The Doomsday Machine

One of the things I always think about when it comes to Star Trek TOS is what makes these classic episodes so great is how alot of them could have been made into full-length movies. The Doomsday Machine in my opinion is absolutely Number One when it comes to this. A thrilling adventure crammed into 45 minutes with great performances from the entire cast. William Windom gives the greatest guest star performance in the entire series no question.

Coming off the last clunker of an episode (Apple), this is a breath of fresh air. Starship Captain Dekker is rescued. He is the last survivor of a ship that lost all of its crew. A killer entity of great power was responsible but some poor decisions were also made. Now Dekker becomes obsessed with destroying this thing. While Kirk is away, trying to repair the other Captain's ship, communications is circumvented, allowing Dekker, crazy as he is, to take over the Enterprise. He decides to wage war on the thing again, endangering another crew. The episode draws on some wonderful twists and turns as Kirk has to deal with Dekker and then with the force that is now a danger to everyone. This is a superior effort, stepping up from some pretty suspect efforts.

One of the other commentators described this story as "Moby Dick" in space, and William Windom makes a hell of an Ahab.

The Enterprise comes across the remains of the U.S.S. Constellation, whose only survivor is its commanding officer, Commodore Matt Decker (Windom). Kirk learns that the crew of the Constellation, as well as the star system it was patrolling, was the victim of a large, cone-shaped, matter-sucking machine. Decker, overwhelmed with guilt for the loss of his crew and an obsession for vengeance, takes command of the Enterprise (while Kirk is trying to repair the Constellation) and attempts to destroy the machine.

The key to this episode is Windom's superb performance, which is balanced against Nimoy's (as always) level-headed Spock and Shatner's sympathetic Kirk. The finale is also remarkably suspenseful.

One of the reasons the original series is thought of so highly is that certain individual episodes (City on the Edge of Forever, Journey to Babel, Balance of Terror and this one) are as good as anything you will see on movies or TV. This episode highlights some the things that made TOS great: Lighting, set design, and the acting. For all the grief Shatner receives as an actor, in this episode he really nails what makes Kirk a great captain. He is confident, forceful, able to think on his feet and fully in command. The color scheme, which employs bright primary colors, and the eye light they use on Kirk to highlight his sense of command are excellent. And don't forget the writing and directing that fully makes use of the tension inherent in the situation. You will never see a better straight ahead action episode on TV than The Doomsday Machine.

We're back to some overwhelmingly grim tidings with this episode, a jarring reminder that there are some very dangerous threats out there in space. In a way, this can be looked upon as a precursor to the entire Borg threat introduced on the TNG series; on that show, something like the Borg was needed to shake the Enterprise and the Federation out of their complacency - or, shake them to the core, as is done to Commodore Decker here. The actor, Windom, may very well have ended up with the single best performance, as Decker, during the run of the original series. His loss is almost unimaginable - his entire crew is dead, thanks to one wrong move on his part. He's a walking dead man during the course of this episode - it's easy to compare his character to Ahab from the famous 'Moby Dick' novel, and the monstrous killing machine here to the white whale. But, Windom brings something more to the part. He's compelling from start to finish and adds such startling nuances to an already deeply fascinating, dark character. Picture Kirk as slightly older, not so sure of himself anymore; add on devastating trauma and then complex psychosis composed of guilt, obsession, and suicidal feelings - Windom juggled all of these and more to great dramatic effect.

The cosmic threat of this huge alien weapon, while exciting in itself, takes on a much more darker tone thanks to the presence of Decker on the bridge of the Enterprise. The whole plot seems to take a back seat, for awhile at least, to the strange, awful relationship between our psycho-damaged commodore and this unfeeling machine. Everyone else becomes an incidental side player to the conflict between these two, but, of course, it's Decker, in his insanity, who creates a relationship; he no longer sees it as just a machine, a programmed robot, but as his personal devil. And one definition of insanity is trying the same thing over & over, expecting different results, such as phasers penetrating impenetrable Neutronium. He looks around his new bridge, replacing the one he lost on the Constellation, and sees only tools for his use. It's one of many great moments throughout, and usually on that bridge. The entire episode seems to have benefited from everyone giving an extra effort - from the ruined exterior and interior of the sister starship to that good fight scene between Decker and the security officer (it appeared as if they really tried to suggest a futuristic style of martial arts not seen before). The writing, direction and editing are all top notch. Not to mention, Windom, as Decker, ends up with probably the best death scene of the entire series.