The Enterprise responds to a distress call in a heavily-populated star system. No sooner has the ship arrived than it comes under fire - and it's quickly apparent that the ship has no chance of surviving this attack. Kirk hails the attacker, identifying himself... and the shooting stops, just as abruptly as it started.
The source of the assault is NOMAD, a probe whose mission is to destroy all life that it finds to be imperfect. It has confused Kirk with its creator (whose name was also Kirk), and wishes to study its creator's new vessel. Kirk beams it aboard, and does his best to contain the damage it can cause. But all he can do is stall for time while investigating NOMAD's origins and searching for a weakness. If NOMAD should discover that he is not its creator - or worse, that he is himself imperfect - then there will be nothing to do to save the Enterprise!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Ham: In his final confrontation with NOMAD, Shatner gets to display some of his patented. Line reading. Style. I'm not sure whether the machine self-destructs due to Kirk's computer-defying logic, or whether it self-destructs while attempting to rearrange sentence fragments into sentences. Either way, this episode sees Kirk again talking a deranged computer into destroying itself.
For the most part, Shatner has an excellent episode. Kirk attempts to deal with NOMAD through a variety of methods, placating it while also trying to minimize any damage it might do. Mostly, he is stalling for time, counting on the machine's error in believing him to be its "father" to gloss over his own imperfections.
That Vulcan Voodoo You Do: To get information about how NOMAD evolved from a harmless probe into its current state, Spock mind-melds with it. He does get the information, but has difficulty extricating himself afterwards. Nimoy seems to enjoy indulging his inner ham while reciting, "I am NOMAD!" over and over again at the end of the mind-meld scene. Spock doubtless also feels ever so slightly smug that NOMAD finds him to be "well-ordered," quite a compliment given the machine's very exacting standards!
Uhura: In a rather insulting subplot, Uhura is mind-wiped by NOMAD. We are specifically told that her mind has been irretrievably emptied of all memories. But no worries! Her brain is intact, so she can be re-taught all the basic skills. Rather than having to be taken back to Earth to be cared for in a home as she runs through childhood all over again, she can apparently re-learn everything needed for her job in just a few weeks! I suppose "Hailing frequencies open" isn't particularly taxing. More than that, the annihilation of everything Uhura was, every memory she ever had, is treated as the subject of comedy relief. "Blue-ee?" In an episode I otherwise really enjoyed, this subplot struck an extremely sour chord.
Villain of the Week: The wonderful thing about NOMAD is that it isn't designed to look like a doomsday anything. It's just a basic probe, small and physically unthreatening. Completely featureless, its voice is equally expressionless. It isn't good, it isn't evil. It's just a machine that has gotten its wires crossed thanks to a space accident, and is fulfilling the wrong function, with no real thought or care about it. The episode's progression is a little like Charlie X, in that the machine is initially reluctant to go against Kirk, its surrogate father. But this is the opposite extreme, with absolute emotionlessness replacing the irrational emotions of Charlie.
ZAP THE REDSHIRT!
Redshirt count: Four. NOMAD zaps two security guards in a corridor. More cannon fodder is supplied so that later in the episode, NOMAD can zap two more.
THOUGHTS
Only a couple episodes after The Doomsday Machine (a couple episodes earlier, in broadcast order), we get another in which the Enterprise must deal with a planet-destroying machine. Fortunately, while the story backgrounds are similar, the plot mechanics are completely different. The opening makes it clear that Enterprise is completely outclassed by NOMAD in terms of space battles, leaving Kirk to probe for weaknesses of a different kind, while having to pretend to be the enemy's "father."
This set-up allows for a reasonably high amount of tension. There is never any question but that the machine can destroy the Enterprise at any time. Any point at which we forget the threat it poses, we get a sharp reminder of its awesome power. It kills Scotty, then revives him at Kirk's request. It wipes Uhura's mind, not in response to any threat but simply because it hears her singing and does not understand the logic. It also vaporizes security guards for target practice. I can only imagine that Kirk's security assignments are based on which redshirt cut in front of him at the mess hall. "Ensign Sanders took the last brownie when I went back for seconds - Assign him to guard NOMAD, Spock."
Aside from the thoughtless handling of the Uhura subplot, this is an extremely well-crafted episode. Kirk's stalling for time is well-portrayed. I enjoyed his attempts to deal with NOMAD on the ship - tentative enough to show awareness of the machine's power, but without once compromising his own authority. Kirk's probing of NOMAD's mission and its background sees Kirk taking reasonable steps and reasonable risks at every stage. And even though I made fun of Kirk's final facedown with the machine, it is actually quite a good scene. Shatner may let his inner ham show through, but it's still a good ham - enjoyable ham, rather than groanworthy ham.
The only things keeping this from a "9" are the Uhura subplot (which truly grates), and the stupid comedy tag scene in which Kirk muses about "my son, the doctor." OK, I get that you're relieved at having disposed of NOMAD. But more than 4 billion living beings are still dead. I'm not sure levity is the correct response.
Irritating comedy relief aside, this is another very good episode. By this point, Season Two is easily threatening to overtake Season One in terms of quality. I do question why the remastering team couldn't have made the security guards' attempts to phaser Nomad a little bit more convincing. Phaser effects in other episodes were fixed; why not in this one? Ah, well.
Rating: 8/10.
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Dear JP Halt: I enjoyed reading your take on this episode – IMHO, “The Changeling” is one of the five best in the entire series. I would give it an even higher score than you did - 9/10.
ReplyDeleteHere are some reasons why…
The key to understanding this episode is in the way Kirk treats NOMAD as a living being, rather than a machine. A case can be made that Kirk not only sees NOMAD as a living being, but as a child – his child (“It thinks I’m its mother”). This leads to Kirk overcoming NOMAD (or more precisely, the danger NOMAD presents) by reasoning with NOMAD, much the way a parent would talk to a child - much as he reasoned with M5 in “The Ultimate Computer” (but in a different way). Spock was right when he said to Kirk that NOMAD “almost qualifies as a life form”. Notice that, unlike McCoy (“That’s a laugh”), Kirk did not disagree with Spock’s assessment – he merely got to the point (“It’s a killer, Spock. I intend to render it harmless”). This approach is what made “The Changeling” as compelling as “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (essentially the same story as “The Changeling”, but with a much bigger budget) was dull. To make a story like this work, you need equal parts of pomp and neurosis. “The Changeling” had both while “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” had too much of the former, and too little of the latter.
By the way, the climactic scene, where Kirk shows NOMAD that it is “imperfect” and must “sterilize” itself, is the one scene in the whole series that illustrates why you need a larger than life actor (some would call him a ham) in the lead role. Ask anyone else to play that scene: Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Bakula, or Chris Pine – would you see something even half as good? Even Leonard Nimoy, or George Takei (also starship captains) playing that scene would leave something to be desired. If you ever need to prove to someone why William Shatner is irreplaceable as Captain Kirk, show them this scene.
A word about Vic Perrin, who provided the voice of NOMAD: Perrin was blessed with one of the all-time great voices in television history. Did his voice sound familiar? Still thinking? A hint: “There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission…” Yes, this is the same Vic Perrin who voiced the opening of the classic TV show “The Outer Limits”. Perrin gives NOMAD a voice blending enormous power (“I am perpetual” “I am NOMAD”), clinical logic (“Non sequitur. Your facts are uncoordinated”), and child-like curiosity (“Is the usage not correct?”). The trick to pulling off a story like this is to make you forget that NOMAD is a machine. Yes, William Shatner is perfect in playing Kirk in such a way to accomplish this, but a large part of the credit must be given to Perrin’s ability to blend the mechanical and human aspects of the voice of NOMAD as well.
I agree with the problem (as a plot device) of Uhura having her memory “wiped clean”. It might have worked better to suggest a trance or hypnosis that would eventually wear off. For this, I deduct 1 point.
A word about the “Random Element”: Some of the best ST TOS stories had one. Like “The City on the Edge of Forever” (Dr. McCoy) and ”A Piece of the Action” (The Book), this episode (“The Other”, the Tanru) –had a random, unexpected plot twist that made you pay attention. And, like all great random elements, it was perfect – both entirely plausible (as opposed to contrived) and impossible to ignore.
Finally, there was some brilliant comedy in this episode:
- The look on Spock’s face, when NOMAD says to Kirk “Is this one of your units, Creator? This one is different. It’s thought processes are well ordered”, is priceless.
- Spock: “My compliments Captain – dazzling display of logic”. Kirk: “You didn’t think I had it in me, did you?”. Spock [with a slight pause and complete deadpan look on his face]: “No sir”. Kirk: [shows hurt look on his face.]
- Spock: “Your logic was impeccable, Captain…we are in grave danger.”