I found a nit that might have to do with the original editing of the show. After M5 destroyed the freighter, Kirk told Uhura to inform Starfleet that they were shutting M5 down and were returning to the station. Uhura never mentioned that she was unable to get through. After the crewman was killed, however, McCoy mentioned that Communications was under M5's control, among other things. No one seemed surprised that the four starships were showing up for the wargames. When Kirk returned to the bridge, Uhura mentioned that she was STILL unable to break through M5's jamming, implying that she had tried previously.
By the way--how come M5 understood that the first, unscheduled altercation was only a game, and kept the phaser power down, but didn't for the real thing?

This episode must have been made quickly. Often in the episode you can tell when the scene changes takes because a charcters suddenly leaps to another position. The easiest place to notice this is when Kirk, Spock and McCoy go down to Engineering to "meet" M5.

And speaking of M5, Daystrom says that M1-M4 were unsuccessful. Presumably the M4 is a different one from that in "Requiem for Methuselah".

Scott refers to M5 shutting power down on decks 4 and 5. But Daystrom seems to call them decks 4 and 6.

If M5 acknowledged both messages from Commodore Wesley sayin that it's an M5 drill, how come M5 thinks of them as "enemy vessels"?

The reason M5 responds to the messages with "it's just a drill" is that M5 is lying to fool Commodore Wesley. By lulling his suspicions, he's easier prey. Kahn did the same thing in STII.

Does anybody else think Wesley was completely out of line for calling Kirk "Captain Dunsel"? In front of his own crew, to boot. Spock tells McCoy (and us) that it's an insult. For a commanding officer to insult a junior officer in front of his crew is totally inappropriate.

Hundreds (thousands?) of Starfleet officers die at the hands of the Enterprise, right? Kirk's career (responsible or not) has to take a hit for this one.

Why? He was "Captain Dunsel." Commodore Wesley seems to be in charge, AND he is the superior officer. He ought to take the blame.

GUEST STAR PATROL (It is great. You are great.)

William Marshall (Daystrom) was Blacula in the '70s films, "Blacula", and "Scream, Blacula, Scream".

For a fair test of M5's capabilities, it would, in my view, be necessary to remove all crew from the Enterprise. M5 would then be proving its mettle by flying "solo."

Had M5 performed well, I'm sure that would have been the next test. This test used Kirk's skelton crew as observers and, as seems obvious in hindsight, backup crew if M5 failed.

This episode is a great example of why Star Trek was both of its time and ahead of its time. It was ahead of its time in showing that a black man can be a genius and leading scientist in his field. It was of its time by making the black man a villain. An accidental and understandable villain, true, but still a villain.

I never understood why the Captain Dunsel line happened. Obviously the writer felt it was needed so the audience would feel sympathy for Kirk, but the way it was said implies that Wesley has been calling Kirk this name behind his back for quite some time and it either just slipped out or he decided to rub it in Kirk's face.

If the M5 computer had really done its homework it would have realized that the biggest threat wasn't the 4 starships, but rather Captain James "Computer Killer" Kirk.

Since scriptwriting and casting are different departments, and since I don't think there was anything in the original script that stated that Daystrom should be a black man, I don't think anyone can or should be blamed for casting a black man as a villian.

I wasn't saying anyone should be blamed. I was trying to make a comment about the times.

The last time I saw this episode, I thought it was interesting that they had cast a black man as a respected genius, in the 60's. Then I remembered that by the end of the show he would be urging M5 to destroy the other ships, making him a villain.

I realized that equal rights supporters would like the part about him being a respected genius, the racists would like the part about him being a villain.

I thought it was interesting casting that could appeal to a number of viewpoints, good and bad.

Does that clear up what I meant?

Keith - I understood your initial comment to mean the Trek staff was not afraid it would provoke a harsh reaction from the left if it cast a black man as a villain (though frankly, I really don't see Daystrum as a villain - quite the opposite -he's the fatally flawed hero (dramatic meaning) of the piece. I can't think of any work in which the hero is a villain.

Sure. The only reason I said anything was because years ago I went to a conference where a woman in her paper accused the writer of this show of racism because it portrays a black man as unstable and incompetent. I publicly tore her to shreds for her ridiculous thesis, I know that that isn't what you meant. I doubt that any such subleties entered the heads of the casting department, I think if anything was thought at all, it was someone trying to do something positive. Someone probably said "Oh, there's a role for a famous scientist in this epsiode, let's cast this guy!" Without taking into consideration that the guy goes insane at the end of the episode.

mf: Who is a villain and who is a hero is occasionally a matter of perpsective. The Red Baron was a hero to the Germans and a villain to the English. Kirk would be seen as a villain to the Klingons and Romulans because he prevented them from doing what they believed they had a right to do. I labelled Daystrom a villain, an accidental and understandable villain, because of what his creation did and because when he snapped he urged M5 to keep doing what it was doing. I would also label Captain Maxwell from the TNG episode The Wounded as a villain. Maybe there's a better word to use, but I can't think of one. (My English teachers would use the terms protagonist and antagonist instead of hero and villain, but to antangonise someone is a conscious act whereas, I think, a person can accidentally become a villain.)

I don't think the Trek staff were afraid of provoking a harsh reaction for casting a black man as a villain. This is the 60's we're talking about, prejudiced people had a lot more power then and their reaction was much harsher than those who believed in equal rights. If anything, I think that casting directors then would be more afraid of casting a black man as a hero because of the possible negative reaction.

Todd: I think the writer was just doing a story involving a genius under stress cracking from the strain, (i.e. a mad scientist;-) and didn't intend for it to be seen as an indictment of any race. As for the woman's claims of the character being incompetant, did she just not pay attention to Daystrom's accomplishments?

Keith--I think the term you're looking for is "tragic hero." Like the characters of the ancient Greek tragedies, Daystrom was a great man brought down by hubris (a Greek word that translates loosely as pride).

An advanced computer, even if it behaves like an "emotional human", should be able to correctly determine what sort of ships are real threats to the Enterprise.

Kirk asks the M5 what the penalty for murder is; the M5 replies "death". I thought the Federation had no death penalty? (Unless, of course, you go to Talos IV.)

Kirk compels M5 to want to self-destruct by demonstrating that it has murdered. If M5 really believes it had been under attack by the other starships, it could claim the deaths were due to self-defence, not murder.

At the end of the show, while McCoy and Spock are poking fun at each other in the turbolift, Spock should know that "illogic" is not a word. But hey, I guess English isn't his first language.

After the announcement that the Hood and Potemkin are moving off, Chekov bites his thumb nervously and looks really agitated. Could it be that he's especially worried about the Potemkin, since its named after a famous Russian scientist?

Maybe he's more worried because he knows the last Potemkin's crew mutinied and joined "the people's revolution" when they became fed up with a cold hearted, uncaring government that saw them as simple (expendable) cannon fodder and that was more interested in replacing them with machines then seeing to their economic security.
"Send my condolenses to Comrade Dunsal."

I saw the Sci Fi channels version of this one today, and I have to say it again. What they've done to the episodes is the absolute worst editing job I've ever seen for just about any syndication network running any series. There were times I almost could hear the episode cry out in pain. Those filthy Sci Fi channel butchers . . . there are rules . . . even in advertising . . . you don't keep hacking at an episode after it's been trimmed . . .

Well, what can you expect from a network that calls itself a "science fiction" channel, but shows episodes of "Hercules:The Legendary Journies?" An entertaining show, but definately NOT sci-fi!

Once again, Kirk defeys the laws of physics. When Kirk and Co go down to engineering to turn off M5, he walks headfirst into a focefield M5 put up. He walks headfirst into the forcefield and gets knocked.....sideways!

When I first saw the "Captain Dunsel", I thought, "Wesley, if this thing works, you're going to be Commodore Dunsel."

Yes, I also thought it strange that he would take such delight in the success of a device that would put him as well as Kirk out of a job. Perhaps Wesley didn't really like being a starship commander and the idea of a desk job with Starfleet appealed to him more than it did to Kirk. In either case, it was kind of a mean dig at Kirk.

It's a little unnerving to learn, in 'Data's Day', that in the NextGen era there's a (highly prestigious) Daystrom Institute. As the Chief points out in the Classic 'Guide', wouldn't the events of this ep "be enough to get you kicked off the list of Starfleet's top ten most beloved scientists?"

(There might be a partial - if uncanonical - explanation in Peter David's wonderful novel 'the Rift', in which Daystrom and the Enterprise crew interact with non-corporeal beings. Their technology so impresses the depressed doc that he not only snaps out of it...but goes on to invent the holodeck!)

Which works wonderfully by the way. Much less deadly than M-5.

Hehehehe

Perhaps the Holo-Deck is actually............M-6!!!!!! OHHHH, NNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

One more side giggle: The scientist who wants to take Data apart (in 'Measure of a Man'; don't remember the name?) is from the Daystrom Institute...which explains a lot. I can imagine how students would come out of that particular institution with 'Sentient machine = VERY BAD THING!' drilled deep into their psyches.

>(in 'Measure of a Man'; don't remember the name?) <

The name Maddox seems correct to me. Sound good to anyone else?

That's it! Thanx, Margie.

You're welcome! Anytime!

I wonder how often Bill gates has watched this episode and cried out, "I want an M-5! Somebody build me one!"

Would it be imprinted with Bill Gates' brain patterns...?

One word, D.K. - Eeeeeeeek! :0

If Daystrom did invent the holodeck then boy oh boy that explains everything on STTNG, DS9 & Voy!

Was it just me or did Chekov appear to have a fit of the giggles when the M 5 was about to destroy the ore freighter.

I must note that the footage of the disabled Starship comes from "The Doomsday Machine" (USS Constellation) and when the 4 Starships are attacking at once, it's just the footage of the Enterprise...TRIPLED! Those optical guys are real good!

Space Station K-7 returns! Nah--just kidding, it's a different base.

The explosion SFX come from "The Changling"

The 3 pronged device from "Metamorphosis" returns again in this episode!

Why is the speaker's oval light on when Kirk enters the transporter room?

BEST LINE: "Did you see the love light in Spock's eyes? The right computer finally came along." McCoy to Kirk about the M-5 & Spock

The power beam from the M-5 looks very real. KUDOS!

THERE ARE GREAT "MOVIE MOMENTS IN THIS EPISODE"

Quote: "All I ask is for a tall ship & a star to steer by" Kirk----he'll say it again in STV

Kirk's reaction to "Finnagle's Folly" is simular to that of his tasting of Romulan Ale in STII

YAWN! The creators decide to use (read: abuse) Sol Kaplan's "Doomsday Machine Jaws Theme" again.

Granted...it's a great piece and it's beautiful music...but let's move on now...shall we?

C'mon, Rene...be nice. (Or, more specifically, recognize comic irony when you hear it.)

Some of the attacking starships seem transparent at times.

The approach & the departure from the starbase comes from "The Trouble With Tribbles"

Does the M-5 computer remind anyone else of the H.A.L. computer in "2001:A Space Odyssey"?

I was up for the part in 2001, but that brown-noser HAL got it instead.

Cool shot of four ships in the same frame, although it is the same shot printed four times.
Didn't James Doohan do the voice of M-5?
The original air date of this ep (March, 1968) was just about the same time that "2001" opened in theaters, which may be more than coincidence, John.

Yes. He also did the voice of Trelane’s father in "The Squire of Gothos", the voice of Sargon in "Return to Tomorrow", and the voice of the Melkotian buoy in "Spectre of the Gun".

Oh yeah. He also played some guy named Scotty, too.

Not to mention most of the guest voices in the animated series, too (along with Majel Barrett). Must have saved the creators a mint.

Speaking of budget problems, I know that's the reason why HAL seems so futuristic and sophisticated while M-5 (from even further in the future) still chatters and whirrs like a hyperactive squirrel...but it bugs me anyway.

Captain Obvious: Actually, Trelane's father was voiced by Bart LaRue, though James Doohan is always erroneously credited for it.

LaRue also provided the voices of the Guardian of Forever, the voice of Empire TV in "Bread and Circuses," and the newscaster in "Patterns of Force."

Captain Wesley is sitting in Alt-Kirk's command chair from "Mirror, Mirror"

FUNNY THOUGHT: At one point, Daystrom points out that at the academy, he was called "The Boy Wonder" (Now THAT'S interesting...an African-American "Robin")....if Daystrom is "Robin", who is "Batman"?

'Boy wonder' is actually just kind of a generic term for anybody who achieves great things at an early age. I don't think the creators were trying to reference Batman...besides, William Marshall's too tall.

It would have been more fun if they did....I mean, "Batman" was a popular TV show in the 60's

Holy mistaken identity! If he's the boy wonder, then who am I? Maybe I'll have to change my name to 'Nightwing' after all!

GREAT SCENE: In Kirk's quarters, Kirk proposes a toast to "Capt. Dunsel"...McCoy stops him and says, "To James T. Kirk...Captain of the Enterprise."

Spock's line about not wishing to serve under a computer's authority is good too...he ends his statement with "Captain."...reassuring Kirk that he is still behind him all the way.

Once again, one of the phaser strikes on the Enterprise from the first drill creates minor damage to shield # 4. This happened in "Journey to Babel" and will happen again in "Elaan of Troyius" What is it anyway with that shield # 4?

This episode makes reference to G-d. M-5 says that murder is against the laws of Man and G-d.

NANJAO: Spock regrets that there is no automated replacement for the ship's surgeon. Of course, by the time of Voyager...

I wonder if M-5 would have used a time bomb...

Everyone is impressed when M-5 makes course changes. Then they encounter an automated freighter. What exactly are the old-fashioned computers on the freighter doing?

If M-5 is supposed to avoid men dying in space or on some distant planet then why does M-5 recommend sending down a survey party?

At the end, why can't Kirk contact Welsey by communicator? Ships's communications are down, not blocked.

After the Captain Dunsel line, why is Welsey so quick with the 'What's Kirk up to' when things go wrong?

Still, a good episode.

So you've just watched this on BBC 2 as well Sophie

I would think with the 'What's Kirk up to' line, Wesley knew Kirk was unhappy with M-5 taking over, and perhaps thought he had somehow taken over M-5 and was attacking them deliberately? (I know it's out of character for Kirk to do that, but does Wesley know that?

Yes, that's where I saw it. (And I know it's Wesley, now Welsey...)

Maybe Wesley is one of those blame culture guys. When it works, it's because I'm running a great project. When it doesn't work, it's because you screwed up.

I wonder where M-5's forcefield comes from. Is it part of the M-5 unit, and if so why is Daystrom surprised by it? He built it! Or is M-5 controlling a forcefield build into the ship?

Yes, to the latter. I'm not certain of the actual dialogue in the ep, but in the Blish early-draft version it's clear that M-5 has independently tapped into an Enterprise power source to create that forcefield.

Everyone is impressed when M-5 makes course changes. Then they encounter an automated freighter. What exactly are the old-fashioned computers on the freighter doing?

Good point (and IIRC Kirk does have a dismissive line here, like "All it's done so far is make some course changes...".)
I suppose it's concievable that M-5 reacted faster or with greater precision than the freighter's computers could.

If M-5 is supposed to avoid men dying in space or on some distant planet then why does M-5 recommend sending down a survey party?

I always figured 'avoiding men dying' was supposed to be interpreted as 'picking the best men to cope with the particular on-planet conditions'. I mean, at some point somebody's gotta head down there with a tricorder.

At the end, why can't Kirk contact Welsey by communicator? Ships's communications are down, not blocked.

Presumably that's how M-5 is controlling communications, by blocking the subspace signals somehow.

How come Wesley's chair had a much higher back than Kirk's? Is it because he is a commodore and Kirk is only a captain?

When Kirk and the M-5 are selecting personnel for the exploration on board, are those people they select supposed to be part of the current crew complement of twenty or are they just imagining that they are on board for the purposes of the exercise? I would think that astrologists and geologists would not be among the bare minimum crew, and I doubt that the Enterprise would carry TWO geology specialists on a skeleton crew.

Kirk says that Rawlins is the head geologist on board the Enterprise. Something must have happened to him between this episode and "That Which Survives" because the head geologist in that episode is D'Amato.

Scotty gives deck five as one of the levels were power was shut down. Daystrom explains that the levels that were shut down were full of crew quarters that were currently unoccupied. Let other episodes give deck five as the location of Kirk's quarters.

Kirk says that Rawlins is the head geologist on board the Enterprise. Something must have happened to him between this episode and "That Which Survives" because the head geologist in that episode is D'Amato.

Well, yeah, geologists wear red shirts, whaddaya expect?

Actually, in TWS, D'Amota wears a blue shirt.

Oh sure, wreck my joke aborning.

Noe that I think of it, having the geologists - scientists - in blue shirts does make a lot more sense. I must've been remembering another redshirt demise.

The point of the M-5 tests seems to be whether or not ships can be run by machine instead of man. These tests are completely unnecessary! The ore freighter M-5 destroys, the Woden, is already automated!

Erm...no.

Setting aside the fact that the Enterprise is a much, much more sophisticated ship than the Woden in the first place...the point of the M5 tests isn't just to see how well a computer can operate the starship; it's to see how well it can handle the functions of the humans aboard that starship.

The entire ep is structured around Kirk's fear that M5 might replace him - not that it might drive the ship for him!

Wouldn't the message from Wesley that the first encounter was an unscheduled M5 drill alert M5 to the fact that it was a drill? Especially since M5 acknowledged the message?

That was the whole point, that M-5 was malfunctioning. It was not being logical.

You miss my point, Brian. If it's an unscheduled drill, you don't want to alert M5 to the fact that it's a drill.

One gets the impression that Wesley really doesn't like being a starship captain, which is why he is so enthused about the possibilities of the M-5. This impression is later strengthened by the fact that when we next see him, he has a deskbound planetary administrative job as a planetary governor.

With Daystrom going insane, and with all the computer consoles exploding throughout the years, you have to conclude:
The computer consoles are PROGRAMMED to explode!

It would make sense if that were a self-destruct mechanism in case aliens are hijacking the ship.
But, that's not what we see happen in the aliens-hijack-the-ship episodes. Oh, well.

It seems to me that when the show was in production the Enterprise was given the status of a super-starship, more powerful than anything else out there; Romulan weapons (Balance Of Terror)? So what? She can take several hits. Klingon weapons (Elaan Of Troyius)? Not comparable, since the Enterprise takes a bunch of hits, returns fire and leaves them limping away. A single long duration shot is also enough to blow apart a D-7 (Day Of The Dove). Tholian firepower (The Tholian Web)? Substandard, since the ship takes several hits, but nullifies (at least temporarily) Loskene's ship. Add to that a pair of trips through that nasty galactic barrier, and you get a very, very powerful ship.
So powerful in fact, that just a couple hits on a sister ship is enough to render her lifeless (the Excalibur). Pitted against one another, the Constitution-class ships will meet their match, apparently. The Lexington took a direct hit with minimal shields, and lost at least 53 people that we know of. After that attack, the Potemkin, Excalibur, and Hood should have raised their shields, but somehow the Excalibur's crew dies. How did this happen? I'm guessing a mortal wound to their life support systems, suffocating the crew, because even if we can't see multiple hull breeches, the crew in the inner sections would still survive the attacks.
Had this show been done with the starship battles we see in Trek shows nowadays it would have been really interesting to see Constition-class starships fight each other.
The Daystrom Institute mentioned in TNG could be subject to debate, depending how you feel about the deaths of the Excalibur crew. Sure, he was responsible for creating M-5, and the computer killed them, but do we blame Henry Ford for all the traffic accidents and deaths his cars caused? The last we see of the Doctor he's in terrible shape, but after some therapy he could have returned to a normal life and vindicated himself by creating bigger and better things that didn't harm people. M-5 could have been his only failure. I note that Mariah Carey, too, had something of a breakdown, but down the road are we supposed to alienate her from pressures that overwhelmed her? The same for Daystrom; he probably got better, and his Institute (which could have been around for decades prior to the M-5 incident) could have payed restitution to the victim's familes. He built M-5 to help people, so once he was rehabilitated, I'm sure he would have been horrified by what he'd done and sought out ways to make amends.

Sure, he was responsible for creating M-5, and the computer killed them, but do we blame Henry Ford for all the traffic accidents and deaths his cars caused?

Only difficulty there, Will, is that Ford's creation wasn't inherently harmful. There was no safe way to implement the M-5, and furthermore Daystrom knew it.


I note that Mariah Carey, too, had something of a breakdown, but down the road are we supposed to alienate her from pressures that overwhelmed her?

Erm...minor difference between a pop diva cracking under the strain of too much adulation, and an engineer responsible for implementing computers that would control incredibly complex ships that would constitute the only means of safe travel for hundreds of innocents snapping while doing the programming, wouldn't you say?


The same for Daystrom; he probably got better, and his Institute (which could have been around for decades prior to the M-5 incident) could have payed restitution to the victim's familes. He built M-5 to help people, so once he was rehabilitated, I'm sure he would have been horrified by what he'd done and sought out ways to make amends.

You make a decent case. However, it rests on a few very shaky assumptions:

a)Although Daystrom's spectacular achievements to date are catalogued pretty thoroughly in this ep, no one mentions an Institute (indeed, it's the sort of thing you get as an elder statesman of your profession, not as a boy wonder). It's strongly implied here that he's in fact still trying to prove that the first breakthrough wasn't a fluke.

b)If the Institute is a non-profit research centre, as NextGen strongly implies, where's the funding coming from to make amends to families? Besides, wouldn't a more fitting memorial be to not name the ruddy building after the man who killed their loved ones in the first place?

c)I'm sure Daystrom was completely horrified at his and his compu-conscience's actions once he recovered. However, we never do get a (canon) explanation of what happened afterwards - we don't even know if he did recover, come to that! So when NextGen just drops the name casually into conversation in connection with an ultra-prestigious research centre, it's sloppy writing at the very least.

Heck, what about the obvious solution? Maybe he founded the Daystrom Institute BEFORE the M-5 incident, and the name remained?

Yeah, but again, Scott, this ep doesn't mention anything so prestigious, despite going into GREAT detail as to Daystrom's achievements to date - and emphasising that he's trying to convince the rest of the scientific community that they weren't a fluke.
I dunno, I'd imagine if he'd come up with anything as permanent as an Institute someone would have brought that up as a counter-argument, somewhere.

The Enterprise also takes the equivilant of 270 of her own photon torpedos in "The Changeling", and emerges none the worse for wear.

Sure, he was responsible for creating M-5, and the computer killed them, but do we blame Henry Ford for all the traffic accidents and deaths his cars caused?

Only difficulty there, Will, is that Ford's creation wasn't inherently harmful. There was no safe way to implement the M-5, and furthermore Daystrom knew it.

Daystrom did not know his computer was dangerous. He though it was perfect and would handle space travel without humans needing to put their lives at risk. Standing around and ranting about how your machine (a machine you no longer have control over) "is perfect" after it malfunctioned and killed people is hardly a capital crime.

c)I'm sure Daystrom was completely horrified at his and his compu-conscience's actions once he recovered. However, we never do get a (canon) explanation of what happened afterwards - we don't even know if he did recover, come to that! So when NextGen just drops the name casually into conversation in connection with an ultra-prestigious research centre, it's sloppy writing at the very least.

Just because they'd don't write some explaination in crayon for everyone and just the viewer make their own assumption for how the Daystrom institute came about (if he recovered or not and if he ever did anything else agian) hardly makes it sloppy writing. Also as for dealing with it in TNG the episode where LaForge creates the holographic Leia Brahms she was origionaly supposed to be named (something) Daystrom but the casting people didn't know they needed a black actress so they changed the character's name since it was too late to get another actress.

Standing around and ranting about how your machine (a machine you no longer have control over) "is perfect" after it malfunctioned and killed people is hardly a capital crime.

OK, point taken. I obviously was remembering a different version of this dialogue.

Just because they'd don't write some explination in crayon for everyone and just the viewer make their own assumption for how the Daystrom institute came about (if he recovered or not and if he ever did anything else agian) hardly makes it sloppy writing.

We're gonna have to agree to disagree on this one - for me, from an ex-boy-wonder who had a total breakdown trying to duplicate one breakthrough, to revered figurehead for a prestigious Institute, is just too big a leap of imagination to make without a few more details.

No, I don't require 'crayon' - I agree that would be more insulting than the original lack of effort - just a couple references to Daystrom's subsequent achievements would've been nice. Planning on making a reference isn't quite the same thing as actually doing it. (Esp. since Peter David gave them such a perfect lead in The Rift.

...the episode where LaForge creates the holographic Leia Brahms she was origionaly supposed to be named (something) Daystrom but the casting people didn't know they needed a black actress so they changed the character's name since it was too late to get another actress.

Sigh...chalk this one up next to 'Meeting Joanna McCoy' on my personal Memo Board of Ideas I Wish With All My Heart the Writers Hadn't Abandoned.

Perhaps when Daystrom died he donated everything he had to found the institute (you'd figure even from his first breakthrough he should be worth quite a lot.) Stranger things have happened if someone left everything they had to found some sort of foundation.

Alfred Nobel (as in the Nobel Peace Prize) founded a company that developed explosives. The reason he started the foundation was because a newspaper once published his obituary when a guy with a similar name died. The obituary concentrated on the military uses of his invention, and he didn’t want to be known as a weapon creator.

Heck Joseph Pulitzer (as in the Pulitzer Prize for excellence in journalism) was as unethical a newspaper publisher as you can get.

Hmmmmm...wracked with guilt, our tortured scientist founds a research institute to ensure that nothing like it ever happens again? I can definitely buy that. Still wish I'd seen it onscreen, but I can buy it.

William Marshall (Daystrom) died the other day.

No! I cannot die! I am the prefect scientist! Perfect, I tell you!

When Kirk is knocked sideways by the forcefield, did M-5 somehow manipulate the direction of the field to push Kirk aside? Of course, that force field shoulda come in handy in other episodes.

How well would M-5 have performed against another super-machine, namely the Doomsday Machine?
Hmmmm....

Hey, I'd spring for that on pay-per-view, definitely.

Come to think of it, I'd also be interested to see how M5 was programmed to handle unexpected internal threats, like the Psi 2000 virus or Redjac. Or what might have happened when it hit the 'Practical Joker' nebula (in TAS).

I think we've just created the seventh Trek series; 'Star Trek -M5' !!!

Doohan also does the Star Fleet voice replying to Wesley.

Spock here is aware of the colloquialism "wild goose chase" (he says "pursuing a wild goose,") but in "That Which Survives," he seems unfamiliar with it.

Sir Rhosis

Did ya ever notice that Daystrom rarely if ever looks at the characters he is talking to, It looks like to me he is reading the cue cards.

Kirk is the sole reason why the Federation has never suffered a takeover by the computers (like practically every other sci-fi universe): He always manages to blow them up!

Re:Last Comment
Mind you, when they try the "compute the value of Pi to the last digit" gambit on M5, late on in the show, M5 replies that it is a Irrational number (i.e It has a infinite sequence of non-repeating digits,) & as such, it cannot be computed to the last digit,& refuses to obey the command.
In Short, M5 gives Kirk "The Finger"...
(The early "draft" script has Kirk trying to order M5 to work out the Square Root of 2 to it's last decimal place instead of Pi)

Re:Will's 28 Jul 2003 Comment
I suspect that a M5 controlled Enterprise would not directly initiate combat with the Doomsday Machine, but would firstly :-
1)Attempt to disengage, & alert Starfleet Command to the Machine's existance, it's "current" course/heading, the Machine's "Projected" Course/heading, & as much data on the Machine's capabilities it can.
2)Transmit data to Starfleet about the "current" status of the Planets in the L-370 System, & a comparison with the inital data of the L-370 system, which is in it's database.
After this, I suspect, it would execute a series of "Harassing" attacks on the Machine, to gather further data on it's capabilities, while trying to avoid it's "return" fire.
This would hopefully give Starfleet time to assemble a "Battlegroup" to later attack the Machine.

It was in "Wolf in the Fold" that the computer was told to compute the value of pi, in order to drive out Redjac. And it worked. Spock was the one that mentioned that it was a number without resolution, not the computer.

The staple sci-fi alternative to asking a computer to calculate pi is to simply input the question "Why?"

Which causes it to explode in every sci-fi universe (especially Dr Who, etc.) except Discworld, in which it simply computes the answer "Because".

People wonder about the computer referring to "God" and its belief that the penalty for murder is death. I submit that these may not be commonly held beliefs amongst all people of Star Fleet and the Federation, but are beliefs that Daystrom held and which M-5 received via his imprinting his engrams on it.

Sir Rhosis

Watching Daystrom's speech about men dying on some alien world when they didn't have to, and wanting to save life it occurred to me that Daystrom might have been affected by a personal tragedy, a son or brother dying thanks to a Starfleet mission that went wrong.
His hesitation to speak too roughly with M-5, showing affection for his computer (just before his breakdown) made me wonder if the voice of M-5 might even be a synthetic copy of this late son or brother!

The 2007---2008 schedule for the remastered Star Trek episodes was announced & TUC will be on February 09,2008.I'm disappointed that it won't be much sooner as I am a huge fan of this episode & always place it in my Top Ten List.The CGI modifications here have great potential.Though the script,directing,& acting are superb,you can clearly see the negative affects of a meager budget upon the visual fx.They reuse stock footage for the space station(The Trouble With Tribbles)& for the ore freighter(Space Seed's Botany Bay). The four other Constitution Class starships that the Enterprise faces in war games simply look exactly what it is,the E multiplied with no variations in their flight paths at all.That hardly seems like a sound attack strategy even against one other ship.This new remastered version could also create an impressive space battle between the ships,which we barely see in the original version. TUC is a terrific episode & like The Doomsday Machine,a perfect example of how they can be elevated even higher via CGI.

While I do not recall the exact dialogue word for word, Kirk mentions that the survey party should avoid contact with native life. This implies that there is intelligent life down there, the Prime Directive is in force, etc. etc.

But M-5 says that Carstairs once visited the planet on a merchant mining survey.

So, does the Federation allow private miners to go and secretly remove minerals from pre-first contact planets?

I popped this video in last night, but unfortunately fell asleep before long. I did wonder in the beginning, however, what exactly was meant by the Enterprise crew being removed from the ship and held in a 'security holding facility'. Was the M-5 test a secret even from them? They must've been really wondering exactly what was going on!

so, the enhanced 4 starships in formation is gonna be what?

its on next week!

most times my local station cuts out this scene!

The remastered "The Ultimate Computer" airs next weekend. Lots to do here: replacing the stock shots of K-7 and the Botany Bay, and the four-way mirroring of the Enterprise for the other ships.

The new and improved Ultimate c. was on at 3am, and stayed up to watch. I think the space station shot was better, but the 4 formation shot was a step backward, my 22 cents.

yeah, and how does Com. Enright talk 5 starship captains into this sorry mess?

5 sectors of space must be deadly dull!

TALK them into? You don't TALK a subordinate officer into going on fleet maneuvers. You ORDER them to do it. You can do it politely, but its still an order.

yup, Merat.Deadly results.I think I'd be a suspicious crewman ,however.btw, where are ya?

tell that to Lord Garth!

and tell Sisko he's grounded for disobeying orders..His baseball team lost and he thinks its a victory!

Vulcans dont gloat? to quote Spock: I have no wish to serve under them..

and M5 is now Flints' servant.

and the Woden was already automated...(er, its the Botany Bay lookalike contest), so M5 destroyed
a crewless ship.

Merat- ok, order them.

What does Sisko have to do with this episode?

And, ! aka "I Order You"? How does Commodore Enright talk/order 5 captains into this? Easy...

Enright: Captains A, B, C, D, and E: You will participate in the wargame exercise to take place on Stardate 7243.3.

Captains A, B, C, D, and E: Yes sir.

It's not an illegal order, they have no grounds for refusing.

I am so insanely confused by this.

hey ScottN think you got the wrong stardate..

its stardate 4729.4!

Honestly, I picked a stardate out of a hat, just to flesh out the example.

Harper died needlessly. Then he got ressurected like lt.Galloway!

Mr. harper's dad: he got what??
(when he's told what m5 did)

The space station is from the Vanguard Trek books, and the freighter is the design from TAS's "More Tribble, More Troubles" (also seen in the remastered "Charlie X"). The battles with the other starships are redone, though nothing very elaborate.

The plasma beam that incinerates the redshirt is redone a bit. The Lexington's viewscreen has a slightly different design -- rounded corners and extra panels near it.

The dialog suffers a lot from the syndication cuts. A cut removes switching from playing M-5's tape on the planetary survey to an interactive dialog, and the substitution of the landing party member is removed. At least the "nonessential personnel" dig is left.

As both Phil and McCoy noted, the biggest nit is that there's no fallback if M-5 suffers a failure.

How did M-5 generate a force field, if it wasn't built with one? Perhaps Daystrom was lying about it not being his doing; the admiral did say that M-5 didn't need any security, and it would make sense that the automated central control of the ship would be protected.

Like the light moment at the end of "The Changeling" (after Nomad has killed billions), the one here seems a bit flip after the death of so many Starfleet officers.

M-5 didn't need security -- it was in Engineering and Scotty probably handpicked people to keep on hand. If the M-5 tests had been successful, deployment would probably have included a forcefield to protect it from common Starfleet Joes who resent it putting their buddies out of a job after four years of their life at the Academy and several more years as midshipmen in grunt jobs on obscure ships without the fame of the Enterprise.

I think the Woden should have been a DY-500 as Kirk first mistook the Botany Bay to be... different in subtle ways and more sleek looking, but not radically different. The Antares from Charlie X had to be much newer... maybe only 30 years old.

Since the Woden is sub-light, they could have shown two nearby stars - only 0.3 light years apart, say, that it shuttles between.

M-5 the Enhanced is the last one to be repeated.
Who knows what is gonna be on Saturday (or Sunday) at 3am in
central Ca...

"All Our Yesterdays" is up after "The Ultimate Computer".

thanks, Alan can you send us a link for the new improved list?

I don't have a list; I'm going by the TV listings which go two weeks out. The show for 7/21 should be available tomorrow.

This episode seem,ed to be a precursor to what Jimmy Doohan could expect from the Animated series. Just as he performed several voices at once in that series, here he's 4 characters;

1. Scotty.
2. M-5
3. Commodore Enright's of the space station (voice).
4. Starfleet Command, authorizing destruction of Enterprise (voice).

Great new effects with the remastered version, but the Excalibur is only seen at a distance, listing. A close-up of her damage would have made M-5 attacks that much more impressive, and give an emotional impact. We only have Sulu and M-5's statements about her damage and death.

Daystrom makes some comments that appear to be contradictory.
First he speaks about lectures and seminars to rows of fools that couldn't understand his work, and later he 's outraged that people were later able to build on his work.

I'd guess that perhaps initially they couldn't understand his duotronic systems, but they'd have to figure them out, if they were to build on or improve them.
Kirk states that the Enterprise computers were designed by Daystrom, but his great breakthrough was 25 years ago. Judging how our present-day computers are improved upon non-stop year after year, it's reasonable to think that Starfleet shouldn't be using archaic 25-year old computers, and that they would have to be improved upon by the next generation of computer geniuses.

Having your work built upon by others isn't exactly new. Think about the car industry-- I wonder if the original designer of the Ford Mustang is upset with present-day designers who have updated his own designs, rather than create their own completely new car? Probably not, because it's expected.

Not necessarily contradictory. If the people who built on his work never attended lectures or seminars (presumably learning from his writings or studying the actual computers) those statements could be true.

But frankly those statements sound more egotistical than literal. He sees himself as a genius, so others are fools. He designed this breakthrough, but others have the gall to improve on it? How dare they!

Spock comments early in this episode "The most unfortunate lack in current computer programming is that there is nothing available to immediately replace the starship surgeon."

Looks like they solved that problem by the time of Star Trek: Voyager.

Well, it is more than a hundred years on, after all.

Look how much technology has changed between 1911 and now!

After M5 destroys the Wotan, Daystrom says it is fortunate that it was only a robot ship with no crew onboard. How did he know that? He was not on the bridge when the Wotan was identified.

MattS on Thursday, May 13, 1999 - 2:01 pm'' - At the end of the show, while McCoy and Spock are poking fun at each other in the turbolift, Spock should know that "illogic" is not a word. But hey, I guess English isn't his first language. Unless illogic became a word by the 23rd century - perhaps as a contraction of illogical, just as can't is a contraction of cannot.

Before anybody points out there is no such word as can't, can you please explain why it keeps appearing in the dictionary?

Brian Fitzgerald on Wednesday, March 26, 2003 - 4:42 pm Alfred Nobel (as in the Nobel Peace Prize) founded a company that developed explosives. The reason he started the foundation was because a newspaper once published his obituary when a guy with a similar name died. The obituary concentrated on the military uses of his invention, and he didn’t want to be known as a weapon creator.

The 'other guy' was Alfred's brother Ludvig.

When M-5 is attacking the four starships of the war game fleet, the Lexington and Excalibur are each hit twice and the Potemkin is hit once. But in his report to Starfleet, Commodore Wesley says that all ships have sustained damage. The Hood was never targeted, it should still be intact and fully operational.

Another thing. M-5 was supposedly this great tactical genius, proving it by taking on and beating 4 starships. It wasn't so great though. There it had four unshielded unsuspecting targets flying in close formation and it only managed to disable one and damage two others. Since its admitted goal was to destroy all four ships, and as an efficient computer it would want to do it as quickly and efficiently as possible, why didn't it target a photon torpedo on each ship and destroy them all with its first salvo?

And btw, that first shot on the Lexington should have destroyed it utterly. We saw the effect of a full power phaser hit on an unshielded ship in other episodes, and M-5 would also have known exactly WHERE to aim for maximum effect.

Phil made a good point in his book about the Daystrom Institute. Daystrom was responsible for killing the whole crew of the Excalibur, over 400 people.

Kind of like naming an institute after Jack The Ripper.

Someone else in this board suggested that Daystrom himself may have founded the Institute to atone for this carnage, the way Alfred Nobel set up the Nobel Prize Foundation to atone for all the deaths that resulted from his invention of dynamite.

Yeah, that could have happened.

There are years of comments here, and I cruiised through them, but I didn't notice this one.
Near the end of the show, after Kirk makes his speech about the Federation starships about to attack them, we see the three ships.
However, the two on the right side have stars pass through them! One cuts right through the bottom one's secondary hull in the last 3 seconds of the shot, and a couple slide through the top starship.

Clearly no one in Starfleet has seen the movie, Colossus: The Forbin Project or the Terminator movies. They make the same mistake here, giving an untested computer control over a powerful arsenal.

What could possibly go wrong? Just ask the crew of the Excalibur.

In his book, Phil says that M5 should have been tested on freighter first. I agree with him.

At the beginning Sulu states that they've achieved a standard orbit. Around a space station? Why would you need to circle around it? Just park the ship closeby, and stop all engines.
I wonder if Samuel T. Cogley, attorney at law, was hired by Daystrom? He might need someone in court to defend him against the ore company that had their ship destroyed by M-5.
When M-5 speaks to Daystrom and then to Kirk, it tells them, "They attacked this unit.", referring to Wesley's battle force.
That's a lie.
The 'Enterprise' (M-5) fired first. She also wasn't hit once throughout the entire battle. But the logic was, THEY attacked, so I defended myself. Can't be true, if you fired first and repeatedly.

I wonder if Samuel T. Cogley, attorney at law, was hired by Daystrom? He might need someone in court to defend him against the ore company that had their ship destroyed by M-5.

Not to mention the families of the crew of the Excalibur. They could sue Daystrom's sorry a** for wrongful deaths.


When M-5 speaks to Daystrom and then to Kirk, it tells them, "They attacked this unit.", referring to Wesley's battle force.
That's a lie.

This could be a hint that the M-5 was malfunctioning. However, Daystrom was not willing to see that.

Franc0is on Nov 19, 2016 makes a good point. What if, instead of hitting Lexington with the first shot, M5 shoots at the Excalibur, blasting it so severely it makes the NCC-1701B look like light damage when Capt. Harriman brings it back to Earth with the El-Aurian refugees. The ship is not blasted to rubble, but the first shot is so severe that life support goes out all over the ship, some of the crew, Wesley sees, appear to have been expelled by explosive decompression, and then he utters his line. "RAISE SHIELDS! What the devil is Kirk doing using full phasers?!" Then the Lexington suffers a shot from M5 while shields are going up, and it results in the casualties he reports to Kirk in his attempt to talk to the Enterprise.

Minutes later, when Kirk is talking with M5, he orders M5 to scan the Excalibur for life signs. By this time, whatever sanctuary still existed inside the ship's hull has failed as main power was knocked out and the engineering section was hit. Or, the few people left got onto escape pods and left, fleeing the immediate area to await rescue, so nobody alive is still aboard.

The scene of Excalibur being shredded would galvanize Kirk into action against Daystrom.

Phil was right, in his book, when he said that they should have tested M5 on a freighter first.

Instead they decide to use this untested computer on a starship, and we saw the results.

If I were the families of the Excalibur crew, I would seriously consider suing Daystrom and/or Starfleet for wrongful death.

Re M-5 shooting at the Excalibur first instead of the Lexington, I'm guessing that it was following Spock's statement about making logical deductions.
The Lexington was attacked because 1) she was the flagship/lead ship of the attack, 2) Commodore Wesley probably had more combat experience than the Excalibur's captain, and 3) perhaps it was a bit of revenge, if the Lexington was the ship that scored the lone hit on the Enterprise during the first war games contact.
(We all know it's really about the fact that the actor playing Wesley was a guest star, and we never saw the Excalibur's captain, but we don't deal in TV reality here!)

Wesley did say that the captain of the Excalibur was dead.

The plasma beam that incinerates the redshirt is redone a bit.

There's a reflection of the beam on the floor of Engineering now. And, when we see the Enterprise after M-5 shuts the power down, the outside lights are off.

Another good improvement, IMO.

The Excalibur is in the distance when it happens, but I think I understand how it was eventually destroyed, thanks to the revised special effects.
The new effects show the Enterprise chase the Excalibur, line up behind it, and fire intense, long phaser fire.
From the vantage point it can be suggested that the phasers found a weak spot directly into the Excalibur's impulse engines, which blasted into engineering and created multiple, fatal chain-reaction explosions inside the ship.
M-5 would automatically know any weak points of a Constitution-class starship, operating one itself, and the logical tactic would be to attack the weakest point that would cause the most damage or eliminate that ship completely from the battle. Which it started to do from the beginning, hitting the Excalibur with a phaser blast that killed the captain, which seems to point towards a direct hit to the bridge.

M-5 did more than just kill the Excalibur captain, it wiped out the whole crew.

Richard Daystrom should be brought up on charges of culpable negligence. Or the families of the dead crew should engage a lawyer (hello Sam Cogley) and sue Daystrom into the poorhouse.