2.3 — “The Changeling”
Plot: Investigating the apparent death of 4 billion people in the Malurian system, the Enterprise encounters, and beams aboard, a strange being (ship? robot?) named Nomad, who mistakes Captain Kirk for his (its?) creator. Only this confusion stops Nomad from carrying out its mission–to sterilize all imperfect biologic lifeforms it encounters.
Thoughts: The Enterprise encounters a lot of all-powerful space douches in its travels (h/t www.TheViewscreen.com for the term), but this is the first time it encounters an all-powerful oversize thermos strapped to an aerosol can with a Napoleon complex. Joking aside, I like Nomad. I felt a thrill of excitement the moment it beamed on board. I love the unexpected, and it turns out that I remember TOS so poorly that basically everything is unexpected.
When Nomad starts talking about sterilizing all life, I realized that it’s like a Dalek. Could the mysterious Tan Ru be Davros?
The scenes in Sickbay with Uhura are quite affecting. And that thing killed Scotty! They really manage to build a sense of human cost into this episode. I don’t quite buy the business about re-educating Uhura from a blank, irreversibly emptied mind–the resolution of that plot point was just irresponsible and I’m not going to think very much about it. They should have explained that the task was to reawaken Uhura’s lost memories, or else just found a way to reverse the damage. I did like to see Nichelle Nichols work on a meatier acting challenge than usual, and she spoke Swahili, which she had to learn for the episode, quite convincingly. Also, any episode that has Uhura singing automatically earns an extra half point from me.
If I remember correctly, this is Spock’s third mind-meld of the series. Last time it was the Horta, this time a homicidal (genocidal?) machine. Something about the way Nimoy reaches out for the touch immediately elevates the scene to a higher plane.
I like this episode, and the concept of an intelligent machine–a Changeling–that is first sent away from Earth and comes back unforeseeably changed. They should make a movie out of this plot! (Oh, wait….) I like it despite the fact that you can clearly see the wire holding up Nomad on the Blu-ray remastered version of the episode. However….
Given that Nomad is both intelligent and recognizes Kirk as its master, it should have been possible to reprogram it, rather than cause it to destroy itself. I would think that explaining to Nomad the story of its own origin might be enough to correct the problem. If that seems too risky, just order it to receive new programming. I think Kirk and Nomad’s conversations could have benefited from a trained facilitator, skilled in both child psychology and Pascal (or whatever computer language Nomad was originally programmed in).
The benefits of preserving and harnessing the technology behind Nomad, rather than destroying it, are obvious. One thing that intermittently bugs me about Star Trek is that the crew seems very nonchalant about making discoveries that in real life would instantly change the course of history, make the careers of the whole crew, and provide for a lifetime of future study (The Guardian of Forever? The First Federation??). Instead, they shrug their shoulders and warp away to next week’s stupendous episode.
With the extra half-point for Uhura, 4 out of 5 first grade readers stored on magnetic tape.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changeling_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)
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