

Once aboard, Kooba doses the entire crew with his ray, by using the intraship tv camera and screens – the brainwashing effect of television!

The crew begin to very slowly regress in age, something about the diffusion throw the screens is the explanation of why it isn’t instantaneous. With the ship claimed, Kooba beams down to deal with Kirk, and fisticuffs ensue.

Kirk is able to reflect a ray blast back at Kooba, and he becomes a baby. Claiming the device, Kirk returns everyone but Kooba to their appropriate age before destroying it.

The aliens are saved! and the Enterprise carries on.

It’s not a horrible issue; in fact, I feel it’s a lot better than The Voodoo Planet, and similar themes are explored in actual broadcast episodes.

The Human Adventure continues as the Enterprise boldly explores The Legacy of Lazarus!