Stardate: Unknown
Synopsis: A giant planet-killing machine has destroyed an entire solar system, crippled the Starship Constellation, and is making its way toward Rigel and, then, our own galaxy. The Constellation's commanding officer, Commodore Matt Decker, is the only survivor and has been driven half-mad. When Kirk and Scotty beam aboard the Constellation to try to salvage her, Decker usurps control of the Enterprise from Spock, then attempts a suicide mission to fight the Doomsday Machine in open battle. Spock soon regains control, and Decker escapes to fly a shuttlecraft into the Doomsday Machine instead, causing virtually no damage, but giving Kirk the idea to fly the Constellation into it with impulse engines set to detonate once inside. It works.
Review: There are some cool ideas to be found here, and they're not made a secret. The Doomsday Machine is analogous to the hydrogen bomb, built to be more of a military deterrent ("a bluff") than a device to actually be used. Only this one actually was used, and has now taken on a self-sustaining life of its own. And its ultimate destruction caused by a kamikaze ship with rigged impulse engines set to explode is, indeed, a constructive case of one weapon of mass destruction being used to destroy another.
That said, this famous episode seems a little overrated. The best part of it is the palpable tension between Spock and Decker, and the mutiny drama is just as strong as the Doomsday drama itself. But prolonged visuals of the Doomsday Machine and the fight-and-chase sequences in space, believe it or not, seem to take away from this more captivating interpersonal plotline. The episode would have been better served with less action shots of what was happening in space, and more, instead, on what was happening on the bridge.
And are any more of these Doomsday Machines floating around out there in the universe? IT... IS... LOGICAL!
Review: 3 stars
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