Star Trek – The Ultimate Computer

★★★★★ March 8, 1968 Season 2 Episode 24

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog. 

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry, D.C. Fontana, and Laurence N. Wolfe 

***After this post I have a post coming up written with CB***

This one is easy to identify with today with computers taking jobs that once belonged to humans. This computer’s function is to take Kirk’s job in running the ship. This one is a favorite of mine from the 2nd season. I get flashbacks to a movie that was still in the future at that time…anyone of you remembers HAL 9000? Excellent episode!

Hal 9000 and M-5

The computer here, M-5, was intended as the next step up from the 23rd-century starship machines which were also designed by the genius Daystrom. Under the test guidelines in this episode, the Enterprise is emptied of all but 20 personnel, and the new M-5 is plugged in, running standard ship’s operations, such as navigation and entering into orbit around a planet.

Later, the plan is to indulge in war games with a quartet of other starships, testing M-5’s calculations during a battle. It’s man vs. machine; it’s human workers vs. the automated line… it’s all about…becoming obsolete. The war games don’t go the way Daystrom imagined…M-5 decided to attack the starships. 

The story revolves around the goals and aspirations of two men – Kirk and Daystrom. Kirk’s career appears to be in danger of winding down very quickly in the first act – replaced by machinery, while Daystrom’s might be gaining a second wind after 25 years of stagnation. It all revolves around the personal needs of these two men – what they need in life to feel functional, to be useful.

Kirk’s role is deemed non-essential due to the delegation of command decisions to M-5. Seeing him in this situation is compelling and William Shatner does an excellent job of portraying the angst the character is suffering.

Spock and McCoy help Kirk through a difficult time and they also share their own opinions about the merit of the M-5. I want to say also that William Marshall did a great job as Daystrom.

From IMDB:

The Daystrom Institute, mentioned prominently in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), Star Trek: Voyager (1995), and ‘Star Trek: Picard’ (2020) is named for Dr. Richard Daystrom, the guest character in this episode.

 In his 1999 essay “Welcome Aboard the Enterprise”, science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer writes, “…the ship’s computers, as seen in ‘The Ultimate Computer’, were designed by a Nobel-prize-winning black cyberneticist, played with equal dignity by William Marshall. During the era of Martin Luther King and the Watts Riots, it was a powerful, important statement to have the white captain of the Enterprise deferring to black people; as Marshall observed thirty years later, the single most significant thing about his guest-starring role was that he, an African-American, was referred to as ‘Sir’ throughout the episode.”

 Robert Wesley was named for a pseudonym that Gene Roddenberry had used early in his career, and “Wesley” is Roddenberry’s given middle name.

 Barry Russo, appearing here as Commodore Wesley, also appears in Star Trek: The Devil in the Dark (1967) as Lieutenant Commander Giotto.

 When Commodore Wesley observes the Enterprise from the Lexington, this is the only time in the series that the audience sees the Enterprise from another ship.

 The script came from an unsolicited screenplay submitted by Laurence M. Wolfe, who was a mathematician. John Meredyth Lucas chose to adapt the story, feeling that it would be relatively inexpensive and quick to produce. D.C. Fontana rewrote much of the story, as much of the original screenplay was focused on Dr Daystrom and the M-5 Computer, with little emphasis on the show’s regular characters.

 This episode was a social commentary on the American job losses caused by increased mechanization during the 1960s. This still remains a problem in the 2020s, with AI and software replacing many jobs formerly done by people.

 Kirk recites a line from John Masefield’s poem, “Sea Fever” (“All I ask is a tall ship…”). He does it again in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). Quark paraphrases it in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Little Green Men (1995) and it appears on the USS Defiant’s dedication plaque.

 The character name Daystrom appears to be a reference to a company named Daystrom Systems, which was around since the 50s. One of the company’s products, the Daystrom 046, was installed in the Little Gypsy Power Plant in 1961 in LaPlace, La., and was the first computer to control a power plant from startup to shutdown.

 The M-5 reacted as it did because it did not want to be shut down. A similar theme was explored a few months later with the computer HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

 Spock mentions that there is nothing in 23rd century computer technology to replace a starship’s medical officer. By the 24th century, Federation starships are equipped with Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) technology.

 The remastered version replaced the stock footage used. The space station, now named Starbase 6, used images of Deep Space Station K-7 from Star Trek: The Trouble with Tribbles (1967) in the original broadcast. In the remastered version, it was remodeled to look like Starbase 47, as seen in the ‘Star Trek: Vanguard’ series of novels. The Woden, which used footage of the SS Botany Bay from Star Trek: Space Seed (1967), was redesigned as an Antares-type vessel. The crippled USS Excalibur, which reused footage of the USS Constellation from Star Trek: The Doomsday Machine (1967), and the space battle were redesigned with new computer generated images.

 Commodore Wesley’s high-backed command chair appears to be the same one used on the ISS Enterprise’s bridge in Star Trek: Mirror, Mirror (1967).

 This is the second time Kirk tells McCoy he would like to be on a long sea voyage. The first time happened in Star Trek: Balance of Terror (1966).

 The Japanese-made Sord M-5 home computer, released in 1982, was named in homage to Dr Daystrom’s creation in this story. Ironically it too was deemed a failure and discontinued after about a year.

 Alpha Carinae, whose second planet was scheduled for exploration by the scientific survey team, is better known as Canopus.

 Spock describes M-5’s diversionary tactics as “pursuing a wild goose”. In Star Trek: The Gamesters of Triskelion (1968), after McCoy calls Spock’s search for Kirk, Uhura, & Chekov a wild goose chase, Spock retorts that he was not chasing “some wild aquatic fowl”.

 The evocative music by George Duning, composed for Star Trek: Metamorphosis (1967), was re-used when Kirk romanticizes about sailing on a tall ship.

 Sean Morgan (Harper), also played Brenner in Star Trek: Balance of Terror (1966), O’Neil in Star Trek: The Return of the Archons (1967) and Star Trek: The Tholian Web (1968), and unidentified characters in Star Trek: The Corbomite Maneuver (1966), Star Trek: This Side of Paradise (1967), and Star Trek: Patterns of Force (1968).

 A close-up of the three scanning heads on the trident scanner seem to be a re-use of the disruptor weapons from Star Trek: A Taste of Armageddon (1967).

 This takes place in 2268.

 Daystrom’s scanning device, which he used to analyze the M-5, resembles McCoy’s medical scanner. It also resembles the one used in Star Trek: The Naked Time (1966), when Scotty used it to point out the critical engineering wall circuits and when Joe Tormolen used it on the surface of Psi 2000.

 The Excalibur was commanded by “Captain Harris”. Harris was Associate Producer Robert Justman’s middle name.

 A similar question (computer control versus human control) arises for Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Booby Trap (1989), in which the Enterprise is caught in an ancient booby trap. ‘Booby Trap’ presents a situation where, as a ship caught in the trap tries to fly out, the trap absorbs and powers itself from the ship, while reacting to, and counterbalancing, the ship’s engines. This counterbalancing prevents the ship caught in the trap from moving. One method of escape from the booby trap, proposed by the Chief Engineer, is to turn complete navigation and engine control over to the computer, and allow it to make the calculations and adjustments faster than the booby trap can react to the Enterprise, thereby allowing it to power out of the trap. In that situation, Picard makes the decision to take the helm himself, instead of allowing the computer to take total control.

 The character of Bob Wesley appears later in the animated series episode “One of Our Planets is Missing”, written by Star Trek director Marc Daniels. Wesley has retired from Starfleet and is governor of the remote Federation planet, Mantilles.

 Star Trek: Lower Decks: The Stars at Night (2022) pays homage to this episode with the plot theme of crewless starships controlled by artificial intelligence, going haywire and firing on friendly forces. Also, images of Admiral Buenamigo’s control console for his Texas-class starships bear a strong resemblance to the M-5’s control console.

This is the only time in the series where the Enterprise is seen from another ship.

Summary

Captain Kirk replies to an urgent (yet brief) message from Commodore Enright, which only tells him to report to the nearest space station. Once there, most of the crew is removed – held in a security area, leaving only a minimal skeleton crew on board. Commodore Bob Wesley arrives and informs the captain he’s the unwitting ‘fox in the hunt;’ of simulated war games to be played. The purpose? To put the so far only-rumored-to-exist M-5 Multitronic unit – through its paces. The M-5 computer is the latest invention of the brilliant Dr. Richard Daystrom, creator of the Duotronic computer systems, which power Enterprise, and many other high-end systems. Daystrom is confident his unit can not only take control of the starship but do a better job than humans can. At first, the Enterprise under M-5’s control easily defeats two other starships, but, quickly begins to act independently of its human masters, Daystrom has little interest in disconnecting the M-5 and treats it more like an errant child than a machine. For Kirk and the few crew members still aboard, it becomes a matter of life and death when Starfleet Command orders the Enterprise destroyed.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
William Marshall … Daystrom
James Doohan … Scott
George Takei … Sulu
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Sean Morgan … Harper
Barry Russo … Wesley
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Lt. Brent (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)