Star Trek Retrospective: Episode 35 the Doomsday Machine #StarTrek
This is one that nearly made my top 10 best episodes and on the right day definitely would. I love this one. It has everything a great Star Trek episode should have: honor, sacrifice, courage, duty, friendship, and the struggle to defeat a clear cut enemy with dire aims on masses of helpless people. This is one of those special episodes that is everything that makes Star Trek great refined into a fine wine.
This is also one of those episodes that got them a lot of heat back in the early 70’s. You don’t have to have a masters degree in literature to figure out that the Doomsday Machine was a less-than-subtle allegory for the a-bomb and the madness of a policy of mutually assured destruction. Back then there were some people who found that kind of criticism unpleasant.
In reflecting on this episode I suddenly realized something that distinguishes my favorite episodes from the ones I only really enjoy. I think I really like it when Kirk is in trouble. By that I mean he is so cool and in command at all times, but when circumstances force him out of his comfort bubble he is at his most awesome. When he has set the Constellation on it’s death plunge into the Doomsday Machine and the Enterprise transporter starts to fail he sounds honestly worried. Think about some other great episodes. Arena, Amok Time, City on the Edge of Forever; in all of these he is getting his ass kicked either physically or emotionally (sometimes both). Great drama comes from characters we care about overcoming adversity and there aren’t many characters I care about more than Kirk, Spock, and McCoy (and yet ironically I couldn’t care less if the new three were sucked into a Black Hole in the next JJ Abrams travesty. Read into that what you will).
the Infamous Dave Inman
Note-the image on this Star Trek t-hirt for once has the Episode numbers actually match. This one was both production #35 and release #35.
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