The Doomsday Machine love

[feek61]

Bit roles that still ended up becoming favorites to many fans: Lt Palmer, Washburn, the kickass security guy...

You could at least have mentioned the guy's name...but no worries: I grabbed the image right from the episode credits!

Now THAT is funny!!


Thanks for making me laugh!

 

[feek61]

It probably looked like hell under normal lighting in real life, but as an alien looking device made of very unweildy material (neutronium) it looked great. Everyone I've seen trying to update this thing all ended up looking cartoony.

Tell me about it! Getting the proportions right is achievable if one uses that side shot just as the Constellation explodes as a template, but that strange iridescent surface is nigh impossible to recreate!

I'm still experimenting with various "shaders", That's why I was so curious whether any "behind the scenes" information about the planet killer miniature existed.

Sincerely,

Bill

A few years ago someone did some research into the original miniature and determined that it was aluminum foil with blue lighting gels taped over it. Seems reasonable considering the budget. Despite what is written; it does not appear to be a "windsock dipped in cement."

 

[Bixby]

Bit roles that still ended up becoming favorites to many fans: Lt Palmer, Washburn, the kickass security guy...

You could at least have mentioned the guy's name...but no worries: I grabbed the image right from the episode credits!

Now THAT is funny!!

Loved it!
Oh we love our seldom-seen characters. Like Slap-Happy Surgeon Dude and Oh-so-Fine Scrappy Shrink Babe...

 

[Maurice]

A few years ago someone did some research into the original miniature ...

That "someone" would be Daren Dochterman, hence his signature on the images you posted.

EDIT: Although some of the links are now broken, here's the thread on the Replica Prop Forum (link) about the machine and where Daren first shared his theory.

 

[feek61]

Thank you, I'm old and couldn't read the name

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Bit roles that still ended up becoming favorites to many fans: Lt Palmer, Washburn, the kickass security guy...

You could at least have mentioned the guy's name...but no worries: I grabbed the image right from the episode credits!

Now THAT is funny!!


Thanks for making me laugh!

Anytime!

Thank you, I'm old and couldn't read the name

Don't feel bad, I couldn't read it either.

 

[daedalus5]

It's my favourite episode of Trek ever, too. It was the first VHS I bought when I was 8 years old, and it's the only video tape i currently own!

I loved Decker in the command chair "I don't recognise your authority to relieve me" type fights with Spock, Kirk and McCoy.

The music was also amazing and I love the SFX.


Great acting, pace, writing, plot, action shots and co-operative starship attacks. Brilliant!

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

And written by Norman Spinrad, no less.

(This is where I brag about Norman being one of my old writing instructors, who taught me how to write a novel outline.)

That's fantastic!

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

our seldom-seen characters. Like Slap-Happy Surgeon Dude...

And I will hear that guy's insane laughter 'till the day I die!

Balok's got nothin' on him!

But more thread-relevant: that energy effect animation inside the Doomsday Machine, as seen when Decker's shuttle was getting swallowed up, was far superior in the original episode. It seemed to be some kind of real energy. The effect in the remastered version seemed...I don't know...reminiscent of something from a Max Fleischer Superman cartoon or something.

 

[USS Triumphant]

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!

 

[WisTrekFan]

Of all 700+ hours of televised Trek, "The Doomsday Machine" is my favorite episode. One of the things I like about this episode is the way the entire bridge set was used,i.e., Kirk standing on the upper level facing the helm as the Enterprise searched for the Constellation, and then at the end of the episode, Kirk and Spock conversing as they walked around the upper level. It is about the only episode where the bridge set was fully used like that.

 

[CrazyMatt]

Amazing reading in These Are The Voyages, Season Two. How Bob Justman literally pleaded with Gene Coon to not produce this episode, and how Coon actually came up with many of the key facets that made it the classic we know and love.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Amazing reading in These Are The Voyages, Season Two. How Bob Justman literally pleaded with Gene Coon to not produce this episode, and how Coon actually came up with many of the key facets that made it the classic we know and love.

Do you mean Justman wanted someone else to produce it, or that he didn't want this ep produced at all? And if the latter, does it say what he had against the script?

 

[Maurice]

He probably hated it because of its original title, "The Planet Eater", which sounds like an Irwin Allen production.

 

[Vandervecken]

I love the look on Kirk's face just before he is beamed back aboard the Enterprise. That look says "oh shit, I have finally pushed my luck too far, time to prepare myself for death."

 

[CrazyMatt]

Amazing reading in These Are The Voyages, Season Two. How Bob Justman literally pleaded with Gene Coon to not produce this episode, and how Coon actually came up with many of the key facets that made it the classic we know and love.

Do you mean Justman wanted someone else to produce it, or that he didn't want this ep produced at all? And if the latter, does it say what he had against the script?

He didn't want it produced, period.

 

[feek61]

Lol, yes I skipped right to "The Doomsday Machine" chapter myself when I got TATV vol.2

I see that I'm not the only one!

 

[publiusr]

People can say what they want, but I still love that rough hewn look of the original planet killer miniature. It probably looked like hell under normal lighting in real life, but as an alien looking device made of very unweildy material (neutronium) it looked great. Everyone I've seen trying to update this thing all ended up looking cartoony.

For me the original still rules.

Agreed.

I would love to see a glass blower attempt this ship.

I think the original concept was something that would have wound up looking like a ramscoop starship surrounded by a ring of laser guns along the scoop. I seem to remember some art of that...

 

[Warped9]

Apparently Norman Spinrad was disappointed with the final filmed version. Yeah, he did envision something bristling with weapons. But in this case the "less is more" approach worked quite well and with the way it was filmed it looked quite alien.

 

[Maurice]

I dunno what Spinrad envisioned, but the written description of the titular machine in the script doesn't track with what he's claimed since.

Okay, since you have the script, how does the script describe the machine when it first appears?

We have Decker's description at Scene 31:

KIRK
(crosses in)
What does it look like, Commodore?

DECKER
A hundred times the size of a
starship... a mile long, with
a maw big enough to swallow a
dozen ships... it destroyes
planets... cuts them to rubble...

********

Then, we have this description at Scene 44:

44 INSERT - MAIN VIEWSCREEN

On the screen, looming large and seen head-on, we see
the Planet-Killer; a great funnel extended before its
huge metallic body as if it were to devour the Enterprise.

SPOCK'S VOICE
An immense body... a large funnel-
mouth... It looks very much like
Commodore Decker's Planet-killer...
And it is pursuing us!

Then we have Scene 52--just as the boarding party is about to beam back to the Enterprise:

52 EXT. SPACE - QUARTERING SHOT OF THE PLANET-KILLER

We see the huge funnel mouth, with a blue-hot LIGHT
EFFECT glowing within. An ATOMIC BEAM EFFECT (a
solid beam of blue light) that seems to come from
within the funnel lances out.

Later, at Scene 85:

85 EXT. SPACE - CLOSE ON THE PLANET-KILLER

We see just the huge funnel, from the side. Then,
dwarfed by the funnel, the Enterprise moves into the
FRAME.

There are other Planet-Killer related scenes--like when Decker takes the shuttlecraft down its maw, and when the Constellation meets the same fate. All the descriptions are the same (and no more informative) than the above scenes.

If Mr. Spinrad had something else in mind other than what was scripted, he didn't so indicate--or he indicated it only in earlier drafts of the script. As I read what little is in this script, it seems like what was created is pretty consistent with what was requested.