This is a great episode... the one I was looking most forward to when they gave the remastering project the green-light.
Boy was I disappointed.
Revisiting Star Trek TOS/TAS...
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This is a great episode... the one I was looking most forward to when they gave the remastering project the green-light.
Boy was I disappointed.
It would have been nice, but even in the best case scenario all we would have gotten would have been a kitbash of the AMT model that might have had an interesting shape, but wouldnt have looked all that great on screen. At least for the fleet shots they picked a pretty good shot of the Enterprise to copy and paste. However, as BillJ points out, this episode was one of the biggest let downs of TOS-R. They could have given us a glimpse of one of those cool Franz Joseph designs...oh well.
Yeah it doesn't always work out. In TNG they gave us the Nebula-class in "The Wounded" and that was one ugly looking kitbash.
To be fair, though, the FJ designs were really kitbashes themselves although of the 2D variety.
Another interesting thing about "The Ultimate Computer" is how M5 goes down. No pyrotechnics or freezing itself with illogic. It just stops and turns itself off, essentially the closest thing to what a computer today might do. Today a computer would freeze and then you have to reboot it. Of course M5 was an AI so it just turned itself off. Interesting.
And regardless of how the tests turned out I'm sure there'd still be lots of positive things to be learned from the M5 and the work Daystrom put into it.
To be fair, though, the FJ designs were really kitbashes themselves although of the 2D variety.
Another interesting thing about "The Ultimate Computer" is how M5 goes down. No pyrotechnics or freezing itself with illogic. It just stops and turns itself off, essentially the closest thing to what a computer today might do. Today a computer would freeze and then you have to reboot it. Of course M5 was an AI so it just turned itself off. Interesting.
And regardless of how the tests turned out I'm sure there'd still be lots of positive things to be learned from the M5 and the work Daystrom put into it.
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It's quite freeing to just call it poor writing when it's poor writing.
I always had a problem with the coincidence factor of this ep. Not only is Kirk's old captain's son serving on the Enterprise but Kirk doesn't know it (!) until they re-encounter the exact creature responsible for his father's death.
Way to pay attention, Jimbo.
That said, Ensign G. was certainly the coolest "redshirt of the week" that we ever met. I wish he'd had a recurring role.
Life can be full of weird coincidences. And I suppose it's not impossible that a particular Ensign can be assigned to your command and with all the other stuff you've got to deal with on a daily basis it might not register right off.
True about the Joseph designs, but for years they were the only alternate starships of which we had any glimpses, and are closer to "authentic" TOS designs than most anything else I've seen, including TOSized Mirandas, Nebulas, or whatever. I guess they just hold a special place for me and would have been nice to see.
You bring up a good point about the M5, and I wonder if a case could be made about it's sentience. It made the decision that it was guilty of murder and that it should be shut down. It also agreed that the laws of "God and man" should apply to it as well. That's not a logical decision. Of course it could be argued that it could have just been emulating Daystrom's mind, since Daystrom's had just suffered a similar breakdown, except Daystrom didn't feel that those same laws should apply to himself or the M5. Interesting questions.
I actually quite liked FJ's destroyer/scout designs because with just a little tweaking they're credible designs in their own right.
Over the years I've dabble with some designing for different purposes. I was going through some of my files and Photobucket images and thought I'd share some of this stuff.
An early destroyer/scout design.
TOS era destroyer/scout.
So... When the TNG crew went to the effort to save a planet (that was appropriately advanced) they were being police?
It takes effort to save a civilization... and most of the 24th century Starfleet just aren't effort kind of guys.
Give it up...you're not convincing anyone. Even in TOS's time they knew they couldn't be or were not tasked to be the police men of the galaxy.
RAMA
I always loved bottle shows, actually.
I guess the reason this episode works is because I never feel embarrassed for the characters. The character dynamics work very well among the regulars. And there is very little "Ah, some sort of primitive slug throwing device. I've heard about them in school books." It's more "Hey, that was the sound of a machine gun bolt. We're in trouble!" Yeah there was the "concrete galoshes" but Scotty says it with such pride!
I still dig this episode. It is interesting at how serious the first half is (scariest red shirt death EVER!) and how light the second is. This is pretty much the definitive "Spock, baffle them with logic. Bones, find their medical weakness. I'm going to seduce the high priestess!"
It's also one of the only times that MANY other episodes are referenced specifically. (Ok, I'm remembering two: Taste of Armageddon and Where No Man. But I there there are three.)
I've never been crazy about this episode. But Nimoy playing the bad guy is more than worth the price of admission. And "Risk is our business."
I love this episode. It's not JUST space battles. And Daystrom is believably competent. So while the outcome isn't exactly surprising you can at least say "Well, duh, that guy was a moron!"
Aye. All hail Bob Wesley, Governor of Mantiles! Yes, one of the few non-idiots in the Federation that isn't on the Enterprise.
I always liked (and still like) that it is four ships more or less just like the Enterprise. There are no variables as to speed, weaponry, etc. The Enterprise is by definition outmatched. Plus, going by the writer's guide (and Roddenberry's own tendencies) there are no ships more powerful than our E. So you can have a handful of lesser ships, or four of the "real deal". And I still think that formation shot of the four is terrific. I don't think they matched the scale of it with TOS-R. (Again, I'm not saying the TOS shot can't be improved. I just don't think it was.)
Lol. I was actually disappointed when I finally saw the episode he shows up in and he was a governer of some backwater planet. In my mind he should have still been out there kicking ass in his throne of a captain's chair on the Lexington. Maybe if he was a little less competent he would be...
This. The one ship versus four of her equals shows just how badass M5 really is.
I'll say it again... I was insanely disappointed with the remastered effects of this episode.
It's a mixed bag for me. The arrival and departure from the starbase is neat, as is the use of the TAS robot freighter in place of the Botany Bay. A few of the fleet formation shots are good, but once the battle itself starts it falls apart. The shot composition is just weird, almost like they were going for a balance between the original stock footage battle and the way the newer Trek series would have presented it and achieving neither.
I have liked a lot of what they've done for TOS-R; but I have to say, for me, while they did a compotent job; the TOS-R version of The Ultimate Computer was a real letdown in that they didn't show the neerly destryed U.S.S. Excalibur at all - all we get is a far shot of a pristine ship drifting away at near warp speed at an off angle. I was hoping thwey'd take the oportunity to do something similar to what they'd done for the U.S.S. Costellation in the TOS-R version of The Doomsday Machine.
“The Ultimate Computer” *****
The Enterprise serves as a testbed for a revolutionary computer system.
There are some conceptual shortcomings in this, but nonetheless it's a very well told space adventure in similar vein as "The Doomsday Machine." William H. Marshall gives a wonderful and somewhat quirky performance as Dr. Richard Daystrom, the M5 computer system's creator.
To some extent the story is an allegory for the human fear of losing one's job or one's place to a machine, a genuinely felt concern in the 1960s and throughout the early part of the industrial age. That concern seems much less prevalent today as society appears to embrace each new advance in computer technology.
The episode takes the view that relinquishing total control of our lives to machinery inevitably leads to disaster. Of course, there's the important point that M5 was built inherently unstable since it's Daystrom's quirky personality that serves as the basis for M5's operating system or "mind" for lack of a better term. And that's where I see a conceptual flaw. Whether real artificial intelligence is ever achieved is anyone's guess, but the sophistication of computer intelligence is only going to get ever better. Assuming continuing progress then by the 23rd century computer intelligence should be very sophisticated, and certainly likely capable of operating a starship largely autonomously in many situations. Indeed contemporary space probes are being designed to operate ever more autonomously simply to help overcome the time lag of trying to control them from Earth---the more distant the probe in space the greater the time lag in sending a signal and receiving feedback that the action has been initiated. The probe's likelihood of survival increases dramatically if it can deal with unforeseen variables on its own rather than having to wait for responses and instructions from Earth.
My essential point is that if this story were being written today M5's abilities wouldn't seem quite so extraordinary because the Enterprise crew would already be quite with familiar A.I. on some level or other.
All that aside, though, I find this a very engaging and well told story.
You have to take this episode strictly as a product of it's time, in that sense, its a pretty good episode. Its greatest failing is it never really gave M5 the chance to prove whether it could replace men or not, because it went crazy first...and oddly enough, due to human foibles. This gave Kirk yet another chance to out-reason a nitwit computer. ***** stars
20 years later the Enterprise ran on total automation in STIII, albeit with human control...
RAMA
In general I'm not a fan of kitbashes, but the Nebula class, and other further variations of it is one of my favorites. Thought it was convincing as a secondary starship more advanced than the Excelsiors and in the same design range as the Galaxy Class. I think its generally pretty popular in fandom as well.
RAMA
Not to get the thread too far off track, I think that one of the reasons for the Nebula's popularity was that it was related to the Reliant's design. The Reliant was a popular ship, far more than the Excelsior, and the Nebula fed what I remember as a desire to see the 24th century equivalent. One thing in the Nebula's favor was that it did look pretty good when it showed up at the end of Generations.
“The Omega Glory” ****
Kirk suspects a fellow starship Captain of interfering with an alien culture.
I'm going to buck the trend here. Particularly in light of a discussion thread currently running regarding the actions of Captain Tracey.
I quite enjoy this episode and I find the criticisms often directed at it may have some validity, but they're overblown compared to other blatant Earth parallels Trek has played with. The thing is the parallels drawn don't really show up until toward the end of the episode. And sometimes I wonder if the criticism is sparked by the episodes seeming pro Americanism. I see the story a little differently, as a reminder of what many can sometimes take for granted.
I agree the sight of the tattered American flag is a touch too blatant a parallel. They'd have done better with an older and/or different version of the flag and then perhaps the parallel wouldn't seem so blatant. But beyond that I find this an enjoyable and engaging story and decently executed. I always like hearing second season's familiar hand-to-hand combat music.
On the issue of the Prime Directive Captain Tracey is guilty as sin, and that despite Morgan Woodward's wonderful performance. And while watching this again I don't buy the idea he's bugged out because of the loss of his crew. Unlike Decker before him Tracey is simply too deliberate in his actions and choices to convince me he's gone nuts. No, he strikes me as allowing himself to become corrupt. That said seeing him in action, particularly doing the early part of the episode, I would really like to have seen what he was like in command under more normal circumstances.
I deduct a point for some little too blatant parallel symbolism, but otherwise I rather like this episode and how it's done overall.
Kirk suspects a fellow starship Captain of interfering with an alien culture.
I'm going to buck the trend here. Particularly in light of a discussion thread currently running regarding the actions of Captain Tracey.
I quite enjoy this episode and I find the criticisms often directed at it may have some validity, but they're overblown compared to other blatant Earth parallels Trek has played with. The thing is the parallels drawn don't really show up until toward the end of the episode. And sometimes I wonder if the criticism is sparked by the episodes seeming pro Americanism. I see the story a little differently, as a reminder of what many can sometimes take for granted.
I agree the sight of the tattered American flag is a touch too blatant a parallel. They'd have done better with an older and/or different version of the flag and then perhaps the parallel wouldn't seem so blatant. But beyond that I find this an enjoyable and engaging story and decently executed. I always like hearing second season's familiar hand-to-hand combat music.
On the issue of the Prime Directive Captain Tracey is guilty as sin, and that despite Morgan Woodward's wonderful performance.
And while watching this again I don't buy the idea he's bugged out because of the loss of his crew. Unlike Decker before him Tracey is simply too deliberate in his actions and choices to convince me he's gone nuts. No, he strikes me as allowing himself to become corrupt. That said seeing him in action, particularly doing the early part of the episode, I would really like to have seen what he was like in command under more normal circumstances.I deduct a point for some little too blatant parallel symbolism, but otherwise I rather like this episode and how it's done overall.
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