The Ultimate Computer (episode)

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"The Ultimate Computer"
TOS, Episode 2x24 Production number: 60353 First aired: 8 March 1968 Remastered version aired: 9 February 2008
←	54th of 80 produced in TOS	→
←	53rd of 80 released in TOS	→
←	57th of 80 released in TOS Remastered	→
←	53rd of 727 released in all	→
Teleplay By D.C. Fontana Story By Laurence N. Wolfe Directed By John Meredyth Lucas
4729.4 (2268)
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The Enterprise tests a computer that, if successful, could replace Kirk as the captain.

Contents 1 Summary 2 Memorable Quotes 3 Background Information 3.1 Production timeline 3.2 Video and DVD releases 4 Links and references 4.1 Starring 4.2 Also Starring 4.3 Guest Stars 4.4 Featuring 4.5 Uncredited Co-Stars 4.6 References 4.7 External link

[edit] Summary

"Captain's log, stardate 4729.4. The M-5 computer has been installed on board ship, and we have left the space station for test maneuvers."

Dr. Richard Daystrom, who designed the computers used on the USS Enterprise, arrives on board to install his new M-5 computer, which is capable of running a starship without personnel. The system is to be tested in a war games exercise against four other starships, led by Commodore Robert Wesley. Daystrom describes the M-5 as "a whole new approach" to logic systems; what he has done, in fact, is to create a computer that thinks like a person by impressing Human "engrams" – his own – onto the circuits. "The relays are not unlike the synapse in the brain," Daystrom explains to Captain Kirk. "M-5 thinks, captain."

Kirk, meanwhile, wrestles with his own unease about the advance in technology and his own possible obsolescence. Daystrom, on the other hand, defends the advance as liberating man from hazardous duties. Dr. McCoy notes that Daystrom reacts toward the computer as a father to his child.

The Enterprise, under M-5 control approaches a planet, achieves standard orbit and makes its recommendations for the landing party. Kirk is at odds with the M-5's call, and disagrees with its recommendation, which doesn't include Kirk and McCoy in the landing party, calling them "non-essential personnel." While this is going on, power on decks 4 and 5 is cut, along with environmental controls for each deck. Scotty traces the source of the power shutdowns to be the M-5 itself.

Dr. Daystrom examines the situation, but explains that the M-5 simply turned off the power to those decks since there was no one there that needed it. Eventually, Dr McCoy arrives on the bridge, since the sick bay's power was also cut. He is understandably infuriated by this computer's actions.

The Enterprise is approached by two ships, one of which turns out to be the Federation Starship Excalibur. They engage in an unscheduled wargames drill, and the M-5 responds swiftly to simulated attacks, hitting back the 'enemy' ships and maneuvering more quickly than it would have were a human in command. Kirk tries to be gracious to the computer's ability, telling Spock that such applications might be practical, but Spock tells Kirk that although true, such a thing as a computer running a starship would be undesirable. He goes on to explain that a key attribute of human command is loyalty, loyalty to one man, and that this should never change. Captain Kirk, whose ego has been somewhat beat up by all that is going on, appreciates the comment. Meanwhile, the M-5 is seen to be drawing increasing amounts of power.

Afterward, Enterprise's sensors detect a ship moving slowly. It is the automated ore freighter Woden. M-5 abruptly changes the Enterprise's course to intercept the ship, speeding up to Warp 3. It then engages the ship with photon torpedoes, destroying it, though it gave no threat to the Enterprise, and then resumes its prior course. Captain Kirk tried to disengage the M-5 in the process, but neither he, nor Sulu, nor Scotty is able to regain manual control. Dr Daystrom still tries to make excuses and explanations for this, but there is clearly now something wrong.

Kirk, Spock, and Scotty go to Engineering, and Kirk tries to approach the M-5 to shut it off, only to be thrown back by a forcefield. They attempt again to cut its power, but an when an engineering ensign with a power coupler moves to cut the power, the M-5 vaporizes him and makes a direct connection to the warp engines using a power beam of its own devising.

In setting up the programs, Daystrom also – unwittingly – instilled the urge for survival in the computer, to the point where the automated freighter Woden, encountered on the way to the war games coordinates, is perceived as a threat and destroyed. In addition, M-5 taps into the matter/antimatter reactors as a new power source, giving it virtually unlimited power with no one able to shut the computer down.

When the war games exercise begins, M-5 attacks the opposing starships with all weapons at full power (destroying the USS Excalibur in the process), and cuts off all communication from Enterprise to the fleet. When Commodore Wesley cannot raise the Enterprise by radio, he requests approval from Starfleet Command to destroy her.

"Captain's log, stardate 4731.3. The M-5 multitronic unit has taken over total control of the Enterprise."

Dr. Daystrom attempts to reason with his M-5 in an effort to stop the attack, but goes mad in the effort. Kirk then forces the computer to recognize its responsibility in the deaths of hundreds of people. Feeling Daystrom's regret over the deaths, M5 shuts down, dropping the deflector shields and leaving itself open to attack to atone for its crime. Spock and Scotty then disconnect the computer from ship's control. With communications not quite restored, Kirk orders that the shields be kept down, gambling that Wesley will be both compassionate and cautious and break off the battle force. Dr. Daystrom, meanwhile, is cared for in sickbay under sedation and heavy restraint to await transfer to a total rehabilitation facility.

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"'All I... ask is a tall ship and a star... to steer her by.' You... you could feel the wind at your back in those days. The sounds of the sea... beneath you, and even if you take away the wind and the water... it's still the same. The ship is yours. You can feel her. And the stars are still there, Bones."

- Captain James T. Kirk

"Did you see the love light in Spock's eyes? The right computer finally came along."

- Dr. McCoy

"This isn't chicken soup. I may be just a ship's doctor, but I make a Finagle's Folly that's known from here to Orion. I strongly prescribe it, Jim."

- Dr. McCoy

"Our compliments to the M5 unit, and regards to Captain Dunsel; Wesley out."
"Dunsel? Who the blazes is Captain Dunsel?" (Kirk stiffens and walks toward the turbolift) "What does it mean, Jim?" (to Spock) "What does it mean?"
"A dunsel, doctor, is a midshipman's term used at Starfleet Academy; it refers to a part that serves no useful purpose."

- Commodore Wesley, McCoy, and Spock

"All ships damaged in unprovoked attack... Excalibur Captain Harris and first officer, dead... many casualties. We have damage, but are still maneuverable. I still have an effective battle force... and believe the only way to stop the Enterprise is to destroy her. Request permission to proceed."

- Wesley's communication to Starfleet Command

"Twenty years of groping to prove the things I'd done before were not accidents... seminars and lectures to rows of fools who couldn't begin to understand my systems... colleagues, laughing behind my back at the 'Boy Wonder;' and becoming famous, building on my work – building on my work!"

- Daystrom, unraveling

"Spock... M5 is not responding as a regular computer would – it's actually talking to him."
"I am most impressed with the technology, captain; Dr. Daystrom has succeeded in creating a mirror image of his own mind."

- Kirk and Spock

"This unit cannot murder."
"Why?"
"Murder is contrary to the laws of man and God."
"But you have murdered. Scan the starship Excalibur, which you destroyed; is there life aboard?"
"No life."
"Because you murdered it. What is the penalty for murder?"
"Death."
"And how will you pay for your acts of murder?"
"This... unit... must... die."

- M5 and Kirk

"It appears, captain, we've been doing what used to be called 'pursuing a wild goose'."

- Spock

"Commodore Wesley is a dedicated commander. I should regret serving aboard the instrument of his death."

- Spock

"It would be most interesting to impress your memory engrams on a computer, doctor. The resulting torrential flood of illogic would be most entertaining."

- Spock

"The most unfortunate lack in current computer programming is that there is nothing available to immediately replace the starship surgeon."

- Spock

"Computers make excellent and efficient servants, but I have no wish to serve under them. Captain, a starship also runs on loyalty to one man. And nothing can replace it or him."

- Spock, to Kirk

"You don't shut a child off when it makes a mistake; M5 is growing, learning."
"Learning to kill."
"To defend itself; quite a different thing."

- Daystrom and McCoy

"You can't understand... and you're frightened because you can't understand. I'm going to show you – I'm going to show all of you. It takes... 430 people to command a starship; with this, you don't need any. Man need no longer die in space, or on some alien world. Men can live and go on to achieve greater things than fact-finding and dying for galactic space, which is neither ours to give nor to take. You can't understand... we have not come to destroy life, we have come to save it!"

- Daystrom

"Fantastic machine, the M5 - no off switch!"

- Dr. McCoy

"Only a fool would stand in the way of progress."

- Kirk, to McCoy

"There are certain things men must do to remain men."

- Kirk

[edit] Background Information

• In the original version of the episode, the space station is reused footage of Deep Space Station K-7 from "The Trouble with Tribbles". The automated freighter on the viewscreen is reused footage of SS Botany Bay from "Space Seed". The crippled USS Excalibur is reused footage of the USS Constellation from "The Doomsday Machine".
  • All of these shots were replaced in the remastered version with imagery specifically for the episode. Most notably, the Woden was shown to be an Antares-type vessel, and the space station, which was finally given a name, Starbase 6, was remodeled to look like Starbase 47 as seen in the Star Trek: Vanguard series of novels.
• Sean Morgan also played Lt. O'Neil in TOS: "The Return of the Archons" and "The Tholian Web".
• Barry Russo had previously portrayed Commander Giotto in TOS: "The Devil in the Dark".
• D.C. Fontana and the story conceptualist intended this episode as a comment on the increased mechanization that was costing traditional jobs in the United States as the 60s drew to a close.
  ^{(citation needed • edit)}
• Evocative music by George Duning, composed for "Metamorphosis", is re-used as Kirk again romanticizes about being on a tall ship sailing the sea. In "Balance of Terror" he had wished he was on a long sea voyage.
• The "tall ship" line reappeared on the USS Defiant's dedication plaque and was paraphrased by Quark at the start of "Little Green Men". It was also repeated by Shatner in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
• This episode apparently contradicts "The Menagerie, Part I" and "The Menagerie, Part II", which stated the only death penalty in the Federation was visiting Talos IV. Here the M-5 claims the penalty for murder is also death. However, the reference to "God's law" may mean the M-5 was referring to its (and therefore probably Daystrom's) interpretation of what the punishment for murder should be, rather than Federation law.
• The three scanning heads on the large device used to hook up the M-5 appear to be a re-use of the disruptor weapons seen in "A Taste of Armageddon". The prop itself was later dubbed a trident scanner.
• This episode was filmed in mid-December 1967.
• The shots of the task force are simple insets of the Enterprise optically printed to create the illusion of various "distances". The sequences were apparently re-printed from one source, resulting in the ships' running lights blinking in unison.
• Commodore Wesley's high-backed command chair appears to be the same one used by the parallel-universe Kirk in "Mirror, Mirror".
• Alpha Carinae, whose second planet is to be explored by the scientific survey team, is better known as Canopus.
• Fifteen of the 20 crew members who remained aboard the Enterprise during its M-5 tests can be accounted for: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Sulu, Chekov, Uhura, Harper, astrobiologist Phillips, geologists Rollins and Carstairs, Hadley and Leslie (the two security guards who escort the unconscious Daystrom from the bridge), Brent and an unnamed medical technician seen at Daystrom's bedside in sickbay.
• A similarly titled 1965 episode of The Man From UNCLE – "The Ultimate Computer Affair" – guest-starred Roger C. Carmel.
• Spock makes the comment that nothing in current computer technology can replace the ships' surgeon. This problem is apparently solved by the 24th century with the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) technology.
• This episode marks one of four times Kirk is able to "discuss a computer to death". This skill is also used in "The Changeling", "The Return of the Archons", and "I, Mudd".

[edit] Production timeline

• Teleplay by Laurence N. Wolfe, 9 November 1967.

[edit] Video and DVD releases

• Original US Betamax release: 1986.
• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 28, catalog number VHR 2380, 6 August 1990.
• US VHS release: 15 April 1994.
• UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 2.8, 21 July 1997.
• Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 27, 10 July 2001.
• As part of the TOS Season 2 DVD collection.

[edit] Links and references

[edit] Starring

• William Shatner as Kirk

[edit] Also Starring

• Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock
• DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy

[edit] Guest Stars

• William Marshall as Richard Daystrom
• James Doohan as Scott
  • Enwright (voice, uncredited)
  • M-5 computer (voice, uncredited)
• George Takei as Sulu
• Nichelle Nichols as Uhura

[edit] Featuring

• Walter Koenig as Chekov
• Sean Morgan as Harper
• Barry Russo as Wesley

[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars

• William Blackburn as Hadley
• Frank da Vinci as Brent
• Roger Holloway as Roger Lemli
• Eddie Paskey as Leslie

[edit] References

Alpha Carinae II; Alpha Carinae system; Carstairs; chicken soup; class M; computer; death penalty; Dunsel; duotronics; Einstein, Albert; engram; Excalibur, USS; Finagle's Folly; general quarters; Harris; Hood, USS; Kazanga; Lexington, USS; M-5 computer; multitronics; nervous breakdown; nitrogen; Nobel Prize; Orion; oxygen; Phillips; Potemkin, USS; Rawlins; Sakar; Sea-Fever; sitar; Starbase 6; Starfleet Academy; Starfleet battle simulation; Starfleet Command; suicide; warp power indicator; Woden; Zee-Magnees Prize

[edit] External link

• The Ultimate Computer at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works

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