The Ultimate Computer (Episode)

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The Ultimate Computer

"The Ultimate Computer" (TOS 53)

Series	Star Trek
Season	2
Episode	24
Production Number	53
Release Date	8 Mar 1968
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Stardate 4729.4: The Enterprise is used to test the new M-5 computer.

Doctor Richard Daystrom, who developed the breakthrough duotronic computer technology 25 years ago, fears he is now regarded as a prodigy who has lost his touch. Obsessed with proving himself, Daystrom uses his own mental patterns to program his new M-5 computer and convinces Starfleet Command that it should test the machine by installing it on the Enterprise. Although Captain Kirk expresses reservations about the machine's presence, the first tests appear successful. When Commodore Robert Wesley leads a squad of starships in practice maneuvers against the M-5-run Enterprise, the computer takes complete control of the starship and responds as though the attack is real, resulting in the death of the entire Excalibur crew. Kirk, treating the M-5 like an errant child, forces the machine to realize it has committed murder. The machine sentences itself to death by lowering the Enterprise's shields — just as the rest of the wargames fleet moves in to attack. Scotty and Spock "pull the plug" on M-5, restoring the Enterprise to Captain Kirk's control. Kirk then plays dead — and Wesley calls off the fleet.