Fifty years ago, an amazing program called Star Trek debuted on NBC. It was utterly unlike anything else that had ever been seen on television- and although it certainly had fervent fans right from the start, there were even more people who were probably bewildered or amused by it, who scarcely knew what to make of it. And unfortunately, the top brass of NBC were pretty much clueless as to Star Trek’s worth – and were only to happy to see it die after three seasons.
Only it didn’t die. Far from it. Instead, Star Trek rose from the ashes in a truly extraordinary and unprecedented way. And fifty years after its unheralded debut on network television, it remains an incredibly vital force and a program near and dear to the heart of millions of people around the world, including me.
I have been a devoted fan of this show for over forty years, although I have never taken the time to attend a Star Trek Convention nor ever dressed up in a Star Trek costume. But I still watch the show and love it as much as ever, and can identify any episode after watching no more than the first ten seconds – and in many cases, I can name the episode within the first instant. And with my favorite episodes, I can recite nearly all of the dialogue, start to finish (although I mightily try to avoid the temptation to do so.) I think most reasonable adults would regard all of that as completely useless information to possess, but there it is.
Some Star Trek fans are so gung ho about the program that they pretty much love anything and everything related to it, including every single episode. I’m not in that camp, I’m afraid. There are plenty of episodes of the original series that leave me shaking my head in dismay or driven by boredom to switch the channel. But what I like to think about is the amazing excellence of this program when it was at its best. And for me, Star Trek was at its best with five notable episodes, the very best being:
The Doomsday Machine. For me, this is the absolute gold standard of the program … brilliantly written and acted … an exciting and moving episode. In Norman Spinrad’s taut script, the U.S.S. Enterprise encounters space debris that is all that seems to remain of an entire solar system – and then comes across the drifting wreck of the U.S.S. Constellation, which they assume suffered such catastrophic damage at the hands of whatever destroyed this and other star systems.
When a landing crew boards her, they find Commodore Matt Decker, who is the only survivor. He tearfully recounts how his ship was completely overwhelmed by a huge and terrible machine of destruction- and he beamed his crew down to one of the planets because it seemed to be the only way that they would survive. Decker ended up being stranded on the ship when the transporter mechanism was knocked out- and he could only watch in horror as the “Planet Killer” proceeded to destroy the planet, and in doing so killing all of his crew.
What ensues is a desperate attempt to stop the Planet Killer before it causes still more destruction and death. Unfortunately, the traumatized Commodore Decker – who has transported back to the Enterprise – exercises his authority to wrest control of the ship away from Mr. Spock in order to facilitate a direct attack, despite the fact that such an attack is in effect an act of hopeless suicide.
Kirk watches in disbelief from the Constellation as the Enterprise engages in a direct attack on the terrifying machine- a direct attack which it only survives when the Constellation draws the machine’s attention with a phaser attack of its own.
When Kirk learns of Commodore Decker’s actions, he directly orders Mr. Spock to relieve Decker and re-assume command. On his way to sick bay, Decker overpowers the security guard and makes his way to the shuttlecraft hangar, where he commandeers a shuttlecraft and flies it right into the enormous maw of the machine, in hopes of destroying it. The attempt fails and Decker is killed.
However, it gives Captain Kirk the idea that perhaps a similar action on a larger scale can actually destroy the Planet Killer – and he decides to fly the Constellation right down the machine’s throat. He has to remain on board until the last possible moment, and when the Enterprise’s transporter system fails, it appears that Kirk may be killed. It is only with seconds to spare that Scotty is able to repair the transporter and it snatches Kirk back in a nick of time. The Planet Killer is indeed destroyed, but Kirk’s joy and relief is tempered by his sorrow over Decker’s death.
I have always loved this episode- even in its original version, which featured some special effects that were – to put it gently – less than special. (The original series operated under tight budgetary constraints, plus it was a day when the technical possibilities for special effects were much more limited than they are now, so some of the original effects were a bit laughable, particular by present standards. ) In remastered form, with modernized special effects, this episode has even greater impact. Every bit as important as the effects is the magnificent musical score of Fred Steiner, which ratchets up the tension in extraordinary fashion.
But what I love the most is the compelling story itself, which seems to draw at least a bit of its inspiration from Melville’s Moby Dick. Commodore Decker is the Captain Ahab of this tale, and William Windom brings him vividly to life, from his shellshocked anguish to his rock-solid resolve. It saddens me to read that Mr. Windom didn’t have much good to say about the experience of being on Star Trek; to him it was a somewhat silly show, and he could never quite understand or appreciate all of the fuss it generated. How could such an accomplished actor, who did such superb work here, be so completely clueless? How could he be so dismissive of such an engrossing drama? I can’t fathom it.
But beyond the central drama of Kirk vs. Decker is also the care with which so many seemingly inconsequential moments in the dialogue are handled so wisely – largely throw-away lines that help make these characters feel truly alive. Just one example: towards the end of the episode, when Kirk has decided to ram the Constellation down the throat of the Planet Killer, he asks Scotty if he can rig the crippled starship’s engines to explore, Scotty says yes and then adds “the shape the thing’s in, it’s hard to keep her from blowing!” It’s a moment of levity in the midst of an incredibly tense situation- and feels like exactly the kind of thing that a character like Scotty would say in such a moment. It deepens the sense of authenticity. (And by the way, it’s the kind of thing that is almost completely absent from all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Yes, there is sometimes humor- but the humor is almost always contained in little pockets of concerted comedy relief. It is almost never kneaded into the fabric of an otherwise tense scene.) Another telling detail in the script comes when Decker is flying the shuttlecraft directly into the gaping maw of the Planet Killer- and Kirk (via communicator) is desperately trying to talk him out of this suicidal course of action. Kirk tries everything he can think of : “No one expects you to die for an error in judgment ….” “Matt, you’re a starship commander. That means we need you …” “We’re stronger with you than without you!” The variation of each ‘pitch’ gives this scene terrific texture- and this is also a case where actor William Shatner and director Marc Daniels deserve credit as well. And this episode features some of the very best writing for Spock ever heard in the original series. He is unshakable even in the face of such a terrifying threat- and there is something almost majestic in the way that he ultimately stares down Decker and takes back control of the Enterprise.
For me, this episode is the absolute pinnacle of the entire Star Trek franchise. Of all of the series and feature films, this is the closest to sheer perfection that is ever achieved. On the surface, it might seem to be just one more Enterprise vs. Alien battle royal. It actually is a riveting human drama, and that’s what really makes it great.
(Next up: The Corbomite Maneuver.)