Jammer's Review
Star Trek: The Original Series
"The Ultimate Computer"
Air date: 3/8/1968
Teleplay by D.C. Fontana
Story by Laurence N. Wolfe Directed by John Meredyth Lucas
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
Starfleet informs Kirk that the Enterprise is to serve as test subject for the new M-5, a groundbreaking advancement in computer technology, designed to make command decisions faster than captains and reduce the number of people required to run a starship. An astute allegory for contemporary automation at the expense of "the little guy," this episode's first few acts are superb, as Kirk finds himself debating whether he's selfish for wanting to keep his job at the expense of technological progress, or if it's a matter of actual danger or principle.
A wonderfully acerbic debate between Spock and McCoy about the role of computers is also well conceived, ending in Spock's well-put notion to Kirk, "...but I have no desire to serve under them." Following the M-5's initial success, the scene where another captain calls Kirk "Captain Dunsel" is the episode's best-played and simultaneously funny and painful moment. (In a word, ouch.)
Once M-5 runs out of control and hijacks the Enterprise—resisting attempts to be shut down in acts of self-preservation (including murder and eventually full-fledged attacks on other Federation starships), the episode turns to an frightening analysis of M-5's creator, Dr. Richard Daystrom (William Marshall), a man obsessed with outdoing his prior successes, who has created a monster that he has come to regard as a child. Though it pushes a little hard toward the end (Shatner and Marshall going a bit overboard), the story is a compelling one.
Previous episode: The Omega Glory
Next episode: Bread and Circuses
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1 comment on this review
The problem is that the entire crew of the Excalibur has just been murdered, along with a good chunk of the crew of the Lexington. Some 500 men and women dead, a horrific tragedy that's made even worse by the fact that the Enterprise was the instrument of their destruction. There's no way the bridge crew ought to look this happy in the closing moments, and Kirk, knowing that the ship he so loves was used to do such a terrible thing, ought to be truly anguished.
If this had been a first-season episode it probably would have ended on a somber note, but the second season got considerably lighter and "The Ultimate Computer" was only one of a number of eps that year to end with inappropriate humor.
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