Season 2 of Star Trek: The Original Series is generally considered the strongest by fans of the show. From the game-changing "Amok Time" to classics like "The Trouble with Tribbles," there is plenty to enjoy.
However, the sixth episode of the season, "The Doomsday Machine," is a tense, beautifully-scripted episode that guest stars William Windom as Commander Matthew Decker. I wish more fans talked about this episode, and that Windom, who passed in 2012, got the recognition he deserves for this performance. He truly gave an Emmy-worthy performance, particularly in one unforgettable scene.
Windom's performance takes us where grief and fury meet
When Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy find Decker unconscious in auxiliary control on the USS Constellation, he seems confused and not quite lucid until Kirk accesses Decker's logs. At one point, Decker remembers encountering the planet eater, which Mr. Spock later discovers is a machine made by unknown hands, a weapon of mass destruction from a war likely over eons ago, its creators long since dead.
This is where Windom's performance outright shined. Decker recalls how he tried to protect his crew by beaming them all down to the third planet in the system, only to hear their screams and pleas for help as the planet eater consumed the planet and killed over 400 Starfleet officers. Decker's grief overcomes the commodore, and he sobs while remembering how helpless he was to help any of them.
Unfortunately for Windom, who gives one of the best performances by any actor ever to appear on Star Trek: The Original Series, guest stars simply weren't recognized for Emmys at that time. It wouldn't be until 1975 that the award made its debut, which was eight years after "The Doomsday Machine" first aired on NBC.
Fortunately, though, Windom's incredible talent as an actor in Hollywood didn't go unnoticed. In 1970, Windom did win a Primetime Emmy (Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series) for his portrayal of John Monroe in My World and Welcome to It.
It was a fitting reward for such a deserving actor. However, while that one scene in Star Trek cemented his place in the franchise's history as one of the best guest stars, what about Commodore Decker? What happened to him after losing his entire crew?
Revenge at any cost: Decker faces his white whale
When tragedy strikes and people suffer a devastating loss as Decker did, their grief may turn to fury as they use it to deflect the pain of that loss. This makes him unstable, and he eventually tries to wrestle command from Spock, while Kirk is stranded on the nearly destroyed Constellation as Enterprise prepares to tow her to the nearest star base. Decker wants to destroy the thing that murdered his crew, and he'll use any means necessary to do so.
Spock decides to avoid the planet eater after they barely escape its eternal appetite. Decker's anger over the loss of his ship and crew compels him to want nothing more than to attack the thing, and he uses his rank and authority to finally take command of the Enterprise.
Windom makes Decker's agony palpable as he insists that they cannot leave the planet eater to its own devices, as the lives of people on nearby planets are at stake. His mask of authority slips constantly, revealing the trauma beneath, as Windom makes Decker a sympathetic character. He's lost everything--his command, his ship, and his hapless crew. Decker then seems content to sacrifice the Enterprise in his mania to destroy the powerful weapon, no matter the price.
Decker's death
When Kirk finally manages to relieve Decker from his self-appointed command, the commodore attacks the guard meant to accompany him to sickbay and instead steals a shuttlecraft to face the planet eater on his own, meaning to fly directly into the maw of the thing.
Decker tells Kirk that there's no other way, and at this point, the commander seems intent on taking his own life. When the planet eater consumes the shuttlecraft, there's nothing anyone aboard the Enterprise can do to stop it. Kirk and his crew use the disabled Constellation to destroy the planet eater by triggering an engine overload once the ship enters the weapon, and Decker's white whale is defeated, but at a terrible, final cost.
William Windsor's performance in "The Doomsday Machine" is definitely must-see television. It's human to the core, and it reminds us all about the ways grief can affect someone and how, if unchecked, can cause chaotic ripples in the lives of those around them.
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