Line #47 Recap/StarTrekS2E24TheUltimateComputer


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/star_trek_the_ultimate_computer_4224.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Kirk confronts Dr. Daystrom.]]
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4	'''Original air date:''' March 8, 1968
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6	Dr. Richard Daystrom (William Marshall[[note]]better known as Film/{{Blacula}} and the King of Cartoons from ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse''[[/note]]), creator of computer systems that ships all over Starfleet use, comes aboard to supervise a test of his new M-5 multitronic computer. The M-5 has been designed to markedly improve the efficiency of vessels in which it's installed, ultimately making their crews obsolete. Most of the ''Enterprise'' crew is taken to a nearby Starbase, leaving only a tiny skeleton crew of twenty. Daystrom installs a box with a cut-off switch on Kirk's command chair which will enable him to return the ship to manual control.
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8	M-5 passes the first few tests with flying colors, making a landing party selection that seems better than Kirk's recommendation[[note]]M-5, with full access to the crew files, picks a crewmember as geologist who had visited the planet before, while Kirk, unaware of the crewman's history, recommended a different officer[[/note]], and operating the ship much more quickly than the crew can during a surprise mock battle with the ''Lexington''. After the defeated ''Lexington'' signals "our compliments to the M-5 and Captain [[FutureSlang Dunsel]] [[note]]Spock tells [=McCoy=] this is a Starfleet midshipman's term for a part that serves no useful purpose[[/note]], Kirk begins to question whether he really is out of a job. Then M-5 goes out of its way to destroy an un-manned Federation freighter the ''Enterprise'' encounters, and Kirk finds that the cutoff switch doesn't work at all. Kirk decides to pull the plug, but M-5 protects itself with a force field and the RedShirt who tries to unplug it from the ship's power supply in Engineering meets his destiny.
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10	After Spock questions why the computer is not behaving logically, Daystrom reveals that he imprinted his own memory engrams on the M-5, giving it his human instincts and adaptability, but (it turns out) none of his self-control or good sense. Soon the afore-planned wargames start and M-5, in full control of the ''Enterprise'', fatally cripples the ''Excaliber's'' life support, killing the ship's entire crew.
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12	The head of the games and Kirk's superior, Commodore Wesley, on the ''Lexington'', is unable to contact Kirk because M-5 is in control of the ''Enterprise's'' communications, and assumes that Kirk has gone rogue. He asks Starfleet to give him permission to have his remaining ships fire on the ''Enterprise'' with full-strength weapons. In the short time they have before Starfleet responds Daystrom talks to M-5, trying to find out why it did what it did. [=McCoy=] warns Kirk that Daystrom is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, knowing that his own creation, modeled on his own thoughts, could kill people when he himself is a sworn pacifist.
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14	Poor Daystrom's psyche begins to unravel, and as he starts to rant to the bridge crew that the M-5 can't and ''shouldn't'' be stopped he's treated to a Vulcan neck pinch. Spock advises Kirk to treat M-5 as a person rather than a computer. Kirk asks M-5 to scan the ''Excaliber'' for life signs. When M-5 can't detect any he explains to M-5 that what it has done is murder, and that the penalty for murder is death. M-5 agrees and shuts itself down, leaving itself, and the ''Enterprise'', open for attack by the Starfleet squadron.
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16	Commodore Wesley is just about to give orders to destroy the ''Enterprise'' when he notices that her shields are down...he knows it may be just a trap but decides to give Kirk a second chance and breaks off the attack. The M-5 is disconnected and disassembled, Daystrom is sent to where he can get some counselling, and the ''Enterprise'' goes on its way.
17	----
18	!!The Ultimate Tropes:
19	* AFatherToHisMen: Kirk is enraged and horrified when M5 vaporizes the unfortunate [[RedShirt Ensign Harper]], and at Daystrom's pathetic excuses.
20	--> '''Kirk:''' "That wasn't a minor difficulty! That wasn't a robot! That thing murdered one of my crewmen, and now you tell me you can't turn it off?!"
21	* AIIsACrapshoot: The crew of the ''Enterprise'' is shocked when the ship is outfitted with the M-5 multitronic unit, a powerful supercomputer created by Richard Daystrom, as a means of replacing humans. Some are curious, but Kirk is highly skeptical. His worries prove true when the ship starts going nuts, going so far as to destroy sister ''Constitution''-class ship U.S.S. ''Excalibur''. After they find out that Daystrom used his brain engrams as a template, Kirk is able to convince the computer that it killed someone and must be punished, causing the computer to shut down.
22	* AndThatsTerrible: Daystrom has to tell the M-5 that murder is wrong. Justified, as M-5 is a computer, and computers only know what they're programmed to know, nothing else. Empathy, compassion, and sanctity of life [[ThreeLawsCompliant have to be programmed in]] and apparently Daystrom didn’t do a good enough job programming those things in.
23	* BatmanGambit: Kirk uses one in the end. With the M-5 shut down, he orders Scotty to shut down everything when communications can't be brought up in time. He hopes that Wesley won't attack with everything down. Thankfully, Wesley decides to take the risk and orders the attack force to stand down.
24	* BottleEpisode: Producer John Meredyth Lucas bought Laurence N. Wolfe's unsolicited teleplay because it could be made fast and cheap, using only the existing ''Enterprise'' sets, and decided to direct the episode himself.
25	* BrokenSystemDogmatist: Daystrom slowly becomes this, along with his SanitySlippage, as he tries to explain away the errors that the M-5 keeps making, until eventually the M-5 starts killing people, and he goes all out AGodAmI.
26	* BrainUploading: How Daystrom created M-5's AI. Spock sarcastically suggests that Bones do the same thing, predicting that the resulting AI would be completely dysfunctional.
27	* CargoShip: InUniverse between Spock and the M-5.
28	--> '''Bones:''' Did you see the love light in Spock's eyes? The right computer finally came along.
29	* CatchPhrase: {{Lampshaded}} after Spock gives his appraisal of Daystrom's behavior re the M-5:
30	--> '''Bones:''' Spock, please do me a favor, and ''don't'' say it's "fascinating."\
31	'''Spock:''' No, but it is... interesting.\
32	'''Bones:''' ''[rolls eyes]''
33	* CurbStompBattle: The M-5 destroys the ''Excalibur'' and seriously damages the ''Lexington'', ''Hood'', and ''Potemkin'' within the first few minutes of the war game exercise. Justified, as none of the other ships expected M-5 to use weapons at full strength.
34	* CutTheJuice:
35	** How the ''Enterprise'' crew tries to take out M-5. Scratch one RedShirt.
36	** Later, how Kirk hopes to prevent the Federation battle fleet from destroying the ''Enterprise'' since communications are still out.
37	* DespairEventHorizon: M-5, once Kirk helps it realize what it's done.
38	* EasilyCondemned: After the ''Enterprise'' begins attacking the other ships, Wesley assumes awfully quickly that Kirk has gone rogue rather than blame the M-5, which had been in command earlier.
39	* FacialDialogue: Through averted gaze, popped eyes, and slight gyrations of the head, we can see pretty clearly during Daystrom's earlier MotiveRant in Engineering, both that Daystrom is starting his SanitySlippage and that Bones [[SpottingTheThread is noticing it]]. This makes his later assertion that Daystrom is "on the verge of a nervous breakdown, if not complete insanity" fairly easy to determine for ourselves.
40	** There's also the moment after Commodore Wesley calls Kirk "Captain Dunsel". No one except [=McCoy=] says anything, but Kirk's blank-eyed stare as he shuffles off the bridge and the stunned[=/=]disgusted looks on everyone else's faces tells the audience that Wesley might as well have just beamed onto the bridge and sucker-punched him in the kidneys.
41	* FailsafeFailure: Before the test starts, the ''Enterprise'' crew installs an override switch on Kirk's command chair, allowing him to override M-5's control over the ship's systems in case something goes wrong. Naturally, the switch is rendered inactive when M-5 starts going rogue.
42	* FamousFamousFictional: Daystrom is a recipient of "the Nobel and Zee-Magnees prizes", and Kirk compares him to "[[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein Einstein]], Kazanga, or Sitar of Vulcan". In each case, the first is real and the rest of the list is fictional.
43	* ForgetsToEat: At first, it looks like Bones is reminding Kirk to eat when he brings in a covered dish. Turns out, he just figured that Kirk [[INeedAFreakingDrink needed a freaking drink]] after all that happened.
44	* FriendshipMoment: The other two members of the show's PowerTrio each try to support their captain and friend as he faces the possibility of losing his ship.
45	** [=McCoy=]:
46	--->'''Kirk''': To Captain Dunsel.
47	--->'''[=McCoy=]''': To James Kirk, Captain of the ''Enterprise''.
48	** Spock:
49	--->'''Spock''': Practical, Captain? Perhaps. But not desirable. Computers make excellent and efficient servants; but I have no wish to serve under them. Captain, a starship also runs on loyalty to one man, and nothing can replace it, or him.
50	* FutureSlang: A "dunsel" is a thing that serves no purpose. Ironically, the character in the (non-canon) continuation novels of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' who was named after the slang term sacrificed himself and his ship to protect other ships, the very opposite of a thing that serves no purpose.
51	* GloryDays: Daystrom's FreudianExcuse for being so obsessed with the success of the M-5 is that he doesn't want anyone to think that he's a TeenGenius who fizzled out.
52	* GutFeeling: Kirk has an uncomfortable sensation that something is wrong about M-5, but he wonders if it's just because he's jealous. It isn't.
53	* HopeSpot: It looks like Spock and Scotty have successfully cut off the M-5, until Sulu and Chekov find that their controls are still unresponsive.
54	* InstantAIJustAddWater: M-5 starts draining power from the ''Enterprise'' to boost its own computing capacity.
55	* JerkAss: While not without his good side, Wesley comes off as majorly insensitive because of his witticism while the M-5 is still doing well: "Our compliments to the M-5 unit, and regards to Captain Dunsel. Wesley out." As stated in FutureSlang, a "dunsel" is something which serves no useful purpose. Kirk is so stung by hearing it that all he can do is [[HeroicBSOD shuffle off the bridge without a word]], while the rest of the command crew look absolutely disgusted with Wesley's quip. Jeez, Bob, what did Jim ever do to you?
56	** He's also very quick to assume that Kirk is the one who ordered the attack on the ''Lexington'' and the other Starfleet ships, rather than the more reasonable conclusion that the M-5 computer is malfunctioning.
57	** That said, he does become something of a JerkWithAHeartOfGold at the end, when he refuses to fire on the powerless and vulnerable ''Enterprise'' when he has the chance, which Kirk credits to Wesley's sense of humanity.
58	* JobStealingRobot: M-5. Kirk and Bones discuss the history of technology making certain jobs obsolete.
59	* LargeHam: William Marshall delivers both the crew and audience a large, honey-glazed, ham-stuffed ham as Dr. Richard Daystrom. To see [[HamToHamCombat Daystrom vs. Kirk]] throughout the episode is an extra-hammy [[NarmCharm ham-filled ham sandwich]], a hammy combination, even for the original [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]. Few other episodes deliver such a large serving.
60	* LogicBomb: This should just be called "The Kirk Maneuver" considering how many times Kirk has used this to defeat out-of-control computers. In this case, he argues that the M-5 was designed and programmed so that humans wouldn't have to risk themselves in space, and that by murdering the crew of the ''Excalibur'', M-5 has violated its own core programming.
61	* LuddWasRight: Kirk does not like the idea of his job being taken over by a computer. Especially when [[StrawmanHasAPoint M-5 tags him and [=McCoy=] as "non-essential personnel" for a landing party]].
62	* MamaDidntRaiseNoCriminal: [[BrokenSystemDogmatist Daystrom stubbornly refuses to admit that his computer was at fault]]-- he created it, and he's a pacifist, so his machine should not be able to engage in unprovoked aggression.
63	* MildlyMilitary: Kirk is in command of the ''Enterprise'' at the end of the episode as it flies back from the war game location to the starbase where the rest of the crew was left. If a current US naval vessel so much as ''dented'' another during an exercise (let alone effectively destroyed it, like ''Enterprise'' did to ''Excalibur''), [[TheChainsOfCommanding the captain would be relieved even if it wasn't directly their fault]] (or, as in Kirk's case, it wasn't remotely his fault at all) pending an investigation to '''make absolutely fucking certain it wasn't his fault.'''
64	* MotiveRant: While M-5 is laconic about its motives, and can be talked to and logically reasoned with by someone a little further away, Daystrom's old insecurity and pain ends up sending him down a different path that gives the actor a hell of a scene to perform.
65	-->'''Spock:''' I am most impressed with the technology, Captain. Doctor Daystrom has created a mirror image of his mind...
66	-->'''M-5:''' ...my consideration of all programming is that we must survive.
67	-->'''Dr. Richard Daystrom:''' We ''will'' survive! ''Nothing'' can hurt you. I gave you that. You are great, I am great... ''[starting to lose focus]'' Twenty years of groping, to prove the things I'd done before were ''not'' accidents... ''seminars'' and ''lec''tures to rows of fools who couldn't ''begin'' to understand my systems! ''[remembering]'' Colleagues-- colleagues ''laughing'' behind my back at the Boy Wonder, and becoming famous building on ''my work.'' Building on '''''my work!'''''
68	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When forced to confront the fact that it murdered hundreds of people on the ships that it attacked, M-5 shut itself down, leaving itself open to destruction to [[RedemptionEqualsDeath atone for its crimes]].
69	* NoConservationOfEnergy: This episode correctly predicts that future computers would draw more power for complex tasks than for simple ones, although tapping into the warp engines seems excessive! What's overlooked, however, is that all that energy ends up as heat. M-5 is drawing vast amounts of power, yet somehow avoids melting into slag.
70	* OneLinerNameOneLiner: When Daystrom starts to realize how far out-of-control the M-5 is during the botched war game.
71	--> '''Daystrom:''' [[DoubleDontKnow I really don't know how to get to the M-5, Kirk. I really... do not know.]]
72	* OffTheShelfFX: The other four starships are AMT plastic model kits.
73	* PaintballEpisode: For the wargames, the phasers on all ships are set at 1% power, with all simulated damage recorded by computer. This then gets {{defied}} when M-5 turns the ''Enterprise''[='=]s phasers up to full power and cuts loose against Wesley's flotilla.
74	* PrecisionFStrike: At least by the standards of the time:
75	--> '''Wesley:''' Full phasers? ''What the devil is Kirk doing?!''
76	* RealAwardFictionalCharacter: Daystrom is cited as a Nobel Prize winner for the invention of duotronic computers.
77	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Commodore Wesley tries to discover what's gone wrong with ''Enterprise'', and when presented with an opportunity to destroy Kirk's ship, he orders a stand-down because the ''Enterprise'' drops her shields and deactivates her weapons.
78	--> '''Kirk:''' I wasn't sure. Any other commander would have [[JustFollowingOrders simply followed orders]] and destroyed us, but I knew Bob Wesley. I gambled on his humanity.
79	* {{Redshirt}}: M-5 vaporizes Harper, much [[AFatherToHisMen to Kirk's horror and rage]]. Daystrom tries to excuse this by saying "M-5 needed more power... the Ensign merely got in the way". At that, Kirk growls "And how long before we ''all'' 'just get in the way'?"
80	* RedShirtArmy: The crews of the other ''Constitution''-class ships. We only meet Commodore Wesley, and the ''Excalibur'''s captain is the only other one given a name (when he dies).
81	* ReligiousRobot: Daystrom apparently taught M-5 that [[ThouShaltNotKill murder violated the laws of both Man and God]].
82	* RottenRoboticReplacement: A computer called the M-5 is installed on the Enterprise to determine if it can replace James Kirk as captain of the ship. M-5 [[AIIsACrapshoot develops artificial intelligence, goes crazy, and tries to destroy four other Federation starships]].
83	* RulesLawyer: Daystrom is quick to point out when Kirk has to put the M-5 in command, even though Kirk is very reluctant.
84	* SanitySlippage: As M-5's murderous misdeeds become more and more impossible to downplay, [[BrokenSystemDogmatist Dr. Daystrom's attempts to rationalize them]] drive him over the edge until he is raving hysterically and has to be neck-pinched into submission.
85	* SayMyName:
86	--> '''Kirk:''' DAYSTROM!!!
87	* SkewedPriorities: It's symptomatic of just [[SanitySlippage how far round the bend Daystrom has gone]] that, when he hears that the three other Federation ships are preparing to destroy the ''Enterprise'', his reaction is "They can't do that! They'll destroy the M-5!"
88	* StockFootage:
89	** The space station seen at the beginning of the episode is recycled footage of Deep Space Station K-7 from "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E15TheTroubleWithTribbles}} The Trouble with Tribbles]]".
90	** The SS ''Woden'' is recycled footage of the SS ''Botany Bay'' taken from "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS1E22SpaceSeed}} Space Seed]]".
91	** The crippled USS ''Excalibur'' is recycled footage of the USS ''Constellation'' from "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E6TheDoomsdayMachine}} The Doomsday Machine]]".
92	** A close-up of the three scanning heads on the trident scanner in this episode seem to be a re-use of the disruptor weapons from "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E23ATasteOfArmageddon A Taste of Armageddon]]".
93	* SuicideByCop: Or in this case, "suicide by Federation Starship". Lucky for our heroes, Commodore Wesley doesn't take the bait.
94	* ThirdPersonPerson: M-5 always refers to itself as "this unit."
95	* ThouShaltNotKill: One of Daystrom's basic reasons for creating the M-5 was to save human lives, and the difference between self-defense and murder becomes an explicit conversation between a couple of geniuses and a machine that doesn't quite get it here.
96	* ThreeLawsCompliant: M-5 fails the first law spectacularly, though Kirk has to hammer it with the fact that it ''did'' commit murder.
97	* UnseenPrototype: M-1 through M-4.
98	* VitriolicBestBuds: Per the norm, Spock and Bones snipe at each other at every opportunity.
99	* WildGooseChase: Or, as TheSpock puts it, "pursuing a wild goose" is what happens when they try to cut off a circuit that M-5 has already bypassed.

Context Recap / StarTrekS2E24TheUltimateComputer