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Kirk's reputation with computers..

Gingerbread Demon

Yelling at the Vorlons
Premium Member
He only really killed what like 2 or 3 computers in the whole series. So where does this reputation of Kirk being a computer killer come from?
 
There's a few more examples than that, off the top of my head there's:

Return of the Archons
A Taste of Armageddon
The Ultimate Computer
The Apple
The Changeling
That Which Survives
 
Kirk was like human malware. He talked computers to death or defeat all the time.

Sometimes he forced computers to live up to their own stated objectives to the point of suicide:
- Return of the Archons
- The Ultimate Computer
- The Changeling

Sometimes he exploited their too-lifelike programming to use their own passions against them:
- What are Little Girls Made Of? (he messed up three machines, a personal best)
- TMP (he tried this on Ilia through Decker, but it didn't work)

He used unsolvable problems to force machines to start looping, a real dick move:
- Wolf in the Fold
- I, Mudd

He defeated computer defense mechanisms by figuring out what button to push:
- For the World is Hollow
- The Paradise Syndrome

He broke in and stole files that weren't backed up:
- Tomorrow is Yesterday

He shot up the hardware with guns:
- The Squire of Gothos
- A Taste of Armageddon
- The Apple
- Who Mourns for Adonais?
- That Which Survives

When all else failed, he said "Say hello to my giant bomb," and kablooey!
- The Doomsday Machine

The man was a menace. :bolian:
 
He was also mean to the female computer in the episode when they they go back to the 60's and beam a pilot aboard. He went with a lawyer who hated computers when he was on trial. He learned his lesson by the time "Generations" came. He let Picard deal with the computer stuff while he went and kiicked Soren's ass. Though I guess it was fitting that he died trying to get a remote control to turn off another computer.

Jason
 
It wasn't so much what he said to the computers, it's how he said it. They committed suicide rather than listen to his stilted delivery any longer.
 
I like it too. I just don't elevate it to "best trek movie EVER!" status that some on this board seem to. I mean, seriously, TMP is the best Trek movie? :guffaw:
 
I think David Gerrold pointed out Kirk's computer-destroying tendencies in The World of Star Trek 40+ years ago, saying "how IBM must hate that man" (paraphrasing somewhat due to fog of memory).

Of course, most of what is discussed here has been re-hashed for decades already...but then I guess if we didn't love re-runs, none of us would be here.
 
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