Trivia / Star Trek S2 E24 "The Ultimate Computer"

• Acting for Two: in addition to his usual role of Scotty, James Doohan provided the voices of the M-5 computer and the unseen Commodore Enwright.
• Prop Recycling: Commodore Wesley's high-backed command chair appears to be the same one used on the ISS Enterprise's command chair in "Mirror, Mirror".
• Reality Subtext:
  • William Marshall stars as Dr. Richard Daystrom, a prideful and ultimately fanatical computer designer. His eventual Sanity Slippage carries a haunting subtext: Daystrom delivers a heartbreaking monologue about how he's been mocked and ridiculed and underestimated by people who did not understand him or his genius. In real life, Marshall was a classically trained actor and opera singer who likely suffered similar indignities and a shortage of opportunities because he was African-American.
  • At the time of filming, the show was very close to being cancelled, adding quite a bit of pathos to Kirk's worry that he'll be out of a job soon.
  • "Robert Wesley" was in real life the pseudonym Gene^note "Wesley" being his middle name Roddenberry used for Dragnet scripts he wrote while still an LAPD officer.
  • Kirk's worry that he's just petty about not getting the prestige and attention works as a pretty decent meta-statement on Shatner's Attention Whore attitude at the time (which he later regretted).
• You Look Familiar:
  • Barry Russo, who played Commodore Wesley in this episode, had previously portrayed Commander Giotto.
  • Sean Morgan, who portrayed Harper in this episode, also appeared in six other episodes, including Brenner in "Balance of Terror ", and O'Neil in "The Return of the Archons". He later returned as O'Neil in "The Tholian Web".

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