31 Years Later, Let's Look At Doom's Lore (The Original)

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Yesterday, I wrote about Quake and, by extension, Quake 2’s lore. You might think that Doom’s original lore is probably really simple, some kind of, scratches on a paper looking concept, and while it certainly began that way–It also spawned a book. But, one of the reasons I want to visit the lore of the original Dooms, is because the newer Dooms seem … unclear to me, as to where exactly they are in the timeline. Or, if there even is a timeline. Anyway, let’s dive a little deeper into the 1993 classic, DOOM.

So, basically, all this time, I’ve been extremely confused about whether or not you’re the same guy in every Doom game ever made. The short answer is: Yes, you are.

But, I feel like I can’t talk about the lore of all of Doom, without quoting the original opening fiction that started it all (quoted from the fandom wiki).

In DOOM, you’re a space marine, one of Earth’s toughest, hardened in combat and trained for action. Three years ago you assaulted a superior officer for ordering his soldiers to fire upon civilians. He and his body cast were shipped to Pearl Harbor, while you were transferred to Mars, home of the Union Aerospace Corporation. The UAC is a multi-planetary conglomerate with radioactive waste facilities on Mars and its two moons, Phobos and Deimos. With no action for fifty million miles, your day consisted of suckin’ dust and watchin’ restricted flicks in the rec room.

For the last four years the military, UAC’s biggest supplier, has used the remote facilities on Phobos and Deimos to conduct various secret projects, including research on inter-dimensional space travel. So far they have been able to open gateways between Phobos and Deimos, throwing a few gadgets into one and watching them come out the other. Recently however, the gateways have grown dangerously unstable. Military “volunteers” entering them have either disappeared or been stricken with a strange form of insanity–babbling vulgarities, bludgeoning anything that breathes, and finally suffering an untimely death of full-body explosion. Matching heads with torsos to send home to the folks became a full-time job. Latest military reports state that the research is suffering a small setback, but everything is under control.

A few hours ago, Mars received a garbled message from Phobos. “We require immediate military support. Something fraggin’ evil is coming out of the gateways! Computer systems have gone berserk!” The rest was incoherent. Soon afterwards, Deimos simply vanished from the sky. Since then, attempts to establish contact with either moon have been unsuccessful.

You and your buddies, the only combat troop for fifty million miles were sent up pronto to Phobos. You were ordered to secure the perimeter of the base while the rest of the team went inside. For several hours, your radio picked up the sounds of combat: guns firing, men yelling orders, screams, bones cracking, then finally silence. Seems your buddies are dead.

Things aren’t looking too good. You’ll never navigate off the planet on your own. Plus, all the heavy weapons have been taken by the assault team leaving you only with a pistol. If only you could get your hands around a plasma rifle or even a shotgun you could take a few down on your way out. Whatever killed your buddies deserves a couple of pellets in the forehead. Securing your helmet, you exit the landing pod. Hopefully you can find more substantial firepower somewhere within the station.

As you walk through the main entrance of the base, you hear animal-like growls echoing throughout the distant corridors. They know you’re here. There’s no turning back now.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “This game came before Quake, and it already has a much more fleshed out story?” Yeah, kinda weird, right? It continues on like this, into a book, onto Earth, as the invasion of Hell continues, into Doom 64 where you return to Hell, then to Doom 2016 where you’re … entombed, and then awoken in an alternate reality, and it just keeps going.

I remember when I was a kid, I was only partially aware of all this lore. In fact, I think the only thing I paid attention to was the Doom guy holding his rabbit’s severed head at the end of the game. Oh, and the nightmares I had where, in the middle of the night, I actually hallucinated Lost Souls flying in and out of my room, and it was terrifying at the time (I think I was forced to take a break from the game at this point).

But did you know Doom guy had a family? And that family was murdered by Demons? Did you know there was a theatrical recreation of Doom that starts off with transphobia, and then explains away the demons completely by being like, “Oh, no it’s not demons. It’s humans infected with another chromosome.” I didn’t like that movie much, aside from the strange inclusion of the game-dev’s names, as characters, in the movie.

Did you know that, according to the official Doom book, the Doom marine’s name is Corporal Flynn Taggart? I’m not sure this is ever held up as canon anywhere else, but it’s a neat little tidbit. The book itself had two nebula nominees, and here’s the synopsis for you …

The Gates were there on Phobos when mankind first arrived. Inert, unyielding, impossibly alien constructs, for twenty years they sat lifeless, mute testaments to their long-vanished creators, their secrets hidden. Then one day, they sprang to life . . .

Meet Corporal Flynn Taggart, United States Marine Corps; serial number 888-23-9912. He’s the best warrior the twenty-first century has to offer, which is a damn good thing. Because Flynn Taggart is all that’s standing between the hell that just dropped in on Mars and an unsuspecting planet Earth . . .

I’m more quoting, and reflecting on all of this, because, I’m just now really discovering just how much lore there actually is behind Doom, and finding that it really doesn’t need a whole lot of discussion and deep dives. But, I do think I want to finally read that book.

Never-the-less, this is kind of where my obsession with gaming really started. Sure, there was Wolfenstein 3D, Blake Stone, Commander Keen, Ja … Jazz JackRabbit? But then there was DOOM. And then fond memories watching my Dad play Quake FTP multiplayer against one of his friends, and then me being absolutely badass in Quake 2 multiplayer … and then finding I SUCKED HARD in Quake 3 multiplayer (because they completely changed the way the game felt, controlled, and aimed).

My entire childhood was me, waiting for school to be over, so that I could dive back into one of these games. And, despite my delve into coding at the age of 39, I find it strange I never just, you know, started making my own games. At least, until I started making this Mafia Wars clone, that I absolutely am not going to continue, because I don’t think I have the correct know-how to securely store people’s usernames and passwords on an encrypted database, on a server that can’t easily be hacked. But … maybe there is room for something else.

(Yes, this is an actual semi-functional clone of Mafia Wars, that can only be played by me, on my HDD, and I will never release it to the public lol Nevermind, here it is.)