Hot Picks
|
|
|
Star Trek - The Doomsday Machine
episode 2.6
Raumschiff Enterprise - Planeten-Killer
USA 1967
produced by Gene L. Coon, Gene Roddenberry (executive) for Desilu, Norway Corporation/NBC
directed by Joseph Pevney
starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, William Windom, James Doohan, George Takei, Elizabeth Rogers, John Winston, Richard Compton, John Copage, Tim Burns, Jerry Catron
written by Norman Spinrad, created by Gene Roddenberry, music by Sol Kaplan
TV series Star Trek, Classic Star Trek, Star Trek (original crew)
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It should have been a boring routine flight through a few arbitrary
solar systems just to see everything's alright, but then the crew of the
Enterprise has to stumble upon a disturbing fact: All the planets in these
systems ... are flat out gone! All that's left is a bit of space rubble.
Eventually, the Enterprise stumbles upon the half-wrecked USS
Constellation, commandeered by Kirk's (William Shatner) good friend
Commodore Decker (William Windom), and when Kirk, McCoy (DeForest Kelley),
Scotty (James Doohan) and some underlings (none wearing red, so none
doomed to die) beam over, they find Decker the only survivor, who tells
them the ship has been under attack by some giant ship, and so badly hurt
that Decker beamed all his crew to the next planet, and then the giant
ship ... ate the planet. Turns out that "ship" is some sort of
ultimate weapon, a machine with no other raison d'être than wreaking
destruction that is actually fuelled by the planets it destroys/eats.
McCoy takes Decker back to the Enterprise for treatment while Kirk and
Scotty stay behind to see if they can get the Constellation going again.
Then though the planet eater comes into sight again, and the Enterprise's
teleportation system crashes. Aboard the Enterprise, Decker assumes
command and attacks the planet eater, much to the protest of Mr. Spock
(Leonard Nimoy), and Kirk can only helplessly watch from the other ship as
the Enterprise is pretty much pummelled by the planet eater as there's a
malfunction in communications. It's almost too late when Scotty gets
communications working again for Kirk to relieve Decker of command, and
Spock pretty much just saves the Enterprise. Decker steals a shuttle and
flies it into the planet eater, effectively committing suicide. But Kirk
and company learn from that that if you fly a ship into the planet eater
and get it to explode, it will affect the planet eater, and the
Constellation carries just enough anti matter to destroy the planet eater
from within when exploded ... Actually, this is a pretty cool
episode, definitely coming from the more serious side of the range, but
never overdoing it, instead of putting its emphasis on suspense while
drawing a very vivid picture of the deeply troubled Commodore Decker that
makes his (often dead-wrong) decisions palpable as well as his ultimate
suicide. Certainly one of the better episodes (even if maybe not as much
fun as some of the campier entries).
|
|
|