I AM NOMAD!!!

 Episode Title:  The Changeling

Air Date: 9/29/1967

Written by John Meredyth Lucas

Directed by Marc Daniels

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                 Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli         Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman                   Makee K. Blaisdell as Crewman Singh                 Barbara Gates as Unnamed  Crewwoman     Meade Martin as Unnamed Crewman                Arnold Lessing as unnamed Security Guard      Joe Paz as Security Guard     Marc Daniels as Prof. Jackson Roykirk        Vic Perrin as Nomad

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  none

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with the Enterprise heading toward the Malurian star system, but when they try to raise them on the communication system there is no answer.  Long-range sensors pick up that the planets' populations have been wiped out.  This of course the massive tragedy but also serious concerns the crew, for just two weeks ago they had defeated the planet killer.  Almost immediately the Enterprise is attacked and they’re bombarded by incredible power.  When Kirk tries to retaliate they find the photon torpedo fired is simply absorbed by the attacking force. 

The Enterprise is down to its last hit so in a desperate plea Kirk sends a message through the communication system hoping that the universal translator will be able to get it through accurately.  It works!  Their opponent responds to Kirk’s hail and identifies itself as “Nomad.”  The Nomad is very small so Kirk volunteers to have it be beamed aboard which Nomad accepts.

Nomad aboard!

When Nomad arrives on the transporter pad it demands to know the crew’s point of origin.  The Captain tells the device that they are from the United Federation of Planets to which Nomad responds with “non-sequitur.”  This confirms to Spock that Nomad is artificial intelligence and tends to identify problems like a computer normally would.   They take Nomad to look at some star charts and when looking at the charts it makes references to Earth.  Nomad declares Earth is also its point of origin and identifies Captain Kirk as its creator.  The crew uses Nomad’s belief that Kirk is its creator to manipulate it to reveal more information about itself.  Nomad explains that it is perfect and its primary mission is to seek out imperfections and sterilize them.  Nomad confesses to destroying all life on the planets that the Enterprise was trying to reach.

 In the conference room Spock had presented some research based on a statement Kirk made about a Nomad probe launched in the early 21^st century.   That probe’s creator was named Jackson Roykirk and the probe’s mission was to try to discover alien life.  Something happened and changed it however given it much more power, a new mission, and faulty memory.  Because of the similar name it thinks the Captain is its creator. 

Nomad finds Uhura's singing imperfect

While Crewman Singh is watching Nomad, who is placed in the auxiliary control room, he calls up to Uhura for some assistance.  While aiding the Crewman, Uhura begins to sing.  Nomad finds Uhura’s singing to be annoying so it leaves auxiliary control and heads to the bridge.  When it arrives on the bridge it confronts the Lieutenant about her singing.  When Uhura can’t explain why it is she sings to Nomad’s satisfaction it determines she is an imperfect human and begins to sterilize her.  Scotty tries to interfere and is killed by the device.  It appears his red shirt finally caught up with him.

When Kirk arrives on the bridge he is visibly angry with Nomad.  This actually comes clear to Nomad when it asks the Captain if the Scott Unit is another one of his creations.  When Kirk confirms that he is then Nomad offers to fix him.  This offer is a surprise considering that Mr. Scott is dead.  However after studying some medical books provided by McCoy, it is able to revive Mr. Scott.  When asked to do the same for Lt. Uhura, it claims it can’t because Uhura was not physically harmed only memories erased and they can’t be put back.  (I am going to have more to say about that in the “Additional thoughts” section.)

Scotty's red shirt catches up with him!

Captain Kirk decides it is best to put Nomad in high-security brig with two armed guards.   In order to learn the truth of the Nomad’s nature, Mr. Spock decides to perform a mind meld.  Despite the fact that this is a device not a biological organism, Mr. Spock believes that his it has evolved into a functional artificial intelligence and that will allow him to do the meld.  The mind meld to the probe is successful but difficult and Spock is almost absorbed by Nomad.  However what Spock has learned was worth the risk.  It appears the original Nomad had a collision with an alien probe called Tan-Ru.  Tan-Ru’s job was to sterilize soil samples.  When the two probes collided they tried to make repairs and ended up combining into one unit.  The combined probe assumed the identity of Nomad and its new purpose was to seek out life and sterilize the imperfections.

Nomad grows board with waiting so it kills its guards and heads to the engineering.  In engineering, it takes control of the ship and augments the vessel to go to faster than safe or even possible speeds.  Kirk arrives and orders it to back off.  When Nomad defends its actions by saying only the biological organisms would die and that the ship would be fine. Kirk lets it know that its creator is a human being.  This information shocks Nomad and it begins to reassess things.

machine mind meld

Nomad escapes confinement again kills a couple more guards.   It starts to research all it can on Captain Kirk.  Kirk has now had enough.  Nomad may be the most powerful artificial intelligence ever accidentally created but it was going have to match wits with Captain Kirk the Bane of all Artificial Intelligence.  In the space of a few minutes Kirk is able to show Nomad its imperfections and convinces it commit suicide.  While Nomad is doing its suicide countdown Kirk and Spock rush the dangerous entity to the transporter room and send into space just like they did Jack the Ripper.

In the end Spock warns that they may have lost an opportunity to learn from the probe.  Kirk mocks that idea by claiming that he was the one who truly lost for the thing thought it was his offspring so he could have had a son.  Given Nomad’s skills with medicine, seeing how well it fixed Scotty, he could’ve had a son grow up to become a doctor.

Additional thoughts: Okay let’s talk about what happened to Lt. Uhura.  I am calling bull****.   If what Nomad did to her is taken at face value that he essentially killed her and we now have a completely new person.   To be fair the episode mentioned she lost her “knowledge” not all her memories and the characters simply talk of retraining her but how do you separate memory from knowledge? 

So here’s what I think happened to Lt. Uhura.  I don’t take Nomad’s statements at face value.  It can’t even keep its own origin story straight and thought Captain Kirk was its creator.  I think what happened to the Lieutenant was she lost access to her memory.  However the memory was recoverable with simple triggers.  Once exposed to a trigger a memory reemerged.  This is why she went from knowing nothing to completing college level material at the end of the episode, and according to Dr. McCoy, will be back on the job by the end of the week.  Some evidence of this can be seen when Uhura was being tutored by Nurse Chapel.  All of a sudden Uhura went back and forth from English and Swahili.  Now as far as I know Nurse Chapel does not know Swahili.  This is evidence of Uhura’s natural knowledge returning to her.  Still it was a bad week to come back from vacation. 

Last I checked Chapel doesn't know Swahili

Nomad was some piece of work.  In the end it was some old space junk that mutated into a monster.  It committed genocide on several planets and almost destroyed the Enterprise.  I think we humans need to be more careful with what junk we throughout into space.  We don’t need it coming back to us and sending our starships flying through space with unheard of speeds.  I thought the Enterprise held up quite well against it.  At one point Mr. Spock said energy Nomad was omitting was equal to 90 photon torpedoes and the only caused the shields the buckle.

Please don't kill me again

When I was in college in the early 2000s, my history professor compared the historical figure Pompey the Great to Nomad for his actions in the Middle East prior to forming the First Triumvirate with Caesar and Crassus.

That look Kirk gets when it is time to destroy artificial intelligence 

These have been a rough couple weeks for the United Federation of Planets.  Two weeks ago The Doomsday Machine shows up and wipes out entire solar systems.  Now a nasty bit of space junk comes back and destroys entire planetary populations.  The 23^rd century is a very dangerous place.

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5

KIRK RUNS INTO JACK THE RIPPER WHO IS STILL KILLING AND NOW FRAMING SCOTTY

 

Episode Title:  Wolf in the Fold

Air Date: 12/22/1967

Written by Robert Bloch

Directed by Joseph Pevney

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk      Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Virginia Aldridge as Lieutenant Karen Tracy          John Winston as  Lieutenant Kyle            Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Judi Sherven as unnamed Nurse            Judith McConnell as Yeoman Second Class Tankris        John Fiedler as Hengist                       Charles Macaulay as Jaris         Pilar Seurat as Sybo              Charles Dierkop as Morla               Joseph Bernard as Tark                Tanya Lemani as Kara        Marlys Burdette as  Serving Girl               Suzanne Lodge as Argelian Waitress   Majel Barrett as Enterprise Computer

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Argelius II

I like Dr. McCoy's treatments

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The background to the episode is Mr. Scott was injured in an explosion caused by a female crew member.  He recovers but Dr. McCoy is concerned that is accident will cause could cause Scotty to develop a total resentment of women.  This doesn’t make any sense but 23^rd century brains must be wired a little bit differently.  Mr. Scott doesn’t seem to harbor any resentment towards women but in the 23^rd century we didn’t get rid of misogyny by standing around, if we think someone’s infected we perform an intervention.  In order to prevent Scotty’s potential emerging misogyny Kirk and McCoy intervene by beaming down with him to the planet Argelius.  While on the planet they take the Chief Engineer to a local strip club to remind him that women can be “good.” 

Pretty alien stripper

At the club there is a very pretty belly dancing stripper named Kara, who Scotty takes to.  Apparently already aware of his Chief Engineer’s type, Kirk had taken the initiative to invite her to sit with them after her act.  Upon hearing this Mr. Scott thanks his Captain for being one who “always looks out for his men.”  Scotty asks the stripper for some private time that she grants as strippers tend to do.  Kirk then turns to McCoy to remind him that there are some better clubs including his favorite and McCoy already knows where he means to go before Kirk finishes his sentence.  This means that the Captain who “always takes care of his men” does so at the cheaper strip clubs.

Scotty looking for some private time

All of a sudden they here a scream and run out to find the pretty stripper they saw earlier has been stabbed dead and Scotty is standing there holding the knife.  When confronted Scotty doesn’t remember what happened.  Two officials show up first an investigator named Hengist and the second is the Prefect of Argelius whose name is Jaris.  When he is questioned Scotty doesn’t remember anything that happened.  Hengist who is from Rigel explains that his office doesn’t have a lot of resources to deal with this because this type of thing rarely happens on Argelius.  Jaris mentions that they did have an ancient way of investigating that had to do with ESP and telepathy, and that his wife has these abilities. 

Kirk calls Spock to explain the situation and Spock wants to bring Mr. Scott to the ship but Kirk reminds the First Officer they are bound by the planets laws.  While Sybo, Jaris’s gifted wife is preparing, Kirk asks the Prefect if it would permissible for them to bring down a psycho-tricorder.  A psycho-tricorder is a device that was clearly invented last week and has the ability to scan Scotty’s mind and tell them everywhere he has been and everything that has happened to him.  This great little device would have been very useful in Kirk’s own court-martial, bad for Spock’s, and helpful with old Matt Decker last week. 

Scotty just can't remember!

  With permission from Javis obtained, the Enterprise beams down Lt. Tracy with the device to examine Scotty.  Tracy takes the Chief Engineer to another room and that is when Javis notices the murder weapon was missing.  A scream from the other room cause Kirk and Javis to head in there where they discover Lt. Tracy dead and Mr. Scott over her body claiming he can’t remember what has happened.

And another one bites the dust

Hengist returns with two “persons of interest” who were there the night of the first killing.  One was the musician who it turns out is the father of the first murder victim.  The second man is the ex-fiancé of the victim whose relationship ends because of jealousy; an emotion looked down upon on Argelius.  He strongly insists he wasn’t the murder and he wins over Hengist when Kirk tells all of them of the second murder.  To Hengist, Scott must be guilty he was found with both women at the time of the murders and had the weapon in hand for one.  Scotty is also warned by Javis that there hasn’t been a murder in so long that they haven’t changed the penalty.  That penalty is death by slow torture.  

Not the type of investigation I would want to save me from slow torture

Sybo is now ready to conduct the Séance and this investigation attempt proceeds over the objections of Hengist who feels the case was already solved.  Attending Sybo’s ritual are all parties involved including the two suspects, Scotty and the ex-fiancé.  While performing the ritual Sybo doesn’t name any of the suspects and instead she blames and ancient evil and called out some of its names "Kesla," "Beratis," "Redjac."  Then the room goes dark and Sybo screams!  The lights come back on and she is in the arms of Mr. Scott and the same dagger in her back. 

Third one today

Javis, who is clearly the most understanding person in the world, despite the fact that the love of his life has been killed with her killer seemly caught red-handed in his third murder of the day, nevertheless agrees to let Kirk continue the investigation.  Despite that Kirk is obviously biased in the matter and wants to relocate the investigation up to his ship, Javis continues to follow even with Hengist’s objections.  

The most understanding man in the universe

On the Enterprise they gather in a conference room to use the new psycho-tricorder on both Mr. Scott and the ex-fiancé.  Unlike the earlier promise about the psycho-tricorder's abilities the device is a simple lie-detector.  Both Mr. Scott and the ex-fiancé are cleared.  I hate to say it but it is at this point that the episode starts to get weird.  By feeding names that Sybo called out into the computer they come to the conclusion that the killer isn’t a man at all rather an energy creature that can assume human form and feeds on fear to make itself powerful.  It targets women because they generate more fear.  Their killer is none other than Jack the Ripper. 

Scotty cleared! It's Jack the Ripper instead!

Hengist continues to object to what he regards as simple “ghosts and goblins” not real investigative work.  However it is quickly pointed out that he his home planet of Rigel was the site of the last attack where he had claimed nothing like this had ever happened there.  It is then reveled that Hengist is Jack the Ripper.  Old Jack tries to escape but he is cornered and Kirk decks him.  To everyone’s surprise McCoy determines that he is dead.  Kirk maybe one of the greatest fighters in the galaxy but even he shouldn’t kill a person with a light punch.  Apparently the creature occupied a corpse thus restoring it to temporary life. 

Mr. Sulu as high as a kite!

However soon they hear the killer’s voice coming from the computer.  He is threatening to destroy them all, but he makes no move to do so yet.  Kirk reasons since he feeds on fear he would torment the crew first in order to generate it.  Now it should be pointed out at this phase the actor John Fiedler also played the character Piglet in The Adventures of Winnie the Poo and unlike a lot of voice actors he didn’t create a special voice for the character he just used his own voice.  So you need to imagine the voice of Piglet saying “I’m going to kill you all!”  I don’t understand how anyone would fine that intimidating it’s kind of like seeing a little dog park up a storm trying to scare you.  Nevertheless, Kirk doesn’t take this threat lying down.  He wants to insure that Jack the Ripper won’t be able to terrify, so he decides to drug his entire crew to the point they are so high that they can’t tell they’re in danger.  Then in order to get him out of their computer Spock enters the equation to the value of Pi and programs the computer to solve it.  This forces Jack the Ripper out.

Taking out the garbage

Jack tries to control Javis but he is quickly Vulcan nerve-pinched forcing Jack out.  Going back to his Hengist body he tries to take a hostage but fails.  With no fear to feed on he is weak and an injection traps him in the Hengist body.  Kirk and Spock take him to the transporter room and beam him into space.  Jack the Ripper is defeated, Scotty is innocent and the whole crew is stoned.  

Additional thoughts: It should be pointed out that this is not Robert Bloch’s only “Jack the Ripper is still alive and not even human” story.  He apparently had a number of them.  I am not going to talk about any of them here; I just thought it should be noted. 

                This is one of those episodes that even though it is not supposed to be funny it is in fact hilarious.  From Piglet Jack the Ripper and the stoned crew of the Enterprise there are no stop laughs in this episode.   It is just impossible to take any of it seriously.

One of things that annoys me not just here but in a lot of fiction is how skeptics are treated.  Here we have multiple murders with the same person seemingly caught red-handed each time.  The audience knows Scotty didn’t do it.  How the crew solves the case is the issue.  Do they use great detective work to clear him?  No, they use instead a séance, psycho-tricorders, and wild speculation with the computer.  Hengist is the only character pleading common sense rejecting the “ghost and goblins” approach.  It turns out this is a case of ‘smelt it dealt it’ and the skeptic wasn’t giving legitimate objections but rather trying to cover his own crimes.

The only voice of reason turns out to be Jack the Ripper!

I’m assuming the psycho-tricorder technology doesn’t last since I don’t recall ever seeing it again.  It didn’t seem like it was that great to begin with, it was supposed to record memories but it turned out to be just a fancy lie-detector.  If it did everything they said it could it have plot killed a lot of future episodes.   Of course we could always turn to the Vulcan mind-meld.  Hey why didn’t they use the Vulcan mind?

"I'm going to kill you all!"

It is nice to have an episode focus on Mr. Scott, but if we are going to that wouldn’t it be better to present him with a great engineering question to solve as opposed to falsely accusing him of murder?  He is a great character who’s always holding the ship together so Kirk and Spock can get the win.  He deserves more than an episode where he has a knife in his hand and a blank expression on his face saying “I don’t know.”

 FINAL GRADE 3 of 5