What do you do with a dead doomsday machine?

[Christopher]

Unfortunately, the "neutronium" in ST doesn't behave like the real thing. In "What You Leave Behind," the Cardassian Central Command HQ was said to have a neutronium door -- something which would sink to the center of the planet if it were made of actual neutronium.

Not to mention that if the planet-killer were made of actual neutronium, it would be impossible to maintain that conical shape; it would collapse under its own gravity into a sphere. If the neutronium didn't just expand to a non-degenerate state, since I'm not sure a mass that small could stably exist anyway.

In my TNG novel The Buried Age I tossed in a reference to "neutronium" being a shorthand for "hyponeutronium" (a term I cribbed from Diane Duane's novels), which I defined as a dense, highly durable alloy of stable transuranic elements with nuclei whose mass consisted primarily of neutrons.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

This? Why, I can make a hat or a brooch or a pterodactyl...

"Bad news. Fog is getting thicker..."

"And Kirk is getting larrrrrger!"

 

[Tan Ru]

Seems like this topic is ripe for some Photoshoppies..........

 

[Orion Pimp]

Seems like this topic is ripe for some Photoshoppies..........

that is a fantastic idea!

 

[Gecko of Gorn]

1. If the thing had a rear opening, it could be used as the galaxy's biggest cone.
You'd need a hell of a lot of the shisha to pack the bastard, though.

2. A huge cannoli making kit. Help with the munchies.

 

[Kelso]

Cogley would've found a big penis rock...

 

[Warped9]

Seems like this topic is ripe for some Photoshoppies..........

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

The problem is that the thing's mass would be astronomical. Neutronium is very dense, and even the "lightest" form (it varies depending on the neutron star and if it's surface or core density) is impossibly heavy. The "lightest" I've seen claimed is 1010kg per cubic centimeter (one ton per sugar cube) up to 400,000,000,000 (four hundred billion). If you assumed the DDM was the size it appears to be when the trying to pull the Enterprise in, it's 13,300 ft long and the hull is about 900 feet thick (at least around the lip). I'll try to dig out the math I did...but it's not a mass that any fleet of starships could lug around. We're talking the mass of the Moon squeezed into a Bugle snack shape.

There were several advanced races that the Enterprise came into contact with that might help the UFP by towing the Doomsday Machine toward a nearby star.

1. Balok of the Fesarius (a gigantic sphere) dwarfed the Enterprise as seen in the episode "The Corbomite Maneuver". One or more of these types of ships might be able to move the DDM. We saw a small part of the Fesarius undock from the Fesarius and lock a tractor beam on the Enterprise and tow the Enterprise. It took the Enterprise's warp engines at maximum just to break free from this tractor beam, causing some damage to the Enterprise's warp engines, and that was just a small part of the Fesarius.
2. The Metrons were able to stop the Enterprise and the Gorn ship dead in space from a long distance seen in the episode "Arena". Perhaps they have the technology to move the DDM. They may be too advanced like the Organians and not help, however, unlike the Organians, the Metrons are physical beings, not pure energy beings, so the Metrons might help, hard to say.
3. The race that built that obelisk used to repel the asteroid from Miramanee's planet seen in the episode "The Paradise Syndrome". That technology might be able to move the DDM.
4. Flint might be able to design something to move the DDM. He built an android, Rayna, which became sentient, seen in the episode "Requiem for Methuselah". He also captured the Enterprise by shrinking it, suspending its crew and systems, and moved it from orbit to a table in his lab instantly.
5. Spock's brain might have soaked up some of Henoch's technology while Henoch's conscience was in Spock's body or perhaps Spock was able to read Henoch's mind while Spock's conscience was in Nurse Chapel's body near the end of the episode "Return to Tomorrow". Remember, while Kirk was giving his "Risk is our business" speech he said to Mr. Scott that Sargon's race had the technology to build warp engines the size of walnuts. So Sargon's race might have had the technology to move the DDM.

Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Have it poking half out of the earth and say it's a fossilized sandworm you discovered. Good way for a nobody palaeontologist to quickly make a name for himself.

 

[LeadHead]

It should be repurposed to be an automatic Baseball Thrower like they have in batting cages. I guarantee it would make batting practice a LOT more exciting!

 

[CaptainStoner]

Put it in the next Cheech & Chong movie.

 

[ndcarlin]

Put it in the next Cheech & Chong movie.

"Decker's not here man!"

 

[Kaziarl]

Use it as a dart tip? Extra 3 points if you hit the First City of Qo'NoS!

There was a book (don't know the title, may have been the one mentioned earlier) where it was said that the DDM was one of many that were created to destroy a great evil, but it was the only one they (the DDM creators) managed to launch before they died out. Then, of course, Kirk kills it and it sits in moth balls for a few decades until some woman finds a way to interface with it (apparently it needs a biological componant to function, and the ship exploding in it's through overloaded the poor souls brain in the TOS episode) and control it to go on a murderous rampage to kill the borg. Starfleets problem with this? It was cutting through one of the more densely populated regions of the alpha quadrant.

On a side note, anyone notice how nearly ever major threat effects "the most densely populated area of the Federation" yet there's almost never any (or atleast enough) starfleet ships to take care of it?

 

[Warped9]

Use it as a dart tip? Extra 3 points if you hit the First City of Qo'NoS!

There was a book (don't know the title, may have been the one mentioned earlier) where it was said that the DDM was one of many that were created to destroy a great evil, but it was the only one they (the DDM creators) managed to launch before they died out. Then, of course, Kirk kills it and it sits in moth balls for a few decades until some woman finds a way to interface with it (apparently it needs a biological componant to function, and the ship exploding in it's through overloaded the poor souls brain in the TOS episode) and control it to go on a murderous rampage to kill the borg. Starfleets problem with this? It was cutting through one of the more densely populated regions of the alpha quadrant.

You're talking about the TNG novel Vendetta by Peter David which I mentioned upthread.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Nail it to a perch and sell it.

 

[Kaziarl]

Use it as a dart tip? Extra 3 points if you hit the First City of Qo'NoS!

There was a book (don't know the title, may have been the one mentioned earlier) where it was said that the DDM was one of many that were created to destroy a great evil, but it was the only one they (the DDM creators) managed to launch before they died out. Then, of course, Kirk kills it and it sits in moth balls for a few decades until some woman finds a way to interface with it (apparently it needs a biological componant to function, and the ship exploding in it's through overloaded the poor souls brain in the TOS episode) and control it to go on a murderous rampage to kill the borg. Starfleets problem with this? It was cutting through one of the more densely populated regions of the alpha quadrant.

You're talking about the TNG novel Vendetta by Peter David which I mentioned upthread.

I thought that might have been the one, but wasn't sure. Good book I thought.

 

[FormerLurker]

The best BTS I ever heard about the DDM was Theodore Sturgeon visiting the lot and being shown the model. He looked at GR and said "It looks like a wind sock dipped in concrete." GR looked him right in the eye and responded "It is a wind sock dipped in concrete."

 

[Maurice]

^^^I think that's a made-up story. The miniatures for space shots weren't generally made by the production proper, and certainly weren't filmed at Desilu (that's why they contracted out Anderson and other effects houses). It's a funny story, but I doubt its authenticity.

 

[FormerLurker]

No one ever said it was during production of that episode. TS may well have been visiting to see what had been used as the model for the DDM.

 

[Maurice]

No one ever said it was during production of that episode. TS may well have been visiting to see what had been used as the model for the DDM.

It's more likely, after seeing the episode, that Spinrad told Roddenberry the DDM looked like a "windsock dipped in concrete" and Roddenberry quipped back that that's what it was. I'm fairly certain that anyone who say the model could tell it wasn't made of anything remotely like concrete, as that's obvious from the photography.