Star Trek 759: The Mimicking Menace

759. The Mimicking Menace

PUBLICATION: Star Trek #28, Gold Key Comics, January 1975

CREATORS: Unknown (writer), Unknown (artist)

STARDATE: 34:21.7 - Follows the last issue.

PLOT: The Enterprise comes upon an asteroid that houses a giant protein molecule that mimics technology and people. There's a lot of running from one shuttle to its double, and firing at doubles of people (including a doubled Kirk - it's tradition). And then they leave, but warning us that the creature is still alive. Oooooh.

CONTINUITY: None.

DIVERGENCES: Starfleet uses humanoid tv-camera robots to scout ahead.

PANEL OF THE DAY - Starfleet Disco
REVIEW: Ok wow. Pretty awful. First, one can appreciate why the art has gone unsigned. The word "drab" comes to mind. The human figures are at best fair, and there are entirely too many "original" Starfleet characters, which gets confusing, especially in a "doubles" story. The backgrounds are on the cheap, basically a barren desert with a central volcano. The creature looks like circles and lines and you never really know what the heck is going on. It's back and forth, shoot this and that, a shuttle surviving a lava flow, a pseudo-explanation that seems clear from the beginning, and a dire warning à la Conspiracy. The worst of it is, I think Voyager stole this idea for Demon/Course: Oblivion.

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