B1 LOVES "The Doomsday Machine" episode of STAR TREK. He just loves it, loves the cornucopia-shaped doomsday machine. The remastered version of it looks very good. Watching the episode for the umpteenth time, I realized that Commodore Decker made a fatal error in judgment on the front end -- the setup for the episode has him aboard his ruined (and empty) starship, the USS Constellation, with a clearly-traumatized Commodore Decker recounting his actions (the ship is crippled by the planet-killer, and he has his crew beamed down to the third planet of the system they're on, where the planet-killer destroys that planet, and his crew).
Now, it's clear (from Decker's testimony to Kirk) that Decker realized they were up against a planet-killer when they engaged it, so the fatal error in judgment was, of course, beaming his crew planetside. I mean, the context of the episode has him regretting that decision and being shellshocked by the loss of his command and his crew -- but on the front end of things, if you're up against a planet-killer, even with a crippled starship, the very LAST place you'd want to drop your crew would be on a planet, yes? At least on the starship you have a fighting chance (even on a crippled starship).
Just saying. It's good for Decker that he commits suicide near the end because if Starfleet got their hands on him, they'd be putting him in front of a court martial for gross incompetence for losing a starship and an entire crew. I can just imagine the board of inquiry about his decision-making...
"So, Commodore, you were facing a PLANET-KILLER, what you knew was a planet-killer, and yet you beamed your crew to one of the planets anyway, when it appeared that your vessel was damaged beyond repair?"
Dr. McCoy also screws up when he brings Decker to the bridge, instead of to Sick Bay, where he had been instructed to take Decker. By bringing him to the bridge (and Bones had no reason to be on the bridge), he precipitates a power struggle between Commodore Decker and Spock, which leads to Decker commandeering the Enterprise and nearly getting it destroyed.
Finally, it's telling that this episode has them using only phasers against the planet-killer, since the key way of destroying it is by feeding it the USS Constellation, which detonates (something like 97.835 megatons). But photon torpedoes are supposed to be around 90 megatons a pop, so, rather than sacrificing a starship to the planet-killer, Kirk could've fired a couple of photon torpedoes into the maw of the thing, giving them a yield of ~180 megatons, snuffing out the planet-killer without sacrificing a starship. I would imagine a review board making an inquiry over Kirk's decision to send the Constellation in instead of trying to fire a few photon torpedoes in there, first.
(the "Decker" reference in the header of this entry is from Airplane!")
