In Star Trek's first comic book outing, Mister Spock made an outrageous decision that upended the show’s entire philosophy. In Star Trek #1, published by Gold Key Comics in October 1967, the crew of the Enterprise find themselves face to face with a planet overrun by killer plants, and the only way to stop them runs counter to the spirit of exploration and understanding central to the franchise.
Star Trek has a long history in comics, but it starts in 1967, roughly a year after the show premiered. Gold Key Comics, known for their range of comic book adaptations of live-action shows and movies, was the first to publish Star Trek comics. These Gold Key Star Trek comics were notorious for their lack of fidelity to the source material. For example, the Enterprise interiors in the comics bore no resemblance to the ones depicted on the show, and the comics took a wonky approach to the trademark Star Dates. But perhaps the most egregious breach occurred in the very first issue, which saw Spock and Kirk lay waste to an entire planet.
While exploring in a distant sector of space, the Enterprise encounters a world dense with lush vegetation. As they investigate the planet, a crew member is attacked by cannibal plants, and another is turned into a murderous plant monster, one who retains his humanity long enough to save his friends and end his own life. Mister Spock and the Enterprise crew conclude that the planet has been overrun by an invasive plant species, and the only way to stop it is to destroy the planet. As the issue concludes, Captain Kirk’s log entry says his last duty in this sector is one of “total destruction,” and the reader sees the Enterprise blasting the planet with phasers, setting the vegetation, and all other life on the planet, ablaze. No writer is credited for the story but it was drawn by Nevio Zaccara.
The unknown writer and Nevio Zaccara manage to capture a number of key Star Trek concepts, but they also miss the mark in many other ways. The first issue’s story, of the Enterprise discovering an alien world infested with killer plants, reads like a classic Star Trek episode; they also manage to work in hapless “red shirts.” Yet the story’s conclusion, which sees Mister Spock give the order to lay waste to an entire planet, runs counter not only to Spock’s personal philosophy, but that of the Star Trek franchise as a whole. While it can be argued there was no other choice, and the only way to stop the evil plant aliens from spreading was to destroy the planet, the crew of the Enterprise made no effort to seek another solution. The issue’s final panel, showing the ship’s phasers setting the once lush, beautiful world on fire, while Kirk logs about “total destruction,” is incredibly jarring.
The Gold Key Star Trek comics, while filled with continuity errors, are not without their charm, and they became more faithful to the show the longer series continued. However, the errors and mistakes in the earliest issues can be off-putting, and the first issue, showing Spock laying waste to an entire planet, shows perfectly how Star Trek's scientifically curious, humanist attitude didn't initially make it to this new medium.