Just as the Constellation makes its final approach to the planet killer and Sulu says "forty", the star pattern changes abruptly.

An odd shot earlier showed the Constellation looking back through the Enterprise's engine pylons. First, the stars were streaming by as if they were at warp. The Constellation should have just been drifting at this point. Secondly, the Constellation is bobbing up and down. Third, there's a bright light at one of the damaged points on the saucer section, as if it were on fire. A nice touch, but it doesn't show up in any other shot.

Speaking of things changing, the running lights on the lower part of the Enterprise's saucer keep shifting. They're at about 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock, positionally, when the ship passes from left to right at the beginning, then they're in the middle of the saucer at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock when she's attacking the machine, then they're back at 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock after Decker sacrifices himself.
The difference being re-used stock footage from season 1, prior to the model being modified prior to the start of season 2.

James Doohan has stated in interviews that this episode is his favorite.

In regards to what he curses, I had always 'heard' him mutter: "Ya borgas frat, you!" I like this saying (granted, it's my favorite all-time episode of Trek and sf), and I use this on occasion in my life instead of ordinary swearing.

Just out of curiosity, anybody here know how the doomsday machine was done (I'd assume a model), and also how the glowing maw effects was done?
There doesn't seem to be much info on it around the web. Also, if it was a model, anybody know what became of it?

Actually, I always thought that it looked like a very battered teleoscope. (sp)

Telescope.

A "teleoscope", oddly enough, would be a device for looking at bony fish.

Re:"Doomsday Machine" Models
The Consellation was a "distressed" AMT model kit of the Enterprise, while I suspect, that the "Doomsday" machine itself, was a Plaster or Foam, model constructed over a support frame/armature & painted to look "weathered".
As to its shape, the original script depicts it as conical, though when the model was constructed, it consisted of a series of "Stacked" cylinders, of decreasing diameter, hence the "Telescope" description.
"The "Maw" was a Optical effect, though.
As to the Doomsday Machine Model's fate as well as the Constellation, they were probably thrown out the back of a "Dumpster" after filming as they were, I suspect, considered "Disposable".

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet somewhere else (it's not on this page or in the Geocities archive). At the end of the show Kirk ponders whether this is the first time that a weapon of mass destruction has been used for constructive purposes. What about the fact that Zephram Cochrane built the Phoenix out of an old nuclear missile? Doesn't that count? If Gene Roddenberry was such a visionary, how come he couldn't see 30 years into the future and read the First Contact script? Huh? HUH?!?! Answer me that.

When Star Trek:TOS was transmitted, according to the chronology at the time, Zephram Conchrane was a native of Alpha Centauri !
It was'nt until First Contact came out that Zephram became a Terran...

I think they said he was "from" Alpha Centauri. Maybe he moved there after inventing the warp drive.

What was actually said was, "Zefram Cochrane of Alpha Centauri." (Emphasis mine.) (And that's according to James Blish's adaptation [STAR TREK 7].) That indicates, to me anyway, that Cochrane was regarded as a native of Alpha Centauri.

Live long and prosper.

According to the Original (Pre-First Contact) chronology, Zefram Conchrane was born
in the Alpha Centauri system.
He proposed the concept of warp drive, but could not get funding there to delevop his theory, into a practical drive system.
He then emigrated to Earth via then STL (Slower than Light) starships, which were running a
Limited service between Sol & Alpha Centauri, & got funding to delevop his theory into a practical drive system.
First contact with the Vulcan's occoured
(pre-First Contact) when a Human warp-capable starship answered a Distress transmission from a Vulcan Vessel. They were unable to repair the Vulcan ship, but were able to take the crew to the "Vulcan" Star System
(40 Eridrani), & formal contact took place, with the governments of Earth & later, Alpha Centauri.

Pretty much everything in the early Chronology has now been refuted by Enterprise. Given that in "Twilight" Alpha Centauri was stated to be an Earth colony, we can fudge it by saying Cochrane moved to Alpha Centauri. In any case, it would be awkward to claim he was a member of an alien race when he looked identical to a human in "Metamorphosis".

Re:Last Comment
Thande, given the events of Enterprise esp the 3rd season, you could argue, that therefore
Enterprise itself is NOT canon,(if indeed NX-01 even exists/had existed), & hence irrevalent to this thread...
The implications of which timeline is "canonical",or if even NX-01 even "Exists", could fill several threads on most of the Trek boards on this site...

CG enhancing: Following up on an idea in the Space: 1999 threads, if Star Trek the Classic Series could be enhanced with CG, these are ideas I have for this episode.


When Spock tells Kirk that a robot attacked the ship, an archive shot running behind Spock's head, only part of the screen visible, showing planet L-374-IV being sliced apart, would be nifty.

Scenes of the planet killer being transparent could be fixed.

When Decker leads Enterprise on the first attack run, it would be nifty if some of the phaser shots showed on Kirk's viewscreen on board Constellation.

When the Enterprise is held in the tractor beam, the bridge viewscreen shows them slowly being drawn inside the planet killer, while Kirk sees them at a standstill on the Constellation's viewscreen. These should be reconciled, with the Enterprise shown further away, slowly receding into the planet killer as the drag continues. Some animation of the tractor beam should be visible, even if only as an "artifact" — a partial appearance. (A machine powerful enough to tractor in planet chunks could tear a ship apart with its tractor beam, the way Enterprise's tractor beam cut apart Capt. Christopher's fighter jet.)

When Decker passes through doors that normally went right into the huge expanse of the hangar deck, there was a corridor wall. Since no shuttlecraft has been made ready, I suggest the engraved plate on the wall be changed to read, "SHUTTLECRAFT STORAGE BAY 1"; when Decker goes through the door, we see the starboard side of a shuttle, and he ducks left to get around it to the port side, where the hatch is. Also, he must arrange to raise it up to the hangar deck. We could assume this shuttle was right on the lifting pad.

There also are repeated back-ups as the action cuts away and back to the image of the growing maw.

Aboard Decker's shuttlecraft, those are windows, and the shot should be getting progressively closer. Decker's shuttle looks far too big, if the maw is big enough to swallow a dozen starships, so perhaps a digitally-rendered maw, only the far side of which is visible, could replace the current view of the shuttle slipping out of sight from the side view. Decker's viewpoint shouldn't show the maw at all, only the brilliant interior of the planet killer, at this point.

The aft view of the Constellation shows no impulse engine vents at all.

The footage of the damaged Constellation (one nacelle worse off than the other) flying across the screen appears again in "The Trouble With Tribbles", posing as the Enterprise. (Did Scotty forget to tighten the bolts holding that nacelle in place?)

When Decker orders Spock to surrender command, Spock gives him the coldest, iciest stare I've ever seen him give anyone.
There is a square outline, probably a garbage matte, of the planet killer when it appears on the Enterprise viewscreen in frontal view. I never saw it while watching this ep broadcast over the air or cable, but it's quite visible on the DVD.
Kirk was supposedly headed to Auxiliary Control, but he appeared to be walking right by it, until he saw Decker through the open door.

Thought of a fix for that "walking by".

If there's room, suggest having the actual doors further to the left (viewer's perspective) but blocked with debris. The actual door shown could be a damaged bulkhead, and show a "spent" electro-plasma conduit nearby that had catastrophically burst, blowing out the bulkhead to the corridor, or else the bulkhead could show it was cut open in emergency because the main doors were blocked, and with the bridge damaged, they had to get to Aux in a hurry.

There is an oddity: presumably Decker was in one of the emergency transporter rooms (that can beam 22 people at once) when the PK fired again and knocked out the systems, did Decker make his way to aux control?

Presumably, Decker's ship tried to destroy the planet killer while it was eating L-374-IV, and having been bested, they head away to L-374-III, assume orbit, and begin beaming crew down.

The planet killer finishes off the fourth planet and heads for the third, and attacks the Constellation since it still has significant energy sources (unless it can detect transporter activity and decided to knock out the ship so the people can't get off the planet). As the planet is chowed down, its gravity weakens and Constellation drifts out of orbit.

What I'm wondering is why the planet killer attacked the Constellation then left it and started slicing up the planet. It couldn't have eaten all the Constellation's energy or Kirk wouldn't have had enough left to destroy it later.

Also, why would Decker beam his crew down when they've already seen that the machine can destroy a planet? At least on the Constellation, they've got some weapons.

An error in judgement... there must have been a reason why Decker felt the ship could no longer support the 400 of them.

Hmm... I've never read the story, but did Ahab sacrifice his crew in his attempt to kill the whale?

As to the PK attacking the Constellation and leaving it... it seems to attack ships that pose an apparent threat. The designers appear to have programmed it so that if a ship has an anti-matter store, it is a definite threat. Also, by eliminating warp drive and jamming subspace, it prevents ships from getting too far ahead to summon a fleet to combat it. The device seems to be intended to eliminate a race's ability to fight back or to preserve its planets.

The Constellation arrived at the fourth planet to find the planet killer slicing it up. Decker ordered his crew to attack the device, and they battled, draining their phasers to no avail, while the device disabled the ship's warp drive. No longer able to fight, not able to get away from the solar system, Decker has the ship flown to the only safe port.

I pause here to note that the device came from outside the galaxy. Even if it didn't come from a faraway galaxy (as Picard postulated 60 years later at Starfleet Academy in "Vendetta"), it was either starving or just in need of a "fill-up", so it destroyed four whole solar systems (L-370 thru L-373), then encountered L-374. Why didn't it destroy the two innermost planets? Small potatoes and it had gotten its fill for awhile?

It could be that the planet killer could detect habitable planets, and just chose to chow down on planets it encountered along the way to a habitable planet. L-374-III might have been on the far side of L-374, and Decker hoped it wouldn't go for it.

However, while beaming crew down, the killer finishes off the fourth planet and comes up on III. Perhaps in the meantime, Decker's engineers had managed to recharge one phaser partway, and Decker was firing on it, then it attacked Constellation again and disabled the transporters.

What I don't understand is why the planet killer let two ships fly into its maw without firing on them. If they had turned away, would it have engaged its tractor beam? It acted like it was accepting a "free meal". If it had fired on the Constellation, Scotty's timer might have gone out of action, or the impulse deck might have exploded before it got into a suitable place to do damage to the planet killer.

I wonder if the designers of the planet killer overlooked that danger, or if the planet killer's failure to fire on Decker or Kirk is a software oversight. That could be. The planet killer may not have known what to do at a seeming minor nuisance plunging to certain annihilation in its conversion unit.

Now, going back to the device's origin, Picard, in the 2210s-2220s, postulates that the planet killer couldn't have come from another galaxy. Even the nearest ones are two million light years away, and the best speed of the object seemed to be Warp 4. At Warp 11 or better, it would still take Kirk's Enterprise 300 years to reach Andromeda. Without planetary bodies to feed on, it would "run out of gas" not far out of its origin galaxy.

When it reached our galaxy's vicinity, it would be repulsed by the energy barrier, not having the ability to push its way through. In the novel "Vendetta", in which Picard reasons this, it is determined that the planet killer was built, just outside the barrier, by the Preservers who were on the run from the Borg. The device was built as a Borg-stopping device, and the one Kirk and Decker encountered was a prototype. With time running out to finish the perfected version, the Preservers launched the prototype, even though it would take centuries to reach Borg space.

A woman whose people, and then her sanctuary (the El Aurians) were destroyed by the Borg finds the device and becomes its "heart", piloting it into the galaxy where it chows down while heading for the Borg who are attacking areas on the Federation's fringe. Picard's schoolmate at Starfleet comes across this Mark II, and tries something Kirk, Decker and Spock never did: they hail it!

Sigh. The Borg even develop a resistance to the anti-proton beam of the Mark II planet killer, and it can't destroy a Borg cube without the Enterprise firing on the Borg ship's hind side.

That planet killer "disappears" by accelerating to Warp 9.999999999999... Guinan remembers a dilemma: if you keep halving the distance between you and what you're approaching, you'll never get there. The planet killer and the woman piloting it keep repeating an ever shorter loop of time.

Interesting story, even if it isn't canonical. It would have been nifty if there was a followup on one of the three next generation TV series.

planet killer couldn't have come from another galaxy. Even the nearest ones are two million light years away

You're forgetting the Magellanic Clouds, which are between 175000 and 200000 ly away.

There is also the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy at 80000 ly, but it was not discovered until 1994.

Spock mentioned that the planet killer only seemed to "notice" ships within a certain radius.

so it destroyed four whole solar systems (L-370 thru L-373), then encountered L-374. - GCapp

Were L-371 thru L-373 mentioned in the episode? I don't remember that.

I thought of another reason why the planet killer might have stopped attacking the Constellation. Maybe it was low on energy (even though it just destroyed a solar system) and needed the largest energy source it could find. So it went for the planet after neutralizing the immediate threat from the Constellation.

Even in intergalactic space, there are about 3 atoms per cubic centimeter. The planet-killer could have been feeding on the very tenuous interstellar and intergalactic matter. It would be better than nothing. It could have been in stasis part of the time.
Its software might have gone defective from interstellar radiation.
It could have eaten the outer envelopes of cool stars. (And I don't mean Hollywood stars! )

I like the theory in "Vendetta"; I'd like to read it some time.

Also it could set course and than turn everything off except for some timer set to wake it back up when it gets where it's going. Once it's moving it doesn't need to keep propelling forways, remember that objects in motion will stay in motion until acted upon by an outside force.

Bit of a spoiler for Vendetta: Peter David also essentially invented Seven of Nine ten years before B&B did, and did a much better job of it too. At the time TPTB were concerned about his 'assimilating life' portrayal of the Borg and he had to add a disclaimer that the TV Borg were not necessarily related to his book Borg...of course eventually TPTB went his way anyway.

wow, good thought!

The planet killer could not coast at warp speed. Warp speed requires the use of energy to generate a warp field that uses continuum distortion propulsion. Ignoring what happened to Delcara and the Mark II at the end of "Vendetta" (as, then, apocryphal), the planet killer would have had to use one tremendous burst of energy in a phenomenal warp factor to jump across the intergalactic void.

It is rather difficult to account for the planet killer crossing that space without some sort of energy source running out or being insufficient to complete the journey. That thing would have to be more than four million years old, old enough to cross the void at 50% of light speed and ram through our galaxy's energy barrier with sheer momentum, then reactivate and start chowing down on planets to fully reenergize for doomsday activity.

FASA, in a adventure for their ST:TNG Role Playing Game system, argued that the "Doomsday Machine" had a form of Transwarp drive,(said adventure was published before Star Trek V effectively made Transwarp a joke), but due to it's mass & related effects, it could only reach the equivalent of Warp 2.5...
Alternately, it could have used the equivalent of Borg "Transwarp Condiuits" or the Slipstream drive mentioned in a Voyager episode...

Of course (as used in the non-canon novel Vendetta) the planet killer was not from another galaxey. it was made in our own. Exactly how Decker gets it in his head that it is from one is never really explained anyway.

When Scotty plays back the Commodore's log it starts out by saying: "Captain's log...."

Er...shouldn't that be "COMMODORE'S Log"?

He's captain of the ship, regardless of rank. If Ensign Chekov made an entry it would still be a captain's log.

Not necessarily. In "Metamorphosis" & "Friday's Child", Scotty said, "SHIP'S log", not "Captain's log".

Commodore would be Decker's rank, but captain would be his position relative to the ship. At least that's what I would assume.

I always thought that having the Doomsday Machine come back would have made a great episode of Voyager! They could have encountered it in the Delta Quadrant, and even come across the people that created it, if any people still exist. I realize that Spock and everyone said the Doomsday Machine was from another galaxy, but in TOS, they threw that term around alot. If the show was made today, they probably would have said "another quardrant" of the galaxy. Would have been interesting to see how Voyager would have handled it.

Particularly if they incorporated Peter David's idea that the Doomsday Machine was built to fight the Borg. (Assuming Voyager actually did real Borg rather than the wimpy ones they always did).

I re-watched this on DVD last night, and its still one of my favourites - story, music and overall effects for their time.
On the music front, I'm pretty sure (as someone as already pointed out here) the John Williams used some of this music to create the music in Jaws - the similarities are uncanny!
The other thing found with this episode is that the technobabble seems to sit well with everyone - from Lt. Palmers' reports of "heavy subspace interference", "damage control teams sealing off inner-hull rupture" and "main energisers out" to Washburns' reports "something crashed through the screens and knocked out the generators" - it all doesn't sound too hokey or forced.
Still not sure why the doomsday weapon or the Enterprise are semi-transparent in some shots though - if the models were matted in to the background of stars then the matte lines wouldn't show up because the background is black? From the looks of things they were trying to blend the two elements together without getting a garbage matte..

Hmm...there's an episode of this show (at least I'm sure it's ST: TOS) I saw many years back, and I'm trying to remember if its this one. The main thing I remember is this weird possibly cone-shaped space vehicle floating in space, and this guy in a small spacecraft heading towards it. This vehicle had this freaky shimmering light at one end and the other ship ran into the light and was presumably destroyed (I remmeber the pilot recoiling in horror as the light engulfed him). Is this the episode? It sounds like it could have been.

Yes, its the one.Paul, its my favorite Tos episode

I know it has been mentioned in the archived nits, but these are kept in a galaxy far far away from here. My first thought when I listened to the music in the episode was: Jaws is coming (again).

I hope it wasn't my DVD acting strange, but when the battered Constellation starts moving (thanks to Scotty) it 'stutters' like a car that is driven by an absolute beginner. In space however, you can't speed up and slow down without using opposite forces...

At the same time the engines make a noise as from an old 2-stroke-engine. This means DKW must be back in business in the 22st century!

I know some people do not agree, but I don't like the camera work in this episode. A bit too overdone IMO...

Has anyone seen this?


http://youtube.com/watch?v=D9XHmj-dPEY&search=star%20trek

Pure genius! I wish they'd do it and put it on DVD!

I wasn't crazy about the tractor beam or the enhanced transporter effect, but the rest was perfect. I especially like when Kirk walked past the viewscreen and there was actual movement instead of the still picture.

Here's another attempt that wasn't nearly as good:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HSYC6Wlbv8&feature=PlayList&p=D19A2EBB2FA1F2F0&index=1

According to the "Memory Alpha" website, this was James Doohan's favorite episode.

Kirk was supposedly headed to Auxiliary Control, but he appeared to be walking right by it, until he saw Decker through the open door.

I can think of two anti-nits for that:

1) They were planning on listening to the log from the other room (Where Kirk later sent Washburn) until they noticed the unconscious Decker.

2) The Constellation's control rooms are set up slightly differently from the Enterprise so they almost passed the room they meant to go into.

By Adam Bomb on Saturday, January 20, 2001 - 02:25 pm:

-William Windom's perf here is outstanding. From being bombed out early on to regaining his confidence and obsession. He is also one of the few Trek characters to need a shave all the way through the ep. (No matter how long Kirk or Spock stayed in a cell, they always looked neat and clean-shaven.)-

This jogged a long-forgotten memory from somewhere. Was it in a Blish book, or elsewhere, where there was a reference to some character slapping on some kind of "beard repressor", which I took to mean something like an after-shave lotion? Although it might be more accurately called 'before-shave lotion'!

I believe there was a reference to something like a "beard repressor" in the novelization for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, although the vibe I got was that it was a device, akin to an electric razor. Of course, it's been ten years since I read that. . .

Remastered version airs this weekend. VCR/Tivo alert. Check this out.

It was a definate improvement but still not all that impressive. Much more than I could do mind you but what took them so long to redo TOS?

Definately the most changes were made to this episode (of the ones shown so far). Of course this episode had the most shots to be changed. TPTB took a few more liberties with this episode than with the previous ones.

The 'flyover attack' shot was one of the more obvious ones (with ENT firing phasers down the length of the DDM), as well as the shuttle launching (lifting off the deck before the turntable is finished turning the shuttle to the face the doors). Makes more sense though, Decker would want to get out of the hangar bay before Sulu could get the doors closed again. I liked the exterior shot of the shuttle leaving the hangar bay as well. Re-numbering the shuttle '6' also negated a previous nit (re-use of Galileo 7 shots).

However, I found the 'nuclear fire' in the machine's maw to look a little fake at first. Of course I've been seeing the original for 30 years so I guess it may be because it's a noticable difference.

At least I don't have to cringe at the "shaking Constellation" shots at the end any more.

Over all a job well done on this, my #1 favourite TOS episode.

I thought the shuttle had a number 8 on it. I must've seen it wrong.

Live long and prosper.

Very well done. Also, the relative sizes of the DDM, the two starships and the shuttlecraft seemed to be corrected. And, when Kirk walked by the bridge viewscreen (twice), we actually saw what was supposed to be there, rather than a plain starfield.
I just wish that WNBC didn't dump this at 3 a.m. late Sunday.

Here, here. Out here in eastern Ohio it's on at 3:30am Sunday. I set up the VCR to tape it and watch while drinking my coffee Sunday morning.

Anyone hear when/whether a DVD set will be released with the "remastered" episodes?

hey you in eastern ohio, come to western ohio and enjoy the 9 hours of freezing rain followed by some power outages...

Norman Spinrad talks about the making of "The Doomsday Machine".

Live long and prosper.

Cold and Wet:
No thanks, I have my hands full with 2 feet of snow with 1 inch of ice on top. At least I'm not in Buffalo though....

I always thought that the concept on the original Star Trek series of each starship having its own,unique symbol on their shirt-uniforms was terrific.Here we see Decker's pretzel shaped emblem,Ron Tracy(The Omega Glory)starship captain had his own design,as did Bob Wesley(The Ultimate Computer.While I certainly also liked the Enterprise crews delta shaped badge,for some reason in the Trek movies they changed it so that now not only do all starships share the Enterprise insignia,it represents Star Fleet itself.I think that was a huge mistake.I feel that each starship crew,even if they are of the same class spaceship would like to have their own,seperate badge design.Plus,just from a creative standpoint its fun to see what the artistc department can come up with for every starship.

Would people stop typing "Here, Here". It's "Hear, Hear"!!!!!

Unless you're talking about Here here in ohio...

anyway, I heard from one source that the emblem change was to reflect how the Enterprise was the only starship not to be destroyed. Of course, I know that isn't canon or anything.

There was an earlier discussion here about the stars moving backwards as the Enterprise approaches the Doomsday Machine; to me, all of the floating 'stars' throughout the episode are merely planetary debris floating around. You can't reduce two spheres the size of planets (even Mercury or Pluto-size planets), without massive fields of debris everywhere.

Decker thinks Spock is bluffing regarding using the security guards to arrest him. Couldn't Decker have just turned around and told the guards, "Gentlemen; I outrank Mr.Spock, AND you. If you try to arrest me, I ensure you that I'll see you sent to a penal colony for the rest of your lives!"
Of course, since Decker had a death wish to start off with, I think he just gave up on the idea of using the Enterprise to do it, feeling that he didn't have to drag 430 innocent officers and crew into his own personal hell.

There was an earlier comment about the damage control team, specifically, Washburn, who's in a blue shirt. Also odd is that the other two men in the team have yellow shirts; Scotty's the only visible engineer. Odd, since well before this time the wardrobe people should have known that they would need red shirts for an engineering damage control landing party.

Mention has also been made that it seemed odd that Kirk could identify the Constellation merely by seeing a small image of it on the screen. What's also odd is his comment, "Look at that!" regarding her wrecked state; the only problem with that is that the image didn't show any damage, she was too far away. Fortunately, seeing the fx reel on YouTube shows the ship listing, clearly defeated by a superior force, making Kirk's comment a little more realistic at that time. The damage is eventually seen and severe, but only after the Enterprise has come within a mile of her.

After Decker gives the command to "veer off," why is Lt. Palmer holding her hands over her ears? It doesn't look like an expression of horror, it's more like she's hearing a loud noise, but no one else seems to be reacting to it.

I wonder why the Doomsday Machine was unable to scan & detect the engines on the Constellation & the threat they presented to it at the end of the episode? I suppose the designers of the DM could have thought that a weapon of this power & scale would not have any threats to it.Still,this weapon has to have a system to detect energy sources such as planets & asteroids,why not have a scanning system that can also sense potential threats to it at the same time?

After seeing the remastered, I got no sound on the tape!

I got used to the 1967 Doomsday machine.Some of the errors were fixed by the fixit people!

Mike powers mind me asking what was yr first trek and how old? where are you, and what got you hooked on it?

Peter David did a good job in his novel Vendetta, of the changes in the Borg.

Kirk mentions that no one has used anything like an H-bomb constructively; he should brush up on Earth history. Both the US and USSR experimented with "peaceful nuclear explosions" in the 1960s and 1970s, as a means of creating caves, mining, putting out natural gas fires, etc.

I'm sure this happens in other episodes, but when the Enterprise first approaches the Constellation, you see it large on the viewscreen. But the stars are also moving as they often do. Seeing small stars shoot by while the Constellation remains fixed makes it look like the Constellation is many times larger than a star, and that the Enterprise is approaching it from far off at warp.

The 30-second timer Scotty rigs seems to take a lot longer than thirty seconds to go off. At one point, Spock comments that there are twenty seconds left. Then, twenty three seconds later, Sulu starts counting down from sixteen. Even assuming that all the visuals don't represent the passage of any time (that is, they show what was going on outside the ship at the same time as the dialogue), Spock still has about 7-8 seconds of speaking between his count of twenty and Sulu's count of sixteen.

Just before Kirk hits the switch to start the 30 seconds, there is a shot of the Planet Killer approaching. On my DVD, there's a visual artifact -- a faint, blue, rectangular shape surrounding the Planet Killer.

Not at all Laforge,I was 13 years old when Star Trek made its debut on NBC in September of 1966...& I wasn't exactly "hooked" at first sight.My idea of sf at that point was mostly what we got from b-films & Irwin Allen's television shows.Sad to say.If the visual effects,sets,costumes,& monsters were cool,that's all I required,the fact that there was a lack of coherant & intelligent plots & rich characterizations did not matter to me,they certainly didn't to Irwin Allen,that's for sure.So when this brand new Star Trek series premiered which did have intriguing stories as well as interesting characters,it was "alien" to my unsophisticated sf tastes.But,I hung in there watching it as the season unfolded,it was sf after all,had nifty fx,sharp looking sets,costumes,props,& so forth.Bit by bit it drew me in,held my attention,& in time I became a major fan & outgrew the less(far less) sf movies & tv shows.Thank you Star Trek.What's your story Laforge?

See the first post in First Trek You ever saw and how old,

my god, you are one of the orignial Trekkers..


Brain and Brain what is Brain!

you forgot to say where are ya, mike!

And proud of it Laforge! I'm in upstate N.Y.

say, Mike, did you catch the remastered Treks and the 2.0 Treks?

Not the 2.0 Treks Laforge but I'm loving the remastered episodes of the original Trek series.While we were dazzled by the show's fx when the show first aired,they just haven't dated well for the most part over the years.The Doomsday Machine remastered was sensational.I realize that some fans aren't pleased with either the new cg fx,or they question the integrity of this upgrading project as a whole.I respect their views but if only the visuals are enhanced & the storyline & performances are left untouched I really don't see the problem. Where are you located?

near where they keep the whales, mike (not s.f.)

West coast,nice Laforge,if I were ever to relocate anywhere in the USA,the west coast would be the place.No winters!!!

yay forest fires!

and earthquakes ,fires and floods oh my!

Mike Powers - if I were ever to relocate anywhere in the USA,the west coast would be the place.No winters!!!
You do realize that the West Coast of the USA includes Oregon, Washington & Alaska, right?

Actually, due to the geological instabilities of the CA coastline, at some point, CA will extend from CA where it is today to all the way up north...

Indeed I do Kam.I have a nephew & friend who both live in Portland,OR,another friend in Seattle,WA,plus,a cousin in northern CA.And they all tell me that they would not live anywhere else.I took a cruise to Hawaii years ago & loved that also!

One of my internet freinds lives in Hurricane country...The land of the infamous recount!

I live there too. Deerfield Beach, Florida; just south of Boca Raton, known as a mafia retirement community or as God's waiting room.

so the doomsday machine is actually the city of New Orleans?

The discussion seems to have drifted... Not that there's usually much discussion in this board to begin with that a little detour is bad mind you...

Mentioning Hawaii got me to thinking,what if the original Star Trek series had been filmed entirely on location in our 50th state like Lost is? The natural scenic beauty would have been incredible for "Shore Leave" as an example.The abandoned military bases would have made for interesting places to shoot scenes,as was done from time to time in Hawaii Five-O.Just fun to see fresh locations instead of the usual ones used countless times by all of the tv shows that film in L.A.

The remastered "Doomsday Machine" reruns this weekend.

Tonight I watched,for the second time,this wonderful remastered episode of "TDM',one of the finest eps of Star Trek.When Kirk & his team beam onto the Constellation he orders Scotty to check & see if the ship's phasers have been fired.How about also having him check out the photon torpedoes too? One moment,Scotty is with his men investigating the engine room but in the very next scene he's then with Kirk & McCoy as they discover Decker.Was this due to editing? Kirk orders Scotty to pull all of the microtapes.I've never heard that term used before in all three seasons of the show.

You're right, Mike. The only thing that nearly comes close is in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", when Spock refers to the Valiant tapes being badly burned. There was also the "taped" music referred to in "The Savage Curtain", but neither of those examples qualifies as a reference to "microtapes".

the tech in Menagerie part 1 asks Who's tapes are these?

And how come Decker,when in command of the Enterprise,never opted to use photon torpedoes on the Doomsday Machine,in addition to the ship's phasers? Seems to me you'd utilize both weapons against such an incredible & enormous weapon.Though ultimately,the torpedoes would most likely prove as futile as the phasers were on the DM,never using them at all seemed unrealistic.In the original showing of this episode,stock or library film footage of the Enterprise firing photon torpedoes could have been used to save money on budget if that was an issue...& I'm sure it was.

Don't they use "tapes" in "Wink of an Eye"?

the remastered doomsday machine had some subtle cuts, they argue for being captain , Spock's red alert call in the transporter!

they did fix the scale of the modelling errors and the shuttle was renumbered.

Yeah, that was a terrible cut: "Vulcans never bluff."

In Spock's inital scan of the Constellation, and I quote "The bridge is damaged and uninhabitable"
every person knows that they're not going to show the Constellation's bridge but according to the show's producers, they said they wanted to save money on the budget, and they didn't want to build another bridge set.

If the Constellation bridge had been shown, you would have probably seen the same bridge as it is on the Enterprise, the Exeter (The Omega Glory), the Lexington (The Ultimate Compuiter) or the Defiant (The Tholian Web). Of course, these episodes featured "redressing" the existing Enterprise set.

The TV Land version that ran this morning dropped the fight between Commodore Decker and Mr. Montgomery. Which leaves a gaping plot hole - how did Decker get to the shuttle bay when he was headed for sickbay?!

Theres no "gaping" plot hole. In the TV Land version, Commodore Decker simply went to sick bay first then when McCoy released him he went to the shuttle bay. "Gaping" plot hole gone.

GREAT ENHANCED MOMENT:

All new battle sequence between the Enterprise & the Doomsday Machine. It's awesome!

Next week's episode is "The Doomsday Machine" -- don't you think I know that?!?!

The following weekend is "Devil in the Dark".

When the planet killer robot is stopped, it
falls relative to Enterprise as if it were
an erection becoming flaccid. It wouldn't do
that! They treated it as if it acted as if gravity were pulling on it.

Also, I'm so HAPPY that Commodore Decker killed himself!

I think that gave the Constellation a destroyed bridge in order to make the cuts between the ships less confusing. If they had used the identical bridge set, it would not have been as easy to tell which ship the scene is set on.

By putting a lot of the action in auxiliary control, it made the ships visually distinct.

Are the shields so close to the hull that the debris asteroids can come perilously near to the Enterprise without being deflected? It looked like one missed the nacelles by only a few dozen yards.

Are the shields so close to the hull that the debris asteroids can come perilously near to the Enterprise without being deflected?

In 'The Wrath of Khan' and 'The Voyage Home', the display panels showing shield status do show the shields hugging the ship hulls very closely.

As Spock scans the planet killer after the Constellation explosion, he says that the energy output is zero and radiation level is normal. You would think that a nearly 90 megaton explosion would leave a LOT of radioactive residue behind.

Why was the planet killer heading for the next solar system when there were still two planets left in the previous one?

"energy output is zero" must refer to the power within the Machine, and not the result of the exploding Constellation. But you raised a question for me, Francois, that I never previously thought of. Earlier, Spock said that he couldn't scan the internal mechanism of the Machine (so he didn't know if blowing up the Constellation inside it would destroy the Machine). Now he easily reads energy output is zero.

Regarding the two untouched planets, perhaps they're gas giants, and the Doomsday Machine only consumes solid planets like Earth, Mercury, or Pluto.

Perhaps the angle? He couldn't scan from the side due to the neutronium hull, but after the explosion they were at a different angle, and able to scan through the maw?

Why was the planet killer heading for the next solar system when there were still two planets left in the previous one?

Maybe there was too long of a line at the drive through?

Wouldn't the amount of radiation left behind be a direct result of what caused the explosion? If I remember, it was a fusion one, but not one started with radioactive material. If so, that might explain the lack of radiation.

What happened to the guard that Decker attacked? How come he never shows up again to report that Decker escaped? Surely Decker didn't kill the guy.

He beat him up pretty good, the guard could have stayed unconcious for the relatively short time it took Decker to kill himself and for Kirk to destroy the planet killer.

Poor guard got his a** handed to him by someone twice his age. He'll never live it down.

In the James Blish story version (and my guess the original script) McCoy has a great line after Decker says "Mr. Spock knows his duty under regulations. Do you?" Mc Coy says "Yes. To go to Sickbay and wait for the casualties you'll be sending me." That line may even have been shot; we'll never know.

I read the Blish adaptation many years ago. As I recall, Decker's first name in said adaptation was Brand, not Matt.

Also, Decker survived at the end.

I remember both story points, even though it's been decades since I've read the Blish adaptation. But, I prefer the filmed version. One reason being William Windom's performance as the guilt-ridden Commodore Decker was one of the best guest star performances of the series.

And Decker almost condemned the Enterprise to the same fate. The guy was having a complete breakdown.

I agree with Phil, medical records or no, Spock had every right to relieve Decker when he did.

There seems to be a strange time delayed echo in here.

Dang, it vanished!

In his novel, Vendetta, Peter David suggested that this doomsday machine was created to fight the Borg.

Yeah, I could see that. Even the Borg would have a hard time beating this thing.

Kirk's shirt is a little different in this episode. It's the green second season version, but I noticed it didn't have the narrow black and gold trim on it-- just the gold trim.

It couldn't have taken more than 10 minutes to race back to the Constellation (before Scotty brought power back up), and THEN chase the Machine. There's no indication that they're that close to the Rigel systems. I suppose Decker knew that Kirk wouldn't want to use the Enterprise to fight another losing battle, and made sure to keep Kirk off his own bridge.
Because, logically, they could have picked up Kirk, gotten out of range of the Machine to warn Starfleet, and then go back to the Machine to act as a distraction, while waiting for the fleet to back them up, still preventing it from heading for the Rigel systems.

I love Decker's stern I'm-going-to-destroy-you glare when he sees the Doomsday Machine on the Enterprise viewscreen. He looks like he's ready for another fight.
His hands even begin to curl and flex when Spock tells Kirk on the intercom, "It looks very much like Commodore Decker's planet killer..."

Strange that the Enterprise just leaves the dead Doomsday Machine floating there. Shouldn't they have examined the thing up close, now that it was dead? Their mission was to find the Constellation, which they did, so why the hurry to leave?

Maybe the interior of the now dead Doomsday Machine is too hot?

Considering the power it used and generated, not to mention the explosion that destroyed it, it's probably too hot to send in engineers and archeologists to personally study it so giving it time to cool down makes sense. No doubt the ship's sensors have calculated what direction and speed it's traveling so a Federation science ship could be sent to do an in-depth study after it's cooled down.

I don't buy that whole "McCoy needed to produce his records" thing for Spock to relieve Decker. The man was clearly cracking up, and should not have been allowed to assume command.

Funny how the rank "Commodore" is never used in any later Trek show. Was it abolished at some point between TOS and TNG?

I wonder if that poor security guard ever lived down getting his butt handed to him by a middle aged man?

Keith pretty much said what I was going to say, about the Federation sending a research team to study the now deactivated device.

Sure, the inside, but what about the outside? Maybe there are doors or sensor units all over it's rocky hull that might have been of scientific or engineering interest.
In addition, Kirk should have contacted Starfleet about it's whereabouts because it kind of a big, important artifact.
Aaaaaand...
the final fate of the Constellation! Starfleet doesn't know what happened to the ship! Kirk needs to let them know what happened as soon as possible, because I'm sure they'd want to know the status of one of their starships!

As soon as the episode ended, no doubt Kirk did contact Starfleet. No doubt a team was dispatched to study the Doomsday Machine further.

However, the reason we didn't see it is obvious, we left along with the Enterprise when they went on to their next assignment.

We've been spoiled by the later Trek shows, where sometimes a storyline from an earlier episode or season would be revisited (like the Crystal Entity that attacked Data's home world).

That didn't happen with TOS. Back then, the networks aired episodes of TV show in any order they jolly well pleased, so producers made stand alone episodes. Once the story of said episode was done, it was DONE!

Very true.
However, I could point out that once Kirk 'killed' Vaal in 'The Apple', they stuck around and Kirk ordered an engineering detail from Scotty to come down and look at the machine.
Different writers, different ideas.
But, yes, in 99 % of the shows the Enterprise just goes away, and leaves the planet/aliens/etc to their own way and lotsa luck now that we've changed your planet.
Hm.
I think I know about another TV show does that, but I can't put my finger on just WHO it is!

TOS did have a few characters that came back in later episodes, Harry Mudd, for example. And there is Mr. Leslie, or course.

However, they never had any recurring major guest stars, like the later shows did (Barclay, Garak, Naomi Wildman, Soval, etc).

However, as I said, that is how shows were done back then. Prime Time shows really didn't start getting serialized until the 1980's.

According to David Gerrold's 1973 book about "The Trouble With Tribbles", there was talk about making William Campbell's Koloth a recurring nemesis for Kirk. However, when the next episode with Klingons was shot, Campbell was unavailable. The idea of a recurring foil for Kirk was later dropped or forgotten.
"Day of the Dove" was originally written for John Colicos' Kor. But, Colicos was doing a film, and wasn't available. I understand he wanted to do the episode badly.

Apparently, Koloth would have been a recurring character, starting in Season Four.

But alas...