The Doomsday Machine
The Enterprise finds entire star systems destroyed, and in the middle of one is the battered hulk of the Constellation, sister ship to the Enterprise. The Constellation had a run in with The Doomsday Machine (Memory Alpha; SD Video).
This episode is pretty good, but it’s the same old structure.
There are two things that stand out here. One is really good and one is really bad.
We get an interesting character in Commodore Decker (here playing the role of ‘unhelpful native’), and he’s well acted. He has a pathos that’s easily accessible and a stubbornness that’s at once abhorrent and altogether understandable. He is, unlike many walk-on parts in the show, a character that you can believe is a real person when they’re not onscreen.
But we also get a big, not-in-any-way-subtle reference to nuclear war. The Doomsday Machine is repeatedly likened to “H-Bombs:” a weapon you’re never supposed to use, even if you build it. Except that’s about the only thing they have in common. The H-Bomb is meant as a deterrent, and works incredibly poorly as anything else. It’s a one-shot device. It isn’t particularly useful if you want to fight a real war. But the Doomsday device is none of those things: it’s a capital ship in it’s own right that repeatedly attacks, is nigh indestructible and nearly unstoppable. If you could build this device, you could either build things to destroy it, or build manned ships so that you’d never use it.
A couple points on Starfleet regulations:
- The ship’s doctor should, like a navy ship’s doctor, have the ability to force the captain off duty if they start acting crazy. So should the XO.
- Kirk walks around the bridge to ask questions of each person. Why? He’s got a chair. It even swivels.
- The Captain shouldn’t be on every single landing party.
- When transporting into a dangerous situation, send an ensign first, and then the bigwigs.
- Backup systems are important. A second transporter would be great. Oh, what’s that? They have a second transporter in some episodes? Yeah.
Grade
B+
