{"id":4191,"date":"2013-11-11T05:59:48","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T05:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/26-The-Doomsday-Machine"},"modified":"2013-11-11T05:59:48","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T05:59:48","slug":"26-the-doomsday-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relivethemajesty.com\/index.php\/2013\/11\/11\/26-the-doomsday-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"2.6 — \u201cThe Doomsday Machine\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

2.6 — \u201cThe Doomsday Machine\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plot:<\/strong> A distress beacon brings the Enterprise<\/em> to the Constitution<\/em>, a derelict Federation starship floating in a wrecked solar system, debris floating where five planets had been charted in the previous year. They are able to rescue Commodore Matt Decker, who tells them of a gigantic seemingly invulnerable robotic doomsday device, mindlessly destroying planets and converting the pieces into rocket fuel. Soon the robot arrives, while Kirk remains trapped on the derelict ship. Should the Enterprise<\/em> resign itself to the machine\u2019s destruction of Rigel Colony, or go on a suicide mission by making a hopeless frontal attack?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thoughts:<\/strong> \u00a0This is quite an exciting stemwinder of an episode. I was transfixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maybe I was deceived by the skillfulness of the remastered special effects, but I was blown away by the effects on this episode, and I don\u2019t know how they afforded to shoot it. It looks like they would have blown their whole Season One production budget. I felt like I was watching a film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s quite chilling to visit a wrecked ship that looks just like the Enterprise<\/em>. It makes you think of fragile lives protected from the inhospitable reaches of space by fragile walls and a fallible life support system. Did you see Scotty almost hit his head on a low slung beam? Foreshadowing of Star Trek V<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kirk, Spock, and Bones were very good, and the writing was very good, keeping everyone in their place and keeping exceptional control of the metering of information and progression of the story. It seems impossible that they packed all the events into one episode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Commodore Decker–too much over the top, or just the right amount? The characterization was overdone, sure, but he put some real feeling into it. You know what I liked best about the episode? Decker was right. Spock is good at calculating the odds, but he doesn’t know everything. When the true possibilities are uncertain, they are easy to discount in favor of what can be quantified. Sometimes when you can\u2019t see all the way through to the result you need, refusing to take no for an answer is enough. I wouldn’t have wanted to be a crewmember on the bridge when Decker was giving orders, however. Like \u201cThe Corbomite Maneuver\u201d and \u201cThe Galileo Seven,\u201d \u201cThe Doomsday Machine\u201d is a story about discipline and command–its pitfalls and its importance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI\u2019m going to take this thing right down its throat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oddly enough, I just watched an interview with Star Trek<\/em> script editor D.C. (Dorothy) Fontana, and she listed “The Doomsday Machine” as her least favorite Trek episode. James Doohan said it was his favorite–all that engineering detail! Lots of imaginary problems to fix. To each their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I give it 5 out of 5 planets with a surface temperature of molten lead.<\/p>\n\n\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Doomsday_Machine_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)<\/a>