THE STAR TREK FRANCHISE REWATCH PARTY #53 "The Ultimate Computer"

WARNING: This thread WILL contain unhidden spoilers for this entry. Because this re-watch is in a slightly-subjective chronological order and not in production order, please refrain from talking about the content of other episodes or movies in this thread. If you do, please put that content inside spoiler tags. Some people here may be watching Star Trek for the first time.

#53: Star Trek: The Original Series, season 2, episode 24 “The Ultimate Computer”

Written by D.C. Fontana & Laurence N. Wolfe, directed by John Meredyth Lucas.

Stardates 4729.4 through 4731.3 (August 2268)

“You are great. I am great.” - Doctor Richard Daystrom

The Enterprise arrives at Starbase 6 as ordered, but without knowledge as to why. When Captain Kirk starts to lose patience and demands an explanation, his old friend Commodore Robert Wesley beams aboard and tells him that almost all of his crew must disembark - leaving only 20 people aboard the ship. The reason for this is the legendary Doctor Richard Daystrom (William Marshall), who is coming aboard, has developed a new computer called the M-5. It can fully automate an entire Starship, and Wesley is going to conduct war games with an M-5-powered Enterprise pitted against four other Constitution-class starships to see how good the M-5 really is. As Daystrom installs and babies his M-5 prototype, and it assumes control of the ship with particular success, it slowly begins behaving in a way that Commander Spock refers to as interesting and illogical.

Originally released: 8 March 1968

"The Ultimate Computer" on Memory Alpha (mirror)

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