The Phobos base with Mars and Deimos in the background
Deimos is the smaller and outermost of the two moons of the planet Mars, the other being Phobos. It is the scene of the second Doom episode, "The Shores of Hell". Deimos is named after the Greek god of dread and terror, and a son of Ares.
Background[]
Doom Classic[]
According to the Doom manual, Deimos is used to store nuclear waste, and is also the home of teleportation experimentation with Phobos. Sometime before the game however, an experiment goes wrong, Deimos vanishes, and the Phobos base is attacked by an unknown force, with the player's squad being sent up to investigate.
By the time the Lone Marine crossed over to Deimos, he found the human personnel there slain or transformed into zombies, and the complex was now under the command of a Cyberdemon and its minions, who were gradually transforming the advanced facilities built there by humans into a grim bastion of great evil. However, the Marine was able to battle his way to the Cyberdemon's lair at the Tower of Babel, and destroyed its infernal master, avenging the loss of human life on the moon station.
SNES DOOM[]
Doom 64 (N64)[]
In N64 Doom the game is marketed as a sequel to Super Nintendo Doom.
According to an article in Nintendo Power:
- In the game, you reprise the role of the lone space marine who encounters demons from another dimension. The invaders have taken over an installation on one of the moons of Mars, so help is not likely. It is your job to stop the invasion before it spreads further, but all you have to help you in your mission is your own agility and the scattered weapons and items that you can pick up along the way."
Deimos could be indirectly mentioned in the manual for Doom 64. The choice of words the manual uses could imply that Deimos has somehow returned to its orbit around Mars (it mentions 'installations' plural presumably Phobos and Deimos, Our Hero believed he had cleaned up previously during his 'first mission' during the classified "Doom episodes").
The official website for the game and the NP short story article from Nintendo Power states that Doom 64 takes place on Phobos.
Note: The Doom 64 remaster marketed/retcons the game as taking place on Mars (after events of Doom II) it mentions a Mars invasion possibly a reference to the Doom II manual, or Doom 3, or even Doom RPG series. However, Doom 64 may also have taken place on base from Final Doom's TNT: Evilution, which takes place on an unspecified moon of Jupiter as one of the backstories given at the time of its release was that the demon mother was a mutated arch-vile the marine fought (archviles only appeared in Doom II and Final Doom). And another suggests it takes place on some planetary base after events that of Doom II (the only other planetary base to appear post Doom II was in TNT:Evilution).
Doom RPG[]
Deimos isn't shown physically in the fly-in in the intro, however its orbiting projection is shown under Phobos.
Doom (2016)/Eternal[]
In new Doom series, it is set in a parallel universe to that of the original Doom. In this universe, Deimos never was absorbed into Hell.
In DOOM, Deimos and Phobos are used as mining stations, although it's never stated, or implied that any outbreaks, or military operations occurred there.
- The Gauss accelerator design has been used by the UAC as the basis for numerous industrial projects over the years - such as the Argent Tower itself, and the Ore Diggers on Deimos and Phobos.
In Doom Eternal, once you reach the Arc level, the background of the main menu/game selection screen shows Mars, Phobos, and what looks to be the moon of Deimos.
The hologram of Mars which appears on the Fortress of Doom, shows the existence of both Phobos and Deimos orbiting the planet.
Behind the Scenes[]
In Doom, Deimos is represented as having older style bases (barring the presence of Hell corruption) composed of brick and cement walls. The shape of Deimos levels are notably square compared to the abstract-design of the Phobos, and Inferno levels. Deimos is also represented as having large brown mountains capped with small amounts of snow, despite the intermission screen showing a grey landscape, similar to how Phobos is shown having large grey mountains covered in vegetation, but a brown cratered landscape in the intermission screen, and in levels.
In reality, Deimos is much smaller than Phobos, only having a radius of 6.2 kilometers, possess little gravity, and no atmosphere (even if it had an atmosphere, it would drift off without some form of artificial gravity technology).