The Enterprise traveled into more adventure in November, 1974 with issue 27 of Gold Key’s Star Trek comic. Ice Journey was written by John Warner and featured art by Alberto Giolitti, and featured another cover painting by George Wilson.

The comic’s opening splash page shows Kirk and Spock in strange environmental suits on an ice planet where they are dumbstruck by the fact that they have caused the outbreak of a civil war! The story finds the Enterprise approaching Floe-I on a routine survey assignment. Kirk, Spock and a ship’s scientist, Dr. Krisp, will make up the landing party while Scotty takes command of the starship.

Spock is initially suspicious of why a seemingly inconsequential planet like Floe-I is in the Federation. There’s nothing irregular or remarkable about it. And yet a new survey has been requested by the Federation. Records don’t suggest anything but Spock believes something else is afoot.

Preparing to beam down, the landing party will need special environmental suits to deal with the extreme cold – they look like diving suits with scuba masks. They kit up and then return to the bridge (?) for a final briefing with Scotty and Sulu before beaming down into the cold. Seems like an odd location for a briefing, especially since the team was ready to beam down.

On the surface of Floe-I, they are met by the inhabitants, who already seem to have a short fuse when dealing with one another. It seems, there are two ruling parties who share power, working with checks and balances.

The landing party is given a tour of a covered ice city. It is revealed that the entire planet undergoes glaciation once every century, but it seems the inhabitants have evolved and adapted to this unique environment.

Spock’s suspicions continue to rise as the trio are taken prisoner without warning!

A check-in on the Enterprise delivers a constant problem in these comics. Uhura is refrred to as Uhuru in one panel, and then Uhura in the next. She’s also drawn as a white or black, depending on the panel. And that’s just sad. It shouldn’t be that difficult to have characters and sets inline with the series, that aired five years previous, and is everywhere in syndication. As gorgeous as some of Giolitti’s art is, this constant mix-up is really annoying.

Kirk asks that Uhura beam down to help him communicate with his keepers as Spock and Krisp are taken away and he can’t seem to interact with his keepers on his own (or does he have a plan?). Joining him, the pair learn the whole history of Floe-I. It was once vibrant and beautiful (probably between glaciation cycles), but then they joined the Federation and things went badly – probably not, they are on their way back into another cold cycle.

Meeanwhile, Krisp and Spock find themselves amidst the planet’s secret. A number of the inhabitants have a different skin color, and are locked away, surrounded by flames, and seem to have gone mad! While Krisp and Spock are surrounded by suffering and rising flames, Kirk realizes he and Uhura are done for as soon as she files the report the inhabitants want her to write.

These mad men, these mutants, are anything but. Their skin color is different and they don’t fit in with the two-party rulers image of a perfect race. They are locked away in the warming fires of their planet to be gotten rid of. They are held in a concentration camp, wired with viewers so the entire planet can see the punishment for being ‘different.’

They agree to help Spock and Krisp reach the mutation serum that has ‘evolved’ some and altered others. They will only aid Spock and Krisp if they help them to rise up against their captors.

And that sounds like a pretty clear violation of the Prime Directive to me and a tough choice for Spock.

Meanwhile, Kirk and Uhura are working on the falsified report. The baddies are suspicious and elect to execute them, but Spock and Krisp arrive in time with a weapon that will drain the mutation serum out of their captors!

It seems the ruling parties are only a select few red-skinned inhabitants. The rest of the planet are blue-skinned and are either ousted and locked away, or made to be slaves if they don’t accept the rule of the reds. They are kept in check by the environment which will freeze them to death if they attempt to get the antidote.

With the landing party reunited and blatantly violating the Prime Directive, they demand the serum be shared with everyone, The Reds refuse, the Blues rise up, and civil war ensues. The landing party beams away, with Kirk refusing to get involved in the war they helped start. But Spock reveals without the serum, the planet is doomed, both sides are simply fighting for a few more spare moments to live.

Glaciation is coming.

That’s a bit of a downer ending.

Maybe the adventure will be a little more hopeful next time, when the Enterprise encounters the Mimicking Menace!