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An action-packed sci-fi adventure where the Enterprise faces a giant robot ship that destroys planets. See cast, crew, plot, trivia, reviews, quotes, and more on IMDb, the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content.
- (4.6K)
- Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
- Marc Daniels
- 1967-10-20
Learn about the sixth episode of Star Trek: The Original Series season 2, where the Enterprise fights a planet-killing machine from another galaxy. Find out the plot, production, and reception of this classic sci-fi story.
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The Enterprise discovers a weapon capable of destroying entire planets, and a Starfleet flag officer whose crew was killed by the machine jeopardizes the crew on a crazed mission of revenge.
Teaser
On the USS Enterprise, Lieutenant Palmer receives a faint and garbled distress signal. It is apparently a starship's disaster beacon, but Palmer is unable to make out any words aside from "Constellation". At the same time, the Enterprise also encounters heavy subspace interference, which prevents the crew from reporting their discoveries to Starfleet Command. The Enterprise enters system L-370 and finds that all seven planets in the system have been destroyed, smashed to rubble. Proceeding to system L-374, they find the same thing: debris where there were once healthy planets the previous year. All of the systems in the sector have been destroyed except for the two inner planets in L-374. In L-374, the Enterprise also finds her sister ship, the USS Constellation, commanded by Commodore Matt Decker, now a powerless wreck, drifting and apparently abandoned. As there is no apparent natural cause for the planetary destruction and the condition of the Constellation, Captain Kirk assumes that they were attacked and orders the Enterprise to go to red alert.
Act One
Sensor scans show the Constellation to be running with minimal life support, using its reserve energy banks. All of its power plants are dead, and the bridge is uninhabitable. Subspace interference is preventing further sensor readings, as well as any communications beyond the distress signal. There are no other ships detected in the area, however, and Kirk orders the ship's status dropped to yellow alert. Kirk then orders Dr. McCoy, Montgomery Scott, and a damage control party to the transporter room. He intends to board the Constellation, and leaves Commander Spock in command of the The landing party beams aboard a corridor on the Constellation and begins investigating. Scott and his team examine the engine room and find the warp engines totally destroyed, the impulse engines heavily damaged, and the phaser banks completely exhausted. The Constellation has clearly fought a pitched battle and lost. Kirk and McCoy, examining the rest of the ship, find no signs of the crew and no bodies. Kirk wonders if the crew might have beamed down to one of the remaining planets, but Spock (on the Enterprise) informs him that the planets could not possibly sustain Human life: the inner planet having a surface temperature close to the melting point of lead and the second's atmosphere is simply too toxic to support Human life. When Scott, after giving his report on the condition of the engines to Kirk, suggests that they might play back the tapes of the captain's log, they proceed to the auxiliary control room. There, Kirk finds Commodore Decker, the sole survivor aboard, in a fugue state. McCoy gives him an injection with his hypospray and he starts to come around, eventually recognizing Kirk. As he begins to recover, Scott plays back Decker's log: "Captain's log, stardate 4202.1. Exceptionally heavy subspace interference still prevents our contacting Starfleet to inform them of the destroyed solar systems we have encountered. We are now entering system L-374. Science Officer Masada reports the fourth planet seems to be breaking up. We are going to investigate." Decker, still in shock and barely lucid, begins to remember what happened as he hears his log played back. Kirk orders the Constellation sensor tapes beamed back to the Enterprise for analysis by Spock. Decker describes how his ship was attacked and disabled and, unable to contact Starfleet due to heavy subspace interference, he beamed his crew down to the third planet. As the captain, he was the last man aboard when the ship was attacked again. The transporters were disabled, and he was stranded. Prompted by Kirk for a description of the attacker, Decker becomes increasingly distraught as he describes something "right out of hell" that destroyed the third planet, along with all four hundred of the Constellation's crew. Telling of how his crew begged for rescue as he sat helpless on the ship, he collapses in grief. Washburn reports that the ship's antimatter stores have somehow been deactivated, and Kirk asks Scott if a "general energy dampening field" could be responsible for that, as well as the subspace interference. Scott agrees that it's possible, but doesn't know of anything that could generate such a field. Decker, recovering somewhat, begins describing the planet killer in more detail. "Miles long, with a maw that could swallow a dozen starships," Decker explains that the planet killer uses a pure antiproton beam to carve planets up into rubble. He couldn't tell if it was a ship or a living organism. Spock reports in from the Enterprise. From the sensor tapes, he has determined that the planet killer is an automated weapon designed to smash planets and digest the debris for fuel. As long as there are planets to consume, the device is self-sustaining. Spock and Sulu have used the locations of the ravaged star systems they encountered to calculate that the planet killer came from outside the galaxy, and that its projected path will take it through the most densely populated section of our galaxy. Speaking with McCoy, Kirk postulates that the planet killer is a "doomsday weapon," a bluff created by an unknown maker and intended as a deterrent only. This one is roaming the galaxies, consuming everything in its path for fuel, including whole planets. Its alien makers are presumably long since dead. This becomes the operational theory, though the Enterprise never finds any evidence that confirms or denies it. McCoy is still concerned about Decker's mental condition, and wants to get him to the Enterprise sickbay. Decker, slipping back and forth between his authoritarian captain's persona and that of a grief-stricken trauma victim, at first refuses to leave his ship, but is convinced when Kirk offers to take the Constellation in tow. Decker ruefully notes to Kirk that he has never lost a command before. McCoy and Decker beam back to the Enterprise while Kirk and Scott remain on board the Constellation to rig her for towing. However, when McCoy and Decker materialize in the Enterprise transporter room, the red alert klaxons are sounding, and they both rush to the bridge. The planet killer has returned, and they find Spock in the command chair, reporting to Kirk on the Constellation as the planet killer turns to pursue the Enterprise.
Act Two
Facing them with its gaping maw, the planet killer turns to pursue the Enterprise as Spock analyzes his sensor readings and concludes that they have little chance of deactivating the device without drawing an attack upon themselves. Kirk orders the landing party beamed back to the Enterprise, but the planet killer attacks the Enterprise before Kyle in the transporter room can do so. The transporters are damaged, as are communications, causing the Enterprise to lose contact with Kirk, now stranded aboard the Constellation with no viewscreen and no maneuvering ability. Kirk orders Scott to try to repair the impulse drive, while he and Washburn work on restoring the viewscreen. After the initial attack by the planet killer, the Enterprise evades and outruns it. Dr. McCoy reports no casualties, and Decker, already assuming an attitude of command, orders a status report from Kirk's chair. Warp and impulse engines are undamaged, but transporters and communications are under repair. Now some distance away, the planet killer stops pursuing the Enterprise, veers off, and resumes its course for the densely-inhabited Rigel system. Spock states his intention to keep his distance from the planet killer, circle around to pick up the landing party, and then evade the device's subspace interference so that they can warn Starfleet Command of the danger. Decker objects, stating that their primary duty is to protect Federation citizens, and that they must attack the planet killer immediately. He orders a 180 degree turn. Spock dispassionately ignores Decker's arguments and instructs Sulu to carry out his order. Decker, at this point, asserts his rank as a Starfleet commodore and assumes command of the Enterprise (under General Order 104, Section B, Paragraph 1a), despite the precise and logical objections of Spock, as well as the more hysterical ones of Dr. McCoy. Spock points out that Decker's previous attempt to attack the planet killer resulted in the loss of his ship and the death of his crew. Momentarily losing his attitude of command authority, Decker admits his previous mistake and asserts that this time he will get much closer to the planet killer and attack it with full phasers. Spock protests that the device's hull is made of solid neutronium, and is therefore impervious to attack from a single ship. Decker ends the argument by ordering Spock to surrender command or be relieved of duty. Confronted with an official order from a superior officer, Spock has no choice but to let Decker assume command. McCoy, looking for a loophole in the regulations, offers to declare Decker medically unfit (under what Spock describes as Section C of General Order 104), but having had no time to perform a complete examination, his declaration would carry little to no weight. Decker's mask of authority again slips momentarily when he thinks McCoy might have a case for relieving him, but Spock's adherence to the spirit of the regulations makes his argument for him. Decker orders McCoy off the bridge and gives orders to set course for the planet killer and prepare for battle. The bridge crew looks on worriedly, but Sulu has no choice but to carry out his orders. As the Enterprise reverses course and approaches the planet killer again, Commodore Decker sits comfortably in the captain's chair, in full command mode. However, he still looks a wreck: unshaven, bedraggled, and wild-eyed. Spock, instead of returning to his science station, stands at attention by the captain's chair. Aboard the Constellation, Kirk and Scott are proceeding with repairs, oblivious to what's going on outside. Scott will have to use the warp control circuits to control the impulse engines, which will make the ship difficult for one man to handle. The Enterprise closes in on the planet killer, pushing its deflector shields to the limit. The planet killer fires, weakening the shields further. Spock recommends retreating, but Decker, asserting his command status, takes the ship still closer. On the Constellation, Kirk and Washburn have repaired the viewscreen, and the first image that appears is the Enterprise, approaching dangerously close to the planet killer. The Enterprise fires its phasers and scores direct hits on the planet killer, to no apparent effect. Spock urgently recommends withdrawal, but Decker "notes" his recommendation and ignores it, ordering Sulu to lay down more phaser fire. Kirk desperately tries to contact the Enterprise, and when he cannot, orders Scott to get the impulse drive up and running as quickly as possible. The planet killer fires on the Enterprise again, disabling its shields and its power energizers. Lieutenant Palmer, the communications officer, also reports severe casualties on decks 3 and 4 and reports of an inner hull breach. The planet killer stops firing and begins pulling the Enterprise inside itself using a tractor beam, presumably to "digest" it as fuel. Spock says that they must veer off, and when Decker tries to continue the attack, he informs him that with warp power out, they must break away from the tractor beam within sixty seconds, or they never will. Decker, his irrational obsession now blatantly apparent to the crew, insists on trying to destroy the planet killer, but Spock warns him that if he does not order a withdrawal, he will relieve Decker of command using evidence of attempted suicide as proof of Decker's instability. Decker gives in, looking far less confident than he was just a few minutes prior, and orders Sulu to veer off, but it is too late; the planet killer has the Enterprise in its tractor beam, and continues pulling her inside.
"They say there's no devil, Jim, but there is. Right out of hell, I saw it!"
- Decker, describing the doomsday machine
"Matt, where's your crew?"
"On the third planet."
"There is no third planet."
"Don't you think I know that? There was, but not any more!"
Cast
•Norman Spinrad has expressed disappointment that the actor whom he envisioned playing Decker, Robert Ryan, was not cast. Ryan was unavailable due to other commitments. •William Windom, who was eventually cast as Decker, did not realize the Moby Dick allegories in "The Doomsday Machine" until years later. He thought the episode "seemed kind of silly, with the planet eater and the spaceships", and acted as though he was playing in a cartoon. "I was playing 'Captain Ahab in Outer Space' but I didn't think about it that way until years after I did it, when I read it in an article!" •The three crewmen who beam over to the Constellation with Kirk, McCoy, and Scott were named after three of the series' assistant directors. Washburn's namesake was Charles Washburn; Russ' was Rusty Meek, and Elliott's was Elliot Schick. •Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) does not appear in this episode. Uhura's duties were assumed by Lt. Palmer, played by Elizabeth Rogers. Walter Koenig (Chekov) is also absent. •This episode has six alumni from The Twilight Zone: Shatner, Nimoy, Doohan, Takei, Windom, and Jerry Catron.
Sets and props
•This episode marks the debut of the re-designed engineering set. The dilithium crystal storage units now occupy the center of the floor (complete with recycled Horta eggs); a ladder and upper level have been added into what was just a high bank of lighted panels in the first season. The set also is entered through a short spur hallway now, rather than as a side door off a main corridor. The console across from the forced-perspective end of the set has been replaced by a doorway and moved to the main wall to the left of the red grid. The huge structures among which Kirk's evil self and Benjamin Finney once hid are not seen in detail again, but the emergency manual monitor set was built on stilts on that spot, making its debut in "Mirror, Mirror". •The engine components appear and disappear as scenes dictated: they show up in "Day of the Dove" and "The Paradise Syndrome" but are absent completely in "Elaan of Troyius". •The trident scanner Scott pulls out of the new storage area near the doorway to engineering is the same prop Spock uses in "Metamorphosis" as he works on the shuttlecraft, and which Ensign Harper uses to plug in the M-5 multitronic unit in "The Ultimate Computer". It is identified in The Making of Star Trek as a "Ray Generator and Energy Neutralizer (Spock-Built)." •The modified Nuclear-Chicago Model 2586 Radiation Survey Meter is again used by a member of the landing party as a sensor device. •The auxiliary control room is first seen in this episode aboard the Constellation. Its large viewing screen was previously used in the briefing room in "The Menagerie, Part I", "The Menagerie, Part II", and "Space Seed", and on the bridge set used in "Where No Man Has Gone Before". •There are usually two full stations between Spock's library computer station, and the half station adjacent to the viewing screen. Yet, as Kirk and Spock walk by that area, only one station can be seen. •The picture of the star field on the bulkhead of the transporter room makes its last appearance in this episode. •When the damage-control team beams aboard the Constellation, Kirk does not wear a phaser and McCoy is not equipped with a tricorder.
Story and production
•Norman Spinrad's original story outline, entitled "The Planet Eater" took Moby Dick as one of its inspirations. •Star Trek ventured back to Moby Dick later in the second season, with "Obsession", then again with the films in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: First Contact. •Director Marc Daniels finished this episode in five days instead of the usual schedule of six. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, p. 253) According to Jerry Finnerman, Daniels made a bet that he could finish the episode in five days. When he succeeded, he got a US$500 bonus. Previously, Joseph Pevney received a similar bonus for wrapping "Arena", expected to be filmed in seven days, in the normal six-day schedule. (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One) •William Windom has said at conventions that he had his character compulsively fiddle with cassette cartridges as an homage to Humphrey Bogart, whose Captain Queeg did the same thing with ball-bearings in The Caine Mutiny. •This is the first time the Enterprise has encountered another Constitution-class starship with the entire crew dead. This later occurs in "The Omega Glory" and "The Tholian Web". Also, the entire crew of the USS Excalibur is annihilated during the battle in "The Ultimate Computer", and the USS Intrepid is destroyed with all hands in "The Immunity Syndrome". •A blooper from this episode features Leonard Nimoy saying, "If you do not veer off, I shall… blow my brains out!" •Footage of Scott being tossed around engineering is stock footage from "Tomorrow is Yesterday". A console that appears only in that episode can be seen. Scott wears a tricorder throughout this episode. But when the old footage of him being thrown against the grating in "Tomorrow is Yesterday" is spliced in, the tricorder vanishes. •Kirk's second season green wraparound tunic debuts in this episode and will appear intermittently throughout the season. In contrast with the first season version, the collar is now edged with gold piping, although it lacks the black trim that it will gain for later second-season episodes such as "The Apple" and "The Immunity Syndrome". The other key difference is the location of the rank braids: these were seen on the shoulders in the first season, whereas this version of the tunic sports the standard braids on the sleeves. Kirk never wore the green tunic in the third season. •In most of the earlier drafts of the screenplay, Decker did not sacrifice himself, but instead survived to admit his mistakes and voluntarily retire. The core of this scene was later recycled into the ending of "The Deadly Years", where Commodore Stocker admits to Kirk that his taking command of the Enterprise was in the wrong. •This is the second of two times in TOS Season 2 that Kirk tells an Enterprise crewmember he has earned his pay for the week. In this episode, Scott surprises Kirk by recharging one of the Constellation's phaser banks, to which Kirk says, "Scotty, you just earned your pay for the week." The previous instance was in "Who Mourns for Adonais?".
Starring
•William Shatner as Capt. Kirk
Also starring
•Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock And •DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy
Guest star
•William Windom as Commodore Decker
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