From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos   
   From Address: jphalt@gmail.com   
   Subject: The Doomsday Machine: my review   
      
   THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE: THE PLOT   
      
   Answering a distress call from the USS Constellation, the Enterprise   
   arrives to discover the other starship floating dead in space, in the   
   midst of a once-populated solar system that has been obliterated.   
   Investigating, Kirk, Scott, and McCoy find the ship empty save for its   
   commander: Commodore Matt Decker (William Windom). Decker tells them   
   that the system was destroyed by a planet killer. The Constellation   
   attempted to fight the thing, but was no match for it. Decker finally   
   beamed his crew down to safety, only to look on helplessly as the   
   Doomsday Machine destroyed the very planet that was meant to be his   
   crew's sanctuary.   
      
   Kirk has McCoy take the distraught Decker back to Enterprise, while he   
   and Scotty try to get the Constellation's systems working again. But   
   no sooner have Decker and McCoy cleared the ship than the planet   
   killer returns. An attack on Enterprise cuts Kirk and Scotty off from   
   their home ship, and forced the Enterprise to retreat at warp speed.   
   As Kirk and Scotty desperately work to repair the damaged   
   Constellation sufficiently to return to their ship, Decker uses his   
   rank to take command of the Enterprise. His orders? To attack!   
      
      
   CHARACTERS   
      
   Capt. Kirk: Cut off from his ship, he uses what resources he has to   
   return to it. Then, seeing his ship under attack, he uses the limited   
   resources available to him to keep the weapon from destroying the   
   Enterprise. Despite Decker's rank, Kirk uses his authority and support   
   from the crew to put a halt to Decker's insane attack. Finally, he   
   uses the data Spock provides from the attacks to find a way to do the   
   seemingly impossible, and destroy the seemingly unstoppable machine.   
      
   Spock: With Kirk out of action for the entire middle of the episode,   
   Spock gets quite a bit of air-time. We see his priorities are sensible   
   ones. Seeing that there is no chance of defeating the weapon in open   
   battle, Spock's priority is to warn Starfleet of the danger. When   
   Decker assumes command, Spock urges him against his course of action.   
   But he stops short of insubordination, and his strict adherence to   
   regulations prevents him from removing Decker when McCoy urges his   
   removal.   
      
   McCoy: Knows that Decker is not really up to command, and knows that   
   Decker's plan of attack is insane and will result in heavy casualties.   
   But when Spock will not back him in removing Decker, McCoy does not   
   follow up on his threat to declare the commodore "unfit," though he   
   still registers his protest in fine McCoy fashion by snarling about   
   "all the casualties (Decker is) about to send" to sickbay.   
      
   Insane Space Commander of the Week: William Windom is Decker, a   
   character clearly somewhat modelled after Queeg from The Caine Mutiny.   
   Decker isn't actually a bad man, and probably was a good commander.   
   But watching his crew be destroyed by the planet killer has destroyed   
   him, and he is just barely holding his faculties together throughout   
   the episode. Spock's insistence that getting clear of the interference   
   and warning Starfleet is essential makes sense - if Enterprise is   
   destroyed without warning Starfleet, then they will have achieved   
   nothing. But Decker only sees the thing that murdered his crew, and   
   wants revenge. Part Queeg, part Ahab. William Windom chews the scenery   
   a bit in a role that was originally created for Robert Ryan (who   
   proved unavailable). Ryan would have been splendid in this role, one   
   which does play to all of Robert Ryan's strengths as an actor. But   
   it's hard to really regret the absence of Robert Ryan, as Windom makes   
   an excellent substitute. He delivers one of Trek's more memorable   
   guest performances, in one of Trek's meatiest guest roles, and   
   provides a strong human conflict that proves to be even more gripping   
   than the battle with the weapon.   
      
      
   THOUGHTS   
      
   A mainstay in Trek "Top 5" lists, and deservedly so. Respected science   
   fiction author Norman Spinrad stuffs his 50 minutes practically to   
   overflowing. There's a hard sci-fi high concept, in the use of a   
   "Doomsday Weapon," the sort of thing that was very much a concern   
   during the Cold War. There's plenty of action, with as much ship-to-   
   ship (ship-to-machine?) combat as has been seen since Balance of   
   Terror. Finally, Decker's irrationality combined with his rank provide   
   a human conflict - one which works all the better given that Decker   
   is, obsession aside, not an unsympathetic character.   
      
   All of this means that The Doomsday Weapon moves at a cracking pace.   
   There are no lulls here. One crisis is followed by another, and   
   another. This is Star Trek as action movie long before the J. J.   
   Abrams version - and it's better plotted, too, with the complications   
   coming sensibly out of the characters and situation, and with the   
   resolution working because it comes at a cost and does not feel like   
   it's been plucked out of thin air.   
      
   I've already mentioned William Windom's strong guest performance.   
   Unlike some episodes that revolve around a major guest player, though,   
   Spinrad's script remembers to keep the regulars at the forefront. The   
   cast is all on top form. Shatner's frustration as he is cut off from   
   his ship is well done, and the anger and innate authority as he orders   
   Spock to take command back from Decker is probably Shatner's best   
   scene since The City on the Edge of Forever. Leonard Nimoy, DeForest   
   Kelly, and James Doohan all get solid slices of action. Even Sulu, a   
   peripheral character in this episode (as is becoming the norm), is   
   seen using what resources are available to him, restoring ship-to-ship   
   communications before Decker can order him not to, and showing   
   palpable relief when Decker is finally removed.   
      
   This episode gets probably the biggest touch-up of any of the   
   Remastered episodes. Unlike Amok Time, in which the remastered footage   
   jarred with the original footage, here the new footage fits   
   seamlessly. It actually quite enhances the episode. The original   
   planet killer effects were less than stellar at the time, and have   
   aged quite badly. The CGI planet killer shots make this (a fairly low   
   budget episode, I suspect) look practically cinematic. In its original   
   form, I would have been on the fence on my final score, and probably   
   given a "9" because of the clunky effects. Making this the only   
   remastered episode whose score is actually raised by the CGI work, as   
   I'm giving the remastered version of this episode full marks.   
      
      
   Rating: 10/10.   
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