The Gold Key Star Trek series continues to boldly go in this August 1971 issue. Len Wein continues to serve as storyteller, Alberto Giolitti delivers fun art, and we get an intriguing painted cover by George Wilson.

The Enterprise has arrived at Pollux II to investigate a rash of disappearing starships. While Spock conducts a planetary scan, Dr. McCoy and Captain Kirk talk about organizing some leave for the crew.

The pair are interrupted by Yeoman Dorrie (short for Pandora) Trask. She works on the rec deck, and comes to Kirk for a sign off on supplies, before heading down to Deck 7 to collect them.

A strange ray attacks the Enterprise, emanating from the planet. siphoning energy from the starship’s shields. The attack jostles the crew.

Down on Deck 7, outside Room 101, Trask is thrown to the floor, and is then struck by curiosity, opening the door to Room 101, despite the warning (Starfleet officers are pretty good at following orders) not to. And she opens the door! See the Pandora symbolism there?

She lets something loose! At least four some things, that Giolitti draws to make look like ghostly monsters.The beings infiltrate the bridge, even as Spock attempts to locate the source of the beam on the planet.

Spock and Kirk reveal what was in Room 101. Emotional katras removed from Vulcan people by scientific procedure as opposed to Surak philosophy. But the removal of the emotions this way, diminished the actual soul, or katra. So they destroyed the machinery, but those removed emotions continued to live on. The Vulcans in this case, literally bottled up their emotions.

The Enterprise was ordered to ferry the bottles to a Vulcan shrine on Beta IV. But now they’re out there somewhere. Come on, we know they are going to be in the landing party.

And that landing party includes Kirk, Sulu, Chekov, and a blonde Scotty. Kirk has ordered McCoy to track down the emotional katras.

Kirk and Scotty seem to be the only ones to make it to the surface and once again (it seems to happen every issue) a strange voice contacts them.

Spock and McCoy join the pair on the surface with the reveal that the katras are not aboard ship. They continue to look for Sulu and Chekov, but when a strange being attacks them, Spock takes off in fear with McCoy calling him a coward!

No none seems to be acting correctly; Kirk is increasingly violent, and Scotty can’t stop laughing. When the sensations pass, McCoy thinks it’s a symptom that they are all overworked, tired and stressed. The group sets off and bigin The Search for Spock.

Spock finds the source of the voice, Malok. He’s an immortal being who has tired of life. He draws ships to the planet, and uses the crew for entertainment.

When Spock reunites with Kirk and the rest, including Sulu and Chekov, he leads them to Malok, But the katras assume control again, and Malok focuses on them. This allows Spock to phaser his way into Malok’s containment and tweak some things.

He drives the emotional spirits out of the landing party and they migrate to Malok!

This allows the crew of the Enterprise to continue on their way, and Spock believes that Vulcan will be accepting of this result; it’s logical.

The Human Adventure continues next time with The Flight of the Buccaneer!