Death of a Star was a comic book story published by Gold Key Comics in 1975. It was the first of two stories written by Allan Moniz and the 27th out of 36 drawn by Alberto Giolitti. In this story, the USS Enterprise expected to watch a star go nova, but instead discovered a mysterious old woman on the star’s third planet.
Publisher's description
- Cover blurb:
- The last gasp of a dying star!
Summary
| This article or section is incomplete |
|---|
| This article is marked as lacking essential detail, and needs attention. Information regarding expansion requirements may be found on the article's talk page. Feel free to edit this page to assist with this expansion. |
References
Characters
- Christine Chapel • Isis • James T. Kirk • Leonard McCoy • Montgomery Scott • Spock • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura
Starships and vehicles
Locations
Races and cultures
States and organizations
- Federation
Science and technology
- atmosphere • city • class M • nova • phaser • probe • sensor scan • solar flare • sun • sunstroke • star • transporter
Ranks and titles
- captain • lieutenant • nurse
Other references
Timeline
Chronology
- 25 million years ago – Isisian society died off
- Stardate 3333.3 – Star Isis becomes a nova
Connections
| previous comic: #29: The Planet of No Return |
Star Trek: The Original Series (Gold Key) |
next comic: #31: The Final Truth |
|---|
Appendices
Background
- The story was released during a period of worldwide interest in ancient Egyptian culture. Artifacts from King Tutankhamun's tomb were on display throughout the world in the 1970s, particularly in Britain from 1972-1979 and in New York from 1976-1979.
- The story was published four months prior to the debut of “The Secrets of Isis” TV series in September, 1975.
- Kirk, Spock and McCoy visited the Great Pyramid at Giza in TOS comic: "Prophet of Peace".
- The ancient Egyptian goddess Isis was goddess of the afterlife, the elements and the sky. Her powers were said to be the strongest of all the Egyptian gods.
- The sacred star of Isis was Sirius, considered to be a physical manifestation of the goddess.
- It was unclear whether the entity Isis was the actual Earth goddess from Egyptian mythology. While Uhura and Spock seemed to think she was, Kirk did not. She said she was the god of the sun, but only appeared connected to the star Isis. She did not describe any interaction with Earth’s past. Neither her temple, manifestations, nor the Isisian city appeared Egyptian. The headpiece she wore was not that of the Egyptian Isis. Sirius, the star associated with Egyptian Isis, was a binary star, whereas the star which went nova was a lone star. And that moment for her which encompassed the last 25 million years would have included all of recorded human history, including the time of ancient Egypt. If she was the Egyptian Isis, then she was an entity capable of living within or traveling between multiple stars and possibly experienced time in some non-linear way.
- The Isisian’s temple resembled the stepped pyramids of ancient Mayan Earth culture, rather than those of ancient Egypt, particularly as influenced by Kukulkan in TAS episode: "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth".
- It was unclear whether the star itself was alive. Sensors observed the star for 24 hours, but no mention was made of life readings within the star or other evidence that it was alive. The only life readings within the system came from the temple on the surface of Isis III.
- Spock’s mind meld with the cosmic entity, in which he saw wonderment and “inconceivable things,” presaged similar wonder from his meld with V'Ger in TOS movie: The Motion Picture.
Related stories
- TOS comic: "We Are Dying, Egypt, Dying!" – The culture and mythology of ancient Egypt was revisited.
- TOS comic: "The Mummies of Heitius VII" – Ancient Egyptian mummification was explored.
- TOS episode: "All Our Yesterdays" – The Enterprise was present as the star Beta Niobe became a supernova.
- TAS episode: "Bem" – The cosmic intelligence Delta Theta III entity nurtured life on a planet as its children.
Images
Mind meld with Isis entity
Isisians
Temple of Isis
Isis as an old woman
Isis as an Eye
External links
- Death of a Star article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.