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Doomsday Machine

This was definitely my favourite since Amok Time!

Who is that white lady in the coms chair though. Yes Uhurah does appear to work all shifts at all times she deserves a break but the bridge feels wrong without her there I Don't like it.

I love when they aim for prolonged tension because they're always playing on hard mode. In this case, 'can we keep you captivated for 50 minutes about whether the glow-y space worm will kill the main character dead 1/4th of the way through the season?' When the answer is no you still gotta respect the audacity. And when (as was the case for me this episode) the answer is yes, it feels like they pulled off a magic trick.

How did it take me this long to clock that Spock is such an anxious hoverer. I mean I knew his preferred distance in dangerous scenarios was 3-0 inches, but I figured that was for practical reasons of offering protection. But then last ep when he's stuck on the ship and has lost contact with/track of the away team, he's spending every spare minute looming over the shoulder of bridge members who are just trying to do their job. In any episode where things are awry on the bridge, if he doesn't have a Task he's always drifting over to the Captain's chair (especially if Bones is there too) and placing his hand on it, never quite but always almost touching. Then in this episode Kirk returns and Spock beelines for him then trails along behind him with no clear purpose. I mean they start talking but he's trailing first. There's even a moment when Kirk sort of steps back without a clear direction yet, and Spock glances at him and quickly steps forward to close the distance.

idk, for someone whose personal space is so important to him, I find this development really endearing.

Spock's manner when he's explaining to Bones that they can't do anything about Decker taking over command is so. gentle. It got to me.

Bones had the right idea though, I was down for an immediate mutiny.

Ah well at least Spock got around to the mutiny as soon as he had Kirk's go-ahead. Love that they made it clear Kirk didn't have authority to order Spock to retake command, but the whole crew and those two random redshirts that were called in all silently collectively go right along with the mutiny.

I love the framing of Decker accepting Spock's "Vulcan's do not bluff" line as Decker whiffing it so bad. 'this dude can't command the enterprise. he doesn't even know Spock's the biggest bulshitter on the ship!'

Also this show loooves to start out with a nightmare scenario for Kirk (in this case: get this wrong and your whole crew will die but you'll be left alive to watch it) to hang over his head the whole episode. Gonna be honest I do like when they do that. Also this is one of those rare scenarios where Kirk is entirely predictable. the second Kirk was threatened with outliving his crew he was going to find some narrative justification for a scenario where if anyone is getting blown up it's him and him alone.

Speaking of I was back to feeling prickly towards Kirk the last few episodes, and this was the round where he won me back again. Specifically when he sees the fully functional Enterprise in trouble and decides, nevermind that the ship I'm stuck on is basically floating junk. I'm mounting a rescue mission.

Also love that the bare-bones crew gives Kirk scope to show off his engineering and piloting skills.

"You worry about your miracle Scotty, I'll worry about mine." That really is how this crew functions, huh. 'well we'll probably die but we might as well divide the impossibilities between a few teams and see what happens. Hey look we're alive :D'

#star trek tos #doomsday machine

The Doomsday Machine, from Star Trek (s2e06)

#star trek #doomsday machine