The Doomsday Enigma

[RobertScorpio]

Kirk believes its a left over weapon from a long ago war. I think Peter David has it as a weapon against the Borg.

But what do YOU think. If the TNG/DS9/Voyager folks had come to you to write some kind of backstory for that rampaging traffic cone, what would be your 'two cents' worth...

Rob

 

[Nardpuncher]

Interstellar vacuum cleaner.
DOOMSDAY MACHINE! STEAMIN' MAAAAADD AT SPACE DUST!

 

[Horizon]

While I like the vacuum cleaner idea, I like Kirk's theory better AND I actually don't want a back story on The Doomsday Machine to have anything to do with any civilization known to current Trek civilizations.
Some things should remain enigmas in fiction.
My opinion, of course. But that should be obvious.

 

[6079SmithW]

Kirk's idea. I think it was a weapon of last resort in a long ago war between two or more space powers. These civilizations that fought the war no longer exist as the Doomsday Machine was activated as part of a M.A.D. plan. It fulfilled its mission and destroyed all planets and everything else that belonged to the civilizations and, once that was done, kept on going.

 

[USS Kongo]

I'd go with Kirk's idea about it being an ancient weapon from a long-ago civilization. And that's all that should be known. I also agree with the idea that it's better if some things remain a mystery.

Sean

 

[Timo]

I prefer to think that what we saw is what it was: a machine designed to eat up star system after star system, and to shrug off starships and other such opposition in the process.

I mean, there's no real reason to think that the thing was malfunctionng or otherwise doing something it wasn't built to do. There could be plenty of reasons to build a machine to do exactly what it did. Say, "berserker duty", cleaning the galaxy of alien civilizations so that the builders will remain safe. Or perhaps some sort of terraforming where the destruction of humanlike civilizations is an unfortunate byproduct. The machine would be ideal for such work if it involved long timespans and distances and would have been uncomfortable or impractical for the builders themselves.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Temis the Vorta]

It could have simply been a machine for breaking up planets as raw material for making a ringworld or something. The civilization that invented it didn't necessarily go after populated worlds. Either they suffered some catastrophe and the machine continued without guidance or the machine went haywire and ate up their planet.

Its imperviousness to startship attack may not be a sign that it was intended aggressively. It would need formidable armor just to survive the breakup of the planets it was causing, what with all the debris flying everywhere.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I get why some people like the mystery, but Peter David's Vendetta and Before Dishonor were just so much fun I have to go with his version - the Borg killer.

That said, exactly how are the choices mutually exclusive? Kirk's "ancient war" enemy could be the Borg just as easily as it could be anyone else.

I like to think the Doomsday Machine could be related to the Guardian of Forever - both are ancient, powerful and look to be made of rock. Both products of the same ancient super-race?

I see no-one's mentioned Phase 2's version from "In Harm's Way". They turned them into wriggling, time-travelling space fish.

 

[Doomsday]

Within the episode dialog, Mr. Spock clearly says that the path of destruction indicates an origin from outside the galaxy. This makes the theory that it was an anti-Borg weapon unlikely, since the Borg are clearly part of our galaxy. If any Trek-mentioned species qualifies, it would more likely be the Kelvins, since they came from the Andromeda galaxy. But the Doomsday Machine seems above even their technology, since they couldn't build a ship that would survive the barrier. So I think we can never really know.

That said, I really loved Peter David's novel, Vendetta, it's one of my favorite Trek novels. I just don't think the episode evidence supports it canonically.

 

[DonIago]

^Just because the machine originated from outside the galaxy doesn't mean its creators did.

That would be akin to finding the E in WNMHGB and assuming it wasn't from our galaxy.

 

[Tiberius]

Satan's fleshlight.

 

[Londo]

It could have simply been a machine for breaking up planets as raw material for making a ringworld or something. The civilization that invented it didn't necessarily go after populated worlds. Either they suffered some catastrophe and the machine continued without guidance or the machine went haywire and ate up their planet.

Its the interstellar wrecker ball for the construction company that built the Dyson sphere - that sure needs several solar systems worth of material.
Or its working for Magrathea; removing your old planet to make way for your new one.

 

[Timo]

Within the episode dialog, Mr. Spock clearly says that the path of destruction indicates an origin from outside the galaxy.

Which is just silly. How could Spock know? Apparently, the only way to ascertain that a solar system has been eaten is to visit that system via starship. Spock's ship only visited a handful of systems. Even if those lay in a beeline (which is highly unlikely, considering how unlikely beelines are in nature), Spock would have no way of establishing the distance of the hypothetical point of origin; at most, he'd have a direction. And all directions eventually lead to outside our galaxy, so that's not really very helpful...

This makes the theory that it was an anti-Borg weapon unlikely, since the Borg are clearly part of our galaxy.

Also, the DDM would make for a pretty idiotic anti-Borg weapon. The characteristics of a good anti-Borg weapon include being able to counter-adapt to the Borg adaptation routines. How could this hugely expensive machine ever adapt when the only trick in its sleeve is a beam of "absolutely pure" antiprotons? It's not even a single-shot-kills weapon, as it goes easy on both of the starships it encounters in the episode. That's not what an anti-Borg weapon should do, ever.

The civilization that invented it didn't necessarily go after populated worlds.

And as far as we know, the machine never did go after populated worlds.

Sure, it ate 400 people who rather insanely beamed down to an already targeted planet. But that's not necessarily the machine's fault.

Also, our heroes thought the machine was heading for a densely inhabited part of the galaxy - but they had no proof the machine would do damage to that region. Things could have gone either way: if the DDM were a genocide weapon (a malfunctioning one, or a fully functional and deliberate one) like they speculated, mayhem would have been inevitable, but if the DDM were any of the other possible things, the inhabited worlds might have been left untouched. For some reason, several planets in the DDM's last port of call were left untouched, after all... Right after the possible mishap with the planet that held 400 intelligent lifeforms.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Captain Rob]

Ithink that the doomsday machine had really simple programming. It's builders gave it a map of the known galaxy. "Here's all of the friendly systems. Here's all of the known enemy systems. When activated, destroy all known enemy systems. Stay away from friendly systems and systems with no technology. Unknown systems with tech are probably enemy so destroy those as well." Guess which unknown systems with tech it ran across: the Federation.

 

[Tiberius]

I think Peter David came up with a pretty good reason for it in vendetta.

 

[Myasishchev]

It could have simply been a machine for breaking up planets as raw material for making a ringworld or something. The civilization that invented it didn't necessarily go after populated worlds. Either they suffered some catastrophe and the machine continued without guidance or the machine went haywire and ate up their planet.

Its imperviousness to startship attack may not be a sign that it was intended aggressively. It would need formidable armor just to survive the breakup of the planets it was causing, what with all the debris flying everywhere.

I concur.

Plus it totally lacks close-in defense weaponry despite its glaring, Gradius-enemy-like weakness, which you think they'd put in if they were planning on using the machine for combat. I mean, Kirk and Decker figured it out in a day and only lost a shuttle and a single starship to the "doomsday" machine; why would any other prospective enemy do much worse, making the huge investment into this planet-killer a total waste of effort?

Edit: I do want to point out that a beam of antiprotons sounds like it would be a really good weapon, though. Better than nadions and/or fairy dust. Maybe they should look into that.

 

[Timo]

...OTOH, starship shields already work against photon torpedoes which supposedly utilize antiprotons. They seem to work against the DDM beam to some extent, too - actually, they seem to fare better against it than they do against disruptors or phasers from much smaller and weaker threat vessels! Perhaps the way to get past shields is one of guile, not of brute force?

Many a thing about the DDM is un-weaponlike. The DDM is vulnerable; it is predictable; it is disinterested in preemptive action, and when it reacts, it does so in a formulaic manner. It doesn't exhibit strategic thinking, as far as we or our heroes can see. It doesn't understand classic naval battles or the importance of finishing off one enemy before going for another.

OTOH, perhaps the DDM is a weapon - but is only viable when deployed in a protective formation of support vessels? Perhaps it has lost its swarm of protectors in the past few centuries? Perhaps it knows it is doomed now, but continues its mission of berserking nevertheless, because perishing in the course of duty will still achieve more for the makers than ceasing and desisting will.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[F. King Daniel]

Wasn't the point of the Doomsday Machine that it was an *ancient* weapon? IIRC the reason it looks the way it does is bacause any surface features had been worn away over the millenia. Perhaps it once wore an outer shell complete with better defences? Perhaps a set of point-defence phasers or whatever that would shoot down anything heading down the maw?

Maybe what we see in the episode is a rogue, AI-driven detachable weapon system of some ancient supership.

 

[Lieut. Arex]

One of Spinrad's issues was with the Machine's physical portrayal. In the script, he described it as bristling with weapons, not just the single anti-proton beam.

 

[Wingsley]

It could have simply been a machine for breaking up planets as raw material for making a ringworld or something. The civilization that invented it didn't necessarily go after populated worlds. Either they suffered some catastrophe and the machine continued without guidance or the machine went haywire and ate up their planet.

Its imperviousness to startship attack may not be a sign that it was intended aggressively. It would need formidable armor just to survive the breakup of the planets it was causing, what with all the debris flying everywhere.

This theory would dovetail nicely with the Dyson Sphere discovered by the starship Jenolen in TNG's "Relics". Remember: the outer shell of the Sphere was made of neutronium.

Over 15 years ago, I remember watching "The Doomsday Machine" with a friend. I asked my friend afterwards what she thought of the "Planet Killer": was it a sign of a malevolent force in the Universe? No, she speculated. The machine could have been used for mining asteroids.

There is no clear indication what the "Planet Killer" originally was intended for. Were its creators benevolent or belligerent? We have no way of knowing what the machine's original purpose was, why it was left seemingly wondering the Cosmos, or what the condition of the machine was compared to its creators' ideal condition.

For all we know, it was originally a mining implement that may have been taken over in a distant revolution or invasion. The machine was misused, destroyed both its creators and its new masters.

In another scenario, the machine could have been created by the masters of Gomtuu (TNG's "Tin Man") as a component of a much larger and more benevolent colony-ship built to break up and terraform prospective colony-planets. The machine may have been made to partially digest asteroids or small planets and then regurgitate them to form habitable colony-planets.