STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES
Season 2, Episode 24
Season 2, Episode 24
The Ultimate Computer
Series: Original Series - (1966-1969)Season: 2
Episode #: 24
Production #: 60353
Original Airdate: 03/08/1968
Writer(s): D.C. Fontana and Laurence N. Wolfe
Director(s): John Meredyth Lucas
Guest Stars
William Marshall as Dr. Richard Daystrom
Sean Morgan as Ensign Harper
Barry Russo as Commodore Robert ‘Bob’ Wesley
Uncredited Guest Stars
William Blackburn as Lt. Hadley
Frank da Vinci as Lt. Brent
James Doohan as the Voice of Commodore Enwright
James Doohan as the Voice of the M-5 Multitronic Unit
Roger Holloway as Ensign Roger Lemli
Eddie Paskey as Lt. Leslie
Stardate: 4729.4
Synopsis
The U.S.S. Enterprise is chosen to be the test ship for the new M-5 multitronic computer system, a computer meant to be able to run a starship without human intervention. Also aboard for the test is Dr. Richard Daystrom, the inventor of the M-5 and an obsessive and unstable individual.
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Initially the M-5 performs well, but when it decides to destroy a robot freighter, Kirk orders the test canceled. The M-5, however, protects itself and makes it impossible for it to be disconnected. The computer becomes increasingly erratic, a result of Dr. Daystrom's decision to impress his engram onto the computer as part of its programming. Starting a scheduled war games drill, M-5 uses the full arsenal of the U.S.S. Enterprise to attack four other Federation starships.
In a last-ditch appeal to the M-5, Kirk makes the computer realize that it has committed the sin of murder. Since Dr. Daystrom would be ethically abhorred at such an act, the M-5 is equally penitent and tries to commit suicide by leaving the U.S.S. Enterprise defenseless against a counter-attack by the remaining other starships. At the last moment, Spock and Scott are able to finish disconnecting the M-5 unit. Kirk keeps the shields down, gambling successfully that the attacking ships would not fire on an undefended vessel. Restoring communications next, the fleet is called off.
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