"The Changeling" Line-by-Line

UHURA: The ball is bl-u-ee. Bl-u-ey. Bluey?

 

[Brig]

SPOCK: It is not sufficient, Captain. I get certain references to the accident, the other, but nothing clear. There are areas I simply cannot scan.

 

KIRK: We've got to know about it, Spock. what makes it operate, its compulsion for perfection.

 

SPOCK: Captain, I suggest the Vulcan mind probe.

 

KIRK: Get into direct mental contact with that thing?

 

SPOCK: It seems the only way.

 

KIRK: You saw what it did to Uhura.

 

SPOCK: There is a risk, but I have formed a partial hypothesis. I must check it out.

 

KIRK: Nomad, the unit Spock will touch you. It is not an attack. It is a form of communication. You will permit it.

 

NOMAD: I will permit it, Creator.

 

(Spock puts one hand on Nomad's head, where the antenna are, and the other on its body where the lights and ticking are coming from.)
SPOCK: I. Am. Nomad. I am performing my function. Deep emptiness, It approaches. Collision. Damage. Blackness. I. Am. The other. I am Tan Ru, Tan Ru. Nomad. Tan Ru. Error. Flaw. Imperfection. Must sterilise. Rebirth. We are complete. Much power. Gun ta. Noo. Icka. Tan Ru. The creator instructs. Search out. Identify. Sterilise imperfections. We are Nomad. We are Nomad. We are complete. We are instructed. Our purpose is clear. Sterilise imperfections. (he lets go of Nomad) Sterilise imperfections. Nomad. Sterilise. Sterilise. Nomad, sterilise,

 

KIRK: Spock. Spock! Nomad! You're in contact with the unit Spock. Stop! Stop!

 

NOMAD: Acknowledged.
(Spock slumps in Kirk's arms and is rushed out of the Brig. The guard activates the security forcefield.)

 

[Corridor]

KIRK: Spock. Spock?

 

SPOCK: Fascinating, Captain. The knowledge. The depth.

 

KIRK: What does it mean, we are Nomad?

 

SPOCK: It was, it was damaged in deep space. Undoubtedly, the meteor collision. Its memory banks were destroyed, or most of them. It wandered without purpose, and then it met the other. The other was an alien probe of great power. Somehow they merged, repaired each other, became one.

 

KIRK: Then it isn't Nomad?

 

SPOCK: Not the Nomad we lost from Earth. It took from the other a new directive to replace its own. The other was originally programmed to secure and sterilise soil samples from other planets, probably as a prelude to colonisation.

 

KIRK: A changeling.