Gold Comics conintued to boldly go in July 1973, with their next Star Trek issue. The Haunted Asteroid featured a story by Arnold Drake, with art by Alberto Giolitti and Sal Trapani. It had another cover painting by George Wilson.

The story’s opening splash page seems to suggest we’re in for a ghost story. How will that play out? Trek has dealt with these things before, but how did they deal with it back in the 70s?

The U.S.S. Enterprise is approaching the asteroid Mila Xa, which has been converted into a memorial for the late Princess Saeena. This information is shared to the senior officers from Dr. Krisp, who we have never seen before, and will likely never see again. She has a number of historical tapes on Saeena and her culture, which seems to be heavily influenced by ancient Egypt.

Over the years, countless tomb raiders have attempted to infiltrate the protection system of the asteroid. Most have disappeared, and those who have escaped it seemed to have gone mad. The Enterprise is investigating, and conveniently enough, a former classmate of Captain Kirk’s has been on site for a few days compiling a report.

Jay Nordyke arrives aboard the Enterprise where he is debriefed by Krisp. She and the captain both realize that Nordyke seems to have lost a whole day. What happened to him in that span of time?

With Nor’s permission, they conduct a pyscho probe, with a device that looks akin to the chair used in Dagger of the Mind.

In fact, for the most part, the art in this issue is great and you can recognize ship locations and characters (except for Sulu for some reason.

What Nordyke remembers seemes to be something terrifying and ghostly. So Kirk organizes his landing party to check out the asteroid for himself. He brings along Krisp, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Sulu.

Moments after beaming to the asteroid they encounter… spirits?… but the phaser residue seems to suggest carbon tracing, something was physically there, not a ghost. So what is it? Before things can continue, McCoy and Scotty vanish!

Kirk and Krisp head off in one direction while Spock and Sulu go the other, searching for their missing crew. Contact over Kirk’s communicator suggests that Spock and Sulu run afoul of… zombies? The Captain then encounters another spirit… and robots… the real cause of the ghostly apparitions.

Kirk and Krisp are captured and when they awake they explore the nearby cells and rooms, discovering the remains of all the missing explorers and raiders who came to the asteroid before them.

They are able to track down Spock and the rest, and are able to freem them from their cell by using explosives that are apparently hidden in their uniform buttons – that’s a new one on me Starfleet.

Reunited, the group explores deeper into the asteroid. They discover a completely automated system that has been designed to look over and protect the asteroid. It controls everything from the weather to the appearance of ghosts and monsters.

And at the asteroid’s heart, Saeena, still alive after centuries. She reveals that she is unique, almost ageless, though her time is running out. She and her husband, the Emperor, hid away on the asteroid, keeping her slow aging a secret, as it would make her a freak on her homeworld. The Emperor passed, and she has been living on the asteroid ever since, slowly dying over the centuries.

When she does die, the asteroid will destroy itself, and she isn’t intent on letting the landing party leave with her secret – which makes no sense as she’ll be dead and the asteroid will detonate.

The robots arrive to detain them, but Scotty seems able to handle them single-handedly, not with brains, but leverage and fisticuffs. Surely he could have just short-circuited them somehow instead of throwing them around like a wrestler.

As they make their escape, Krisp has a bit of a panic attack, and Kirk cuffs her one! Not good Captain. They race on, and reach the surface, which comes to life with sprays of flame, attempting to stop them.

They are able to beam back to the Enterprise just in time, as Saeena gives up the ghost, and the planetoid explodes!

On the bridge, Krisp apologizes to Kirk for panicking, and he uses it as an opportunity to get a dinner date out of her. Scotty remarks on this, and Kirk orders a full inspection first thing in the morning in return. Another dick move by the Captain in this story.

I’m not a fan of all of his behavior in this story, which doesn’t feel quite in character with the Kirk we know.

Let’s see what happens next time in A World Gone Mad!