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Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 27, Episodes 53 & 54: The Ultimate Computer/ The Omega Glory

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It seems like quality control has waivered as the series releases have slowly rolled out. Look for spelling errors in the enclosed documentation. I even received the wrong insert in one of the volumes I ordered (Vol.29) Sound and video is just as good as watching it on TV (4:3 ratio, stereo sound.)

If your not expecting bells and whistles, as might be expected, you will be disappointed. However, if you just want to collect Trek, you will be pleased.

Paramount's complete reissue of Classic Trek on DVD continues with this installment of episodes from the end of the series' second season.

Over thirty years after it was first aired, The Ultimate Computer remains a thought provoking and relevant episode. The theme of man vs. machine is more with us today than ever before. D. C. Fontata's excellent script is helped by superior television directing from John Meredyth Lucas. The distinguished stage actor William Marshall's performance as Dr. Richard Daystrom is rich in foreshadowing the high-strung scientist's impending breakdown. (Primarily based on the strength of that performance, nearly every Trek incarnation since has referenced Richard Daystrom, and in The Next Generation, there's even a Daystrom Institute.) Barry Russo makes a brief but noteworthy appearance as Commodore Robert Wesley (Wesley was Gene Roddenberry's middle name). Finally, James Doohan outdoes himself by playing THREE roles here: Scotty (of course), the voice of Commodore Enwright, and the voice of the M-5 Computer.

The Omega Glory was one of three scripts written for the second Trek pilot, following NBC's rejection of The Cage (the other two were Mudd's Women and Where No Man Has Gone Before). Though this was the first script written making use of the parallel worlds concept, by the time it was filmed, the idea had been used so many times before (Miri, Bread & Circuses, Patterns of Force) that it was becoming stale. As in Patterns of Force, the parallels are so obviously drawn that they're not convincing.

There are a few clever visual touches here: In The Ultimate Computer, four Constitution Class starships are shown by creating a split screen effect. In The Omega Glory, two existing shots of the Enterprise are combined to create the appearance of two starships orbiting Omega IV.

The restored picture is excellent, with deep colors and realistic flesh tones. The sound has been effectively, but tastefully, enhanced for multi-channel systems.

If there is to be any criticism of the DVD itself, or any in this series, it is that Paramount missed a great opportunity to load these episodes with some great features such as cast commentary. Nothing would be better than to listen to Shatner and Nimoy reminisce as to the particulars of any given episode in an audio commentary. Sadly, you'll have to buy their books for those insights. They do include the trailer for "next weeks" episode which is fun. "The Ultimate Computer" provides a predictable warning as to the dangers of technology, and the message is not dated in today's world view. More interesting is the effect this loss of power has on Captain Kirk. The loss of command is a recurrent theme in the original series. Check out "The Deadly Years," "The Naked Time" or "This Side of Paradise." In these episodes, Kirk's passion for the Enterprise is clearly established. Another interesting theme is that of the renegade captain, subject of "The Omega Glory." In the tradition of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" a captain finds himself alienated from civilization and "goes native" setting himself up as lord over the inhabitants. Check out "Bread and Circuses" or "Patterns of Force." The source of conflict, or drama, is provided when Captain Kirk is forced to confront what is essentially a darker version of himself. He knows his enemy, and his enemy, a former friend has the same training Kirk does. Remember, there were only twelve constellation class starships in the fleet, so these captains are at the top of their game. This senario is more directly explored in "The Enemy Within" where Kirk must literally battle his dark side. All said, these are two very strong classics in one package.

"The Ultimate Computer" is a typical Trek story of Kirk vs. the computer..Guess who wins? James Doohan (Scotty) does the voice of M-5.
"The Omega Glory" puts the crew on a "parallel Earth" in which the "Yangs" are servants to the "Comms". It is later revealed that the "Comms" are "Communists' & the "Yangs" are "Yankees". This episode contains many surprises after this....despite how incredible and far fetched they may be.

In 'The Ultimate Computer' mathematics genius Dr Daystrom (William Marshall) installs a new supercomputer, the M-5, aboard the Enterprise. It can run a starship better than humans, and it's to be tested in war games against four other federation ships. Daystrom is such a genius even Spock can only be of small help to him. McCoy says to Spock, "This is what you'd like isn't it Spock?", "you'd prefer a ship run by computer". Spock replies, "I don't find it preferable" in understatement.

When the war games begin, not only does the Enterprise react faster than the other ships, but the M-5 has shields and weapons set to maximum. The M-5 has malfunctioned. It's taken complete control of the Enterprise and doesn't see this as a game. The enterprise destroys one starship and heavily damages one or two of the others.

Dr Daystrom, - "lecturing to fools, who don't even begin to understand my systems; lessor minds and competitors, building, on my work" - a mad genius it turns out, whose own 'brain engrams' have been used in the creation of the computer, tries to talk the M-5 into disconnecting itself. The talk almost sounds as if it is a man in conversation with his child or even with himself, "this unit must survive", M-5 insists.

Kirk asks M-5 to scan the starship Excelsior and Hood. The M-5 reports there are no life-signs aboard. 'You have murdered', Kirk proclaims, and both the M-5 and Dr Daystrom have a mini-breakdown giving the crew a chance to disconnect the faulty computer.

Even though the original "Trek" is showing its age and the effects weren't digital. I think they are still fun to watch. The Omega Glory on this set was one I remember the first time I saw. How cool, an "earth-type" planet that had a war we didn't then the shocking ending. Maybe to corny for belief but if you just sit back and don't look too deep these shows still are VERY entertaining.

"The Ultimate Computer" is a so-so entry, with more to recommend it than not, and "The Omega Glory" is - frankly - laughably bad, one of the worst scripts seen in the entire series.

William Marshall is Dr. Daystrom, "The Ultimate Computer"'s creator, whose title device is intended to replace an entire starship crew and fulfill all of their functions with far greater efficiency. Unfortunately, Daystrom's genius comes largely from the fact that he was a social outcast, and the computer's mind is programmed directly from his own engrams. The result: something out of Stanley Kubrick's worst nightmare, with a dangerously schizoid personality and weaponry out the wazoo. Commodore Wesley (Barry Russo), the commander of the lead starship engaged in war games with Daystrom's mad alter-ego, has to make a decision as to whether or not to terminate the homicidal hardware - and Kirk and Company, reduced to prisoners on board their own ship, have to find a way to help him, or they'll die with the killer computer. Marshall is quite compelling in the role of the computer's creator, but the episode is otherwise fairly undistinguished.

"The Omega Glory" is perhaps the most absurdly propagandistic script to have emerged in any medium during the Cold War. Morgan Woodward gives a wonderfully intense performance as Captain Ronald Tracy, a Starfleet commander gone mad as the sole survivor of a plague that devastated his crew - Tracy accidentally gained immunity by taking up residence on the planet from which the plague originated, where he must now remain or die. While there, Tracy discovers Starfleet's superior weaponry is worthwhile in establishing himself as a king among a primitive tribe called the Comms, who war with a neighboring tribe called the Yangs - who turn out to be direct Earth parallels of the "Comm"unists and the "Yang"kees, with the Yangs even saying the U.S. pledge of allegiance. Spock is seen as the devil because his pointed ears look like Satan's in the Yang "Sacred Book" (yes, they also have our Bible). Yeah, you don't have to say it - it's pretty stupid to me, too.

If you are deciding which volumes to keep, this one only just falls under the "nice to have but dispensable" category which is a pity because the first episode, "The Ultimate Computer" is actually one of the best episodes from the second season and comes after a string of mediocre episodes. We get a very interesting premise: "Will computers/technology ever make humans redundant? This similar premise has been visited many times over since in movies like "Terminator", "The Matrix" and "I, Robot" and will probably still strike a chord with viewers many years into the future as well. The acting is very good and coupled with one of the better scripts ever written for Trek make this a very memorable episode indeed.

Now for the downside: "The Omega Glory" is a ridiculous episode which unlike the very similar episodes "Piece of the Action" and "Patterns of Force" in which the virtually identical parallels with Earth history were explained by Prime Directive violations, we are expected to believe that inexplicably, some planet light years away developed the Declaration of Independence word-for-word and have exactly the same flag as the U.S. The two warring factions are also called the Yanks and the Communists! The ridiculous plot and average acting makes this among the 3 worst ever episodes in the entire Trekdom.

I see that Amazon is now offering downloads of individual episodes for about $2 each. It's probably a good way to get around this conundrum and perhaps order the one episode and forget the other one as quickly as possible!

These two episodes share the theme of great genius gone wrong. In "Computer", Kirk struggles to free the Enterprise from the grip of a computer that's become self-aware. "Omega" had Kirk and crew trapped on a primitive planet whose history is being altered by another starship captain. Though "Omega" is probably more ridiculed (especially for its ending) it's actually a great episode, and the clear winner of the two.

Not to say that "Ultimate Computer" is a bad ep - far from it. When the "Enterprise" has Dr. Daystrom's M-5 computer installed so that it can take part in a series of wargames (uh oh!!), the ship also gets Daystrom himself. Ufortunately, the machine gets too big to take orders from the crew, and not only goes into business for itself, but soon crosses the line between wargames and pure war. You just can't say enough about actor William Marshal's booming voice. You'd think that a man who finds it easier to connect with machines than mankind would sound more like Wally Cox - making Marshall's role here one of creative mis-casting. "Ultimate" is also in search of a coherent theme. Until the machine loses its cybernetic mind, "Computer" is a great story about men at risk of being made obsolescent by machines. And then it goes wrong - and the computer decides that it's human and proceeds to make a great case for it by losing its mind. While "The Next Generation" blurred the line between AI and human intelligence, this episode just assumes that machines consider themselves human and therefore free to act utterly illogically. The promising plot arc, in which the imperfect minds of Captain Kirk & Crew manage to out-think the master brain, is lost. Instead of a great discussion about the ironic virtues of man's imperfect mind, we get some morality play about its supremacy. This is old hat for Trek, which confronted our heroes with a host of thinking machines that also proved susceptible to being talked out of their existence by imperfect men (Nomad, Landru & V'Ger come to mind). This was the episode that introduced (to Trek, anyway) the term "Dunsel".

"Omega Glory" takes lumps for its ridiculous looking ending, but it's still a great ep - a great variation on the theme of alien societies that model themselves on shreds of our own. Discovering a derelict starship in orbit of an unexplored planet, Kirk finds its crew wiped out by a mysterious plague - their bodies dissolved into dry crystals. Realizing that they're infected, Kirk & Crew follow the recorded warnings of the now dead crew of the other ship - beam down to the planet's surface. There, they find two warring civilizations - Kohms and Yangs. The first is peaceful, and seems to take its orders from Ron Tracy, the captain of the stricken ship. The Yangs are savage - the bad guys. Unfortunately, Tracey has more than the safety of the Kohms to think about. The immunity of the planet seems to have turned its inhabitants into immortal supermen. Has Tracy discovered the "Fountain of Youth?" And will he have to violate the "Prime Directive" to learn its secret? This was a great ep. that works off its great casting - veteran TV actor Morgan Woodward chews up the script as Tracy, making you wonder how Trek would have looked had it been a show about his adventures. The ending, in which Kirk rhapsodizes about the virtues of knowing freedom, is pure corn, but Tracy's character keeps the story humming with his fire and brimstone delivery. (As an alternate-Earth society story, like "Patterns of Force" or "Bread & Circuses", "Glory" is unique in that it saves that revelation for the end.)

Trivia: In "Glory", Ron Tracy thinks he's found the fountain of youth. In the "Logan's Run" TV show, Woodward played an "Elder" - one of the select few men who were allowed to live past their 30th birthday, even if secretly.

The Ultimate Computer
Approaching a Starfleet space station, the Enterprise receives orders to test a new computer system. The M-5 multitronic unit, created by foremost computer scientist Dr. Richard Daystrom, is the next evolution in vessel operation and control. The M-5 can operate a starship with a limited number of crew members, a fact that Kirk can't believe. The machine will be tested in vessel maneuvers, routine contact problems, and war game exercises against a task force commanded by veteran ship commander, Commodore Robert Wesley. With the majority of the Enterprise crew on the space station the ship gets underway with a crew of twenty.

Kirk, who thinks that having a single computer run a starship is dangerous, reluctantly goes along with the tests; at first all goes well. The M-5 performs everything asked of it with smooth precision. Various ship maneuvers and landing party decisions for a planetary survey mission are handled by the M-5 with the professionalism and experience of a veteran starship crew. Kirk uneasily watches on as the M-5 handles all the things he has trained his entire life to do. His frustration is further fueled after he witnesses his ship under control of the M-5 reacting to an unscheduled attack drill. The USS Lexington under the command of Commodore Wesley and the USS Excalibur under the command of Captain Harris are outmaneuvered by the M-5 unit and have multiple "hits" scored against them.

Kirk's uneasiness is justified when the M-5 destroys the SS Woden, an automated ore freighter. Kirk orders the Enterprise back to the space station and the M-5 to be taken off-line. The M-5 has ideas of its own as the machine, which has protected itself with a force field, kills an engineer trying to disconnect it while drawing more power. With the main attack force for the war games on the way, Spock and Scotty attempt to bypass the M-5, and Kirk and McCoy try to delve into Daystrom himself. In his early twenties, Dr. Richard Daystrom won awards and accolades for his duotronic breakthrough. The Enterprise and her sister ships in Starfleet utilize the duotronic computer systems created by Daystrom. That triumph in Daystrom's career was about a quarter of a century ago and the M-5 unit was to be his comeback.

The M-5 unit shows what a superior system it really is when it fools Scotty and Spock, thwarting their attempt to regain control of the ship. The machine that was impressed with Daystrom's personality to make it more suited to starship control seems invincible and there seems to be no hope for the approaching task force. Kirk's fears are brought to reality when the M-5 opens fire on the unshielded task force with weapons at full power. The machine launches devastating attacks against the task force comprising of the USS Lexington, Excalibur, Potemkin and Hood. The starships were damaged in the unprovoked and calculated M-5 attack pattern. The M-5 renders the Excalibur severely crippled, killing the crew aboard. Kirk desperately has Daystrom try and talk some "sense" into his creation only to find the doctor an unstable man who is proud of what his "child" has done. Wesley receives permission from Starfleet to stop the Enterprise at all costs with the remaining ships at his command. Trying one final gambit Kirk attempts to convince the M-5 that it has committed murder. The machine using the right and wrong lessons that were programmed into it deactivates itself leaving the ship open to attack. The Enterprise's shields drop, and when the task force goes in for the kill Wesley breaks off the attack at the last second.

Great space battles as the Enterprise tests the M-5 unit. I guess they figured if the M-5 could survive Kirk then it was ready for mass production and use!