The Doomsday Machine

[Timo]

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

I'm not sure it could be held against the machine in court. It might have scanned the planet, found it lifeless, and then proceeded - because the victims were too few to register, or because they only beamed down there after the scan. The latter is actually quite likely: the DDM would have been fighting the starship until resistance ceased, then turned its attentions to the planet - which is also the moment when the crew would have left the ship...

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.

True. But you don't kill Borg that way. You blow up their ship, then you blow up their debris, and then you blow up the dust left from the debris. Then you are done. Otherwise you have only assisted your enemy.

The one thing we are never told definitively in the episode is where exactly the DDM is in the galaxy.

True. But we follow the DDM's meanderings from star system L-370 to L-374, with supposedly at least two systems in between to justify Spock's claim that "every system" has been destroyed, even though Spock explicitly can't tell the status of a system unless the ship flies through it. This would already be enough to create such a tortuous path that Spock shouldn't be able to tell whether the DDM came from the direction of the nearest edge of the galactic disk (perhaps only a few hundred lightyears away, if it's "up" or "down" and if Spock doesn't want to count in the galactic halo) or perhaps from a completely different direction. And he still couldn't tell the distance or the time.

To use something between four and perhaps a dozen star systems as the basis for a "path", and then to project it back so that it points "outside, to another galaxy", verges on insanity. Of course any arbitrary course would eventually point "outside", and of course every course would eventually intercept "another galaxy"...

Except it's in Federation space.

Or on the edge of it. None of the lost systems are described as UFP property. Only the next system over, "the Rigel colonies", is said to be something that falls under the heroes' duty "to protect the life and safety of Federation planets".

I wonder if the Rigel colonies could be assumed to lie on the outskirts of the galaxy?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Redfern]

I'm not sure it could be held against the machine in court.

Great...

Now I have this insane mental image of a tin foil wrapped wind-sock, uh, "sitting" (for lack of a better word) upon the witness stand, its frame curled into a kind of "question mark" position, its "maw" facing the prosecuting attorney almost as if it can "see".

Attorney: "Will you state your name for the court?"

DDM: Emits that telltale "wail" first associated with Klingon disruptors as if replying and a beam singes the attorney's hair.

Attorney: 'I see. Do you understand the charges that have been brought against you?"

DDM: Nods and wails again, this time the rest of the the attorney's hair is burned away.

Attorney: "And do you understand your actions have caused the deaths of 400 sapient lifeforms which can be verified and who knows how many more?"

DDM: Shrugs (an amazing feat considering it does not have any shoulders with which to shrug) as if to imply, "I had no idea," and wails yet again, the attorney's upper dermal layers starting to peel away.

...and so on...

...at least until the lawyer has been slowly disintegrated by the planet killer's responses!

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Maurice]

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.

True. But you don't kill Borg that way. You blow up their ship, then you blow up their debris, and then you blow up the dust left from the debris. Then you are done. Otherwise you have only assisted your enemy.

You must be referring to that novel. I'm talking about the episode and TOS and not later shows or ancillary properties.

 

[Hofner]

Question: How big is the DDM's mother?

Answer: The DDM's maw is so big she could swallow a dozen starships.

Robert

 

[WendellM]

For what it might be worth, here's the DDM's/berserker's path shown on the non-canon, 1980 Star Trek Maps (by Maynard, McMaster, Upton, Mandel, Cole, White, Nicastre, Sternbach, et al.):

And the dialogue where the origin was determined:

KIRK: A robot weapon that purposely destroys entire solar systems. Why?

SPOCK: Unknown, Captain. However, Mister Sulu has computed the path of the machine, using the destroyed solar systems as a base course. Projecting back on our star charts, we find that it came from outside, from another galaxy.

KIRK: What is the projected course of this thing?

SPOCK: If it follows its present path, it will go through the most densely populated section of our galaxy.
​

 

[Timo]

The one thing the episode establishes early on is that one cannot tell if the DDM has visited a star system unless one visits said system oneself. Sure, a telescope might tell, if you wait a few decades, centuries or millennia (depending on the distance). But a starship's sensors or Starfleet's standard distant surveillance techniques won't work.

This makes all DDM course projections beyond a few dozen lightyears highly dubious. Sulu couldn't have charted the destruction of more than a handful of these systems (although it must be more than just L-370 and L-374) - so the pathlet of destruction would really have to lie right against the Galactic Barrier to justify the "it came from the outside" statement, much like shown in the old Star Maps. Whether the most densely populated section of the galaxy also lies right against the Galactic Barrier is another, interesting question...

Perhaps it does? Perhaps the Barrier surrounds each of the galactic arms separately, and creates safe havens where civilizations thrive, including a haven that includes Earth, Rigel and other stars in our general neighborhood?

You must be referring to that novel. I'm talking about the episode and TOS and not later shows or ancillary properties.

Yup, that argument was there solely to cast in doubt the idea that the DDM could be an anti-Borg weapon.

Whether it's a vengeance weapon like Kirk thinks, a berserker, a benign traveler who only eats useless rocks for fuel, or a Vo(r)gon bulldozer doing important infrastructural work, is left for the audience to wonder about.

(Whether it's capable of warp speeds is another issue of importance left undiscussed. Nobody ever witnesses it at warp in the episode. Nobody ever establishes that it would have moved at FTL speeds from system to system. Why, then, is Decker worried that it might reach Rigel before Starfleet reinforcements arrive?)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Forbin]

Question: How big is the DDM's mother?

Answer: The DDM's maw is so big she could swallow a dozen starships.

Robert

:spittake:

 

[WendellM]

(Whether it's capable of warp speeds is another issue of importance left undiscussed. Nobody ever witnesses it at warp in the episode. Nobody ever establishes that it would have moved at FTL speeds from system to system. Why, then, is Decker worried that it might reach Rigel before Starfleet reinforcements arrive?)

I agree with you that there's no 100% solid evidence. However, there are two pieces of indirect evidence that are convincing enough for me:

1. It took a year or less to move from L-370 to L-374. These are presumably more than one light-year apart (the average distance between stars in the Milky Way is about 5 light years).

SULU: Sir, we're now within the limits of system L-370, but I can't seem to locate...
SPOCK: Captain, sensors show this entire solar system has been destroyed. Nothing left but rubble and asteroids.
KIRK: But that's incredible. The star in this system is still intact. Only a nova could destroy like that.
SPOCK: Nonetheless, Captain, sensors show nothing but debris where we charted seven planets last year.
KIRK: Continue a search pattern.
SULU: Aye, aye, sir.
(Time passes.)
SULU: Entering limits of System L-374, sir. Scanners show the same evidence of destruction.
KIRK: Every solar system in this sector blasted to rubble and still no sign of the Constellation. [Side note: "Every" (rather than "both") implies more than two, providing additional, unspecified, points of reference for Sulu's back-tracking of the machine's path]
​

2. For me, the characters' concerns are indirect confirmation that it was FTL capable. Since they're worried about Rigel, it had to be capable of getting there in a timely manner (less than a year, I'd say; more like months at the longest or, more likely, weeks or even days: if it were sublight, its slow approach would presumably be detected in time for warp-capable ships to react).

KIRK: Whatever it is, we can't let it go beyond us to the next solar system.
...
SULU: It's veering off, back on course for the next solar system. The Rigel colony, sir.
...
DECKER: You can't let that reach Rigel. Why, millions of innocent people would die.
SPOCK: I am aware of the Rigel system's population, Commodore, but we are only one ship. Our deflector shields are strained, our subspace transmitter is useless. Logically, our primary duty is to survive in order to warn Starfleet Command.
...
SPOCK: We cannot destroy it. Therefore, we cannot save Rigel.
​

 

[Hofner]

Question: How big is the DDM's mother?

Answer: The DDM's maw is so big she could swallow a dozen starships.

Robert

:spittake:

I can't believe I'm the only one to think of that. Thought of it years ago and almost ruined rewatches of that episode for me. Every time Decker says "Miles long with a maw that could swallow a dozen starships!" I can just hear Kirk say "You mean that thing's got a mother?!?"

Robert

 

[Timo]

I agree with you that there's no 100% solid evidence. However, there are two pieces of indirect evidence that are convincing enough for me

Me as well (and apparently for Decker and Kirk, too). It would have been interesting to learn something solid about how long ago L-370 really was destroyed, though. Apparently, killing a planet does not take long: Decker watched it happen. Killing a system might not take more than a few days. So what is the time-consuming part, and how does it help or hinder our heroes? Does the thing move slowly (as evidenced by it failing to tag starships)? Does it accelerate slowly? Is it sluggish right after eating? Or perhaps until it has eaten enough? Could it be stopped by starving, perhaps?

Timo Saloniemi