Irony in "The Ultimate Computer"

In "The Ultimate Computer" Spock says that his only regret about the state of computing technology was that it was not able to successfully replace the ship's surgeon. Yet, fast forward 80 years and in fact the ONLY position on starships that ended up being successful replaced by a computer program was the Chief Medical Officer. Was this little bit of irony on the part of the producers intentional?

 

I doubt that Berman, Piller, and Taylor gave a seconds thought to a closing line from an original series episode.

 

Probably not.

 

They may not even have seen "The Ultimate Computer."

 

They might have. IIRC, Jeri Taylor (who along with Berman & Piller created Voyager) mentioned when she started writing for Star Trek sitting down and watching all 300 hours or so of Star Trek aired up to that time.

But watching hundreds of hours of Star Trek all in one gulp I think gives one a radically different perspective than being a fan for 20 years.

 

It may start to all blur together that way. Specific details in various episodes are sometimes remembered only after being watched more than once (or discussed among fans).

 

Agreed.

I've been following Star Trek long enough to find interesting just how much perspectives change regarding an original episode over the years.

People taking different looks at the legal proceedings and plot developments in the thread on "Courtmartial" being just one example.

Another thing I think is that when you watch the 79 original episodes, then the 178 or so ST:TNG episodes, then the 174 DS9 episodes.....and so on is that you can get awfully cynical and overly critical of the orginal series. Faulting the series too much for their special effects, production values, and all that.

 

For me, it was the opposite. I developed an even greater appreciation of TOS for its stories and characters after seeing later shows. IMO, it was natural (and to be expected) that visually things would improve after TOS.

 

TOS is still my favorite of all the Treks, and I've been a fan since September, 1966. I've seen all of the subsequent Treks, and I'm still drawn back to TOS.

One of the reasons I like New Voyages/Phase II as well.