Monday Mecha Madness STAR TREK "Planet of the Robots"

WhenYou Think of Artificial Intelligence in Star Trek....

...you think of androids or non-humanoid sentient computers, not robots!

Captain Kurt?

The Enterprise lands on a planet?

Spock shouting?

Lt Bailey, who was left on the Fesarius with Balok in the episode "Corbomite Maneuver" is still aboard the Enterprise?
And...robots??

It was 1969.

Star Trek had not yet aired in England.

The publisher of the wildly-successful weekly comic magazine TV Century 21, which featured strips based on the various Gerry Anderson-produced series (Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, etc.), decided to launch a new weekly magazine showcasing the currently-running Anderson series, Joe 90.

Entitled Joe 90: Top Secret, it also featured a couple of two-page strips about imported American TV series, Star Trek and Land of the Giants.

Since those shows hadn't yet aired in England, the writers and artist Harry Lindfield were working off whatever print material and photo reference was sent from America.

(Apparently nobody gave them a copy of Stephen Whitfield's Making of Star Trek, which explains things like the Enterprise being unable to land on a planet's surface.)

The storylines usually ran six weeks, but could go longer if required.

Because the Trek strip had the centerfold slot, it allowed for panels running thru what would be the interior gutters on any other page, giving them a wide Sunday newspaper-strip feel and layout.

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Star Trek: the Newspaper Comics
1979-1981
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Star Trek: the Newspaper Comics
1981-1983
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Monday Mecha Madness STRANGE WORLDS "My Job...Catch a Robot"

The Title of this Story is Misleading...

...but you'll have to read to the end to discover how and why!

Illustrated by Joe Sinnott, this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Strange Worlds #3 (1959) involves a search for a human criminal among the mechanical men!

Sort of Blade Runner, but in reverse!

Sadly, the writer is unknown.

Next Week: the Return of...

Monday Mecha Madness (Continued) BATTLESTAR GALACTICA "Berserker" Conclusion

We Have Already Witnessed...

..the "ragtag fleet" of human survivors find a planet rich in Tylium, which they can refine and convert to fuel!

But they encounter a Cylon spy satellite in orbit that starts broadcasting their position back to the Empire!

Jamming the signal, they discover the satellite is booby-trapped so that any attempt to destroy it will trigger explosives within the planet's core, which in itself will alert the Cylons to investigate!

Commander Adama sends a bomb squad to disarm and deactivate the device, but an unknown ship launches from the planet and attacks the squad's shuttle and the accompanying Vipers, out-flying the Colonial pilots...

Neither this Mark Three "Imperator" Cylon nor any of its' "brothers" were ever seen again!

Marvel's Battlestar Galactica was cancelled seven issues later.

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Walter Simonson's Battlestar Galactica Artist's Edition

(Featuring the complete original art for this story, among other goodies!)

(Original art for the cover of the issue)

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Monday Mecha Madness BATTLESTAR GALACTICA "Berserker" Part 1

After Adapting the Pilot Movie and the First Two-Part Episode...

...Marvel's Battlestar Galactica comic began doing original stories with a hot new talent illustrating them, including this one about a Cylon cyberseries never seen on TV!

To Be Continued, Tomorrow!

And, since you haven't seen the Cylon itself yet, here's the cover featuring it, which will be the header pic on tomorrow's post!

Written by Roger McKenzie and penciled/inked/colored by Walt Simonson, Marvel's Battlestar Galactica #16 (1980), is the only time a Cylon not seen in the TV show appears in the comic...the reason for which the robot itself explains in the conclusion!

Note that, continuing in the TV series' format of utilizing names from ancient mythology and the Judeo/Christian Bible, McKenzie & Simonson introduced several new ongoing characters including the Galactica's Chief Engineer, Master-Tech Shadrack, named after the Biblical figure Shadrach!

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Battlestar Galactica: the Definitive Collection

The Original Series

Galactica: 1980

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Monday Mecha Madness (Continued) BATTLESTAR GALACTICA "Saga of a Star World" Conclusion

Art by Bob Larkin

There are those who believe...that life here began out there, far across the Universe...with tribes of humans...who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians...or the Toltecs...or the Mayans...that they may have been the architects of the Great Pyramids...or the lost civilizations of Lemuria...or Atlantis.
Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man...who even now fight to survive--far, far away amongst the stars...

When Last We Left the Human Race...

Betrayed by one of their own to the robotic alien Cylons*, the Twelve Colonies of Man are wiped out in a sneak attack.

The survivors hastily assemble a fleet of ships under the protection of the only remaining Battlestar, and head away from their now-devastated worlds....

This second half of the movie version of Battlestar Galactica was presented by writer Roger McKenzie and artist/colorist/painter Ernie Colon.
Because it was based on an early draft of the script, names (Serina is called Lyra) are different, and some characters who live in both the movie and tv series (including Cassiopeia) die!
(Baltar dies in the feature film, but survives in the TV series.)

This first version of Marvel Super Special #8 (1978) was a full-process color, slick-stock magazine.

However, because the editor didn't get approval from Universal Studios on the final art before it went to press, the vast majority of the copies were ordered pulped!
(This story has been confirmed by both then-Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter and the book's artist Ernie Colon.)
Changes in both script and art were made, and the book was reissued as a tabloid-sized Treasury edition, with standard comic book "flat" coloring and a new pen-and-ink cover by Rick Bryant based on the Bob Larkin cover painting!

The story was modified again when it was expanded to fill the first three issues of the ongoing Battlestar Galactica comic book...including keeping both Baltar and Cassiopeia alive!
(Cassie would later die in the comic adaptation of the two-part episode "Lost Planet of the Gods", where she's killed by Cylons.)

*Though the Cylons' Imperious Leader appears reptilian, it is as much a robot as the others, though based on the image of the humanoid lizards who created the robots!

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Battlestar Galactica: the Definitive Collection
The Original Series
Galactica: 1980
Original Feature Film
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