The Doomsday Machine love

[Maurice]

...Star Trek broke ground using its own licensed products (AMT kit) in the production--something ILM would do years later in the production of The Empire Strikes Back.

I think Star Trek was able to do it because it was the only show with an accurate-ish model kit which could be used for such things. MCA-57 (aka post Star Wars ILM) also did this for Battlestar Galactica, notably the Cylon hangar populated with Monogram kit Raiders in "The Hand of God".

I think the protoApogee exILM group withdrew from GALACTICA after the initial 7 hrs (pilot plus 2 2parters), so the rest of season 1 was done by Universal Hartland.

I'd never heard of the MCA-57 moniker before. Is that referenced in a lawsuit or an onscreen credit?

The history is covered on the Universal Hartland webpage (link).

 

[trevanian]

I think Star Trek was able to do it because it was the only show with an accurate-ish model kit which could be used for such things. MCA-57 (aka post Star Wars ILM) also did this for Battlestar Galactica, notably the Cylon hangar populated with Monogram kit Raiders in "The Hand of God".

I think the protoApogee exILM group withdrew from GALACTICA after the initial 7 hrs (pilot plus 2 2parters), so the rest of season 1 was done by Universal Hartland.

I'd never heard of the MCA-57 moniker before. Is that referenced in a lawsuit or an onscreen credit?

The history is covered on the Universal Hartland webpage (link).

Nice little site, nice find!

 

[scotpens]

. . . Star Trek broke ground using its own licensed products (AMT kit) in the production--something ILM would do years later in the production of The Empire Strikes Back.

The Lost in Space episode "The Mechanical Men," which featured a number of toy LIS robots made by Remco, aired more than six months before "The Doomsday Machine."

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

. . . Star Trek broke ground using its own licensed products (AMT kit) in the production--something ILM would do years later in the production of The Empire Strikes Back.

The Lost in Space episode "The Mechanical Men," which featured a number of toy LIS robots made by Remco, aired more than six months before "The Doomsday Machine."

You are right--that LiS episode aired in April of '67, while The Doomsday Machine aired in October that year. Still, for licensed replicas of ships, I think Star Trek holds on to the earlier distinction.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

. . . Star Trek broke ground using its own licensed products (AMT kit) in the production--something ILM would do years later in the production of The Empire Strikes Back.

The Lost in Space episode "The Mechanical Men," which featured a number of toy LIS robots made by Remco, aired more than six months before "The Doomsday Machine."

That was my exact thought. I was about to post about the LIS robot toys myself.

I will say: the AMT Enterprise, for all the crap it takes, was a vastly match for its parent than the Remco robots were for theirs.

I actually didn't know about Monogram kits being used in "The Hand of God." Maybe if I had ever built one of those, I would have caught it.

 

[Maurice]

. . . Star Trek broke ground using its own licensed products (AMT kit) in the production--something ILM would do years later in the production of The Empire Strikes Back.

The Lost in Space episode "The Mechanical Men," which featured a number of toy LIS robots made by Remco, aired more than six months before "The Doomsday Machine."

You are right--that LiS episode aired in April of '67, while The Doomsday Machine aired in October that year. Still, for licensed replicas of ships, I think Star Trek holds on to the earlier distinction.

That's changing your own argument, you wrote:

. . . Star Trek broke ground using its own licensed products (AMT kit) in the production-

...which was not limited to spaceships. Another non-first for Star Trek.

 

[Melakon]

Groggy enough this morning I misread the title as The Doomsday Love Machine.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Groggy enough this morning I misread the title as The Doomsday Love Machine.

I initially read the name of this thread with the words in the wrong order: "The Doomsday Love Machine"

And all I could think was, MAN, don't piss off the Deltans!

Great minds think alike, Mekalon. But don't get too happy. That adage probably applies just as well to mediocre ones, too.

 

[Harvey]

In the treatment Decker "rams the shuttlecraft into the body of the Eater at top speed." Is it possible Coon's suggestion was for Decker to ran it down the thing's throat instead of slamming into the hull?

The shuttlecraft flying down the Planet Eater's throat happens in both Spinrad's first and second drafts of the teleplay (Justman describes the scene as such in his memos covering each draft). It's possible Coon suggested it after Spinrad finished his outline and before he went to script, but I don't have any documents supporting that claim.

What I do have is Decker dying in Spinrad's revised outline, first draft teleplay, and second draft teleplay. A very helpful reader was nice enough to transcribe the appropriate portion of TATV:

Gene Coon listened to everyone's complaints and suggestions, then did a rewrite of his own, the Final Draft in late May. Roddenberry's idea for jeopardy on top of jeopardy, and a louder ticking clock, was added. Also put into the script: dialogue clarifying that "The Thing" from another galaxy was built as a futuristic version of an H-bomb, and, at this time, Matt Decker was given a more fitting end. In previous drafts, he had lived, only to tell Kirk that he was aware of his mistakes. It was Coon's idea to have the self-tortured character die by piloting a shuttlecraft into the mouth of the machine, and to make his sacrifice have meaning by clueing Kirk in on a way to destroy the planet eater. With these changes, the script found its magic.

It remains a confusing claim.

 

[trevanian]

Much as I like to give Gene Coon credit for everything, I agree that this is very confusing.

From what I remember David Gerrold saying about Spinrad and DOOMSDAY, it was always an Ahab and the whale thing ... just by virtue of that, you know Decker is not going to be swigging Saurian OR in irons at the end, he is going to be dead, cuz in MOBY DICK, Ahab doesn't get a bionic leg and then use his old stump to plug the whale's blowhole.

Coupled with all these memos and correspondence, it sure seems like Decker was always supposed to buy it. Plus, if the stories about trying to land Robert Ryan for the role have any weight at all (ironic, since Windom -- and Steve 'Garth' Inhat -- were both in HOUR OF THE GUN with Ryan), he'd almost certainly want a big death, not a 'I was SO wrong' and a pat on the back of commisseration from the tv lead.

I don't suppose there are any Blish heirs who have records that show what James Blish worked from on his adaptations?

 

[Brutal Strudel]

First among equals in my personal list of favorites. Years ago, i had rotating episodes take the top spot: for a while it was "Mirror, Mirror," then "Balance of Terror," with other perennials like "Amok Time" and "Journey to Babel" in the mix (I love CotEoF but it's not in my top five or maybe even ten) but, for the last ten or fifteen years, this has been king of the mountain, the closest we ever get to a quintessential hour of Star Trek.

 

[CrazyMatt]

In the treatment Decker "rams the shuttlecraft into the body of the Eater at top speed." Is it possible Coon's suggestion was for Decker to ran it down the thing's throat instead of slamming into the hull?

The shuttlecraft flying down the Planet Eater's throat happens in both Spinrad's first and second drafts of the teleplay (Justman describes the scene as such in his memos covering each draft). It's possible Coon suggested it after Spinrad finished his outline and before he went to script, but I don't have any documents supporting that claim.

What I do have is Decker dying in Spinrad's revised outline, first draft teleplay, and second draft teleplay. A very helpful reader was nice enough to transcribe the appropriate portion of TATV:

Gene Coon listened to everyone's complaints and suggestions, then did a rewrite of his own, the Final Draft in late May. Roddenberry's idea for jeopardy on top of jeopardy, and a louder ticking clock, was added. Also put into the script: dialogue clarifying that "The Thing" from another galaxy was built as a futuristic version of an H-bomb, and, at this time, Matt Decker was given a more fitting end. In previous drafts, he had lived, only to tell Kirk that he was aware of his mistakes. It was Coon's idea to have the self-tortured character die by piloting a shuttlecraft into the mouth of the machine, and to make his sacrifice have meaning by clueing Kirk in on a way to destroy the planet eater. With these changes, the script found its magic.

It remains a confusing claim.

I remember a Spinrad interview somewhere where he's asked about the Blish serialized version, in which Decker doesn't steal a shuttlecraft and instead basically does what's described above in the TATV transcript. Spinrad told the interviewer that Decker died in every version from the first draft on, or put another way, that there was no version where Decker didn't pilot the shuttlecraft to his death--be it on the machine's hull or down the maw.

If this is true--let's grant Spinrad the benefit of the doubt for now--could Cushman have confused the Blish version, with the Decker storyline supposedly altered by Blish for 'readbility' purposes I'd imagine (?! Can't think of another explanation) as evidence of Coon's influence on the final product?

Harvey, can you get ahold of Coon's memo's to Spinrad? The reality of the situation may well be found there.

 

[CrazyMatt]

Groggy enough this morning I misread the title as The Doomsday Love Machine.

Didn't The Miracles sing that song?

I'm just a love machine,
and I won't kill for nobody but you...

 

[Harvey]

I remember a Spinrad interview somewhere where he's asked about the Blish serialized version, in which Decker doesn't steal a shuttlecraft and instead basically does what's described above in the TATV transcript. Spinrad told the interviewer that Decker died in every version from the first draft on, or put another way, that there was no version where Decker didn't pilot the shuttlecraft to his death--be it on the machine's hull or down the maw.

Any idea where he gave that interview?

Harvey, can you get ahold of Coon's memo's to Spinrad? The reality of the situation may well be found there.

I have all the memos directly related to "The Doomsday Machine" that are in the UCLA files. Coon's memo to Spinrad (written after Spinrad's first draft teleplay) describes the events we are familiar with: Decker steals a shuttlecraft, flies it into the eater's maw, is killed, and his death gives Kirk an idea how to defeat the monster. Coon's input has to do with saving money (delete the guard at the shuttlebay, change the shuttle launch sequence to match their stock footage) and to speed the sequence up (cut down on Decker's dialogue).

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Great episode that never, ever gets old...but I have a lingering question from youth: Kirk says, "Bones, ever hear of a doomsday machine?" Was that term one that the audience would have any passing familiarity with? We've always heard phrases such as 'ultimate weapon', 'war to end all wars' and such, but I'm still not sure if I've ever actually heard the term 'doomsday machine' until this episode.

I'm in no way disparaging the episode one bit...just a lingering curiosity!

 

[Harvey]

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmCKJi3CKGE[/yt]

Released more than three years before Spinrad's revised story outline was finished.

 

[Melakon]

I think there were contemporary references to a 'doomsday device' from what I remember. Dr. Strangelove had already made the concept possible. I remember that around 1969 or 1970, friends and I theorized that if anyone was crazy enough to blow up the world, it would be the Chinese and not the Russians.

Ninja'd by Harvey.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

That's changing your own argument, you wrote:

. . . Star Trek broke ground using its own licensed products (AMT kit) in the production-

...which was not limited to spaceships. Another non-first for Star Trek.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Thanks, Harvey and Melakon. When I was a kid, I wasn't familiar with Dr. Strangelove, so Trek's doomsday machine took hold as my go-to definition.

Funny how we tend to learn everything out of order. It's almost like those partial pictures they have on the backs of trading cards which when assembled, make a larger picture.

 

[Melakon]

I was only starting to become aware of different actors by name during the 60s, and a lot of them were due only to Star Trek. Though some, like Harry Townes, David Opatoshu, Skip H., and many others, I'd first seen elsewhere.

Trivia: Robert Sampson, from "Taste of Armageddon", was the Dean in Re-Animator.