Coolest Computer in TOS

[alensatemybuick1]

Not necessarily the coolest, and def. not the most powerful, but before we start including terminals, let's not forget the mnemonic memory circuit Spock managed to build using stone knives and bearskins.

 

[telerites]

Not necessarily the coolest, and def. not the most powerful, but before we start including terminals, let's not forget the mnemonic memory circuit Spock managed to build using stone knives and bearskins.

True but the Professor (Gilligan's Island) could have done it with two coconuts, a seashell, and a pair of Mrs. Howell's panty hose.

 

[USS Triumphant]

If we're going there...Andrea.

I was thinking the lovestruck ship's computer, like @telerites mentioned, but yes, Andrea definitely wins.

 

[SaturnLight]

Landru, because it blows up and screams "Help me Help Me Help Me" in a hilarious voice. Classic! Eat your heart out HAL 9000, Trek did it first!

 

[Trekfan12]

Not necessarily the coolest, and def. not the most powerful, but before we start including terminals, let's not forget the mnemonic memory circuit Spock managed to build using stone knives and bearskins.

I just love what Spock did with Stone knives and bearskins

 

[Forbin]

How about that toaster-shaped thingie they use in Miri? When Spock was punching numbers into it, I was wondering how he knew which of the half-dozen colored jelly beans to press.

 

[telerites]

Not really a computer but more of a remote control device, the device Bones uses to control Spock's body in Spock's Brain is incredible and with hardly any complex controls. Truly a remarkable piece of technology, let alone how it wireless connected to Spock's body.

I am being tongue in cheek here as I really thought in practice it was so unrealistic that it bordered on ludicrous.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

The Tantalus Field Device from "Mirror, Mirror." Kill your enemies by remote control!*

( *Marlena Moreau not included)

 

[USS Triumphant]

I am being tongue in cheek here as I really thought in practice it was so unrealistic that it bordered on ludicrous.

Bordered?

( *Marlena Moreau not included)

Dammit!

 

[scotpens]

I loved all of them honestly but I always liked the Beta 5 computer from "Assignment: Earth" (later as the Atavachron in "All Our Yesterdays")

That was always my favorite too. What today's computers need is some meaningless but important-looking blinky lights and swirly things!

Not really a computer but more of a remote control device, the device Bones uses to control Spock's body in Spock's Brain is incredible and with hardly any complex controls. Truly a remarkable piece of technology, let alone how it wireless connected to Spock's body.

I am being tongue in cheek here as I really thought in practice it was so unrealistic that it bordered on ludicrous.

Hey, if we can do it with model cars, boats and airplanes, why not a brainless Vulcan?

 

[J.T.B.]

I agree on M5. The visually distinctive narrow horizontal and vertical lights under the smooth dark surface was a really effective way of conveying a technological advance over the surface-mounted blinking lights and buttons of other Federation computers. I don't know what to make of the swirling circular part, but it looked interesting. I was a young kid of course, but the M5 still looked futuristic to me in the '70s.

Very interesting reading about @feek61's analysis of that display for the Beta 5, BTW!

 

[Scotchy]

No mention of Vaal? The super-computer that ran on a few baskets of fruit a day (must have been equipped with Mr. Fusion) and ran a planet from under it's paper mache dinosaur cave-head surely deserves an honorable mention.

 

[CrazyMatt]

No mention of Vaal? The super-computer that ran on a few baskets of fruit a day (must have been equipped with Mr. Fusion) and ran a planet from under it's paper mache dinosaur cave-head surely deserves an honorable mention.

I would classify Vaal differently, not as a computer but more as a mechanical being.... boy, I've really boxed myself in there, haven't I?

 

[johnnybear]

What about The Atavachron itself? It is still a computer as such and with the coolest gateway to the past outside of The Guardian of Forever!
JB

 

[feek61]

No mention of Vaal? The super-computer that ran on a few baskets of fruit a day (must have been equipped with Mr. Fusion) and ran a planet from under it's paper mache dinosaur cave-head surely deserves an honorable mention.

I have not seen that episode is a while but I thought they were feeding Vaal the high energy explosive rocks.

 

[Ronald Held]

Not really certain. M-5 and the Beta 5 come to mind. Then again the ship's computer with Majel's voice is a favorite.

 

[FormerLurker]

I have not seen that episode is a while but I thought they were feeding Vaal the high energy explosive rocks.

They were. I was shocked when I realized that, but it's so obvious to me now.

 

[Scotchy]

I would classify Vaal differently, not as a computer but more as a mechanical being....

I thought Spock said something about the paper mache dragon head being the entrance to an underground computer complex.

I have not seen that episode is a while but I thought they were feeding Vaal the high energy explosive rocks.

I hadn't either, I just remembered them bringing in baskets of something. My mistake. Makes a lot more sense, Spock did speculate at the beginning of the episode that the rocks could serve as a power source. But if Vaal's complex was underground, an automated mining/feeding system for those rocks might have made more sense than relying on the natives.

 

[FormerLurker]

Why? The natives were its automated mining/feeding system. It just had many parts. Remember, it took centuries to get them trained, so Vaal made them immortal and forbade them to breed, so they wouldn't need "replacements".

 

[Scotchy]

it took centuries to get them trained

You don't have to spend centuries training an automated system. An AI that has the tech to attack a starship in orbit could surely provide itself with a mineral for it's power source.
Don't see why it would take centuries to train these folks either - how hard is it to collect rocks and gently transport them to a cave? If a native can't handle that job after the first week or so he should be fired (or, in this case, struck by lightning.) Also, after centuries of rock picking the available rocks just laying around on the surface should have been depleted. Our little gray haired natives didn't look like they were equipped for mining. Vaal's underground complex could likely access large deposits of this mineral underground through a mechanized system, but who knows? Obviously someone in the distant past of that planet wanted to see folks bow and scrape before a paper mache dinosaur cave-head that needed to be "fed" several times a day.