Star Trek (TV Series)

The Doomsday Machine (1967)

William Shatner: Captain James Tiberius 'Jim' Kirk

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Quotes 

• Capt. Kirk : Mr. Spock, relieve Commodore Decker immediately. That's a direct order.

  Matt Decker : You can't relieve me and you know it, according to regulations...

  Capt. Kirk : BLAST REGULATIONS! Mr. Spock, I order you to assume command on my personal authority as Captain of the Enterprise.

  Mr. Spock : Commodore Decker, you are relieved of command.

  Matt Decker : I don't recognize your authority to relieve me.

  Mr. Spock : You may file a formal protest with Starfleet Command, assuming we survive to reach a Starbase, but you are relieved. Commodore, I do not wish to place you under arrest.

  Matt Decker : You wouldn't dare.

  [Mr. Spock signals two security guards who immediately step forward at his command] 

  Matt Decker : You're bluffing.

  Mr. Spock : Vulcans never bluff.

  Matt Decker : [sadly]  No. No, I don't suppose that they do. Very well, Mr. Spock, the bridge is yours.

• Matt Decker : [distraught]  They say there's no devil, Jim, but there is, right out of Hell. I saw it!

  Capt. Kirk : Matt, where's your crew?

  Matt Decker : On the third planet.

  Capt. Kirk : There IS no third planet!

  Matt Decker : [anguished]  Don't you think I know that? There was, but not anymore! They called me; they BEGGED me for help, four hundred of them! I couldn't... I-I couldn't...

  [begins sobbing] 

• Capt. Kirk : Bones, you ever hear of a doomsday machine?

  Dr. McCoy : No, I'm a doctor, not a mechanic.

• [Decker has taken a shuttlecraft] 

  Mr. Spock : Commodore, I must insist that you return to the ship.

  Matt Decker : You said it yourself, Spock - There is no way to blast through the hull of that machine, so... I'm gonna take this thing right down its throat.

  Capt. Kirk : This is Kirk. Matt, you'll be killed!

  Matt Decker : I've been prepared for death ever since I... ever since I killed my crew.

  Capt. Kirk : No one expects you to die for an error in judgment!

  Matt Decker : [final words]  A commander is responsible for the lives of his crew, and for their deaths. Well... I should have died with mine.

• Capt. Kirk : Am I correct in assuming that a fusion explosion of 97 mega-tons will result if a starship impulse engine is overloaded?

  Mr. Spock : No, sir. 97.835 mega-tons.

• Capt. Kirk : If I only had some phasers.

  Scott : Phasers - you've got 'em. I have one bank recharged.

  Capt. Kirk : Scotty, you just earned your pay for the week.

• Matt Decker : Enterprise to Kirk, Commodore Decker speaking.

  Capt. Kirk : Matt? What's going on? Give me Mr. Spock.

  Matt Decker : I'm in command here, Jim.

  Capt. Kirk : What happened to Spock?

  Matt Decker : Nothing. I assumed command, according to regulations, since your first officer was reluctant to take aggressive action against...

  Capt. Kirk : You mean YOU'RE the lunatic who's responsible for almost destroying my ship?

  Matt Decker : You are speaking to a SENIOR OFFICER, Kirk.

  Capt. Kirk : Get me Spock.

  Matt Decker : I told you I am in command here, according to every rule in the book, CAPTAIN. If you have anything to say at all, you will say it to ME.

  Capt. Kirk : There's only one thing I want to say to YOU, COMMODORE: GET MY SHIP OUT OF THERE.

• Capt. Kirk : We're stronger with you than without you!

  [said as Decker intentionally flies his shuttlecraft into the Doomsday Machine] 

• Capt. Kirk : [speaking to the crew of the 'Enterprise' via communicator, after arming the 'Constellation's' self-destruct mechanism, with the countdown at 10]  Gentlemen, I suggest you beam me aboard!

• Capt. Kirk : [a limp and disabled starship, the USS Constellation, paints the view screen]  She was attacked.

• Mr. Spock : Captain, sensors show this entire solar system has been destroyed. Nothing left but rubble and asteroids.

  Capt. Kirk : That's incredible. The star in this system is still intact. Only a nova could destroy like that.

  Mr. Spock : Nonetheless, Captain, sensors show nothing but debris where we charted seven planets last year.

• Mr. Spock : Captain, you're getting dangerously close to the planet killer.

  Capt. Kirk : I intend to get a lot closer: I'm going to ram her right down that thing's throat.

  Mr. Spock : Jim, you'll be killed, just like Decker.

  Capt. Kirk : No, no, I don't intend to die, Mr. Spock. We've rigged a delay detonation device, you'll have 30 seconds to beam me aboard the Enterprise before the Constellation's impulse engines blow.

  Mr. Spock : Your chances of survival are not promising. We don't even know if the explosion will be powerful enough.

  Capt. Kirk : A calculated risk, Mr. Spock.

  Mr. Spock : There's another factor, Captain. The transporter is not working at 100% efficiency. Thirty seconds is very slim timing.

  Capt. Kirk : A chance I'll have to take. Kirk out.

  Scott : A cranky transporter's a mighty finicky piece of machinery to be gambling your life on, sir.

• Capt. Kirk : [after distracting the planet-killer with a phaser blast]  Mr. Scott, it worked! Great!

  [sees the planet-killer turning straight toward them] 

  Capt. Kirk : I think it's great. Scotty, get us out of here!

• Mr. Spock : It came up on us fast, Captain, but we seem able to maintain our distance.

  Capt. Kirk : We're blind here. What's it look like?

  Mr. Spock : It looks very much like Commodore Decker's planet killer.

  [the doomsday machine begins a turn towards Enterprise] 

  Mr. Spock : And it is pursuing... us...

• [as the Constellation nears the planet-killer, Kirk presses the detonator, then grabs his communicator] 

  Capt. Kirk : Beam me aboard!

  Mr. Spock : Energize.

  Lt. Kyle : Energizing...

  [the transporter shorts out] 

  Lt. Kyle : Bridge, it shorted out again!

  Scott : [seeing the short, jumps back into the Jeffries tube]  Och...!

  Capt. Kirk : [still on the Constellation's bridge]  Gentlemen... beam me aboard.

• Capt. Kirk : What about the detonator?

  Scott : I've linked it in with the impulse control system.

  [presses a switch] 

  Scott : It's armed now.

  [points to the last switch in the bank] 

  Scott : Press this one, thirty seconds later, poof! Once it's activated, there's no way to stop it.

  Capt. Kirk : Understood.