The Doomsday Machine

[Auriq]

I just have a quick question. I'm working on a Star Trek fanfic and I'm entertaining the idea of tying in the Doomsday Machine.

Now, my question is, have the origins of the DM ever been revealed (either in an episode or in a novel)? I'm trying to stay true to both canon and non-canon sources, so I wouldn't want to dispute any earlier versions of the origin.

Thanks!

 

[Kelso]

Try Memory Beta.

 

[Klingon Empire]

In addition, The source was just said to be "Outside of this Galaxy" in the show.

 

[Auriq]

Okay, now I feel embarassed. Memory Beta didn't even occur to me. Thanks.

 

[Klingon Empire]

Memory Alpha too.

Hey, I would not have thougt of it either, don't be embaressed.

 

[Timo]

To be sure, we don't learn in the original episode why Spock would believe the thing originated from outside the galaxy. How could he tell something like that? The thing cannot be following a straight path, because it hops from star system to star system. There's no way to tell even the general direction it came from, then, let alone the distance.

Of course, Spock might have analyzed its chemical composition or radiation exposure and gotten some hints that it had been exposed to intergalactic space. Or perhaps he had found the telltale signs of passing through the Galactic Barrier?

Now that would be interesting: the machine, originally benevolent as all hell, had gone mad when passing through the Barrier, and was now gobbling more planets than it needed for sustenance, without paying heed to whether they were inhabited or not...

But as Memory Beta shows, there's already quite a backstory for the machine, and working these elements in there might not be all that practical.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[buckeyenation]

At the end of the episode, Spock says, "I can't help wondering if there are any more of those weapons wondering around the universe". It seems that opportuniy existed (or still exists) for maybe another go round with the planet killer.I don't know about anybody else, but I'm game.

 

[KlingonPredator]

The thing that gets me about that episode you the the Connie with more holes than Swiss cheese,and if not needed to take out the planet killer was more likely salvageable. Where was the damage to Enterprise? (Most likely not done due to budget I assume...)

 

[FormerLurker]

To be sure, we don't learn in the original episode why Spock would believe the thing originated from outside the galaxy. How could he tell something like that? The thing cannot be following a straight path, because it hops from star system to star system. There's no way to tell even the general direction it came from, then, let alone the distance.

Of course, Spock might have analyzed its chemical composition or radiation exposure and gotten some hints that it had been exposed to intergalactic space. Or perhaps he had found the telltale signs of passing through the Galactic Barrier?

Now that would be interesting: the machine, originally benevolent as all hell, had gone mad when passing through the Barrier, and was now gobbling more planets than it needed for sustenance, without paying heed to whether they were inhabited or not...

But as Memory Beta shows, there's already quite a backstory for the machine, and working these elements in there might not be all that practical.

Timo Saloniemi

Spock could just as easily backtracked the Machine's particular energy signature to previously destroyed systems. He wouldn't need to determine the straight path, just follow the path of destruction. Backtracking from the first reported system with the appropriate destruction, follow the energy signature from there, bingo! Projected origin.

 

[Timo]

But since the path of destruction (which our heroes had already followed) would not be anywhere near straight, Spock would have a whole hemisphere of directions to choose from when he reached that first destroyed system. Or the whole sphere, since he couldn't rule out that the DDM might be moving in wide spirals or some other pattern.

And whatever the pattern, it could no be discerned from merely looking at half a dozen destroyed systems. The path required to move between this small number of systems would be so full of small-scale kinks and twists that it would completely hide any wider pattern.

And a wide pattern it would be, if it led to outside the galaxy... Five neighboring systems would only cover less than a hundred lightyears, probably less than fifty. The edge of the galaxy would more probably be thousands of lightyears away from the scene of carnage.

Finally, even if Spock managed to find a pattern, perhaps a spiral that would ultimately lead to outside the galaxy if backtracked long enough, he would have no way of telling where along that path the DDM originated. It might have been built just eight star systems earlier. Or then eight million! Let's say a runaway truck hit ten houses and then slammed into yours. You could backtrack its somewhat meandering course as coming from the east - but you still couldn't plausibly claim that it must have come from China!

From the information the audience was given, there'd be no way to determine where the DDM came from. But Spock might well have had information he didn't tell on camera, thus negating this nitpick.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Kirk here]

To be sure, we don't learn in the original episode why Spock would believe the thing originated from outside the galaxy. How could he tell something like that?

We know it's correct by the sheer authority of Spock as the smartest guy on the show.

Another example: In ST:TMP, Spock says: "Obviously, V'ger operates from a central brain complex." Now why is that so freakin' obvious?

Because Spock said so!

;o)

 

[Timo]

Well, that is one of the primary tricks of command: never be wrong. Except in retrospect, but then it's already past, and you have to concern yourself with the present, where you can never be wrong...

Spock's guesswork didn't matter much here: the origins or purpose of the DDM could not really be known, but since the DDM didn't respond to complex communications, and since its responses to the simple communications of "attack" and "retreat" and "play dead" were already known to be hostile all, our heroes really only had a few courses of action.

What mattered more was that Spock never analyzed the speed at which the DDM moved. At no point was it able to catch a starship, even if one was moving at pitiful one-third impulse speed. Would it have been capable of higher speeds when moving between star systems? If not, then it would take years before it became a threat to the Rigel colonies or anyplace else; the Enterprise could retreat, then return with a hundred other ships, or wait for a thousand more ships to be built before returning.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[F. King Daniel]

Doomsday machines crop up in the TNG novels Vendetta (a great read) and it's quasi-sequel Before Dishonor. But you probably got that from Memory Beta.

I think the backstory created for them was cool.

 

[Yug]

The gang at "New Voyages" did an episode on the Doomsday Machine. Even bringing back Captain Decker and the actor who played him. It was crazy, he went back in time to the 1990's just before getting eaten up, and parked his shuttle in some Earth girls garage... not a euphemsim, he really did pull up into her driveway, and stayed a while.

 

[Forbin]

And that Earth girl was Barbara Luna, "the Captain's woman!"

However, that episode stank up the galaxy. They were just beginning, and were way too fanboyish.

 

[Gil T.Azell]

Doomsday machines crop up in the TNG novels Vendetta (a great read) and it's quasi-sequel Before Dishonor. But you probably got that from Memory Beta.

I think the backstory created for them was cool.

I seem to recall that in Vendetta it was refered to as a weapon that was used to fight the Borg.

 

[Timo]

Which is a bit silly. I mean, the thing couldn't even blow up Starfleet starships with one shot, so it clearly isn't the sort of weapon that could defeat the Borg by sheer unashamed overkill. And any weapon that doesn't rely on overkill is likely to be countered by the good old adaptation routine. In which case the species that built the DDM just wasted fantasmamillion tons of raw materials and who knows how much valuable time in building a piece of junk that isn't necessarily good even for a single shot, and certainly isn't for two.

That is, unless the DDM was built to be a berserker that blows up all the planets in the galaxy preemptively, thereby stopping the Borg (or any other opponent) from ever exploiting those.

Really, a berserker should have been Kirk's first guess. Somebody who doesn't care much for planets, or who has his own planet well covered, might well have a keen interest in destroying all other planets with a (relatively) cheap automaton or a dozen. And the DDM was going through star systems by carefully destroying everything, not by concentrating on specific types of targets. Typical berserker behavior...

Since we never learned that the DDM would have hit an inhabited planet, though, Kirk might just as well have guessed that the machine was harmless, except when provoked. A doomsday revenge weapon sounds like the least probable identity ever for this thing, as it's taking no revenge on anybody, and is being either highly inefficient or highly efficient at it...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Forbin]

Sometimes, I think you think too much.

 

[Maurice]

...Since we never learned that the DDM would have hit an inhabited planet...

Well, it blew up at least one habitable in not inhabited planet: the one the Constellation crew beamed down to.

Also, really, there's no indication of how powerful the machine is. Sure it didn't blow starships up with one shot, but its programming might've told it to just fire X amount of energy at a ship smaller than Y. I never through it was shooting at the Enterprise with planet-smash power.

 

[FormerLurker]

But since the path of destruction (which our heroes had already followed) would not be anywhere near straight, Spock would have a whole hemisphere of directions to choose from when he reached that first destroyed system. Or the whole sphere, since he couldn't rule out that the DDM might be moving in wide spirals or some other pattern.

And whatever the pattern, it could no be discerned from merely looking at half a dozen destroyed systems. The path required to move between this small number of systems would be so full of small-scale kinks and twists that it would completely hide any wider pattern.

And a wide pattern it would be, if it led to outside the galaxy... Five neighboring systems would only cover less than a hundred lightyears, probably less than fifty. The edge of the galaxy would more probably be thousands of lightyears away from the scene of carnage.

Finally, even if Spock managed to find a pattern, perhaps a spiral that would ultimately lead to outside the galaxy if backtracked long enough, he would have no way of telling where along that path the DDM originated. It might have been built just eight star systems earlier. Or then eight million! Let's say a runaway truck hit ten houses and then slammed into yours. You could backtrack its somewhat meandering course as coming from the east - but you still couldn't plausibly claim that it must have come from China!

From the information the audience was given, there'd be no way to determine where the DDM came from. But Spock might well have had information he didn't tell on camera, thus negating this nitpick.

Timo Saloniemi

I'm only guessing, but are you assuming it encountered and entered the galaxy edge on? It could have come up against the flat side of the disc of the galaxy, and traveled through a lot less space before encountering the USS Constellation. The one thing we are never told definitively in the episode is where exactly the DDM is in the galaxy. Except it's in Federation space.