"The Changeling" Line-by-Line

SPOCK: I've correlated all the available information on the Nomad probe, and I'm convinced that this object is indeed that probe.

 

MCCOY: Ridiculous. Earth science couldn't begin to build anything with those capabilities that long ago.

 

SPOCK: True.

 

KIRK: Nomad was destroyed.

 

SPOCK: Presumed destroyed by a meteor collision. I submit that it was badly damaged and somehow managed to repair itself.

 

KIRK: I heard some lectures at the Academy on the Nomad probe. Its mission was essentially peaceful.

 

[Auxiliary control]

(Nomad is quietly ticking to itself, then suddenly a light comes on at its apex.)
SINGH: Did I disturb you? Did you wish anything?

 

UHURA [OC]: Bridge to auxiliary control room. Check in, please.

 

SINGH: Lieutenant Singh here.

[Bridge]

SINGH [OC]: All systems are normal except warp power indicators.

 

UHURA: Mister Scott's engineers are working on them now. Report to him when your indicators are registering properly.

[Auxiliary control]

UHURA [OC]: Anything else?

 

SINGH: One moment, Lieutenant.

 

UHURA [OC]: Holding. (singing while Singh checks some boards) Where my heart is, Where my heart is. Somewhere beyond the stars. Beyond Antares.
(Nomad leaves the room)

 

[Briefing room]

SPOCK: This is the creator of Nomad, perhaps the most brilliant though erratic scientist of his time. His dream was to build a perfect thinking machine, capable of independent logic. You recall his name.

 

MCCOY: Of course. Jackson Roykirk.

 

KIRK: Jackson Roykirk. Captain James Kirk.

 

SPOCK: Yes. Similar. Captain, I believe that Nomad thinks you are Roykirk. That may well be why the attack was broken off. It responded to your name as well as its damaged memory banks permitted.

 

KIRK: What do we have on Nomad itself, Spock?

 

MCCOY: (looking at the schematic on the monitor) That's not the same.

 

SPOCK: Essentially it is, Doctor. I believe that more happened to it than just damage in the meteor collision. It mentioned the other. The unanswered question is, the other what?
Nomad was a thinking machine, the best that could be engineered. It was a prototype.

 

KIRK: Its purpose was certainly altered. Its directive, to seek out and destroy biological infestations, could not have been programmed into it.