The Doomsday Machine.

If you ask fans of The Original Series to name their favorite episodes, invariably “The Doomsday Machine” comes up. Even James Doohan named the episode his favorite of the series. In 1968, “The Doomsday Machine” received a Hugo Award nomination for Best Dramatic Presentation; but not all are in love with the story. D.C. Fontana named the episode her least favorite of the series, and the story's author, Norman Spinrad, has expressed disappointment with its translation to screen. Neverthless, "The Doomsday Machine" remains one of the essential hours of TOS.

In this episode of The Ready Room we're joined by Daniel Handlin, Drew Stewart, and Suzanne Abbott to find out where we stand on this story of a captain (well… a commodore) destroyed by the loss of his crew, the Moby-Dick allegory, the social message that H-Bombs are bad, the origins of the planet killer itself, and our thoughts on the remastered version of the episode.

In our news segment we learn about Five Year Mission's Las Vegas adventure, get technical with some advancements in the field of tractor beams and their possible applications, and look back at Star Trek III: The Search for Spock on the film's 30th anniversary.

Running Time: 1 hour 48 minutes 51 seconds

Hosts

Christopher Jones and Daniel Handlin

Guests

Drew Stewart and Suzanne Abbott

News

Star Trek III 30th Anniversary (4:01)
Five Year Mission's Las Vegas Adventure (15:13)
Tractor Beams Closer to Reality? (20:46)
Sponsor: Audible (27:49)

Feature: The Doomsday Machine

Episode Overview (31:33)
The Whales Grey (and Fiery) Hump (36:22)
H-Bombs are Bad (42:35)
Mysterious Weapon (50:18)
Commodore Ahab (59:09)
Spock In Charge (1:05:59)
A Dark Episode of TOS (1:13:45)
Remastered Doomsday Machine (1:25:07)
Final Thoughts (1:32:01)
Closing (1:37:04)

Sponsor

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