Yet Another Star Trek Podcast - Ep 059: (TOS S02E06) The Doomsday Machine

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

When The Enterprise encounters The USS Constellation adrift, they find out the entire crew is missing - except for commanding officer Commodore Mathew Decker. But Decker's obsession with a giant space vacuum cleaner nearly leads to the destruction of The Enterprise. Does Captain Ahab get his whale? Find out as Drew and Majeed talk about one of the best Star Trek episodes ever - "The Doomsday Machine." Be sure to check out our website, social media, and join our Discord! Links for all are listed below: Website | Discord | BlueSky | Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Twitter | TikTok | YouTube Drop us an email at [e-mail]! “Warp Speed” and "To the Stars" was written and performed by William Grobbelaar Music: https://soundcloud.com/williamgrobbelaarmusic Additional artwork by George Rateau: https://www.fiverr.com/georgerateau

Good evening. Hello, Guten taggen. Welcome to yet another Star Trek podcast. The only podcast where three friends talk about Star Trek. Three friends from different walks of life. One of those friends who happens to be in prison right now. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. no, I was right now hashtag free bread We'll get him back one day. He's getting his stats every week But I have the best thing the bestest

Podcasting partner a guy could ever ask for drew buddy. How you doing? I'm doing great, man. How are you? I'm great, man. I noticed we're rocking hats today because we're on video. Yeah. What's your hat? What's that one? This one I got down in Florida a couple of years ago. It's for a brewery funky Buddha. I think it says on it. I can't really.

I can't talk some wearing it, but I'm pretty sure that's what it says. Funky Buddha. Anyway, it was a pretty cool brewery. It was down in Fort Lauderdale on a video shoot a few years ago and picked it up there. What's your hat say? So you can't, I don't know if you could tell on camera, that is the Brahma bull, the great one, the final boss, Dwayne the rock Johnson. It's his Project Rock line of clothing. Because in the end, if I don't support the Rock's various financial endeavors, who will? You know, the man's hurting

for cash. Yeah, he certainly is, isn't he? Yeah, he's definitely hurting for cash. No, but no, this is the rocks hat and it cost me a pretty penny It's supposed to be a workout had a gym hat. Uh-huh. I don't wear this hat to the gym because I paid a pretty penny for it Do you mind sharing with the audience how much you paid for the 50 bucks? 50 Yeah, you know, so the rock has a partnership with Under Armour, right? Yeah I have five of their hats that I paid about eight to $10 a piece for that I wear when

I'm working out. Five. Yeah, but this one's special though. It has the Brahma Bull on it. Yeah, special hat for a special guy, all right. Thank you. Right. Thank you. I'm gonna assume that special means like, you know, how you would say it to like, not, anyway, hey,

I'm not gonna continue down that line of thought. I've been wanting to tell you this for a while. Before we jump into the whole Moby Dick episode of Star Trek, my daughter, a couple weeks ago says to me, hey, I know what I want to do in the future. I know what I want to do with my life. And I said, well, what is it? I'm excited.

She says, I want to be a lawyer. She says, I want to be a lawyer and I want to work my way up. And I eventually want to be a judge. I'm like, that's fantastic. Then she continues on divorce court. She says, I want to be a judge on divorce courts. And then I want to be the person to also say you are not the father.

Those are two different shows, buddy. Those don't work. And I'm pretty sure the judge just doesn't ever give out the results like that. So I love the ambition. I just don't love the end goal. Yeah, I'm not really sure what to to recommend., um, like she realizes that like divorce court is a TV show, right? I mean, yeah. And yeah, she realizes it and that Maury Povich, which by the way is off the air. Um, that's more approach.

Did he pass? I don't think he passed. I think you just retired. Jerry Springer did Jerry Springer. Okay. Okay. Yeah. But, but Maury, who is the, you're not the father guy.

You know, that was also a TV show, right? Yeah. Yeah. So then Stanford, by the way, Phil Stanford, Connecticut. Yeah, I am. True story. I also did an internship for people's court, which is also filmed at Stanford. Remember that any of the cases real? They're real cases. Yeah. Oh, great. Yeah, that's great. That's great and terrible at the same time. Well, that's all small, clean stuff, you know, and they're all kind

of a little bit on the ridiculous side, but they're all real lawsuits. That's that's kind of terrible. I couldn't imagine being on a show like that. Put my business out there. Yeah, I mean either couldn't imagine But yet we do a podcast we put our business out there Here we are. We definitely put Brad's business out there. Yeah a lot Yeah, but listen the way I see it is if Brad didn't want us to put his business out there. He'd be here To tell us hey, don't put my business out there. And defending himself. Yeah. Right.

So, I mean, I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure this holds up in a court of law. You know, well, you'll have to ask your daughter. I will have to ask my daughter. I'm going to give her a dollar as a retainer fee. Just to go. I love it. So we had a really good episode of Star Trek this week. Yes. Surprising, surprising source material adaptation. But you want to get into a bud?

Yeah, man, let's dive into this week's episode. Season two episode. Seven, six, episode six, season two, episode six from the USS Constellation. As the Enterprise moves in to investigate, it finds the Constellation adrift and almost completely abandoned, except by one Commodore Matt Decker. Constellation is heavily damaged and surrounded by debris with no sign of the crew. Further exploration reveals a massive planet-killing weapon known as the Doomsday Machine, sparking concern and curiosity among the crew. Captain

Decker's obsession with destroying the Doomsday Machine consumes him as he struggles with survivor's guilt over the loss of his crew. His desperate Captain Decker's obsession with destroying the Doomsday Machine consumes him as he struggles with survivor's guilt over the loss of his crew. His desperate determination to stop the weapon mirrors Captain Kirk's resolve in previous encounters but with a more personal edge. Decker assumes control of the Enterprise, starts to make some very questionable decisions. Meanwhile, Kirk is on board the constellation trying to repair it. Spock analyzes the situation with characteristic logic,

providing insights that clash with Decker's emotional state. So. First of all, this is the first time that we've seen another Starship on episode Star Trek, as far as I'm aware, right? Yeah. What'd you think of that? I think it was really well done. It was, you know, it shocked me at first because I thought that the destroyed ship was the NTC 1701.

I thought it was the Enterprise. And I'm like, oh my God, what a twist, you know? But they look exactly alike. So what class of ship is the Enterprise? So the Enterprise is a Constitution class ship. Right. And you'll see this time and time again throughout Star Trek. They'll basically have a number of different ship classes

that they'll reuse over and over again, just rename the ship. Right. So it's kind of like a fleet. So there's a number of constitution class ships. The Enterprise is one. The, the constellation is one. I don't know the rest off the top of my head. And then like in the movies, we'll start to see some new classes. We'll see the Miranda class, which is a smaller, faster vessel. We'll see the Oberth class, which is a weaker ship, but it's science oriented.

They specialize these starships for, for different needs. And this is something that carries throughout all of Star Trek as the show goes on. Oh, well, and then we have, of course, the caddy class. That's a, that's a great example. California class, you know, Galaxy class for the Enterprise D, the Excelsior class. We'll see that in Star Trek 3 for the first time. That's a workhorse throughout the entire run of Star Trek all the way up until Voyager, you know. Which one, the D you said? Which one? The D said, well, the the Excelsior class is is probably a the workhorse of Star Trek. But the the galaxy class to the enterprise D like that's

that's a pretty important vessel as well. You know, we see a lot of galaxy class ships. So it's just it's as a Star Trek nerd, like it's a lot of fun seeing these different vessels encounter each other. And you know, when you see a ship that's the same size and configuration as the enterprise destroyed like that, it has impact, it has weight. Yeah. Yeah.

By what looked like a giant floating vacuum in space. Yeah, yeah. It actually kind of reminded me of one of those tunnels that my cats like to dive into, you know, in a green sack. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense, I get that. I absolutely see that reference. Yeah, I, so the Moby Dick comparison in this episode, as we, you know, as you get deeper into the, into the synopsis, I didn't find it, it wasn't obvious to me, because, you

know, I'm not the smartest guy in the room. So I had to have, you know, I think, was my daughter walking, oh, this is basically Moby Dick. I'm like, oh, get out. She saw it like right away. Yeah, she saw it right away. Yeah, he had that crazy look in his eye. He said he had survivor's remorse. He just, he wanted revenge, you know?

Right. So really good. He lost his entire crew. He beamed them down to a planet thinking that they'd be safe down there and then this thing eats the planet. Right. Yeah. He says, yeah, my crew's on a third planet, but there is no third planet.

Yeah. No shit. You think I don't know that? Why do you think I'm so disheartened right now? You jerk. Yeah. Oh man. So back on the constellation, Scotty takes charge of repairs, showcasing his engineering

prowess under pressure with limited resources and time. He works tirelessly to bring the constellation back online, albeit in a reduced capacity, proving once again why he's the miracle worker of the enterprise. McCoy, meanwhile, ever the voice of reason, he tries to help. I was a Dr. Decker McCoy tries to help Commodore Decker cope with his trauma, offering support amidst the chaos. As the Enterprise and the Constellation engage the Doomday machine in battle, tensions rise and

strategies are tested. Decker's aggressive tactics lead to a perilous confrontation, pushing the crew to their limits and nearly causing the destruction of the Enterprise. limits and nearly causing the destruction of the Enterprise. But Spock manages to rein in Decker's reckless behavior and highlights the clash between command authority and irrational decision-making under duress. In a final act of bravery, Decker sacrifices himself by piloting a shuttlecraft on a collision course straight down the maw of the Doomsday machine, ultimately destroying both vessels. The enterprise narrowly escapes the cataclysm, but not without loss. This episode ends with Kirk and Spock pondering if this is the only Doomsday device out there and hoping that it is, in fact, the only one. I would watch an entire movie based around the doomsday machine. Yeah. It's, if it wasn't

for Kirk, well, if it wasn't for the episode, this would have been a no win scenario. You know? Yeah. No, this is a hundred percent a, a no win scenario with a captain, you know, who is with a captain, you know, who is emotionally blindsided, right? By, by the loss of his crew, the loss of his ship. Decker Decker striked me as the type of guy who probably had the same skill set as Kirk, but just lost it mentally. Yeah. And I think if Kirk and him had flipped shoes, you know, it's possible we might've had the same situation, right, just reversed. Yeah. Yeah, that same determination, like you said,

that same grit, that same determination, it's the characteristics that we've seen Kirk display numerous times, you know? Kirk is willing to go the extra mile You know No, actually has he ever done revenge? We've never seen Kirk on a revenge mission yet. Not yet. I mean you've seen wrath of Khan So, you know that he can he's possible. He's capable of it. Hmm

well, there's there's more there's more beyond that too, but. No spoilers for me. None negative. All right. I kind of want to know now, but I'll wait. We only have like two more episodes and then the series is over. Yeah. Yeah, basically.

This. Yeah. But if you make that that doomsday machine a little bit bigger and a little more, I mean, it was trying to hail the enterprise, wasn't it? The doomsday machine? No. It was a constellation. Yeah.

Okay. All right. So the constellation put out a distress call, I'm assuming Decker was responsible for the distress call. And despite all thecker was responsible for the distress call. And despite all the radiation and interference, the enterprise was able to pick it up. It was faint until they got there, got in a little bit closer and then they recognized what was going on. They saw the debris and everything. I mean, quite frankly, I'm surprised the constellation was even salvageable at all.

Yeah, I would 100% watch a movie that is this. You know, how do you beat something that you're throwing your heaviest weapons at? Right. How do you beat something that I mean, again, because of the time constraint. Oh, yeah.

No. One little ship, you know, setting its auto destruct is going to beat it, but that shouldn't be it, man. Right. That should be it. Yeah. truck that's going to beat it, but that shouldn't be it, man. Right. That shouldn't be it. Yeah. Well, what'd you think of the actor that played Decker?

His name, his name was, let's see, William Wyndham. I think he displayed the, you ever seen a person in a movie that's lost it, lost it all, and they just have nothing to lose? They have that look in their eye. You know? You just, all hope is lost. That's what Decker had. Decker had the crazy eye.

He had the crazy eye. He had the crazy eye, yeah, he really did. That's it, you see him on the ship, immediately had PTSD, he had the thousand yard stare at first until he smacked him out of it, which by the way, Kirk shaking the guy. Hey, Spock's like, hey man, he's in shock. Kirk, his literary just kind of shake him out of it.

Yeah. I laughed historically, I laughed out loud. I thought that was fantastic. But the actor that played Decker, I was engaged. Let me just put it this way. Every scene that Decker was in, I was engaged. Let me just put it this way. Every scene that Decker was in, I was engaged. You know? I thought it was a stupid way out.

You know, we described him in that synopsis as a heroic end. I don't think that was heroic though. I don't... Well, you know, I think he was troubled, you know, I think he was troubled, uh, you know, beyond the capacity that he was

capable to withstand. So whether he committed suicide by sacrificing himself or he committed suicide, uh, by other means, I think it was clear that, you know, Matt Decker was not long for this world. Right. Like he, there was no coming back from this for him. He lost his entire crew, you know, hundreds of people and he had to live with that. And I don't think he was able to. So he made a noble sacrifice to save the enterprise. Um, but what if it didn't work? Right. Like there was no guarantee that that was going to work. How about how about we have we play a little more sliding doors? How about you play a little

more butterfly effect, right? Okay. Okay. Is this coming off hot, hot off the heels of our appearance on the hip podcast festival last days of disco? Yeah. So remember how prime Lorca or mirror Lorca survived? He was the last survivor. Better Lorca. Yeah. Better Lorca was the last survivor.

So was Decker with one little change. We put Matt Decker instead of Matt Decker, we have mirror Lorca. Mirror Lorca keeps it together and survives and goes on to captain a different ship. Right. With all that trauma. Now we have this interesting character that heads up their own show. And again, if we just, you know, changed Decker for Pike, Pike, I love Pike. If we change Decker for Lorca right there, we have an origin story. Yeah. You know, right there we have something because, uh, Lorca was the last survivor, so is Decker.

Would you watch that show? I would. Yeah. This is a character that fascinates me. Like, you know, I would, I would actually really enjoy a spin off series about Decker. You know, yeah. Give him, give him command of the constellation. Let's see what he is.

We know his fate just like we know with Pike, right? We know his fate. So how, what brings him there? How does that all go down? What kind of captain is he before all of it falls apart? You know, I would like it's like that tragic hero. Yeah. brings him there? How does that all go down? What kind of captain is he before all of it falls apart? You know, it's like that tragic hero. Yeah, I would like to see what kind of captain is after this, though. Had he not made the

sacrifice plan. Had he not laid it all out. As we're talking about this, it occurred to me that during the battle with the doomsday machine, neither ship attempted to fire a photon torpedo. And I feel like once they realized that the phasers had not worked, like, I feel like somebody probably should have considered firing the torpedo directly into the mouth of the Doomsday machine. Assuming that this thing is one giant vacuum cleaner, right? Yeah. It would have just got caught up in the filter anyway.

That's it. It would have caught up in the filter anyway Yeah, that thing was scary though it was very foreboding Very foreboding so we only have access you and I we only have access to the episodes That were I guess remastered right they kind of gave it a fresh coat of paint They redid the the graphics. Yeah. When we post this episode, when it goes live for our viewers, our audience, I want to do a side by side. I want to see what a.

A device like that looks like back in the 60s and 70s with practical effects and not CJ. It wasn't all that different, to be completely honest. Like if you go on a memory alpha, they have a few side by sides. And it's pretty damn close. If anything, I think the biggest change is in the constellation itself. But the doomsday machine, planet killer, it's it's really quite close. I'll say I'll send you the links after we're done recording.

I think you'd be surprised. Yeah, it'd be nice to kind of, you know, put it if we do it side by side for audience. I think they would appreciate that. Yeah. What would you do in that situation if you were if you were Kirk? For our audience, I think they would appreciate that. Yeah. What would you do in that situation if you were if you were Kirk. Stuck on a constellation while someone else is running your ship. Oh, I'd be furious. You know, yeah, yeah.

To I think he handled it the best way possible because he trusts, you know, Spock to do the right thing. He trusts Spock to, to protect his ship at all costs. Right. And he knows that the fact that Decker is in charge, is it going to prevent Spock from doing what it takes to ensure that the enterprise is safe. Yeah. So he gives him he gives him the order that he needs so that Spock has that plausible.

I was obeying a direct order from my direct superior. Right. Yeah. If it ever came down to that. if it ever came down to that. But I feel like. I feel like Spock knew all along how this is going to go down. It's so you know more about the rulebook than I do. Was Decker in the rights? Was Decker right to come in and just take command?

Can he actually do that? Yeah, he can. Because of that's a that. Yeah, he can. He can. Because of his right. That's a that. Yeah, because of his rank, that's a recurring theme. You know, it's it's interesting because we'll often see, you know, bad morals. I've heard them called, you know, basically bad admirals or Commodores or people who have a higher rank, but have some sort of an obsession or something that is getting in the way of their judgment.

And ultimately makes them an officer that does not have the best interest of the crew or the best interest Starfleet at heart. So, you know, you'll you'll see this this again down the line. But to answer the question, a higher rank can assume command of the ship and they do. In most cases, it'll be that officer is assuming command of the mission and the captain still has command over the ship in the final say of the ship. So Decker in that case would be able to say, captain, I order you to pursue. And if the captain feels that it's not appropriate, he can resist, defy the direct order, but

that might go on his record. Oh, right. Which is what which is what Spock said. Right. You know, it got kind of kind of got tongue tied. It got glossed over a little bit.

So in Decker's mission, in Decker's Mission in Decker's pursuit of Revenge for the 300 people on that planet that died He lost so many of Kirk's crew as Well, and he didn't blink he just like a Yeah, you know, you got to do what you got to do, right? just like, eh, you know, you got to do what you got to do. Right.

And that's, that's a problem. You know, when, when you're blinded by rage like this, you know, hence the Moby Dick comparison, yeah. So good. You know, how many, how many people did a captain Ahab send to there that, you know, or jaws draws. Jaws is another example. Can I, can I be honest with you and the rest of our audience? I've never finished Moby Dick. I mean, neither have I. All right. Can I, can I drop another secret on you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you haven't seen a lot of movies, too.

Like you don't like Jim Carrey. Yeah, I don't like Jim Carrey, but Jim Carrey did Jim Carrey didn't make Jaws. That's fair. That's fair. OK, that's fine. Okay, moving on. Okay. Have you ever been so blinded by rage that you just don't recognize your actions and you're just so laser focused and just get the blinders on. Of course. Of course. I mean, I would say all of us do, but you know, it's having the wherewithal to be able to take a step back and have that moment of introspection where, you know, you can say, okay, I recognize that I'm acting irrationally right now, but I need to do what's right for whatever, you know, your, your crew, your co workers,

your spouse, whatever, right? I've never gotten there. You've never been that angry? Never been that angry. I am. I'm much more mellow now than when I was working at that horrible place with you. I mean, I used to get angry, but never, never, never to a point where I'm going to regret my actions. Yeah. So at least I got that going for me. Well, I mean, I've personally, I can say that, like, I've gotten to the point where I've almost, you know, said or done something that I would have regretted, but I've stopped myself before it got that far. You know, well, it's actually a good question for our audience too. Let us know if you've ever been in that situation.

Yeah. That's so angry where you just didn't care about the consequences. You got so mad. You had to kill a planet. Got so mad. She had to kill the planet. Oh, Hey, by the way, that's if you noticed this, but, uh, checkoff wasn't on the bridge. Yeah. To his, uh, creepiness in the previous episode. Oh, did he get thrown in the break? He did. I mean, he did. What a horn dog checkoff. Oh, God, it's so bad.

I guess it's bad by 2024 standards. But back then, I guess he was one of the guys. Just perfectly normal stuff, I guess. Yeah. Even these. Perfectly fine, I guess. Let's talk about Scotty. Yeah, Scotty gets thrown on to constellation with like a matchbook and a wrench. And Kirk is like, go fix the thing.

I'll give you all the tools you need. Just go. Yeah. And he does like he gets he gets some engines, right? Not not in perfect order, but functioning enough for the ship to move. Yeah. He gets some phasers somehow. I mean, and then Kirk manages to get the view screen working. Yeah. They had a they had one of the red shirts running on a treadmill generating power. Oh, next to the hamsters, right? Next to the hamsters, all the hamster died and the attack. So they had a red shirt doing it.

Is this the, the most miracle worker thing we've seen Scotty do to date. So far. I mean, this is our real like we're spending more time with Scotty now than we ever did in season one. Right. So I would say, yeah, this is miracle worker Scotty. Miracle working things, you know, peak miracle worker. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know his feats in the future.

So well, I will say he has just he has not even begun to peak yet. Nice. We haven't had a sunny reference in so long. I'm so glad you that did it. You know, good job. I've slipped that in. He's a five star. He's a five star engineer. Yeah. Oh, man.

But I mean, even even the supporting crew that was with them on the ship, you know, none of them died. Right. None of them died. Did they all get beam back? I believe so. OK. Well, the the constellations survived and it didn't get destroyed. Right. It was a shuttle that was destroyed. Yeah. Right.

No, wait a minute. Was it the constellation? No, it was a shuttle. The constellation made it made it out. Can we pause? It'll be tricky. It's fine. It's fine. This is what happens.

OK, yeah, no, then I must have also missed that part. I thought that he said it to self-destruct while I was still going into the vacuum cleaner, and I thought that's what destroyed it. In addition to the shuttle from the enterprise that also got destroyed. Right. So Kirk thought about activating the ship self-destruct system, but there wasn't enough power. Oh, it was destroyed.

No, you're absolutely right. It was destroyed. No, you're absolutely right. It was destroyed. So Scotty overloaded the engines from auxiliary control. 30 seconds. No way to reverse it. They they rigged it. He beamed off the ship and destroyed the constellation in the process. Yeah. So basically threw it right into the into the the maw of the Doomsday machine. So for some reason, I thought Decker

with the shuttlecraft was responsible for that. But I think I think Decker just died. He didn't do anything. He didn't do it. I mean, we say it was heroic. And it wasn't, you know, I correct it. The right thing. Kirk destroyed all the evidence. Yeah. Kirk destroyed the evidence and the black box.

I guess so. Yeah. Caps got to look out for each other. Yeah. Oh, man. Spock. Spock in the captain's seat is is always a treat for me, no matter what show, no matter what show for me, whether it's Strange New Worlds, whether it's the J.J.

Aram's first of it, whether it's TOS, seeing Spock in the chair is, it's a treat because he's working off of logic. He's so logic and that's it. And, um, you know, he's quoting the rule book the entire time. The only time we've seen Spock compromise is just in the, the Kelvin universe, the Kelvin timeline.. Yeah. They've they've definitely made him more emotional in the Kelvin timeline. Yeah, I believe. You know, which is fine, like I don't have a problem with that, but it's a different take on the character. Yeah. And even to some degree, we get a little bit of that in Strange New Worlds, too.

Right. Like the spark that we get in the original series has already I don't know. I assume he's already been through all that stuff. So he's like kind of doubled down in the logical. Does that make sense? Right. Well, considering a strange new worlds is. Before TOS, right? He's right.

I mean, timeline wise, it works out, but I'm just trying to like justify the emotions details. Yeah, the emotion. Sure. Yeah. Right. Because as we get older, we get a little more emotionless. Yeah. We just get a little more. Just start shutting everything down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But a time where 40 were just all dead inside

Wait that gets us to cry is Hey, you want to rate this thing? Yeah, let's do it. Let's dive in. What do you think? I'm going to get this episode out of 10. I think you're going to get this episode out of 10. I think you're going to get this episode out of 10. I think you're going to get this episode out of 10.

I think you're going to get this episode out of 10. I think you're going to get this episode out of 10. I think you're going to get this episode out of 10. I think you're going to get this episode out of 10. I think you're going to get this episode out of 10. I think you're going to get this episode out of 10. I think you're going to get this episode out of 10. I think you're going to get this episode out of 10. I think you're going to get this episode out of 10. I think you're give us episode eight. Hmm. I'm going to go a little higher than that. I'm going to go with it.

Yeah. Wow. I like this episode. I like this episode a lot. This is one of those episodes that I used to see on when I was younger a lot. So there's a bit of a nostalgia, you know, at play in this rating. But I. I think it's a well-executed story. It's a tale that we've seen before, right?

Nothing new, but there's nothing wrong with that. It's just top to bottom. There's no fluff, right? There's zero fluff in this episode. You've got a distraught captain, Matt Decker, played by an excellent actor. You've got a desperate Kirk trying to save his ship from afar, but he's powerless. Essentially, you've got excellent performances by McCoy, although it's brief.

by McCoy, although it's brief, Scotty, miracle worker Spock, who remains calm and collected under pressure. And the story itself, like, yes, it's, it's basic. It's Moby Dick just retold in space, but it's a good story. It's one that most people can identify with. You know, everybody knows what it's like to be consumed by something, whether it's positive or negative and have it be your singular focus. You know, thankfully, not all of us know what it's like to maroon 300 crew members on a planet that's about to get destroyed.

But, you know, so. I would put this episode on out of the blue. I would not turn this off. It was if it was on giving it a nine. That's that's I was close. I was only one point off from my thought. What do you think I would give it? I'm going to go eight point five.

That's actually so accurate. That's so accurate. That's so accurate. It really is accurate. Let me tell you why. Let me tell you why. We just watched The Apple and before that was Mirror Mirror. You and I speculated that we would get to this point where the mirror, Mirror Mirror, was the best damn episode in a run. And then it would just slowly decline.

It declined, the Apple wasn't as great as Mirror Mirror. But if we're comparing episodes against each other so far in season two, Doomsday Machine, it doesn't let you down. Doomsday Machine can hold up in terms of, it should be talked about more, is what I mean. It should be talked about more because it's an adaptation of a beloved story of revenge. And it's very well executed.

Like you said, excellent performances, just real tight, no fluff. It just kind of jumps right into it, you know? And we have a Spock, so we have a Kirk that's not murdering folks, it's another Katniss murdering folks. And it's Kirk, you know, trying to talk reason into this person by the way no fight

Kirk didn't have to fight him no right because normally Kirk would do his uh he throw punches yeah yeah yeah he would uh he would definitely have uh Decker catch these hands but you know there's not necessary we're seeing a Kirk that was able to Actually, did Kirk really do anything to Talk Decker off the ledge No, Decker was 100% on off the ledge So by the time Kirk had to intervene Kirk was powerless. All he did was convince Spock to do What was needed to regain control of the ship?

So if we took Kirk out of this episode. The sea factor. I mean, ultimately, it was his plan that resulted in the destruction of the doomsday machine, right? Sure. So he is responsible for saving the day. Besides that, it was Scotty that did the heavy lifting with the engineering. Yep. It was Spock that got Decker almost thrown in a brick. got Decker almost thrown in a brig, you know, and it was Decker that killed 300 plus Starfleet personnel. Right. So Kirk didn't really factor in too much. This episode could have survived without him. I mean, someone else would have come up with that plan. They would have been

a different plan. Yeah. I mean, you know, we're, we're splitting hairs at this point. Yeah. Yeah. I love, uh, I mean, you know, it's fine. I get it. I love Kirk. I love that Kirk didn't murder anybody this episode. Yeah. So we're good. Um, no, eight and a half, uh, out of 10, 8.5 out of 10, just a solid episode. This episode is so good. I was editing photos when the episode started and there was something about what was being on screen. From the very first scene you see Kirk, where they kind of shot him maybe 35 degrees below eye level. They gave him the hero angle. And there was just something

about it, about the shot, but he was saying it just grabbed my interest right then and there. And then the whole episode didn't let me down. You know, just, it caught my intention. Computer shut down and I was engaged. I was fully engaged. So, um, this episode just maybe he needs to go to a nine. That's just how good it is. So what would bring what would have brought it up to a nine or even a 10? Well, I would give aside from aside from Lorca anyway, I would give the episode a nine. So I hope up my eight point five to a nine.

Well, we'll give it a 10 of Decker lived. OK, if Kirk was somehow able to talk Decker off the ledge. I think we'll give it a 10. I can get with that. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. Yeah. I loved it. Just great episode. What do we got next week? Well, next week we have an episode about a cat. Well, next week we have an episode about a cat. Really? Yeah, something like that. This is one I've never seen. It's called Cat's Paw.

The Enterprise crew finds witches, black cats in a haunted castle on a distant planet. This is the kind of episode that Brad lives for. on a distant planet. This is the kind of episode that Brad lives for. Yeah. This is probably going to be the kind of episode that, uh, we're going to wish we didn't watch. Well, it can't be any worse than, um, than the cage. Can't just pretty great. I mean, in comparison, I know you gave it like a zero, but

I gave it a zero. I would give it a, but, uh, all right. And hey, until then, um, I'd love to hear your comments audience about what you thought about, uh, Decker's actions, about what you thought about Deckard's actions, maybe what you thought about the episode entirely. Have you ever been that angry that you just wanted to murder everything? In sites, let us know in the comments below Definitely and of course really appreciate you tuning in. So thanks for watching and we'll see you next time. Hey you next time Bye in. So thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time. See you next time. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to this week's edition of yet another Star Trek podcast. We are a part of the retro sessions network. This episode was

recorded on April 3rd, 2024. It is hosted by Drew, Majeed, and the imaginary Brad. Because Brad's not here, man. We'd love it if you checked us out on the web at www.yetanotherstpod.com. And of course, please follow us on all of our social medias at yet another ST pod. Special thanks go out to George Tao for drawing up our lower dex characters. And a special thanks to William Grabalar for writing and recording the music to the podcast. We have two wonderful songs from him, Warp Speed to the Stars. If you'd like to check out his music, head on over to SoundCloud.

Just link to both in the show. We of course would love it if you'd leave us a review in your podcast app of choice. And hey, if you're watching us on YouTube, thanks for tuning in there as well. Give us a thumbs up, we'd appreciate it. Like and subscribe, smash that like button! Or whatever it is, I don't know, what do the cool kids say? I'm not cool kid. Anyway, thanks for listening everybody, we'll see you next time.