“An artificially intelligent probe with a murderously twisted imperative comes onto the Enterprise and confuses Capt. Kirk with its creator.”
Welp, it isn’t going to be an Odo episode...
***
The Enterprise is investigating a distress call from the Melurians, but are unable to contact them. Spock tells Kirk that long range sensors are picking up no signs of life. Kirk declares that to be impossible, because there should be four billion people in that sector.
Sulu announced that the shields have snapped on - I didn’t know they were automatic, but maybe it’s just this episode. Something is approaching “at ultrawarp speeds”
They watch as a glowing green ball approaches them, and then BOOM, it hits, and everyone runs back and forth on the set.
Turns out it had the equivalent energy of 90 photon torpedoes, and reduced the shields by 20%.
They take two more hits before Spock locates the source of the attack and Sulu is able to lock on photon torpedoes. The unidentified craft absorbs the energy. Uhura is able to open a channel, and the attacks stop.
The craft attempts to communicate through mathematics, and ultimately is avid to access the Enterprise’s computer to convert its language to English. It calls itself Nomad. It asks Kirk to beam aboard, but he can’t because the craft is only half a meter long. They prepare to beam it aboard instead.
They beam the entire craft aboard and quickly realize there is no one inside - it’s a computerized probe. It wants to see their star charts to determine where they came from.
Spock recalls a probe named Nomad launched from Earth in the early 2000s. When they show Nomad the star charts, it determined that they are from Earth, and Kirk is “the creator.” Its function is to find biological infestations and destroy them. Spock begins checking the history computer to find out more about Nomad
Kirk asks why it calls him “the creator.” It asks if the usage is incorrect, and before Kirk can answer, Spock jumps in and says that the usage is correct, and Kirk was just testing its memory banks.
Kirk, Spock, and McCoy leave Lt. Singh in charge of Nomad while they go to discuss what Spock has found out. Spock believes this is the real Nomad, which was presumed destroyed by a meteor strike, but has survived and repaired itself.
Meanwhile, Singh looks at Nomad, which flashes some lights at him. He starts working on his regular tasks and Uhura calls down to see what the status of the auxiliary control room is. He says he needs to check something, and she starts singing while she waits. Nomad seems to take an interest in this singing and leaves.
***
Spock tells McCoy and Kirk that Nomad’s creator was Jackson Roykirk, whose name is similar enough to James Kirk for Nomad to be confused. Also, Nomad’s original purpose was to seek out new life forms, but when it was damaged, it inadvertently reprogrammed itself to seek out perfect life forms and destroy imperfect ones.
Kirk orders a security team to meet him in the auxiliary control room, but changes that when Singh reports Nomad has wandered off.
Nomad appears on the bridge, looking for Uhura. Scotty contacts Kirk, while nomad begins to question Uhura about music. It appears to scan her brain while telling her to think about music, and when Scotty tries to stop it, it zaps him with a weapon. McCoy rushes to check on him, but Scotty is dead.
Now, we all know this isn’t permanent, but I don’t remember how they get him back, so it’s kind of a shock.
Meanwhile, Uhura is catatonic. Nomad has absorbed her mental energy, which it describes as “a mass of conflicting impulses.” Evidently that’s what women are like. Barf.
Nomad asks if they are going to repair the unit Scott. Kirk says he’s dead, they can’t repair him. Nomad asks if Kirk wants him to repair Scotty. They give him all the computer’s information on human anatomy and Scotty’s brain scans, and take it to sick bay, where it brings Scotty back to life.
Kirk tells Nomad to repair Uhura, but it says that is not possible, because her “memory banks” have been wiped clean. There is no brain damage, however, so they can re-educate her.
Kirk sends Nomad to the brig under guard and has Spock study it. Meanwhile, Nurse Chapel is teaching Uhura how to read. Somehow Uhura has also learned Swahili, so either Nomad didn’t wipe her brain completely, or she is a wicked fast learner to already be bilingual. I know it’s established later that Uhura is a genius, but this is pretty weird.
***
Spock is not able to scan all of Nomad’s records, and determines he needs to mind meld with it. He determined that the original Nomad interacted with another damaged probe and merged with it. The other probe’s mission was to sterilize soil samples, so Nomad cobbled together its new directive of finding life and sterilizing it. The only thing keeping them safe is that it thinks Kirk is it’s creator.
***
Nomad breaks out of the brig, and when a security officer shoots it with his phaser, it vaporizes both guards. Then it goes to engineering and starts messing around with the “inefficient” engines. They end up increasing speed to warp 11. Kirk arrives and tells it to stop. Spock then tells Kirk the guards have vanished and must be assumed dead. Nomad tells Kirk that his biological units are inefficient, and Kirk angrily tells it that he’s a biological unit too.
Nomad says there is much to re-evaluate before it returns to its launch point. Kirk orders it back to the brig, and after it leaves, Spock points out that it wasn’t the wisest of moves to tell Nomad that he’s a biological unit. Whoops. They also realize Nomad mush have figured out where Earth is and plans to return. Also whoops.
***
Nomad decides it doesn’t want to go to the brig, and kills the two new redshirts before flying off randomly.
Kirk gets an emergency call to sick bay and arrives just in time for Nomad to exit. He tries to get it to stop, but it ignores him. Turns out he stunned Chapel and examined Kirk’s medical files.
Then they get a call from the bridge - Nomad has disabled life support. Kirk goes to engineering to stop Nomad. It says that by shutting down life support, it will sterilize the ship before sterilizing Earth.
Kirk gives Nomad a conundrum - if he is a biological unit, and he created Nonad, how can he be imperfect? If he created Nomad but it imperfect, Nomad must be imperfect. Nomad declares his logic to be in error, but Kirk then asks if he is the creator. Nomad says yes, and Kirk tells him that’s proof that Nomad is imperfects - it’s real creator is Roykirk, not Kirk.
While Nonad freaks out about this, they manage to get it to the transporter room and beam it into space, where it explodes.
***
On the bridge, Spock congratulates Kirk on his logic. Kirk jokingly says Spock didn’t think he had it in him, and Spock agrees, which kinda deflates Kirk momentarily.
Bones enters and says Uhura is up to college level, so she should be able to resume her duties within a week.
Spock points out that Nomad was a brilliant piece on engineering, and it was unfortunate that it had to be destroyed. Kirk says Nomad thought he was it’s mother, and after seeing it bring Scotty back to life, he said it would have made a remarkable doctor. “My son, the doctor. Kinda gets you right here.”
***
So this was better than the last episode by far, but still weird af. I liked how Scotty and Uhura had more to do in this episode, and even though it was bizarre to have Uhura able to re-educate herself that quickly, she gave a good performance. It was bizarrely similar to the plot of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, though. I can’t exactly blame the episode because it came first, but it’s not my favorite concept.
Also, hasn’t Kirk logicked other machines into self-destruction like twice now?
Overall though the idea of this unkillable machine wandering around the Enterprise is good.
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