Issue 17 of Gold Keys’ Star Trek comic was available for February of 1973. Arnold Drake took over as writer, and Alberto Giolitti was joined by artist Giovanni Ticci. George Wilson continued delivering cool-looking cover paintings.

Let’s just mention that the uniforms are almost the right colours for everyone. Kirk seems to be wearing something orange-ish, however, and a couple of background men seem to be wearing yellow uniforms.

The Enterprise has arrived at Neesan, a very primitive world to have a look at its inhabitants. Captain Kirk reminds everyone that they must follow the Prime Directive. He then beams down to the surface with Scotty and McCoy, leaving Spock in charge.

Within moments of arriving, the trio find themselves under assault by men riding pterodactyls and despite putting up a tough front, find themselves quickly captured (again). The trio are quick to realize that these are really cavepeople, they hunt, they build, and they domesticate animals. They also have strong religious beliefs and worship something called Unrho.

And Unrho’s image has been carved into stone, and looks exactly like… Spock?!

The people are ruled by a high priestess named Lok, who may be telepathic (this is important).

The trio are able to get loose and fisticuffs follow, as it often does, but Lok doses them all with a sleeping powder. Something that may cause them to snooze through their own execution, Something that is only delayed because Spock has beamed down to the surface to figure out what is going on.

He poses as their god, surely a violation of the Prime Directive, and learns that this group of people call themselves the Tol. He, McCoy and Kirk confer, and discover that Scotty has wondered off.

The engineer seems to be making time with Lok, and they’ve gone for a stroll together. It comes to an unfortunate end with the discovery that an enemy tribe, the Kovar are preparing to attack the Tol!

Unable to interfere with planetary struggles, the landing party leaves. They return to the Enterprise. And that’s the Prime Directive at work.

Unfortunately, Lok took Scotty’s phaser while they were saying goodbye. Kirk makes a bit of sexist remark about Lok, before he and Scotty beam back down to the surface. They need to recover that phaser!

They find themselves in the middle of a conflict, and despite getting the phaser back, they are captured (good grief) by the Kovar.

On the Enterprise, Spock is able to ‘explain’ how Lok and her people came to worship him. Apparently, during the early days of the Enterprise’s mission, Spock found himself in trouble and called for help. This cry was sent out telepathically through the cosmos, where Lok saw/heard it. She believed it was a message from her god.

Sure.

Spock beams down to play god one more time in an effort to save Kirk and Scotty. He’s able to foil the Kovar by making use of the fastest transporter signal and sequence I have ever seen across any of the series.

As the story wraps up, Spock advises Lok and her people to set aside his image, and instead , aid and love one another. A rather positive message, which is at odds with the last couple of panels of the comic, when strangely, Spock mocks Scotty over the memento Lok has given him. And, in response, Scotty is ready to throw a punch or two, and Kirk simply orders them back to their stations.

Weird ending.

Will things get weirder when the Enterprise arrives at The Hijacked Planet?