But that's what makes TOS stand out so much compared to the blandness of TNG onward.
The dynamic range of the acting is so much wider with TOS, and this is a great example, up there with The Enemy Within and City on the Edge of Forever.
Doomsday Machine not best of TOS
- Thread starter Hatshepsut
- Start date
But that's what makes TOS stand out so much compared to the blandness of TNG onward.
The dynamic range of the acting is so much wider with TOS, and this is a great example, up there with The Enemy Within and City on the Edge of Forever.
IMHO flaw that the parts of Miramanee and Salish were not cast with Native American actors.
Ahh the 1960's.
It's an alien planet. Just because their culture looks native american doesn't mean their appearance had to look that way too. They could have been green or blue or purple.
According to Spock, the native villagers are American Indians -- "A mixture of Navajo, Mohican, and Delaware, I believe." Though it's never explained how he was able to discern their specific ancestry just by looking at them -- and from a distance at that!
Perhaps the northern Algonquin longhouse visible across the river in that scene. Spock did have a talent for remarkable instant discernment, both qualitative as here, and quantitative when he pulls numbers to five significant figures out of his head.
Being a teacher, Amanda drilled that stuff into him every day for four hours after his Vulcan lessons.I'll bet he also knew which actors played Wyatt Earp's brothers in the Burt Lancaster version.
The same way McGivers knew Khan was a Sikh from Northern India.
The same way McGivers knew Khan was a Sikh from Northern India.
Of course they could tell... it was in their scripts!
And Jack the Ripper, whom Spock cites as unidentified. (Polish immigrant Aaron Kosminski, a longtime suspect and asylum inmate, was recently fingered by DNA; this ID is disputed.) "Wolf in the Fold" has a planet of sheep and an infallible lie detector but a nice belly dancer for Scottie. Though it's Kirk, not Spock, who unmasks the killer here.
This thread exemplifies that.
Thank you. I agree and casting an actor should not depend on their genetics but their abilities. I read James Earl Jones played King Claudius in Hamlet, should he have been removed for a Danish actor with royal blood?
Well enough of that.
One of the things I'm a little suprised no one has mentioned yet is Doomsday Machine had it's own background music created for the episode and it is Excellent. (unless it's not original, but I have a cd of it and it seems dedicated to this episode, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm in error.) One standout for me is right as Decker is seizing command from Spock, the flourish of horns blaring as he's doing it is incredible, (it's called "Decker Takes Over" on Star Trek Vol 2 by Sol Kaplan) I love the music in this one, and Star Trek has great music all throughout, even some of the less desirable episodes have good music. (That applies only to the original series, BTW, but YMMV)
The remarkable thing about Kaplan's score is that it tells the whole story. You know where right you are in the episode based on the cue you're hearing. And everything in the story has its own signature motif, including the transporter beam.
It's truly a shame, given the quality of his two scores, that Kaplan did not score any other episodes.
Agreed. Fried ("Amok Time") did even better than Kaplan, but Kaplan was constrained a bit by the battle urgency in his episode in a way that Fried wasn't. The sampler disc may be from 1992; see Discogs
Mmmm finally had time yo watch that episode for the first time.
The titular doomsday machine robot alien thing was a cool concept and design (though I can't say anything about the effects I saw the remastered version) I admit I have a thing for gigantic space creatures/constructs so that definitely was a plus.
The guest actor did a good job at playing a crazy person, I have heard from some actor friends that it is not that easy and the makeup department did a great job at making him look run-down.
The episode did start quite exiting as well. However I lost quite a bit of interest when all that military protocol showed up and the episode became a "who has the bigger penis" contest between Kirk and Matt for a while.
And then it kinda lost me completely when upon hearing that the doomsday machine was headed for Rigel Colony and the "most densely populated region of our galaxy!" Kirk and Spock resolved to basically run away and tell Starfleet Headquarters...I mean what
?
Sorry my sympathies were with Commodore Crazy-Pants, their duty is to protect Federation Citizens -> Rigel is a Federation colony, they have to do everything in their power to protect them. That is my sympathies would lie with him if I wasn't pretty sure that he didn't give a rats-ass about the colony and just wanted revenge.
Kirk however didn't even pay lip-service to saving the colony at any point in the episode, he only cared about "his ship" and then to avenge his friend. *slow clap*
Well, that and the Cold War anlogy was a bit heavy handed.
It was not bad, just a bit weird in parts. It's definitely one of the better TOS episodes, especially the cool concept, but personally I enjoyed "Balance of Terror" and the "Enterprise Incident" more.
The titular doomsday machine robot alien thing was a cool concept and design (though I can't say anything about the effects I saw the remastered version) I admit I have a thing for gigantic space creatures/constructs so that definitely was a plus.
The guest actor did a good job at playing a crazy person, I have heard from some actor friends that it is not that easy and the makeup department did a great job at making him look run-down.
The episode did start quite exiting as well. However I lost quite a bit of interest when all that military protocol showed up and the episode became a "who has the bigger penis" contest between Kirk and Matt for a while.
And then it kinda lost me completely when upon hearing that the doomsday machine was headed for Rigel Colony and the "most densely populated region of our galaxy!" Kirk and Spock resolved to basically run away and tell Starfleet Headquarters...I mean what
?Sorry my sympathies were with Commodore Crazy-Pants, their duty is to protect Federation Citizens -> Rigel is a Federation colony, they have to do everything in their power to protect them. That is my sympathies would lie with him if I wasn't pretty sure that he didn't give a rats-ass about the colony and just wanted revenge.
Kirk however didn't even pay lip-service to saving the colony at any point in the episode, he only cared about "his ship" and then to avenge his friend. *slow clap*
Well, that and the Cold War anlogy was a bit heavy handed.
It was not bad, just a bit weird in parts. It's definitely one of the better TOS episodes, especially the cool concept, but personally I enjoyed "Balance of Terror" and the "Enterprise Incident" more.
That argument was all of a minute of screen time. Two at best.
That "military protocol" is a part of Starfleet--they are not Greenpeace in space, so the brief argument--Kirk pulling rank was absolutely necessary, and gave Decker the last push into hopelessness, resulting in his suicide run.
Thoughts of Revenge or rescue does not matter; it would be a complete waste of life as it was established early on that a Starfleet ship could not use its conventional weaponry to even slow down the planet killer, let alone destroy it. Facing the planet killer meant a date with destruction, as the Constellation proved beyond the shadow of doubt.And then it kinda lost me completely when upon hearing that the doomsday machine was headed for Rigel Colony and the "most densely populated region of our galaxy!" Kirk and Spock resolved to basically run away and tell Starfleet Headquarters...I mean what
Sorry my sympathies were with Commodore Crazy-Pants, their duty is to protect Federation Citizens -> Rigel is a Federation colony, they have to do everything in their power to protect them. That is my sympathies would lie with him if I wasn't pretty sure that he didn't give a rats-ass about the colony and just wanted revenge.
As captain, he should care about his ship first, as his 1st responsibility is to his crew and the vessel.
I don't think so, as the two real life powers most likely to annihilate each other with "doomsday" weapons was on the minds of many in 1967, so its message was most effective, and continued to be over the years.
The idea of escaping the thing's interference in order to warn Starfleet was the correct choice, because:
- Decker had already proven that fighting it was futile and suicidal
- If forewarned perhaps Starfleet could perhaps amass some resources to intercept the thing and try to stop it if the Enterprise failed to alone
- After warning Starfleet the Enterprise could zoom right back to the thing and try some desperate tactics to stop it
There was also not evident that the Doomsday Machine has warp drive or other since methods of travel. It neutralized Constellation and Enterprise's warp drives while they were in range.
While it is likely it has some sort of interstellar drive (why else design the thing to kill planets? Certainly not against one own solar system), but it seems reasonable that Enterprise could outrun it if it could get into open space and use its warp drive. Thus allowing time before the thing could even get to Rigel (it still had at least another planet to consume in this solar system before it would logically move on, plus whatever other systems might be between there and Rigel).
While it is likely it has some sort of interstellar drive (why else design the thing to kill planets? Certainly not against one own solar system), but it seems reasonable that Enterprise could outrun it if it could get into open space and use its warp drive. Thus allowing time before the thing could even get to Rigel (it still had at least another planet to consume in this solar system before it would logically move on, plus whatever other systems might be between there and Rigel).
