The Ghost Planet

Illustrator:	Alberto Giolitti
Publisher:	Gold Key Comics
Series:	Gold Key TOS #5 (reprint #37)
Published:	September 1969 (reprint May 1976)
Pages:	32
Year:	2260s
Stardate:	26:06.4

Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock save a planet from extinction, but are doomed by its war-mad leaders!

Summary

Captain's log, star date 26:06.4. Enterprise moving deep into galaxy Zelta... We have sighted a strange ringed area... it may conceal a planet... investigation under way...

Creators

• Based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
• Artist: Alberto Giolitti

Background

Issue 37.

• This story would be reprinted (with a new cover) in issue 37 of the Gold Key series, as well as Enterprise Log 1 and a later reprint of that volume from the Star Trek: The Key Collection series.

Characters

Canon characters listed below are linked to the main article about them. Non-canon characters are not linked, but those that recurred, appearing or being mentioned in more than one story, are defined further in Gold Key TOS characters.

Regular and recurring characters

File:Kirk Spock McCoy bridge 2267.jpg

Kirk, Spock and McCoy.

James T. Kirk

Enterprise captain.

Spock

Vulcan Enterprise exec and science officer.

Leonard McCoy

Enterprise chief medical officer. McCoy is erroneously shown wearing a command division lime-gold Starfleet uniform in one panel.

Other characters

Justin I

One of the twin supremes of Numero Uno, leader of the Orange Army, forced into a truce by the rings about the planet.

Justin II

One of the twin supremes of Numero Uno, leader of the Green Army, forced into a truce by the rings about the planet.

Denton

Command division Enterprise crewman.

References

atomic weapon

copper

Metal of which the rings of space material were composed.

USS Enterprise.

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

Federation starship.

Esperanta

An interplanetary language known both to the Enterprise crew and to the inhabitants of the Justins' world.

Green Army

Justin II's military force, which suffered 103,000 casualties in the war.

lunar mile

Unit of measurement of penetration into a planetary orbit's area, by the name, apparently a relation to a moon's orbit. The rainbow rings circled Numero Uno at a distance of about two lunar miles.

magnetism

The copper rings exerted a considerable magnetic force, which Spock suggested be used to drag them away from their chokehold on the planet.

Numero Uno

The planet in the story. Surrounded by rainbow rings of copper that give off a slight magnetic force and a radiation that was causing the population to become extinct.

Orange Army

Justin I's military force, which suffered 37,000 casualties in the war.

robot

Saturn

Mentioned as a common example of a ringed planet.

spectroscope

Also called a spectrometer, a device for measuring light and radiation. Spock's spectroscopic analysis indicated the presence of copper in the multicolored magnetic rings.

stabilizer

transistor

Kirk orders transistor batteries from communicators used to charge water a robot is standing in. Other Star Trek productions mention that transistors are out of date and transtators are used in their place by the 23rd century.

Unoite

Species which inhabits Numero Uno.

uranium

Zelta

Star group (incongruously called a "galaxy") the Enterprise explored deep into.

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