Star Trek (TV Series) The Changeling (1967) User Reviews

Shatner Saves It (mostly)

[rogueforte · 8/10 · 4 December 2017]

Yeah, lots of plot holes and cheesy special effects but this is one of my favorites, and it's entirely due to Shatner's restrained (for once) performance. He actually seems to be acting and responding to the crew (mainly Spock) like a normal human being without any of his typical over- the-top hamming it up. Well, with the exception of the ending where, sadly, the writers reverted back to the cutesy crap. I can't really blame Shatner for that, either. When given decent dialog in the rest of show, The Shat did alright in this one, making it one of the most watchable episodes.

And a shout-out to user verbusen for noticing Lt. Leslie in his review. After rewatching these episodes many times, you start picking up the small things in the background, and Lt. Leslie at the helm next to Sulu, as well as wearing a gold tunic (as opposed to his typical red) is unusual. What isn't unusual, of course, is that Leslie has no lines. It's worth noting that the actor who played Leslie, Eddie Paskey, made a point of actually reading the scripts beforehand so he knew when an anonymous red-shirt was going to get offed, and made a point of making himself scarce during those red-shirt casting calls.

Nomad The Probe, Kirk The Creator

[Rainey-Dawn · 8/10 · 8 January 2017]

Season 2, episode 3. The Enterprise has encountered a powerful energy that has wiped out an entire solar system and all inhabitants. It holds the Enterprise and attacks... Kirk opens up communication with it and it agrees to beam aboard the ship. Kirk, McCoy and Spock head to the transporter room to me it. It is a probe that calls itself Nomad. When it hears others call the name Kirk it believes that Kirk is it's creator Roy Kirk. Kirk and Spock work together to find out more about this probe called Nomad. Nomad's programming is to destroy all biological imperfections - meaning all human and humanoid lifeforms. Kirk and crew must find a way to put an end to the highly destructive Nomad, there is one piece of hope since the "perfect" Nomad believes the "imperfect" Kirk is his creator.

Good episode that shows what could happen if thinking robots thinks they are a perfect creation and their imperfect creators must be destroyed. Machine vs Man.

8.5/10

I Am Nomad. The Concept for The First Star Trek Movie

[mike48128 · 8/10 · 5 September 2014]

In Star Trek the Motion Picture, Nomad was called "Vegur", the changeling satellite that created the first hot female "Borg" woman. (Actress Persis Khambatta) Like "Space Seed" (used for the 2nd movie concept), an original series episode was used as the basis for the first extremely overly-long, overblown "Star Trek" movie. It's amazing how they managed to created such a menacing beastie with a grey garbage disposal and a flashing Radio Shack metal project box, dangling from a tether! Best watched "enhanced" so any rigging is not visible! Very well done on an obvious "shoe-string" budget. Nomad collided with an alien probe and got its wires crossed. So, instead of seeking out new life forms, it seeks out and "sterilizes" (kills) all imperfect biological "infestations". It is now headed toward Earth, of course! Nomad "zaps" four security guards out of existence and allows Kirk to exercise his brain using perfect logic that even impresses Mr. Spock. ("Nomad...You are imperfect and must exercise your prime directive") The line "Nomad...error...error..." will remain forever in my memory banks! A very enjoyable episode.

Inspired first ST movie

[maverick-154 · 24 June 2006]

This episode obviously inspired the plot of the first Star Trek Movie where the mysterious and immensely powerful and dangerously destructive evil force is referred to as "V-ger" by the kidnapped and subsequently returned (and reprogrammed) female crewperson of the new and improved Enterprise.

In the movie eventually Kirk and Spock figure out that "V-Ger" is really the old Voyager spacecraft sent out as a probe in the twentieth century (they clean some charcoal off the 2nd through 4th letters of the machine's still existent painted on name) and long lost track of. Well, clearly it must have been damaged in flight at some point and then met up with some other probe of some other kind from some other planet with some other prime directive. The two machines "helped" each other repair themselves and combined forces to become much stronger but corrupting their prime directives as the two combined forces.

But gee, how could they figure all that out about V-Ger? Well, maybe it's because they went through most of all that before with the TV episode involving Nomad: the 1 meter long, square columnar, self-levitating and mobilizing metal box around which this episode revolved. Nomad had basically the same background story and was just as terse and ruthless in carrying out it's corrupted prime directive (and with just as much unlimited power - albeit on a much more limited production budget) to "Sterilize! Sterilize!" as V-Ger.

I mean...Spock had already solved the Nomad mystery via a Vulcan mind meld with Nomad (via "Creator Kirk" 's permission) so figuring out V-Ger's problem must have been a piece of cake! My favorite Nomad quote is simply "Non Sequiter!" when presented with some feeble attempt at logic by an obviously inferior human. As soon as I first heard it I immediately added it to my vocabulary...and have used it quite frequently ever since.

Nomad's Goal: Sterilize All Biological Units

[Bogmeister · 8/10 · 14 August 2006]

Yipes, Kirk's taken aboard some problematic entities before, but nothing quite so dangerous as this invincible little machine whose only goal is eradicating human beings. Well, Kirk had no choice really - the first act depicted the Enterprise as just one more power blast away from being vaporized. But, boy, that Kirk is one lucky starship captain (when you think about it, plain luck plays a huge role in Kirk's incredible Starfleet career) - his name happens to resemble that of Nomad's creator; that is, the creator of the original Nomad. The new upgraded version here has the power to wipe out the populations of entire solar systems - a benefit of having joined with some other alien probe. This kind of act - one of sheer genocide - should be almost unimaginably horrific, but is sort of brushed over in this episode, perhaps the main weakness in the storytelling. Sure, McCoy acts as indignant as he can be, but he reacts more intensely over what happens to Scotty & Uhura here. Scotty seems to have perfected the hot-tempered, impulsive crewman in this and the previous episode, "Who Mourns For Adonais?" In that last one, he was walloped by the alien Apollo; in this, he's killed by the alienated machine - yes, this is Scotty's final episode...just kidding.

Probably the strongest aspect of this episode is how they were able to create and convey an interesting character out of what amounts to a hovering metallic cylinder. Somehow, with the fine writing, the dialog, and the voice of actor Perrin, we get a fully-realized creation, one which inspires both dread and, more impressively, actual sympathy. Think the "Charlie X" character from the first season, done up as a super-robot. This Nomad, an early version of actual robotic life - an alternate sort of life - believes it has found its mother, Kirk. Like any child eager to please, its actions now revolve around trying to impress his mother/creator. It's kind of a touching turn of events and, when disillusionment sets in - when it realizes Kirk is just another biological unit - it becomes hurt & pouting, refusing to speak, until it at last says 'stop,' clearly in a tone suggesting profound sadness. Adding to the overall tragedy, 4 red-shirts are obliterated in short order - Nomad doesn't mess around. It's all the more embarrassing that this episode concludes with one those cutesy exchanges between the main trio - hey, guys, what about those billions of dead? Some respect, hm? This episode was essentially remade as "Star Trek-the Motion Picture" in '79, with a somewhat larger budget.

A Woman's Chaotic Mind

[mhubbard-54657 · 8/10 · 5 February 2017]

Fairly good "bottle" show. Complete with an alien life form/computer type thing that looks like some old car parts prettied up and spray painted. All of civilization is potentially at risk with this being, who targets and destroys imperfections. It finds Uhura's mind to be chaotic, after all she is a woman, and weeks are spent re-educating her after it attempts to "repair" her mind. Fortunately she is a quite a quick study with Nurse Chapel as a tutor. Our beloved Scotty is actually struck dead but resurrected.Kirk ultimately saves the day with his wit and insight, with Mr Spock's help. Overall a good episode, with several plot holes and a predictable outcomes. Fairly typical 1960's science fiction, but very good TV for it's day. Great use of the Vulcan mind meld, the ideal solution when someone will not (or can not) explain their true selves.

Star Trek: The Original Series - The Changeling

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 10 September 2016]

So the Enterprise investigate why a star system, where billions of lives once inhabited, are no longer showing life signs, with the ship encountering a lifeform (or so they believe) with immense power, using a type of beam that exhausts the shields with only a few bursts, leaving them vulnerable until Kirk is able to communicate with it. Through mathematical communication (its language was coming to them through subspace channels that way), the Enterprise establishes contact. It is small in "bulk" (a funny line where Scotty ponders how intelligent life could exist in something so small, Spock logically corrects him that "size doesn't matter") and agrees to be transported on board the ship. The lifeform is actually a probe launched from Earth in the "2000s" to collect samples from sources in space, actually colliding with a meteorite and presumed destroyed. Instead, this probe, which calls itself Nomad, survived, actually "merging" with an alien probe of some sort, becoming "something else entirely". Its memory banks faulty (it kills "imperfect biological organisms") but "improved" through its ability to "sterilize" life with a beam that eviscerates immediately, Nomad believes Kirk (his name favoring the real inventor of it) is its creator which actually helps to keep (most of) the crew from certain death. Kirk will need to determine a course of action to stop Nomad before it reaches Earth, a planet with plenty of biological imperfection, bound to be exterminated when it arrives. Spock actually performs a Vulcan mind meld on the probe in one of the episode's highlights. Kirk trying to hold off the Nomad's "evaluation" and "investigation" which could lead to his ship's "sterilization" is key to the episode's tension. Once again Kirk will need to analyze the situation, and with assistance from Spock and others, reason how to "trick" Nomad, to confuse it so that its programming is undermined. Scotty killed and resurrected by Nomad, along with Uhura "dumbed" by Nomad because she was singing, are also stunning developments in the episode. Kirk once again pitted against a machine; this is nothing new, but the show was able to organize different ways to incorporate ideas around the framework of a mechanical creation dictating terms through the use of weaponized engineering.

The Enterprise meets an intelligent but deadly probe

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 20 June 2015]

As this episode opens the Enterprising is approaching a supposedly inhabited star system and is surprised to find no sign of life. Shortly afterwards the ship comes under attack from a strange probe which defies attempts to destroy it. After attempting to communicate it replies that it is Nomad… and it believes Capt. Kirk is its creator! Apparently it has mistaken Kirk for the long dead Dr. Jackson Roykirk. Nomad is beamed aboard the Enterprise where Kirk plays along with Nomad's belief that he is its creator. Nomad's original programme was to search out new life forms but somehow it has changed; it is now searching for perfect lifeforms and is 'sterilising' anything it finds imperfect. As it learns more it states its intention to return to its launch point, Earth, and sterilise any imperfections there; Kirk will have to use a logical approach if he is to destroy Nomad before it kills everybody aboard his ship.

While this isn't a great episode it is certainly pretty good; Nomad is genuinely menacing despite its bargain basement appearance; it demonstrates an ability to kill and to cure as well as effecting Uhura in a way that leaves her mind almost empty. The way Kirk ultimately uses logic to force Nomad to destroy itself is somewhat cliché but was done in enjoyable way thanks to William Shatner's performance. The way Urura started speaking Swahili as she recovered was a nice touch that made sense given that it is meant to be the character's native language. Overall not a bad episode; there is certainly plenty of action given that they don't leave the ship.

Suspenseful and (mostly) logical - one of my favorites

[resfirestar · 7/10 · 14 March 2011]

This easily makes the list of the most suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat Trek episodes ever. A malfunctioning space probe, Nomad, comes aboard the Enterprise, mistaking Kirk for its creator. The half-earth, half-alien probe thinks it has orders to sterilize imperfect life-forms, and the crew has to find a way to keep it under control before it kills them. A great climax - Kirk using logic to destroy Nomad - brings it to a great conclusion, and almost makes up for a very illogical element.

Nomad absorbs Uhura's memory , rendering her useless for most of the episode. Nomad is unable to restore it, so McCoy and his team reeducate her over a few weeks. Really? Could you be back to normal in a few weeks after having your brain wiped?

3 stars off for that silly bit, the rest are well-deserved for a great episode!

Rouge Probe

[Samuel-Shovel · 7/10 · 16 May 2018]

In "The Changeling", the Enterprise heads into the Malurian star system where it is discovered that the entire system has been wiped out by an unknown entity. Thus entity turns out to be a highly sophisticated robot that attacks the Enterprise. The robot eventually heads aboard and, due to damaged memory banks, identifies Kirk as its creator. It turns out the machine is a hybrid between an old Earth probe that was thought to be destroyed by a meteor long ago and an alien probe. The two repaired each other and combine to make Nomad. It created a new garbled directive to exterminate any imperfect beings it comes across. After killing Scotty and bringing him back to life, wiping Uhura's memory, and downloading all of the Enterprise's data, Kirk must confuse the machine enough to stop it from destroying the crew and heading for Earth. He convinces Nomad that it is imperfect and must destroy itself due to its prime directive.

The premise of this high-functioning machine mistaking its creator for Kirk just because they have similar last names is difficult to buy into. A child makes this mistake, not something as sophisticated as this. Putting that aside, I really enjoy the rest of this episode. The writer's are really able to make a three dimensional character out of the floating Nomad. He seems scary, all-powerful, and unstoppable. There's something about the blankness of a machine as it computes data and figures out its next move which is oddly terrifying. Its lack of expression gives us no indication of what will come next.

Kirk's cleverness saves the day once again, much to the surprise of Spock. With that duo at the helm, it seems like they can accomplish anything.

One final note, we only meet the Malurians once in the Star Trek universe, when Captain Archer finds some of them illegally mining on a planet still in the rudimentary stages of cultural evolution. It's a shame that their only appearance is such a black mark on their species.

Inspiration for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which was better

[intp · 5/10 · 27 July 2014]

As others have noted, this episode was the inspiration for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, involving the powerful Vejur entity. But the movie had a much more satisfying resolution, and was sort of an "improved" version of this episode.

Basically, the Enterprise encounters an immensely powerful space probe that originated on Earth (Nomad), was subsequently altered by contact with a much more powerful alien probe, and now seeks to "sterilize" all "imperfections", which include "biological units". In other words, it threatens to wipe out all biological life, and it has the power to do it. The only thing that saves the Enterprise, at first, is that the machine mistakenly thinks Kirk is its creator, solely because of damage to its databanks and the similarity of Kirk's name to that of the true creator, "Roykirk", from centuries ago on Earth, and the machine somewhat inexplicably chooses to obey instructions from its perceived creator.

The episode did have some impressive dramatic moments, like the demonstrations of Nomad's power-- able to fire warp 15 energy bolts supposedly containing the power of 90 photon torpedos (which really should have obliterated the Enterprise with one shot, rather than taking five!); able to increase engine efficiency of the Enterprise to reach at least warp 11; able to absorb a direct hit with a photon torpedo, with no damage whatsoever; able to restore a recently killed crewman (Scotty).

The immense power of the being, and the fact that it is inevitably going to discover that Kirk is an "imperfect biological entity" and wipe out all humankind, creates an interesting enough dilemma for the crew to solve, but the resolution was really pretty silly. Kirk basically "outwits" the "perfect" and almost inconceivably sophisticated Nomad by pointing out that Nomad erred in concluding he was its creator; therefore, Nomad must 'sterilize' itself.

This sort of pat and convenient ending was hardly a plausible one, for many reasons. First, it was hardly believable that Nomad would have made the initial mistake that Kirk was its creator. Even if it had the name "James Kirk" in its damaged databanks for some reason instead of the correct name "Roykirk", it seems doubtful that a computer that advanced would have just assumed, without more information, that this was the same man who was its creator. More importantly, wouldn't it have long ago realized that it was created by the "inferior" biological units anyway? So even meeting its creator should hardly have impressed it; unless it had some residual programming that 'required' that it obey its creator-- in which case it shouldn't have mattered if it knew whether Kirk was biological or not! (and Kirk could have just ordered it to destroy itself, while it was under the illusion that Kirk was its creator). Finally, even if Nomad didn't already know that Kirk was a "mere biological unit", it was so advanced and powerful that it should have detected that fact right away upon encountering him without needing Kirk to "slip up" later and spill the beans.

There really could be no 'happy' resolution here, in that Nomad had nothing left but an odd cold malevolence: the mission to 'sterilize' all imperfection, including all biological life. The silly ending in which Kirk "out-logics" the supreme computer was basically a necessary "cop out" to get out of an impossible situation.

In The Motion Picture, the result is much more satisfying. There, Vejur is not as malevolent as Nomad, but instead seeks to seek out and acquire all knowledge in the universe, a pretty lofty goal. Vejur is portrayed as a 'child' that yearns to know its 'roots', to learn how it was created, which leads it to trace its origins to Earth's systems and seek out its creator there. When the truth is revealed to it, the creature embraces this fact and merges with the descendants of its creator (in that case, Decker and Ilja). Certainly a much more satisfactory resolution.

Before V'ger, there was Nomad.

[BA_Harrison · 7/10 · 30 May 2022]

The Enterprise responds to a distress call from the Malurians. On arrival, Spock reports that there is no sign of life on the planet: its four billion inhabitants have simply disappeared. Suddenly, a powerful bolt of energy hits the ship, followed by several more, all emanating from an object no larger than one meter in length.

After communicating with the object, Kirk beams it on board and discovers it to be a Nomad space probe, launched from Earth in the early 21st century. However, after a chance collision with an alien probe, the machine was repaired (now with added super weaponry) and its function altered: it now believes that its mission is to destroy biological infestation - any being that it deems imperfect. Mistaking Kirk for its creator, it follows the captain's orders, but for how long?

The Changeling is the episode that formed the basis for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), which also revolved around a deep space probe encountering alien technology. Unlike that pretentious, overblown, drawn-out, mega-budget disappointment of a movie, the original TV show is actually very entertaining - sometimes, less is more. Wobbling throughout The Enterprise, obviously suspended on a wire, Nomad causes all manner of problems for Kirk, wiping the mind of communications officer Uhura, killing Scotty (before bringing him back to life), and disintegrating several 'red shirts'. It's a lot of fun, the probe surprisingly menacing despite its clunky, somewhat laughable appearance.

When it becomes apparent that Nomad intends to return to Earth, where it will no doubt cleanse the planet of imperfect humans, Kirk must find a way of destroying the probe. The answer is simple: use the exact same method employed to destroy Landru in The Return of the Archons - bamboozle the machine with reasoning and logic, causing it to self-destruct.

Inspired... more like totally copied.

[fmlazar · 7/10 · 27 September 2017]

"This episode obviously inspired the plot of the first Star Trek Movie where the mysterious and immensely powerful and dangerously destructive evil force is referred to as "V-ger" by the kidnapped and subsequently returned (and reprogrammed) female crewperson of the new and improved Enterprise."

Start Trek: The Motion Picture wasn't simply "inspired"by the Changeling. Roddenberry pretty much took the plot and characters of "The Changeling" tried to file the serial numbers off, and expand it into a feature film without any payment to the author of this script. Said author however wasn't sleeping, nor dead, and sued him over the attempted theft. You can pretty much do a direct mapping of the plot and characters from this episode to that film with Lt. Ilia taking the place of Uhura, but pretty much everything else lifted intact.

"Non sequitur. Your facts are uncoordinated".

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 15 November 2010]

In general, I guess my favorite Star Trek episodes are the ones where rationality and logic are used to win the day, the way Captain Kirk prevailed upon Nomad to sterilize himself out of existence, thereby saving the Enterprise for the rest of the second season. I think I would have scored this one higher, as other viewers have pointed out, if Nomad wasn't made out of sheet metal to look like something out of the 1950's instead of the thirty fourth century. OK, the budget was limited, but it further reinforces my belief that some of these shows are better viewed in black and white instead of living color.

But feeling halfway generous, this wasn't such a bad episode. The concept underlying Nomad's re-creation and it's imperative to destroy imperfection was certainly worthy of the sci-fi touch. Spock really gives it his all with the Vulcan mind probe, and can it be!!! - unlike Captain Kirk's faux demise in 'Amok Time', Scotty REALLY bought the farm in this one. Thankfully the writers brought him back within ten minutes instead of hanging him out to dry for a couple of weeks.

You know, I wondered if that picture of Jackson Roykirk was meant to represent someone connected to the show. Turns out it was the director of the episode, Mark Daniels. I'd say he was a good looking guy, but considering the shot they used, that would be a non sequitur.

Cool but Flawed Star Trek Episode

[verbusen · 7/10 · 21 July 2016]

There was a time that this episode would be one of my favorites a 10. They based the first film on the same story so it is considered a very good episode and story. Anything that can wipe out billions of Federation people is impressive and Nomad is a really dangerous foe. I just rewatched it since it's been a long time and I wanted to play the series for my Wife who never watched Trek before much.

SPOILERS

It just dawned on after I have watched this episode like a dozen times in my life, when they are beaming Nomad aboard in the beginning, why didn't they scatter it's atoms into space instead of beaming it onboard? I read about the transporter on wikipedia and when they transport Nomad it is briefly inside the transporter before it is rematerialized. Scotty was busy with the warp drive, and Spock was in shock to think about it? Lol. I guess Kirk knew he could do that but his search for new life and new civilizations prompt him not to destroy Nomad right away in the beginning (at the expense of many Red Shirt crewmen). Lol. Since I have watched these episodes many times, to make it interesting I look for Lt. Leslie (actor Eddie Paskey) who was in around 57 or so episodes but rarely had any lines. Here Mr Leslie is luckily wearing a Gold Shirt on the bridge, and spared being one of the multiple Red Shirts vaporized in the hallways by Nomad. Still a very cool episode, 7 of 10 for high body count (including Mr Scott!).

Interesting but Flawed

[slydude07 · 3/10 · 13 December 2019]

1. How could that little metal box that looks like it was made from a child's erector set destroy billions of lives, or even have the power to fire the equivalent of 90 photon torpedos? 2. Why didn't NOMAD know that Kirk was an "imperfect" biological life form the moment he met him, and why did Kirk stupidly admit to NOMAD that he was just one of them? That mistake could've cost billions of lives. 3. Why didn't Kirk order him not to harm any more of his "units" early on. 4. How did Uhura recover so much learning so quickly? Especially since she was just reading grade school readers and not being reprogrammed in any way? 5. Why the levity at the end of the show considering how many billions of lives that were lost, including four members of the crew? Does Kirk only mourn when one of his main officers are hurt or killed?

An exercise in logic

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 19 October 2013]

This is one of my favorite Star Trek prime episodes. The reason I like it so much is that has Captain Kirk winning a battle of wits with a space probe which has changed its mission for the worst for all life in the Universe. And his weapon is logic, far more the province of the Vulcan, Mr. Spock.

After a couple of devastating pulse attacks the Enterprise takes on board a small earth probe thought lost for centuries. It's called Nomad and having met another probe out in space it took on a new mission, to remove all imperfections from the Universe. And in its universal view, all biological life is most inefficient and henceforth imperfect.

However the scientist back on earth who designed Nomad was also named Kirk and therein lies the weapon that William Shatner uses to best the probe. This story contained one of the best performances by Shatner in the series as he uses his wits and logic to show that Nomad isn't perfect either.

Great writing and great acting from Shatner, don't miss this one.

"My congratulations, Captain: a dazzling display of logic."

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 21 May 2023]

Scripted by John Meredyth Lucas, this particular Trek episode does a typically fine job of illustrating a classic yarn of man vs. Machine. "Nomad" (voiced by prolific voice-over artist Vic Perrin) is an Earth probe that was launched in the early 21st century, but its agenda to seek out alien civilizations has been seriously warped. Now it's on a mission to destroy any living species it deems "inferior" - while viewing itself as being "perfect". It's brought on board the Enterprise, and causes all sorts of problems. The fact that it confuses Kirk for its creator proves to be a saving grace - for a while.

An idea eventually rehashed for the first Star Trek feature film in 1979, this episode generates some excellent tension. We can see the incredible damage that Nomad is capable of: killing crewmen as well as wiping all of the knowledge out of Uhuras' brain - after it is drawn by the sound of her singing. Although it may present a remarkable achievement in some ways, it has become a menace that must be dealt with. The story does leave the viewer to think of the old idea of what it means to be human, and of course "to err is human": we're all basically imperfect. This is already presenting Nomad with an incredibly large death toll, since during its travels it has been eliminating entire species; the Enterprise crew must NOT let it reach Earth.

All in all, 'The Changeling' (the title is a reference to the fate that befell Nomad in space) is classic Trek: provocative, highly amusing at times, and just downright fun.

Seven out of 10.

I Am Somad!

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 28 April 2014]

I know a writer takes his characters, their history, and then manufactures some kind of threat. It's sort of sitcom without the com. In this episode, a wandering probe that was to be used for benevolent purposes has collided with another device and its mission has changed. It is called "Nomad" because it travels from place to place. Unfortunately, it destroys anything with imperfections; that includes even modest things. In a ridiculous move, it finds Uhura to be imperfect and wipes her memory clean. She is put back in kindergarten. Does anyone see how stupid this is? Even if she is retrained, she has no experiences or data to do her job. Others are killed when they confront the thing. The only salvation is that the thing has mistaken Kirk for the creator of the device. It moves around the ship like an efficiency expert in the sixties (although the worst that could happen then was you got fired). As time goes along, the probe starts to put two and two together and Kirk's control of it begins to wane. Spock is able to figure out its skewed mission by doing the old mind meld. So what to do. The conclusion has to do with logic. Spock's kind of logic.

The Cat Jumped Over the Lazy Dog...

[Xstal · 6/10 · 16 February 2022]

Under attack from an old satellite, when it's on board demonstrates great insight, but the hybrid is mad, a crazy nomad, and it puts up a hell of a fight.

A bucket from the past that has evolved into a super thinking machine jeopardises the Enterprise and potentially all those back on planet Earth.

Some promising material wasted in a badly written episode

[aaustin-10 · 3/10 · 7 March 2011]

Nomad, an intelligent, deadly, and seemly indestructible space probe, comes on board the Enterprise. It's objective is to destroy any imperfect life forms (which pretty much means all life forms). The only thing that buys the Enterprise crew time before Nomad kills them all is that Nomad erroneously thinks Kirk is its inventor, but that stroke of luck might not last forever.

This episode is so sad, because there is a lot of good material here that is inexplicably wasted through needlessly bad script decisions.

The good: Nomad is genuinely menacing. You can sense Kirk and his crew are terrified, watching what they say and do because at any moment this unpredictable machine could effortlessly kill them all. The episode manages to create that real tension, and that real feeling the crew is walking a razor's edge.

But such an effective atmosphere of fear, which could have supported a great episode, is ruined by some terrible additions. Lt. Uhura is drained of her knowledge and has to be re-educated, and that whole scene is embarrassing and drags down the episode. And it was not necessary. Why was it put in there at all? Then Spock does a mind meld with the robot and provides another embarrassing, silly scene. Once again, it was not necessary: there were other ways to convey the admittedly fascinating idea of two robots merging in the depths of space.

Then four red shirts die in a contrived way: Kirk just sends them to guard Nomad, they inexplicably shoot at it, and all die. Admittedly it helps establish that Nomad does not kid around, and is lethal, but it also was contrived. Nomad's lethality could have been communicated without the need for anybody, especially Kirk, to do anything stupid. Nomad could have simply killed somebody for making a routine mistake.

Finally, and worst of all, the episode, filled with fear and death, ends with a lame joke, as if all the lost lives move no one. This "lame joke ending" approach almost tanked "The Galileo Seven" episode, but here it puts the last nail in the coffin of "The Changeling." Star Trek has lots of good episodes. "The Changeling" is one of the worst, and the saddest part is it could easily have avoided that.

Great concept.

[thevacinstaller-03350 · 6/10 · 21 December 2022]

Too much robot and not enough heart in this episode for me but it is a creative concept. Was the cat let out of the bag too soon with this episode? We discover within minutes that this a robot set on destroying all flawed life ---- I feel like this reveal could have been redesigned to have more impact.

The character of Nomad being an industrial vacuum cleaner probably does not help my ability to feel the immense stakes of this episode. This 1 M device is capable of destroying life on a planetary scale?

It is pretty clever to have the creator be someone with a similar name to Captain Kirk thus explaining why the Enterprise was spared. The episode has a glacial pace once the mystery of Nomad is revealed ---- we all know what is coming and it feels like forever for it to happen.

The writers attempted to add a bit of humanity to this episode with Uhura losing her knowledge but it got a bit silly with a hand wave explanation that she will be good to go within a week or two?

I have to say my favorite moment is at the end when Kirk ask's Spock (in regards to his successfully use of logic to destroy Nomad), You didn't think I had it in me, did you?" Spock: No, sir.

Kirk then gives Spock this hurt look that was absolutely hilarious to see.

Despite being a decent episode, I really wish this had never aired

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 7 December 2006]

My biggest complaint about this episode isn't really the fault of the episode itself. Let me explain. Despite this being, at best, an ordinary episode, it was re-tooled years later into the first Star Trek movie. And, if you haven't seen it, this movie is horrid--being one of the dullest sci-fi movies ever. The problems were many with STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE, but one fundamental problem was that the idea didn't merit an entire LONG movie. At only one hour, this concept was workable--at 2348362 hours (or so it seemed when I sat there opening night to see it), it's pure padding.

Now, let's set aside the trauma that was STAR TREK THE MOTION PICTURE and concentrate on this episode. The crew encounters an evil little space probe (M-5) that destroys everything in its path. How this little hovering pile of scrap is able to do this does seem a bit hard to believe, but the worn and torn device seems to think that Kirk is its mother and so it stops its murderous galactic rampage. So far, so good. But, later, it runs amok on the ship and does some nasty little things. Then Kirk, using his vastly superior mind, confuses the crap out of M-5 and it blows itself to bits.

The episode is stuck on the ship, so some might find the action a bit subdued and claustrophobic. My problem is that the show was only mildly diverting.

Deleting units are fanatical, much like censorship today. Life imitates art.

[fedor8 · 8 June 2022]

This episode's robot may be criminally insane, but he gives a pretty dead-on definition of the "weaker sex": "That unit is defective. Its thinking is chaotic... A mass of conflicting impulses." So wonderfully un-PC! You won't get lines like that in any modern sci-fi, especially those wretched ST spin-offs. So, yes, Nomad is very perceptive. However, not clever enough to also have told us something we did not know until recently: "The unit called Sulu is as happy as Liberace's pink poodle." Nomad was created when an Earth satellite/robot merged with an alien device. The former was programmed for finding new life forms, the latter for sterilization. Together they became the killer robot who gave Scotty a brief glimpse into the world of the dead. That's sort of like Anjelina Jolie merging with a Catholic priest: the result would be a skinny person that will want to massively adopt children - but for all the wrong reasons.

"And when it gets there, it will find Earth is infested with imperfect biological units." (Kirk) Yes, faulty beings such as Sean Penn, Gwyneth Paltrow, Susan Sarandon, and John Grisham. Pity Spock wasn't able to re-programme Nomad into a purely "getting-rid-of-Hollywood morons" killing machine and then sent him to this dump of a planet...

After losing two red-shirts (ST's dodo birds), Kirk sends TWO more of these luckless guys to guard over Nomad. Why? Weren't those two deaths - plus the genocide of 4 billion people on planet Whatchamacallit - indication enough to be careful around this thing? But I can almost hear Gene Roddenberry's voice: "Nah... There's plenty where those 4 extras came from..." Speaking of those 4 billion dead, the episode reminds me of "The Immunity Syndrome" and "Light Of Zetar" where several billion colonists/inhabitants also kick the bucket; the ease with which the story brushes away those statistics once they're announced is fairly worrying.

It's interesting that Uhura's complete memory banks have been erased, including English, and yet she speaks fluent Swahili. Does this mean that Swahili takes up space somewhere else in the brain? If so, I wonder where a beautiful language like German is stored... perhaps in another part of the body. I won't say which.

Regarding the premise of the episode, of course the first movie was based on it. The best movie, I might add. Those who hate it usually love parts 2, 3 and 6, which are just your standard dumb comic-book-like action fare for very young kids. One reviewer here complains that STTMP is too dull; for such people every scene has to have a bomb explode or Spock giving someone a neck-pinch. STTMP has a proper sci-fi story - which is naturally off-putting to Trekkies, who prefer soap-opera garbage camouflaged as sci-fi (see "The Next Generation", every housewife's favourite "sci-fi" series). As for a human trying to outwit or "out-logic" a machine, as Kirk does at the end, Carpenter's "Dark Star" used pretty much the same approach, to very funny effect.

Great concept but not exactly cinematic

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 16 May 2021]

Enterprise encounters the deadly space probe Nomad.

This is an okay episode that has decent premise and some memorable scenes.

The plot is another fairly technophobic entry from the original series with similar themes and resolution to episodes such as 'Return of the Archons'. It is pretty good concept, but unfortunately the writers dedicate an entire episode to Kirk and crew interacting with Nomad in a number of either silly or uninteresting ways.

The same concept was done better (only slightly) in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, as there is really only so much of a cylindrical machine floating about the Enterprise talking to people that you can watch before things start to feel a bit flat.

I like the visual design and the simple effects that bring Nomad to life (so to speak). The voice is very old fashioned sci-fi, but all part of the fun.

The best thing about the episode is that Uhura has something different and relatively cool to do for a change. It is a bit of stretch in terms of plausibility, but I like how it is done in a way that implies she is a very capable individual who can learn very quickly.

Most performances are solid, particularly Nichelle Nichols for a brief moment of good screen time.