The Ultimate Computer

William Marshall's character of Dr. Richard Daystrom a future expert in cybernetics has been completely vindicated in even more future episodes in the Star Trek franchise. In Star Trek The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine and Voyager there are references to the Daystrom Institute that has been founded on earth. It's fully explained in this story that Daystrom is a great man of science and he must have been to have his work and reputation recover from the folly of this particular experiment.

The Enterprise has been reduced to a skeleton crew of 19 including the cast members and on board is William Marshall who has installed his brand new state of the art M5 super computer which will run the ship with only a skeleton staff needed for maintenance.

Need I say that things go horribly wrong as the computer starts making command decision. It also has developed a most human instinct for its own survival.

All this is most distressing for Marshall who sees the M5 as the crowning achievement in an illustrious scientific career. The machine is like a child to him and he behaves as a parent.

I won't go into what happens, but the Enterprise does run amuck during battlefield maneuvers and is saved because of the instinct and humanity of another of the Starship captains.

A really well done Star Trek about humanity and humans. No machine can replace us.

Interesting: 'The Ultimate Computer' was first broadcast on March 8, 1968 while '2001: A Space Odyssey' opened on April 6, 1968. Science fiction fans had a real treat; both the are excellent in their own way.

William Marshall (Daystrom) overacts with as much vigor as Shatner in this episode. Long impassioned monologues that leave me rolling on the floor laughing.

As usual, the writers didn't miss out on the chance for relevant social commentary. Back then, computers were so expensive, only corporations owned them. And it wasn't just the misinformed who gave computers more respect than they were due. Artificial Intelligence researchers believed that they would soon be matching human reasoning. Such power in the hands of a few was of course a frightening prospect.

Daystrom's best moments are at 29 and 42 minutes on the DVD.

Season 2, episode 24. By Federation orders, the Enterprise is ordered to participate in computer wargames. Kirk is forced to a very minimal skeleton crew, the M5 computer is installed on board the Enterprise by it's inventor Dr. Richard Daystrom while Starfleet is very optimistic the M5 work - in the name of progress. M5 does what it's designed to do in a test drill which leaves Kirk and the skeleton crew more nervous but when an oil freighter passes by M5 chases it down and fires at it, causing it to explode. Kirk orders the M5 to be stopped but the M5 has learned to defend itself and will not allow humans to shut if off. Dr. Daystrom invented M5 to help save lives but when he sees everything going wrong and even killing a crewman he and his M5 tries to stop Kirk and his skeleton crew from disabling the computer and taking back their ship. M5 has taken over everything from communications to warp drive to weapons. Dr. Daystrom loves his "child", the M5, while Kirk and crew are having trouble waking him up from his M5 dream of helping humanity.

A fantastic episode that entertains the idea of computers/machines getting smarter and taking over to help humans. But, what happens when the computer goes wrong? 9/10

The M5 computer is running the ship, but there's a bit of a problem, a binary blip, it's taken control and it won't give it back, it's primed and alert and ready for attack - whoever you are.

A portent of things to come perhaps, as a not so intelligent designer fails to implement a suitable failsafe in a computer made in his metaphorical image.