Episode of the Week : The Doomsday Machine

[kirkfan]

Space 1999 did their own version of this one with the Dragon's Domain! Instead of a planet eating machine the monster in question was a cross between a Spider and an Octopus and sucked humans into it's maw! Commodore Decker became Tony Cellini the deranged pilot obsessed with getting revenge upon the beast that ate his crew rather than destroying the world where his people beamed down to!
JB

Arguably the single creepiest hour in TV sci-fi ever, at least until HBO gets into the act.

"Creepiest"? I don't know. There was the episode where they found a man sealed inside an asteroid. it turns out that the man was immortal and impossible to kill. Hi body would regenerate in seconds, no matter how badly you damaged it. he also was a sadist who kept torturing the crew of the station.
They realized that he was put inside the asteroid by his own people who were incidentally all immortals because he kept torturing them. That was creepy!

 

[Ssosmcin]

"End of Eternity." As a teenager, I caught that episode on a 2 am rerun and it freaked me out. The quick shots of his paintings and the screams of his victims over the soundtrack scared the bejeezus out of me. I love that episode.

 

[CrazyMatt]

One of my favorite episodes of trek ever.

Decker: "I'm going to stop it!"

Kirk: "Not with my ship, you won't!"

Actually Decker's line here is:

'I told you, I am in command here and I will give the orders, Captain. We are going to turn and attack!"

Sorry, but I felt I needed to correct the record.

 

[CrazyMatt]

I think it's obvious that Decker ordered them to beam down to the planet. He thought he was being noble by staying behind. Turns out he was wrong.

I'm not sure he didn't intend to beam down too, given this line:

"I stayed behind, the last man.... captain... the last man aboard the ship. That's what you're supposed to do, isn't it? And then it hit again and the transporter went out. They were down there, and I'm up here."

I think ol' Matt went round the bend after he witnessed the deaths of his crew. Before then, I would imagine he was rational, and given the regard Kirk seemed to hold him in, I would also guess he was considered an upper-tier commander. After all, there were only a dozen of so starship commanders... doesn't seem like a job they'd give to a slouch.

Just imagine how Kirk would have reacted had his "error in judgment" led to the horrifying deaths of Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, et. al. Think he would have been OK after that?

 

[Poltargyst]

Space 1999 did their own version of this one with the Dragon's Domain! Instead of a planet eating machine the monster in question was a cross between a Spider and an Octopus and sucked humans into it's maw! Commodore Decker became Tony Cellini the deranged pilot obsessed with getting revenge upon the beast that ate his crew rather than destroying the world where his people beamed down to!
JB

I remember that. Didn't Koenig give it an ax to the face?

 

[Timo]

I'm not sure he didn't intend to beam down too, given this line:

"I stayed behind, the last man.... captain... the last man aboard the ship. That's what you're supposed to do, isn't it? And then it hit again and the transporter went out. They were down there, and I'm up here."

Very true. But the line can equally well fit the scenario where the intent was for Decker to go down with his ship (the thing he was "supposed" to do), and for the crew to beam back up if this didn't work out. So now Decker is screwed two ways: he can't sacrifice himself to save the crew, and he can't back down from the plan. Not only is the crew going to die, but it's going to die and Decker himself is going to live because Decker's plan was faulty and didn't cater for this particular failure mode. If the DDM just blew up stuff, the deaths would be its fault and its only. But now it's due to Decker's poor planning, and the DDM is just the instrument that Decker is using for killing his own crew.

Before then, I would imagine he was rational

...Which is why there must be something to the "before" events that we aren't being told. It would not be rational for the crew to beam down with just the facts we are explicitly given. And Decker wouldn't be in a position to kill his crew by being irrational (one man against 429), while his crew wouldn't be in a position to get themselves killed by being irrational (Decker could stop anything as complicated as massed beam-down).

We don't need to know what happened exactly. But we can rest assured it sounded good for rational officers and men at first. And the more rational, the better, as Decker's fall would be from a greater height.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[kirkfan]

I think it's obvious that Decker ordered them to beam down to the planet. He thought he was being noble by staying behind. Turns out he was wrong.

I'm not sure he didn't intend to beam down too, given this line:

"I stayed behind, the last man.... captain... the last man aboard the ship. That's what you're supposed to do, isn't it? And then it hit again and the transporter went out. They were down there, and I'm up here."

I think ol' Matt went round the bend after he witnessed the deaths of his crew. Before then, I would imagine he was rational, and given the regard Kirk seemed to hold him in, I would also guess he was considered an upper-tier commander. After all, there were only a dozen of so starship commanders... doesn't seem like a job they'd give to a slouch.

Just imagine how Kirk would have reacted had his "error in judgment" led to the horrifying deaths of Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, et. al. Think he would have been OK after that?

I believe back then they needed someone on board to beam people back up. If the last crewman beams down, the ship is lost.

 

[kirkfan]

I'm not sure he didn't intend to beam down too, given this line:

"I stayed behind, the last man.... captain... the last man aboard the ship. That's what you're supposed to do, isn't it? And then it hit again and the transporter went out. They were down there, and I'm up here."

I think ol' Matt went round the bend after he witnessed the deaths of his crew. Before then, I would imagine he was rational, and given the regard Kirk seemed to hold him in, I would also guess he was considered an upper-tier commander. After all, there were only a dozen of so starship commanders... doesn't seem like a job they'd give to a slouch.

Just imagine how Kirk would have reacted had his "error in judgment" led to the horrifying deaths of Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, et. al. Think he would have been OK after that?

I believe back then they needed someone on board to beam people back up. If the last crewman beams down, the ship is lost.

Likely so, judging from the high drama of Kirk almost leaving the Enterprise in THE PARADISE SYNDROME. Still, with dilemmas and faulty planning like this, you have to wonder how the first crewmember ever managed to get aboard the completed Enterprise at all.

In a pinch, you can always beam him on board using a transporter from somewhere else, outside the ship that is.

 

[Timo]

There would be special circumstances involved in "This Side of Paradise", though. Some sort of remote command of the transporter system might be possible normally, but the people beaming down were deliberately leaving their technology behind. Supposedly, there weren't even any communicators down there, save for those of personnel who already were down on the planet when the mass mutiny started (McCoy, Spock). Kirk didn't seem to be taking his with him...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[kirkfan]

There would be special circumstances involved in "This Side of Paradise", though. Some sort of remote command of the transporter system might be possible normally, but the people beaming down were deliberately leaving their technology behind. Supposedly, there weren't even any communicators down there, save for those of personnel who already were down on the planet when the mass mutiny started (McCoy, Spock). Kirk didn't seem to be taking his with him...

Timo Saloniemi

The whole time they were obeying a vegetable...

 

[CrazyMatt]

There would be special circumstances involved in "This Side of Paradise", though. Some sort of remote command of the transporter system might be possible normally, but the people beaming down were deliberately leaving their technology behind. Supposedly, there weren't even any communicators down there, save for those of personnel who already were down on the planet when the mass mutiny started (McCoy, Spock). Kirk didn't seem to be taking his with him...

Timo Saloniemi

The whole time they were obeying a vegetable...

So vegetables should have rights... ?

 

[kirkfan]

There would be special circumstances involved in "This Side of Paradise", though. Some sort of remote command of the transporter system might be possible normally, but the people beaming down were deliberately leaving their technology behind. Supposedly, there weren't even any communicators down there, save for those of personnel who already were down on the planet when the mass mutiny started (McCoy, Spock). Kirk didn't seem to be taking his with him...

Timo Saloniemi

The whole time they were obeying a vegetable...

So vegetables should have rights... ?

The right to bear roots, the right to due process, the filth amendment, the right to a layer (of dirt)...

 

[Redfern]

The whole time they were obeying a vegetable...

So vegetables should have rights... ?

The right to bear roots, the right to due process, the filth amendment, the right to a layer (of dirt)...

I think "the right to dew process" might work better for this routine.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Marsden]

It's a PhotoShop. Norman Spinrad wrote the script with Ryan in mind.

You're too kind, ZapBrannigan. I used Paint, but it was for exhibition purposes only. Please, no wagering.

What would we wager about?

It would have to be in quatloos.

 

[kirkfan]

You're too kind, ZapBrannigan. I used Paint, but it was for exhibition purposes only. Please, no wagering.

What would we wager about?

It would have to be in quatloos.

That only works if all that's left of you is a brain hooked to machinery.

 

[Admiral2]

One of my favorite episodes of trek ever.

Decker: "I'm going to stop it!"

Kirk: "Not with my ship, you won't!"

Actually Decker's line here is:

'I told you, I am in command here and I will give the orders, Captain. We are going to turn and attack!"

Sorry, but I felt I needed to correct the record.

Not a problem. It's Kirk's response I love most. One of the few times I have real respect for the man.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Is this the most ten-ful episode so far, by percentage of votes cast?

 

[kirkfan]

It looks like this episode rates rather high.

 

[CrazyMatt]

It looks like this episode rates rather high.

It should, being the best episode that ever was!

 

[johnnybear]

Space 1999 did their own version of this one with the Dragon's Domain! Instead of a planet eating machine the monster in question was a cross between a Spider and an Octopus and sucked humans into it's maw! Commodore Decker became Tony Cellini the deranged pilot obsessed with getting revenge upon the beast that ate his crew rather than destroying the world where his people beamed down to!
JB

I remember that. Didn't Koenig give it an ax to the face?

To it's large white shining eye at any rate!
JB