25 Best Episodes Of Star Trek EVER
18. The Doomsday Machine - The Original Series
The origin of the Planet Killer has been explored apocrypha but here it is a silent menace slowly carving its way through everything that stands against it. The music is reminiscent of what the Jaws theme would become. It is unfeeling and seemingly unstoppable. The depiction of the USS Constellation, another Constitution class ship, battered and almost destroyed in space beside the pristine USS Enterprise is a shock to the audience. The glowing worm standing in front of the ship is as terrifying as it is hungry. It consumes.
Commodore Decker plays a vital role here. He outranks Kirk and so the chain of command naturally leads to him. All officers, Kirk included, must follow his orders. And so when he orders the Enterprise to go after the being that killed his crew, they must obey. His madness is played with gusto by William Windom, who was quoted as saying he had not previously been a Trek fan. And so he had fun with the role, something clearly evident in the break down he shows on screen.
His final actions of flying the shuttle into the maw of the beast call to mind Captain Ahab and the great white whale, a theme that would of course return for Star Trek First Contact.