The Doomsday Machine

[Gotham Central]

Does anyone know why the Enterprise only uses Phasers on the DDM? Since the machines maw seemed vulnerable to a fusion explosion, you'd think that a few torpedoes would have done some damage.

I've also always wished that someone would have done a follow up to this story. As it is, we know NOTHING about the machine. The only thing we have is Kirk's out of his ass speculation about where it originated. Plus it would have been interesting to findout what starfleet did with the machine

 

[Michael]

I don't know why they didn't use torpedoes on the "planet killer", but regarding its origins I much prefer for it to remain a mystery instead of giving clear-cut answers.

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

Well, there is no official reason that I know of, but I do have an idea. They probably did not fire photon torpedoes into the Doomsday Machine's Maw because the Doomsday Machine fired some sort of pure energy beam. This energy beam could probably vaporize the photon torpedoes before they reached their target (the DDM Maw) or the DDM's energy beam might have caused the torpedoes to detonate prematurely causing damage to the Enterprise.


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

 

[Wingsley]

Washburn told Kirk that the Constellation's instruments indicated that the ship's antimatter had somehow been deactivated. And then Kirk asked Scott is a general energy dampening field could account for that, plus the subspace interference... Scott agreed.

It would therefore stand to reason that the Planet Killer's energy dampening field would likely neutralize photon torpedoes before impact, or at least weaken them significantly.

 

[SchwEnt]

Does anyone know why the Enterprise only uses Phasers on the DDM? Since the machines maw seemed vulnerable to a fusion explosion, you'd think that a few torpedoes would have done some damage.

I've also always wished that someone would have done a follow up to this story. As it is, we know NOTHING about the machine. The only thing we have is Kirk's out of his ass speculation about where it originated. Plus it would have been interesting to findout what starfleet did with the machine

There was a kind of follow-up story to this eps.
Peter David's great novel "Vendetta".

It was a TNG novel, a follow-up to "BoBW". It revealed that The Doomsday Machine was an ancient anti-Borg weapon. If you're interested in a Borg Cube/Doomsday Machine deathmatch, check it out.

 

[Captrek]

It was a TNG novel, a follow-up to "BoBW". It revealed that The Doomsday Machine was an ancient anti-Borg weapon. If you're interested in a Borg Cube/Doomsday Machine deathmatch, check it out.

The doomsday machine came from another galaxy. Did the Borg also originate in another galaxy?

 

[Warped9]

^^ If I recall the TNG novel Vendetta they said the DM was built outside of the galaxy for secrecy. And this was written still while TNG was still in mid-run I believe and so the onscreen origins and make-up hadn't been fully established yet.

 

[Steven Of Nine]

Does anyone know why the Enterprise only uses Phasers on the DDM? Since the machines maw seemed vulnerable to a fusion explosion, you'd think that a few torpedoes would have done some damage.

Bad writing. Nothing more complicated. They didn't even mention the torpedoes being damaged... just forgot them.

 

[JoeD80]

Did the Borg also originate in another galaxy?

IIRC, they came from the Delta Quadrant.

Bad writing. Nothing more complicated. They didn't even mention the torpedoes being damaged... just forgot them.

Perhaps they forgot to order replacement torpedoes when they ran out last time?

 

[Captrek]

^^ If I recall the TNG novel Vendetta they said the DM was built outside of the galaxy for secrecy.

Not a very satisfying explanation, as it was apparently not only built outside the galaxy, but also activated outside the galaxy. Who let this thing off the leash?

Did the Borg also originate in another galaxy?

IIRC, they came from the Delta Quadrant.

That’s what I thought. That’s certainly where most of “Borg Space” seems to be located. I wondered if possibly that was just their entry point into this galaxy, but I believe it more likely was where they originated.

 

[Chess Piece Face]

I love that we know absolutely nothing abut it!

 

[Nerys Myk]

The torpedos wouldn't arrive till Tuesday.

 

[MarianLH]

Did the Borg also originate in another galaxy?

IIRC, they came from the Delta Quadrant.

That’s what I thought. That’s certainly where most of “Borg Space” seems to be located. I wondered if possibly that was just their entry point into this galaxy, but I believe it more likely was where they originated.

Vendetta was published in 1991. Had the Delta Quadrant origin of the borg been established yet at that point, or was that not until Voyager?

There was also an adventure for the FASA Star Trek Roleplaying Game, "A Doomsday Like Any Other", that featured another doomsday machine during the TOS movie era.


Marian

 

[Timo]

There still isn't anything canonical about the Delta Quadrant origins of the Borg. All we know is that Bev Crusher in ST:FC claimed that the Borg were "still" in the Delta Quadrant in the 21st century, as in, they hadn't left it yet. We have no idea how she came to that conclusion, nor any idea on whether she was right or wrong. We do know they are in Delta, but we also know they are everywhere else, too.

There isn't much canonical about the extragalactic origins of the DDM, either. Spock gives no basis to his strange claim that the thing came from the outside. Remember that the only way to determine which systems the DDM had visited was to visit those oneself: no long range measurements could reveal that a star system had been gobbled up. Spock could have a dataset of, what, half a dozen proximal systems visited by the DDM, and the odds of those lying in a straight line would be nonexistent. How could he determine the general direction from which the DDM had come? How could he extrapolate that to reveal the thing's origin? His claim sounded baseless, but Kirk accepted it anyway - so perhaps Spock did have some additional data he didn't reveal to the audience. It would then be noncanon, though.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[drychlick]

i trust spock gress than any fact any day! doc mcoy did in st 4 lol

 

[AtoZ]

Washburn told Kirk that the Constellation's instruments indicated that the ship's antimatter had somehow been deactivated. And then Kirk asked Scott is a general energy dampening field could account for that, plus the subspace interference... Scott agreed.

It would therefore stand to reason that the Planet Killer's energy dampening field would likely neutralize photon torpedoes before impact, or at least weaken them significantly.

Brilliant response! I think we've found a fit!

 

[Gotham Central]

How does one "deactivate" anti-matter? Anti-matter, like regular matter simply IS. Its not actively doing anything beyond existing.

 

[Timo]

But phasers can sort of "deactivate" regular matter, making it cease to do what it does - that is, exist... This may be what the fancy field did to antimatter. A device capable of selectively hitting antimatter would be very practical as a defensive or offensive weapon, in a galaxy where ships usually are made of matter but powered and often also armed by antimatter.

Also, as far as tech manuals go, we know Starfleet has devices that can turn matter into antimatter without going through the expensive E=mcc route. The DDM could have a similar device that turns antimatter into matter, at a distance. That would certainly count as "deactivating" it...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[DWF]

In the James Blish novelization of the ep. they did use photon torpedoes but they just bounced around inside the machine. And it had Uhuru in it as well instead of Palmer. So I'd say the torpedoes were a part of the original script just not used for budget reasons.