Star Trek
"The Changeling"
Originally aired September 29, 1967
Stardate 3541.9
This episode does have a lot of humorous qualities for one about a genocidal machine. Nomad gets in a lot of barbs at humanity and specific characters that are too pointed even for Spock. Gotta love Spock's reaction to Nomad's "Insufficient response." Of course, in that bag we get what's become one of TOS's more infamously sexist bits, referring to Uhura as "a mass of conflicting impulses."
Our heroes maybe make the connection with a 250-year-old Earth probe a bit too easily. "Nomad" is a common phrase. And why is Roykirk shown wearing what looks like a red Starfleet dress uniform? Does it include a kilt?
They do some creative stuff visually with the probe, like the way it hovers over Sulu's console and the POV shots of Nomad moving around.
Seeing this one right after "Adonais" makes for good behavioral consistency on Scotty's part, but it just seems repetitive. His flying off the handle and nearly getting himself killed was pretty stupid last time.
The reeducation of Uhura is an awkward bit of business...having her memory completely wiped and reteaching her leaves way too many questions. I get no impression that she's a completely blank slate with no memory of her actual past after that point. The episode tries to reset button a situation that shouldn't be easily reset buttoned.
This episode gives us perhaps the best mind meld sequence after "The Devil in the Dark"...and now with Spock's theme as an added flair!
This is also perhaps Kirk's masterpiece of one-on-one computer-killing..."I, Mudd" being a team effort. And like in "Return of the Archons," the phrase "prime directive" is used to describe an aspect of computer programming.
I think I've seen this question raised before, but if they can transport Nomad, can't they just scatter its atoms or trap it in the buffer?
Overall, a pretty solid episode. It moves along nicely, giving the characters a tense, intriguing challenge while not feeling padded as too many episodes do.
Next week:
"The Changeling"
Originally aired September 29, 1967
Stardate 3541.9
MeTV said:
This episode does have a lot of humorous qualities for one about a genocidal machine. Nomad gets in a lot of barbs at humanity and specific characters that are too pointed even for Spock. Gotta love Spock's reaction to Nomad's "Insufficient response." Of course, in that bag we get what's become one of TOS's more infamously sexist bits, referring to Uhura as "a mass of conflicting impulses."
Our heroes maybe make the connection with a 250-year-old Earth probe a bit too easily. "Nomad" is a common phrase. And why is Roykirk shown wearing what looks like a red Starfleet dress uniform? Does it include a kilt?
They do some creative stuff visually with the probe, like the way it hovers over Sulu's console and the POV shots of Nomad moving around.
Seeing this one right after "Adonais" makes for good behavioral consistency on Scotty's part, but it just seems repetitive. His flying off the handle and nearly getting himself killed was pretty stupid last time.
The reeducation of Uhura is an awkward bit of business...having her memory completely wiped and reteaching her leaves way too many questions. I get no impression that she's a completely blank slate with no memory of her actual past after that point. The episode tries to reset button a situation that shouldn't be easily reset buttoned.
This episode gives us perhaps the best mind meld sequence after "The Devil in the Dark"...and now with Spock's theme as an added flair!
This is also perhaps Kirk's masterpiece of one-on-one computer-killing..."I, Mudd" being a team effort. And like in "Return of the Archons," the phrase "prime directive" is used to describe an aspect of computer programming.
I think I've seen this question raised before, but if they can transport Nomad, can't they just scatter its atoms or trap it in the buffer?
Overall, a pretty solid episode. It moves along nicely, giving the characters a tense, intriguing challenge while not feeling padded as too many episodes do.
Next week:
