In "The Changeling", the Enterprise heads into the Malurian star system where it is discovered that the entire system has been wiped out by an unknown entity. Thus entity turns out to be a highly sophisticated robot that attacks the Enterprise. The robot eventually heads aboard and, due to damaged memory banks, identifies Kirk as its creator. It turns out the machine is a hybrid between an old Earth probe that was thought to be destroyed by a meteor long ago and an alien probe. The two repaired each other and combine to make Nomad. It created a new garbled directive to exterminate any imperfect beings it comes across. After killing Scotty and bringing him back to life, wiping Uhura's memory, and downloading all of the Enterprise's data, Kirk must confuse the machine enough to stop it from destroying the crew and heading for Earth. He convinces Nomad that it is imperfect and must destroy itself due to its prime directive.
The premise of this high-functioning machine mistaking its creator for Kirk just because they have similar last names is difficult to buy into. A child makes this mistake, not something as sophisticated as this. Putting that aside, I really enjoy the rest of this episode. The writer's are really able to make a three dimensional character out of the floating Nomad. He seems scary, all-powerful, and unstoppable. There's something about the blankness of a machine as it computes data and figures out its next move which is oddly terrifying. Its lack of expression gives us no indication of what will come next.
Kirk's cleverness saves the day once again, much to the surprise of Spock. With that duo at the helm, it seems like they can accomplish anything.
One final note, we only meet the Malurians once in the Star Trek universe, when Captain Archer finds some of them illegally mining on a planet still in the rudimentary stages of cultural evolution. It's a shame that their only appearance is such a black mark on their species.
The premise of this high-functioning machine mistaking its creator for Kirk just because they have similar last names is difficult to buy into. A child makes this mistake, not something as sophisticated as this. Putting that aside, I really enjoy the rest of this episode. The writer's are really able to make a three dimensional character out of the floating Nomad. He seems scary, all-powerful, and unstoppable. There's something about the blankness of a machine as it computes data and figures out its next move which is oddly terrifying. Its lack of expression gives us no indication of what will come next.
Kirk's cleverness saves the day once again, much to the surprise of Spock. With that duo at the helm, it seems like they can accomplish anything.
One final note, we only meet the Malurians once in the Star Trek universe, when Captain Archer finds some of them illegally mining on a planet still in the rudimentary stages of cultural evolution. It's a shame that their only appearance is such a black mark on their species.