Changes: The Doomsday Machine (episode)

Revision as of 03:39, 12 September 2006

The Enterprise discovers a superweapon capable of destroying entire planets.

Summary

Commodore Matt Decker

The USS Enterprise receives a faint and garbled distress signal. It is apparently a starship's disaster beacon, but they are unable to make out any words aside from 'Constellation'. Enterprise enters system L-374 and finds her sister ship, the USS Constellation, a powerless wreck, drifting and abandoned. Captain James T. Kirk transports aboard Constellation, and finds Commodore Matthew Decker the sole survivor aboard.

Decker, barely lucid, informs Kirk that something "straight out of hell" has destroyed his ship, which had been investigating the breakup of the fourth planet in system L-374. His ship damaged beyond repair, Decker beamed his crew down to the third planet, only to have the planet killer consume that planet too, killing the entire crew while Decker remained helpless aboard the Constellation. Decker explains that the planet killer uses a pure anti-proton beam as its primary weapon, and creates an interference that prevents subspace communication. Kirk postulates that the planet killer is a machine, a "doomsday weapon", a bluff, and never meant to be used. This one is roaming the galaxies, consuming for fuel everything in its path, including whole planets. Its alien makers are long since dead. Kirk and Scotty remain on board the Constellation to rig her for towing, while McCoy returns to the Enterprise with Decker.

When the planet killer returns, it attacks the Enterprise, but then veers off and heads for the densely inhabited Rigel system. Commodore Decker pulls rank and assumes command of Enterprise (using General Order 104, Section B, Paragraph 1a) over the objections of Spock. Decker orders an attack on the planet killer despite Spock's protest that its hull is made of neutronium and is therefore impermeable to attack from a single ship. Spock recommends escaping the subspace interference in order to warn Starfleet Command, but a mentally unstable Decker will not hear of it. He orders Enterprise to move in closer, and the planet killer destroys the Enterprise's deflector shields and transporter. The planet killer locks the Enterprise in a tractor beam, and begins pulling her inside. Kirk and Scotty, still on board the Constellation, manage to repair the impulse engines and recharge one of the phaser banks. Constellation distracts the planet killer, and both ships escape.

Kirk contacts the Enterprise, and upon hearing that Decker has assumed command, expressly orders Spock to relieve the Commodore "on my personal authority as Captain of the Enterprise." Decker resists this insubordination in his eye, but Spock is firm enough in his actions to make the Commodore step down. Spock orders Decker to be taken to sickbay under armed escort. Suffering from a mental breakdown brought on by the extreme guilt over the loss of his crew, Commodore Decker escapes custody and steals a shuttlecraft from the Enterprise, piloting it on a suicide course directly into the weapon's orifice, where he is quickly destroyed. However, the Enterprise sensors detect a small drop in the power output of the planet killer. The shuttlecraft's explosion, however small, had in fact caused some minor damage to the weapon's interior.

Realizing that Decker's idea, on a larger scale, might work, Kirk orders Scotty to set the Constellation to self-destruct and then return to Enterprise. Kirk pilots the Constellation on a direct course toward the weapon. He beams out at the last second, and the Constellation's engines detonate directly inside the planet killer's orifice, bypassing the neutronium hull and destroying it from within.

Following the battle, Captain Kirk noted in his log that Commodore Decker gave his life in the line of duty.

Log entries

(Log entry made by Commodore Matt Decker of the USS Constellation)

Captain’s log, stardate 4202.1. Exceptionally heavy subspace interference still prevents our contacting Starfleet to inform them of the destroyed solar systems we have encountered. We are now entering system L-374. Science Officer Masada reports the fourth planet seems to be breaking up. We are going to investigate.

Memorable Quotes

"We tried to contact Starfleet... no one heard – no one! W-we couldn't run!"
"Matt, what happened to your crew?"
"Oh, well, I had to beam them down. I mean, we were dead – no power, our phasers useless. I stayed behind. The captain... last man aboard the ship; that's what you're supposed to do isn't it? And then it hit again, and the transporter went out. They were down there, I'm up here..."
"What hit? What attacked you?"
"They say there's no devil, Jim... but there is – right out of hell, I saw it!"
"Matt, where's your crew?"
"On the third planet."
"There is no third planet."
"Don't you think I know that? There was, but not anymore! They called me, they begged me for help – four hundred of them! I couldn't... I-I couldn't..."

- Kirk and Decker

"This whole thing's incredible; a machine, a device like that – who would build it?"
"We don't know; an alien race, possibly from another galaxy."
"But why?"
"Bones... did you ever hear of the doomsday machine?"
"No; I'm a doctor, not a mechanic."
"It's a weapon, built primarily as a bluff; it was never meant to be used. So strong it could destroy both sides in a war... something like the old H-bombs were supposed to be. That's what I think this is – a doomsday machine that someone used in a war uncounted centuries ago. They don't exist anymore, but the machine is still destroying."

- McCoy and Kirk

"Captain, the impulse drive control circuits are fused solid."
"What about the warp drive controls?"
"Aye, we can cross-connect the controls, but it'd make the ship almost impossible for one man to handle."
"You worry about your miracles, Scotty; I'll worry about mine. Get to work."

- Scott and Kirk

"Random chance seems to have operated in our favor."
"In plain, non-Vulcan english, we've been lucky."
"I believe I said that, doctor."

- Spock and McCoy

"We're moving, and the Enterprise isn't. Maybe that thing will see us, and let the Enterprise go. If I only had some phasers..."
"Phasers? You got 'em – I have one bank recharged."
"Scotty! You just earned your pay for the week – stand by."

- Kirk and Scotty

"You said it yourself, Spock; there is no way to blast through the hull of that machine, so... I'm going to take this thing right down it's throat."
"This is Kirk – Matt, you'll be killed!"
"I've been prepared for death ever since I... ever since I killed my crew."
"No one expects you to die for an error in judgement."
"A commander is responsible for the lives of his crew, and for their deaths. Well, I should have died with mine."

- Decker and Kirk

"Captain, you're getting dangerously close to the planet killer."
"I intend to get a lot closer – I'm going to ram her right down that thing's throat!"
"Jim -- you'll be killed; just like Decker."
"No, Spock, I don't intend to die. We're rigging a delayed detonation device; you'll have thirty seconds to beam me back to the ship."
"Your chances of survival are not promising. We don't even know if the explosion will be powerful enough to destroy it."
"A calculated risk, Mr. Spock."
"There is one other factor to consider. The transporter is not operating at 100 percent efficiency; thirty seconds is very slim timing."
"A chance I'll have to take."

- Spock and Kirk

"A cranky transporter's a mighty finicky piece of machinery to be gambling your life on, sir."

- Scott

Background Information

This episode marks the debut of the very complex and re-designed engineering set. The dilithium crystal storage units now occupy the center of the floor (complete with recycled Horta eggs!), a ladder and upper level have been added into what was just a high bank of lighted panels in the first season. The set also is entered through a short spur hallway now, rather than as a side door off a main corridor. The console across from the forced-perspective impulse engines end of the set has been replaced by a doorway and moved to the main wall to the left of the red grid. The huge structures among which Kirk's evil self and Ben Finney once hid are not seen in detail again, but the Emergency Manual Monitor set was built on stilts on that spot, making its debut in "Mirror, Mirror". Those engine components would appear and disappear as scenes dictated-- they show up in "Day of the Dove" and "The Paradise Syndrome" but are absent completely in "Elaan of Troyius."
This is the first time the Enterprise has encountered another Constitution Class starship with the entire crew dead. The other two were in "The Omega Glory" and "The Tholian Web."
The equipment Scott pulls out of the new storage area near the doorway to Engineering is the same prop Spock uses in "Metamorphosis" as he works on the shuttlecraft, and which Ensign Harper uses to plug in the M-5 in "The Ultimate Computer." It is identified in "The Making of Star Trek" as a "Ray Generator and Energy Neutralizer."
James Doohan cited this episode for years as his favorite.
Auxilary Control, first seen in this episode aboard the Constellation, was not a new set. It was merely a redress of the engineering room set with a few additional walls from the briefing room added in, including the large viewing screen from the briefing room in "The Menagerie, Part I", "The Menagerie, Part II", and "Space Seed", which in turn was lifted from the bridge set used in "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
The year this episode was filmed, AMT produced the first Enterprise model kits. One such kit was used to make the model used for the destroyed Constellation. The decals for the ship's registration numbers are just a scrambled version of "1701." The model does not have the details of the regular Enterprise miniatures, but still looks very convincing.....except at the end when it's flying into the doomsday weapon.
When Jimmy Doohan says, "Thirty seconds later...poof!", it doesn't sound like he is using his Scottish accent.
Footage of Scotty being tossed around Engineering is stock footage from "Tomorrow is Yesterday". A console that appears only in that episode can be seen, and you can glimpse a crewman in red coveralls, too! A further clue: Scotty wears a tricorder throughout this episode. But when the old footage of him being thrown against the grating in "Tomorrow is Yesterday" is spliced in, the tricorder vanishes.
Norman Spinrad was displeased with the model used for the berserker-- he envisioned a doomsday machine bristling with all sorts of evil-looking weapons. Considering the challenging effects and set budget for this episode, the weapon turned out pretty well.
Additionally, Spinrad has expressed disappointment that the actor whom he envisioned playing Decker, Robert Ryan, was not cast.
William Windom's powerful acting in this segment makes it doubly regretful that his character would not return to the show. Like Captain Queeg and his worry balls in "The Caine Mutiny," Matt Decker possessively clutches the record tapes from his ship throughout his time on the Enterprise.
William Windom most notably played the prosecutor opposite Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird. Windom's prop in that film was a pencil, which he toyed with while cross-examining witnesses.
In an interview with William Windom, he joked that Marc Daniels, the director, didn't know what to do with the scene of Decker describing what had happened to the Constellation, so he told Mr. Windom just to "improvise", during which time the director simply left the camera running and walked out to work on something else. Windom actually made a totally-improvised ten minute speech, and, in the end, they only used about a minute and a half of it. He was referring to the laid-back style of directing used.
Footage of the asteroids is reused from "The Cage".
Will Decker, from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, has been assumed by many fans to have been Matt Decker's son, although this was never officially stated.
Vulcans never bluff.
Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) does not appear in this episode.
This episode was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1968 as "Best Dramatic Presentation".
Sol Kaplan's suspenseful "countdown" music, written for this episode, was re-used (some would say overused) in many second season episodes. Was this music the inspiration for John Williams' award winning two-note-based music in "Jaws"?
There is a curious event in this episode that may have resulted from an unscripted ad lib by James Doohan. Just after Kirk dispatches Scott to the engine room of the Constellation, Scotty tells Washburn, "Come along, lad!" Immediately, Kirk says, "Washburn, you get in there." referring to a section of the auxilary control room. Richard Compton (Washburn) looks genuinely surprised at the contradictory orders.
In many of its profile shots, the berserker is semi-transparent and stars show through it. This was an overlay of film footage of the doomsday machine model over an existing starfield. This money-saving technique also was used in "The Squire of Gothos", when Trelane's planet blocks the Enterprise's path.
In the fight scene involving Windom (Decker) and the security guard, the scuffmarks on the floor shows that scene was obviously filmed and refilmed several times.
In James Blish's adaptation, Decker's first name is "Brand" and he doesn't kamikaze the shuttlecraft into the planet-killer.
Originally, the role of Decker was to be portrayed by Robert Ryan, who was unavailable due to other committments.
In most of the earlier drafts of the screenplay, Decker did not sacrifice himself, but instead survived to admit his mistakes and voluntarily retire. The core of this scene was later recycled into the ending of The Deadly Years, where Commodore Stocker admits to Kirk that his taking command of the Enterprise was in the wrong.
The episode is constantly ranked in the top five of any "top ten" polls taken amongst fans with regards to their favorite Star Trek episodes.
According to the game Star Trek Star Fleet Academy, there is a school of thought that speculates that the galactic barrier around the perimeter of the galaxy was created to keep these planet killers out. This information is found in the library computer on the bridge. If this is true, then it is not 100% effective.
Another, and far more popular, school of thought connects these planet killers with The Preservers, an ancient race first mentioned in The Paradise Syndrome, and may have fought the Borg as well as created the galactic barrier. This was the premise behind Peter David's TNG novel Vendetta. This method of attack used against the Borg would be consistent with that seen used by Species 8472 in Star Trek: Voyager.
"In Harm's Way", the first regular episode of the fan-made series Star Trek: New Voyages, was an unofficial sequel to this episode. That episode even had a cameo by William Windom, reprising his role as Commodore Matt Decker.
The Doomsday Machine appears in Amarillo Design Bureau Inc.'s Star Fleet Battles first monster-based scenario (SM1.0) as "The Planet Crusher" (or "The Creature that ate Sheboygan III"). It was a basic monster scenario enabling a beginning player to learn how to fight his starship. The monster moved by automatic rules, allowing for one person to play the scenario.

Production timeline

First draft script: 10 May 1967
Filmed late June 1967

Links and References

Regular cast

Guest Stars

References

antiproton; antiproton beam; Constellation, USS; Doomsday machine; L-370 system; L-374 III; L-374 system; L-374 IV; Masada; neutronium; Total conversion drive; Rigel

External Links

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@@ Line 126: / Line 126: @@
 *In most of the earlier drafts of the screenplay, Decker did not sacrifice himself, but instead survived to admit his mistakes and voluntarily retire. The core of this scene was later recycled into the ending of [[The Deadly Years]], where Commodore Stocker admits to Kirk that his taking command of the Enterprise was in the wrong.
 *The episode is constantly ranked in the top five of any "top ten" polls taken amongst fans with regards to their favorite [[Star Trek]] episodes.
-* According to the game Star Trek Star Fleet Academy, there is a school of thought that speculates that the [[galactic barrier (Star Trek)|energy barrier]] around the perimeter of the galaxy was created to keep these planet killers out.  This information is found in the library computer on the bridge.  If this is true, then it is not 100% effective.
+* According to the game Star Trek Star Fleet Academy, there is a school of thought that speculates that the [[galactic barrier]] around the perimeter of the galaxy was created to keep these planet killers out.  This information is found in the library computer on the bridge.  If this is true, then it is not 100% effective.
-* Another, and far more popular, school of thought connects these planet killers with [[The Preservers]], an ancient race first mentioned in [[The Paradise Syndrome]], and may have fought the [[Borg (fictional aliens)|Borg]] as well as created the [[The Great Barrier (Star Trek)|energy barrier]]. This was the premise behind [[Peter David]]'s ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|TNG]]'' novel ''Vendetta''.  This method of attack used against the Borg would be consistent with that seen used by [[Species 8472]] in ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]''.
+* Another, and far more popular, school of thought connects these planet killers with [[The Preservers]], an ancient race first mentioned in [[The Paradise Syndrome]], and may have fought the [[Borg]] as well as created the [[galactic barrier]]. This was the premise behind [[Peter David]]'s ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|TNG]]'' novel ''Vendetta''.  This method of attack used against the Borg would be consistent with that seen used by [[Species 8472]] in ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]''.
 * "In Harm's Way", the first regular episode of the [[Fan film|fan-made series]] ''[[Star Trek: New Voyages]]'', was an unofficial sequel to this episode. That episode even had a cameo by [[William Windom (actor)|William Windom]], reprising his role as Commodore [[Matt Decker]].
 * The Doomsday Machine appears in [[Amarillo Design Bureau Inc.|Amarillo Design Bureau Inc.'s]] [[Star Fleet Battles]] first monster-based scenario (SM1.0) as "The Planet Crusher" (or "The Creature that ate Sheboygan III"). It was a basic monster scenario enabling a beginning player to learn how to fight his starship. The monster moved by automatic rules, allowing for one person to play the scenario.